How does a family function? How does a family make a distinctive life of its own while living according to the values of society? In what ways is a family a unit when all its members have personalities of their own? How can we understand diversity among families? Robert D. Hess and Gerald Handel sensitively explore the dynamics of family life in five narrative case studies. The Clarks Lansons Littletons Newbolds and Steeles are all typical families with representative social cultural and psychological problems. By simultaneously studying each family as a small group and as a set of individual personalities the authors have captured the interplay between personality and family as each group works out its own special way of coping with its problems. Further they have formulated several principles of family functioning that help focus comparison. Family Worlds was the first and is still one of the few studies to interview each member of the family giving equal weight to children as well as to adults so each family member's perspective is factored into Hess and Handel's family portraits. A new introduction to the Transaction edition illuminates just how significant this ground-breaking study still is today and highlights the new implications it has for today's families as well as emerging approaches. . Language: English