Interview Results !

I am happy to say that my interviews were extremely successful. The results of the responders provided me with a lot of information, insight, and made my mind think of new and interesting topics. First I interviewed 10 "average" Americans. Five of the participants were my friends( college students) and the other five were my parents and their friends. I took Kacie's advise and interviewed people from different generations just to see if the results were different. From this survey I gained the knowledge as to what the average American thinks of the stereotypical family. All of them, no matter what age, described the stereo-typical nuclear family. They said 2 parents, kids, a dog, all living in the suburbs. They even described details such as the bread-winning father and the stay at home mother. Jonathan Donnelly included extreme detail like "there must be homemade apple pie on the table at all times." I found this interesting because the media has painted such a vivid image in our heads as to what American families are. When the participants were asked to describe their own family,not one of them matched the stereo-typical nuclear family presented in programs such as Leave It to Beaver. Their families were extremely diverse, including divorce, gay parents, step fathers, grandparents as their guardians. This proved even more how the "real" American family has changed through out time. My second interview was with family therapist Beth Ridgeway. The results from her interview were extremely helpful and useful as well. She said that families are in constant transition and have changed dramatically since the 1950's. For example two decades ago most American households included children, today kids are in just 38 % of homes. She also told me about the common problems in American households. One of them is that the wife spends too much money and another is couples fight when there children do not succeed. This led me to research sitcoms that depict "dysfunctional" families. Married With Children presents both of these problems crystal clear, and Americans enjoy to laugh at them. These interviews were extremely helpful and led me to come up with a variety of new topics to research.