1) Chapter two started out by explaining how statistics and research are important to everyone at all points in life. It describes all the things people should be aware of while reviewing any research. The next topic covered was all of the various ideas about the roles of family members and how the family functions in society. The most important perspectives were: structural functionalism, conflict, feminist, ecological, family development, symbolic interaction, social exchange, and family systems. The last major section covered was popular research methods. The methods most often used include surveys, clinical research, field research, secondary analysis, experiments, and evaluation research. There was also a little section at the end that briefly discussed some ethics, which was very interesting to see all the different ways that ethics affected research.

2) There were a few things I found particularly interesting. However the thing that stuck out to me the most was when the book mentioned that theories often don’t work in life. I think this is important because people have to keep in mind that every situation is different. Also, something else that was sort of interesting was the interlocking systems. I think that sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all of the things that can influence children and this really points out how many different things can either directly or indirectly affect how children grow up.

3) One question that I thought of was if it’s possible to keep each of the theories about family in mind while actually discussing marriage with someone. Would it be better to “pick” one theory based on each individual situation, or try in include all of them in each decision?