Answer to Question 1
Early symbolic interactionists, such as Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, provided key insights on the roles we play as family members and how we modify or adapt our roles to the expectations of othersespecially significant others such as partners, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives. Contemporary symbolic interactionist perspectives examine the roles of husbands, wives, and children as they act out their own part and react to the actions of others. From such a perspective, what people think, as well as what they say and do, is very important in understanding family dynamics. According to sociologists Peter Berger and Hansfried Kellner, interaction between marital partners contributes to a shared reality. Although newlyweds bring separate identities to a marriage, over time they construct a shared reality as a couple. Symbolic interactionists explain family relationships in terms of the subjective meanings and everyday interpretations that people give to their lives. Sociologist Jessie Bernard pointed out, women and men experience marriage differently. Although the husband may see his marriage very positively, the wife may feel less positive about her marriage. Researchers have found that husbands and wives may give very different accounts of the same event and that their two realities frequently do not coincide.
Answer to Question 2
b
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