Social Representations of the Family: A Case Study in Young Couples

Abstract

This research aimed to describe the social representations that young couples in Medellin have about the family institution. For this reason, it became necessary to know the conceptual references related to the perspectives given from social psychology on representations, their constructions and the different attitudes and values that authors or participants can take about the family. The method was a qualitative cross-sectional descriptive study, whose main instrument was a semi-structured interview applied to four adult-young couples from Medellín. The main results show that the family institution has had social changes throughout its history, in which the perception of family allows to ensure the survival and relationship of the subjects in the community context. For this reason, the importance of understanding the subjective thinking of individuals is also recognized, in order to give attributes to their experiences and know what intervention plans in the being can be carried out from social psychology in order to contribute to the community and the majority groups.