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Case of individualism versus collectivism
Human Development theory
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A Profile of the Family of Origin of Evan Ramirez I am a second-generation American with both my paternal and maternal sides of my family originating from the Philippines but immigrating to the United States at different times. Synthesizing information from Family Life Now, by Kelly J. Welsh, this paper will attempt to describe my family of origin and analyze how it has influenced my social and moral development to this day. Family of Origin A “Family of Origin” is defined as: “the family in which we are born or brought into by adoption… and socialized to adhere to the customs and norms of the culture in which we live” (Welsh, 2012). By this definition, my family of origin is composed of my two siblings, my parents, and my maternal grandparents, …show more content…
I first lived in Fremont, CA with only my parents because my siblings were not yet born. I only lived in Fremont for the first two years of my life, so I do not believe it made much of a social impact on me. The book suggests, however, that these two years were essential for my development of trust with my parents (Welsh, 2012). In 1999, my parents and I moved to Columbia, Maryland where my Ryan was soon born. The community in Maryland was predominantly Caucasian and had a relatively small population. Because of this, I was only exposed to a limited number of peers during “Early Childhood” which is where children begin to develop social end emotional skills (Welsh, 2012). My family again moved when I was the age of 8 to San Diego. This would be the last time we move. The community in San Diego was drastically different than the one I had been exposed to in Maryland, with much greater diversity and a significantly larger population. Despite this, I continued to develop, and because of the diversity, I was exposed to many more cultures. In addition, moving to San Diego allowed me to live with my grandparents, who influenced my development as well (as mentioned earlier). I have lived in San Diego to this day through my …show more content…
Living in a collectivist, Filipino household, I am one of many Filipinos that are a part of an extended family household. As mentioned earlier, I currently live with my maternal grandparents who have heavily influenced my development. Contrastingly other extended family members such as my paternal grandparents (along with my paternal cousins) live across the country in Virginia. Because of this, they played little to no role in my development when compared to my maternal grandparents. Much of the remainder of my family lives in the Philippines, many of whom I have never met. They may have not played a significant role in my development either. The collectivist culture of the Philippines though has somewhat offset this. Collectivist refers to the emphasis of an entire group over that of the individual (Welsh, 2012) which may attribute to the closeness Filipinos have to other Filipinos whether they are family or not. In our culture, we refer to everyone as uncles, aunties, or cousins, emphasizing the closeness we feel to one another. This closeness is also mentioned within the book as a characteristic of a collectivist culture (Welsh,
Lasch-Quinn, Elisabeth. "Family." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Ed. Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Student Resources in Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
...Many Kinds of Family Structures in Our Communities." . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014. .
Confucius once said, “The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.” Many people across the world deem family as the most important aspect of their life. Family is something that often teaches us moral values and helps shape the individuals we become later in our lives. The values taught by family are not only essential, but will help develop the moral character of an individual. In the short story, “Cakes,” Salvatore La Puma conveys the prominence of family values in Italian-American immigrant culture in the 1940’s industrial era.
A family is a group of people consisting of the parents and their children who live together and they are blood related. The family is always perceived as the basic social units whether they are living together in the same compound or at far distance but are closely related especially by blood. Therefore, the family unit has had a great influence on the growth and the character traits possessed by the children as they grow up and how they perceive the society they live in. the family also shapes the children to be able to relate well with other people that are not part of their family and with a good relationship it impacts to the peace achieved in country. This paper addresses the reasons as to why the family is considered the most important agent of socialization. It’s evident that families have changed over time and they have adopted different ways of living. This paper also tackles on the causes of the dramatic changes to the American family and what the changes are. Different people with different race, gender and preferences make the family unit and this makes the difference in marriages. This will also be discussed in this paper.
Family dynamics present interesting revelations, especially regarding the relationship between parents and children. While most families undoubtedly encounter dysfunction at some point throughout life, immigrant families seemingly experience such stress continually. A handful of short stories, including “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, “Who’s irish” by Gish Jen, and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyun Li, demonstrate how strained relations erupt in immigrant families. Familial tension noticeably arises because of the immigrant parents’ inability to fully adjust to the American way of life. Further, immigrant parents adhere to strict expectations in an attempt to uphold the family’s conservative heritage. Finally, immigrant parents typically
In understanding others, one must first understand our own family background and how it affects our understanding of the world. Conversely, family systems draw on the view of the family as an emotional unit. Under system thinking, one evaluates the parts of the systems in relation to the whole meaning behavior becomes informed by and inseparable from the functioning of one’s family of origin. These ideas show that individuals have a hard time separating from the family and the network of relationships. With a deeper comprehension of the family of origin helps with the challenges and awareness of normalized human behaviors. When interviewing and analyzing the family of origin, allow one to look at their own family of origin
When you think about family, what is the first thing that comes to mind? If you only thought about your parents or close relatives, then you may have been caught in an “individual vs. family” paradox. Nearly every culture considers family important, but “many Americans have never even met all of their cousins” (Holmes & Holmes, 2002, p. 19). We say we are family oriented, but not caring to meet all of our extended family seems to contradict that. Individual freedoms, accomplishments, and goals are all American ideals that push the idea of individualism.
Bowen’s family systems theory is beneficial in recognizing the family as an emotional system in which the living members are powerfully attached by relationships between each other that support and strengthen their survival (Knauth, 2003, p. 333). Growing up as the first generation Vietnamese-American to be born in the United States, there are many issues pertaining to the differences of new and old culture and multi-generational differences. Some of these issues include triangles, the multi-generational transmission process, and emotional cut-offs.
Children who grow up in small towns often desire nothing more to leave the place they are confined to. Everything is remarkably mundane, strikingly predictable, and they yearn to feel the thrill of the unexpected that living in a city provides. However, there are key life lessons one can only experience in a small town. With just over 4000 inhabitants, one cannot make a trip to any store without meeting two, or ten, familiar faces. Constant interaction makes a person uncomfortably friendly. They are willing to talk to anyone sitting on a bus, waiting in line, or standing in a bathroom. In addition, these circumstances foster a trusting nature. In fact, there are few people in a small town that could not be trusted. Of course, the trust and friendliness allowed for a lot of freedom as a child. Parents never thought twice about allowing a child to venture out with friends or spend hours running around playing make-believe. Children have to supply their own entertainment, only increasing the independence they have. While they spend their lives wishing to get out of that town, they grow up to realize how it truly impacted the person they have
Before I was five, I thought I was Chinese. However, I wondered why I couldn’t understand the Chinese patrons of Chinatown restaurants. Upon learning my true ethnicity, I pulled out a mammoth atlas we had under the bed. My father pointed to an “S”-shaped country bordering the ocean, below China. It was then that I learned my parents were refugees from Vietnam. “Boat people,” my mother, still struggling to grasp English back then, would hear kids whispering when she walked through the halls of her high school. Like many refugees, although my parents and their families weren’t wealthy when they came to America, they were willing to work hard, and like many Vietnamese parents, mine would tell me, “We want you to be success.”
My family is not my blood family, but with how close we all are sometimes I forget. From the moment my parents thought we were mature enough, they told us we were adopted, but they never really told us our “story” until this year.
It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father finished settling things. I remember most of my earlier childhood by watching some old videos of me playing by the pool and dancing in the living room. It seemed like life could not get any better. However, I was excited and impatient to experience a new lifestyle. I realized that I could start a whole new life, make new friends and learn a new language. Belgium was not as sunny as South Florida but it has much better food and family oriented activities. Geographic mobility can have many positive effects on younger children, such as learning new languages, being more outgoing, and more family oriented; therefore, parents should not be afraid to move around and experience new cultures.
A family might include anyone related by blood or by adoption such as: step parents, grandparents acting as parents, and even brothers and sisters sharing the same household. However, worldwide “the family is regarded as the most ba...
The Philippine cultural value of strong familial and extended familial ties ranks first, which was described by Quisumbing (as cited in Church, 1987) as the “core of all social, cultural, and economic activity.” The bilateral extended family, which includes the relatives on the father and mother’s sides, is considered as an individual’s support in terms of both psychological and financial needs as mentioned by Fox, Jocano, Pal, and Arquiza (as cited in Church, 1987). In the cultural dimension of Individualism, the Philippines, moreover, aptly received a low score of 32 (see Appendix B), indicating the mentioned strong integration of in-groups, which include immediate, and in many instances, extended families (Hofstede,
I am a born Vietnamese, and Chinese American. For more than a decade I have made many friends coming from diverse cultures. I recall one friend back in high school that demonstrated the importance of one’s own private culture, and language. From this experience with my friend, Hong, I realized that families who had a strong cultural, and language practice at home had a very stable and functional family. Individuals who embrace their culture, and language broadly tend to pass on the wisdom of a rich culture on to the next generation. Hong’s family demonstrated how out of sync, I was with my own language and culture. My family was losing its Vietnamese roots.