Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society

by Mary Ann Lamanna, Agnes Riedmann, Susan D Stewart

This best-selling text on marriages, families, and relationships combines an authoritative, yet applied approach with a theme that is especially relevant today: making choices in a diverse society. A balance of various theoretical perspectives along with many examples helps you understand how people are influenced by the society around them, how social conditions change in ways that affect family life, the interplay between families and the larger society, and the family-related choices that individuals make throughout adulthood. You'll gain insightful perspectives on the diversity of our modern society, including different ethnic traditions and family forms, and be encouraged to question assumptions and reconcile conflicting ideas and values as you make informed choices in your own life.

Genres: School, Textbooks

Unbound

First published January 15, 2014

Reviews

[Kurami Rocket · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book that talked about as its title says marriage, family, and all sorts of interpersonal relationships, but mostly romantic relationships. This book was filled with mostly statistics and how to improve communication and overall satisfaction in your relationships to make them better.

My biggest complaint is that it focuses on American, Euro-centric and white marriages and families. I find it sad and very frustrating that despite the U.S. being a very diverse, multicultural, and ethnic diverse nation, there is very little research and such little known information on racial/ethnic minorities living within the U.S.

Still, despite this, it is a solid read in understanding American white families. And it still can somewhat be applied to families in general, but you should view it with the thought that this may be irrelevant to different cultures outside the U.S. despite cultural minorities also living in the U.S. as again this country is diverse.

Hopefully more research will be done on minorities in and outside the U.S. as we matter too.