A STUDY OF THE GENERATION GAP IN SINGAPORE : AN INTERACTIONIST APPROACH

Abstract

The family is considered the basic building block of the society. Yet with the onslaught of modernity and wage labour, familial bonds are no longer required for sustenance. Consequently what holds the family unit together is emotions. However sentiment is something that is inherently fluid and unstable. This means that the workings of our family relationship must be constantly negotiated over time. This thesis attempts to look into one aspect of family ties, the inter-generational relationship in Singapore between parents and their offspring. The subject matter concerns generation gap and the mutual consensus or co-orientation of the parent and the child. This study is convinced that a person is more affected by subjective meanings and attributions to the extent that it is taken as ultimate reality. Hence we take on the Symbolic Interactionist framework in pursuing this social phenomenon to m1derstand how the parent and the offspring perceive themselves, the opposite party and the matter of contention. All in all at the very heart of human relationship is the very significance of how one thinks the other is thinking essentially to try and understand the other and respond accordingly. As a child moves out of their dependency there must be a corresponding change in role identity and patterns of interactions in both parent and child. This remains a constant challenge in all families to sustain a shared definition of the situation with an ideal establishment of separateness and connectedness for amicable family relationships. No matter insurmountable the task at hand may be, with family ties being precious human bonds, we must continue unremitting efforts to uphold family relationships to prevent them from degenerating into irksome bonds.