Sociology and Space, No. 40-42, 1973.
Original scientific paper
Studying the Family as a Whole - Some Theoretic and Methodological Problems and Experiences
Zagorka Golubović
Abstract
The author makes two basic criticisms of sociological study of the family
in Yugoslavia. In the first place, the theoretic position is usually not clearly
determined, or a generalized Marxist attitude is implicated, which does not
answer the subject studied (the family), and means that empiric analysis is often
carried on outside the theoretic context. Secondly, the special characteristicts of
the family are completely disregarded, and it is considered that methods used
in any other micro-approach are sufficient and satisfactory. The chief object of
this study thus is to discuss whether the methods usually used in sociological
research are applicable to the specific characteristics of the family as a human
group. The author considers that the family's special characteristics demand a
specific methodological approach, and stresses the following elements of the
family, as a special type of human community: the composition of the family
and the connections on which it is based are not the same as those in other
social groups, not even in global society; the family is not only the basic social
unit, but also the basic cell of humanization, it is the connection between the
individual and society, which must not be forgotten during research; thus the
family cannot be studied only in the function of society, but must be treated
as a specific community in which the individual characteristics of a person are
spontaneously expressed, so that characteristics of family members are an important
factor of the family’s characteristics; the family is the least institutionalized
social group, so that every family is, in a certain sense, an idiom; the family is
not a special institution with a simple task, it is a community to which individuals
do not belong because they »play a certain role«, but because they spend
most of their lives in it; thus the structure and dynamics of the family cannot
be observed only from the aspect of social factors and processes, but also from
the aspect of the individuals that comprise it, which is much more true of the
family — as a community of individuals — than of other social groups. What
does this mean from the methodological aspect? Methods applicable to other
social groups cannot be mechanically transferred to family study, especially not
those based on a functional orientation; analogous conclusions (social system —
»family system«) cannot be drawn; the whole (the family community as a complex
network of relations) cannot be substituted by parts plucked from it artificially
and observed as sub-systems (the distribution of roles and authority, time
budget, system of values etc.); a concrete life situation (and every family is a
certain drama) cannot be substituted by models into which data obtained from
experience are moulded (as is the case in standardized questionnaires); and finally,
an intimate community cannot be expressed by means that pre-suppose that the
phenomena they study are depersonalized (all means of statistic analysis).
In sociology (not only family sociology) some important methodological problems
have not yet been solved. The following problems are usually found as
problems of family study: how to bring into accord the demand for an integral
approach to phenomena that are being studied, and at the same time ensure the
observance of a sufficient number of phenomena so as to notice general tendencies
and correlations; how to check connections between certain elements, for
instance family life, and not, at the same time, discontinue other important
relations that have been neglected at a given moment, and which compose a
certain whole. Applied to the family, the following problem remains unsolved,
how to study the structure of the family in relations which form its contents,
and which are not only created under the influence of social-cultural factors,
but also of the characters of family members, yet not disperse that whole into
a series of separate problems of study, which open up a whole field of phenomena,
but do not enable us to reach the essence of the problem being studied.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119648
URI
Publication date:
7.12.1973.
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