Research On The Transformation Of Contemporary American Family Culture In Modern Family

The sitcom Modern Farmily tells the stories among tlhree American families about their daily life and emotional world.It is different from other sitcoms about family life in that it presents the audiences with several new family patterns in contemporary American society,which shows the diversity of American family culture and is helpful for us to make a preliminary study on American society and culture.Chinese have always been interested in the United States because it is the only superpower around the world and will be an important diplomatic target of China in a long time.However,what the United States is truly like still remains a mystery to most Chinese.Since the family is the basic unit of a society and can mirror the general condition of the society to some extent,this thesis aims to investigate some of the true colors of the United States and to help Chinese have a better understanding of the American society by analyzing the transformation of contemporary American families.What's more,there has been similar changes in the Chinese families recently.Therefore,analyzing the transformation of contemporary American families can help Chinese predict what the Chinese families will be like in the future.Also Chinese can learn some useful lessons from Americans to be prepared for the challenges that may appear in the future.The theoretical basis of this thesis is some theory of sociology of the family,including the forms of the family,the functions of the family,and the relationships in the family.As a branch of sociology,sociology of the family centers on nearly all aspects of the family with theory and methodology borrowed from sociology.Researchers of the sociology of the family regard the family as the basic unit of social organization and examine the relations between the family and the society,as well as the role that the family plays in the society.In this thesis,documentary analysis and textual analysis will be employed.Firstly,the transformation in different aspects of contemporary American families will be introduced,which includes the transformation in family patterns,in family functions and in family relationships.Also there will a detailed description of various problems faced by family members in different family patterns.Then there will be an analysis of what has resulted in the transformation,including legal factors,economic factors,political factors and ideological factors.At last,some personal advice will be given to cope with the problems with which contemporary American families are confronted.All this will be exemplified by cases picked from Modern Family.After the analysis,we can conclude that contemporary American family life has undergone a great transformation since 1960s.Compared with their parents,nowadays adults in the United States have more choices to shape their personal lives,and they have different expectations towards marriage and family life.As for family patterns,there has been a transition from companionate family to individualized family.In the meanwhile,family functions and family relationships in contemporary American families have also changed.Psychological support and socialization of the children has become the focus of contemporary American family functions while other traditional family functions have declined.Besides,family relationships in contemporary American families have become more democratic and more relaxed than before.At the same time,different forms of families are confronted with different new challenges.And all these changes of American families have come from the development of economy,politics,laws and ideologies in American society.