Bronfenbrenner's Ecologically Based Theory
While we all tend to generalize from our own personal experience, our "common sense" understanding of family life (from experience, tradition, authority and media) is typically a poor source of accurate and reliable knowledge.
If we really want to know about how families work we would be better informed by seeking and acquiring more trustworthy information.
A. In order to obtain valid research information, researchers and research consumers need to keep in mind the rules of critical (clear and unbiased) thinking.
B. Personal experience creates personal perspectives, values and beliefs, which can create blinders that keep people from accurately reading research information.
C. Objectivity in approaching information means that we suspend the beliefs, biases, or prejudices we have about a subject until we really understand what is being said, then relating it to the information and attitudes we already have.
D. A value judgment usually includes words that mean "should" and imply that our way is the correct way.
E. Opinions, biases, and stereotypes are ways of thinking that lack objectivity.
1. Opinions are based on our own experiences or ways of thinking.
2. Biases are strong opinions that may create barriers to haring anything that is contrary to our opinions.
3. Stereotypes are sets of simplistic, rigidly held, and over generalized beliefs about the personal characteristics of a group of people.
F. Fallacies are errors in reasoning.
1. Egocentric fallacies are mistaken beliefs that everyone has the same experiences ans values that we have and therefore should think as we do.
2. Ethnocentric fallacies are beliefs that one's own ethnic group, nation, or culture is innately superior to others.
Theories and Research Methods
A. Family researchers come from a variety of academic disciplines (sociology,...
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