Discuss family roles and the conflicts associated with them

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Roles are generally understood patterns of behavior that are accepted by family members as part of their individual identities. Usually, roles can be identified by their labels, which denote both formal roles that are socially sanctioned (e.g., grandparent, mother, father, brother, sister) and idiosyncratic roles that evolve over time within a specific family context (e.g., comedian, scapegoat, caregiver). Role theory, when applied to the family system, suggests that each person in a family fulfills many roles that are integrated into the family's structure and that represent certain expected, permitted, or forbidden behaviors (Biddle, 1986). Family roles are not independent of each other. Rather, role behavior involves two or more persons engaging in reciprocal transactions. Roles within the family system may be assigned on the basis of legal or chronological status or cultural and societal scripts. In many families, role assignments are based on gender. At the same time, as with power and decision making, roles may be flexible and diffused throughout the family system.
In sorting out roles in the family system, individual role behavior may be enacted, prescribed, or perceived (Longres, 1995). In an enacted role, a mother, for example, engages in the actual behavior-such as caretaking- relative to her status or position. A prescribed role is influenced by the expectations that others hold with regard to a social position. For example, despite the changes in families, in a family's interaction with a bank officer, a male is almost always presumed to be the head of a household or the primary decision maker in the family. A perceived role involves the expectations of self relative to one's social position. For example, an employed female may conclude that she can manage multiple responsibilities. The role relationship between a parent and a child is a complementary relationship (or an independent-dependent role relationship) in which the needs of both are satisfied. In contrast, in a symmetrical relationship, both parties function as equals-for example, the division of household or child-rearing responsibilities or decision making are shared instead of based on gender roles.

Life transitions and conflict often demand changes, flexibility, and modifications in role behavior. A family may experience role transition difficulties in making the necessary adjustments when, for example, an older relative comes to live in their home.

Conflict in a family may occur when individuals become dissatisfied with their roles, when there is disagreement about roles, or when individuals holding certain or multiple roles become overburdened. Inter-role conflict can occur when an individual is faced with excessive, competing, and multiple role obligations, especially when two or more roles are incompatible-for example, wife or partner, mother, daughter, employee.