Family values
Values are moral principles and beliefs or accepted standards of a person or social group. Values are formed not by means of properties of objects, but by means of their involvement in the sphere of human activities, needs, interests and social relations.
In order to understand the specific character of values, we must understand the essence of family as a social phenomenon.
Family is a many-sided social phenomenon, which includes properties of various social foundations, such as social institutions, social structure, etc. Family can be considered on different levels, i.e. micro- and macrolevel. As for macrolevel, family is considered as a social institution, which fulfils certain social functions. As for microlevel, the emphasis is made on interaction of individuals within a family as a little group.
The further discovery of the given notion lies in discovery of its content as social institute. Being an element of the social system, family fulfils a number of socially significant functions, which determine its place in this system. Among these functions are: reproductive function, socializing and economic functions. On the basis of the last function we can specify the nature of economic collaboration within the family. Thus we can make a sensible definition of the family: the family is a community of people, based on the common economical activity, is tied with marriage, parenthood and blood relationship, and thus carries out the reproduction of population and succession of family generations as well as children's socialization and existence maintenance of family members.
Therefore, family values are positive and negative signs of significance of objects, which are related to economic collaboration of people, tied with marriage, parenthood and blood relationship.
Family values include value of marriage, value of equality between spouses, or domination of one of them, values of different sexual roles in the family, value of interpersonal communication in the family, etc. As for parental values, we can mention the value of children and the value of their upbringing and socialization. As for values of blood relationships, we can mention the value of relatives (brothers, sisters, etc.), the value of interaction and mutual aid among relatives.
As you see, the notion of family values is very complex and deals with many aspects of our lives. Besides, with the development of mankind and changes of social structure, family values also change all the time.
Welcome to our site and let's consider family values of modern times. Let's compare them with past times and determine whether we appreciate them or some of them are already obsolete. Let's think what values are the most important for you and for the whole mankind.