Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 1

RESEARCH PAPER FAMILY AND SOCIETAL INFLUENCES ON DECISION MAKING Hridi Meskat Zakaria Id# 071445030

Eng 105. Sec- 8 Maleka Sarwar December 22, 2010

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ABSTRACT In Bangladesh, family and societal influences is a major issue. Though we like it or not, it is always present to make us feel its existence. From choosing study area to marriage, an individual has to go through many influences in his/her whole life. On the pas days, nobody even think of disobeying what their family and society tells them to do. But the situation has changed now. Many people are trying to change the trend now days. There are many people who think family and society should not influence in every matter because end of the day, it is their life. And the altered situation can be seen in this research paper. Most of the people our society now think that family and societal influences are not stronger like before. They are not stronger than our own choices. But then again, a portion still think influences are stronger than our own choices. This proves that we have not overcome this issue totally. Still these influences are present in our society which can be harmful to an individuals life sometimes.

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INTRODUCTION When we came to this world, we did not know how to decide on our own. But gradually every person learns to decide things. When we start to grow up, we start to take decisions and these continue till the end of our life. Though it seems like the decisions of our lives are taken by us individually; the scenario is not like this always. Most of the time, most of our decisions are influenced by our families or sometimes by the society. Every individual has the right to take his/her decisions, but most of the time family and societal influences dont allow them to do so. Decision making is necessary in every sphere of our life. May be its deciding about our education, career, life partner or something else; we have to take many decisions all through our lives. Generally, it seems natural that every individual is taking his decision by himself as it is related to his own life. But in our society things are not like this most of the time. In our society, it is recognized as good manner if someone completely agrees with each and every decision of his family. If he disagrees with that, it will be considered as a negative attitude. People are habituated to think in this way in our society. Not only family, theres another thing which influence our decision more than anything and that is the society. People in our society is so familiarized with these influences that sometimes they dont even feel the necessity of going against it. But later on, these influences can create negative results in someones life. And when those happen, society doesnt come to rescue that person. It has to be carried by the person himself. Like this, decisions forced by family can also be wrong. There are some effects of these influences of family and society. My research will discuss the effects of these influences and general peoples perception about this. Most of the articles about this topic

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 4 have mentioned that family and societal influences are massive in our country but my research will emphasize the current situation. Do people still get influenced by others or they want to make their decisions by themselves now days? The answer of this question will be the main focus of my research.

BACKGROUND Family and societal influences have been always a common issue in our country. It may be direct or indirect but its always there to make us feel its existence. Many times we have to decide things considering others perception. Years after years, we are habituated by this. Though some issues are changing now days but still there are some which remain same. The secondary sources I have used are written or published in between of 2001-2010. Most of them tell that family and societal influences hold a strong position in peoples lives. But when I divided the decisions into certain segments, I found different scenarios in some issues. My segments were decision making in case of education, career and marriage. In case of education, most of the people are influenced by their parents or other family members. In case of marriage there was a 50-50 percentage. But when its about career, most of them said that they chose their career by themselves. So in this case, influence was not that strong. So I dont agree with all the findings in the secondary sources as my findings were different sometimes. I am going to explain more in my research paper about these issues.

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HYPOTHESIS Research Questions: Are the decisions we take all through our lives always our own decision? How much influence can be exerted by our family in case of decision making? What is the amount of societal influence? In case of choosing our career, who mostly takes the decision? We ourselves or our family? Other important decisions of our life like choosing our life partner or choosing study area- who is the decision maker in reality? What are the immediate effects of these influences? What are the future effects?

HYPOTHESIS We have to take many decisions all through our lives. When we start to grow up, we start to take decisions and these continue till the end of our life. All though we should take the decisions by ourselves, it is not possible most of the time. There is always an influence. It may be a family influence or a societal influence. But most of the time these things influence us while taking a decision. Family is a great influencer in case of our decision making. And we become used to this rule that our family can take decisions on our behalf. This happens almost in every stage of our life.

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 6 From choosing our study area to choosing our life partner- most of the time the family is a huge influencer. Societal influences are also an important matter. Many times we have to change our decisions for societal pressures. Many times we like to do something but we cannot, just because we have to consider social rules and norms- even if we dont think it is right. While choosing our career, most of the time there is a conflict created between parents and children. This is a common scenario in our country. The parents want their child to become something they want, and the child wants to become something else. So in case of career choices, family creates influences. In our country, most of the time we have to choose our life partner with the permission of our parents and family members. Though the situation is changing now days but even if we choose our life partner by ourselves, we need our parents to like that person whom I like. If they dont like him/her, a big family issue is created that time. Like this, while choosing our study area, we have to take permission of our parents. There is also an influence in this regard. The effects of these influences are not good most of the time. The immediate and future both effects are harmful for us in most cases. So in our country, family and societal influences are huge in case of decision making- even though the decisions are related to different individuals personal life.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In order to gather relevant information both the primary and secondary data have been used. The methodology used to gather primary data for the research were a survey and three interviews. Different articles, journals, books and websites have used as secondary source of information. A survey questionnaire was prepared which has 15 questions. The survey was mainly done in Dhaka city among those people who are between 20 to 30 years. It was surveyed among 30 respondents. Three interviews were also conducted to have a good and clear idea about the topic. The interviewees were Syeda Umma Muslamath, Asst. Professor of Psychology, Siddheswari University College; Kazi Saiful Hoque, senior Executive Vice President, Premier Bank and Ahmer Sarwar, a student of Brac University. Secondary information was mainly collected from different articles, journals, books and websites. These sources have served as major source of information as much relevant information regarding the topic.

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SURVEY RESULT AND ANALYSIS The results that are presented and analyzed below are mainly base on the survey that has been conducted on 30 respondents and the age group was 20-30. Question Regarding Career:

While choosing your career, whose decision you preferred?

60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Parents

Friends

I just chose the popular one

No one. I liked it

The bar graph above shows comparison among different answers of a question regarding careers decision. As we can see in the graph, there are four options. While choosing their career, whose decision people usually prefer- this was the question to general people. 50% of them said, they chose it by themselves, no preferences was there. They chose it because they liked it. 35% of the

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 9 people said, they preferred their parents decision. 15% said, they just chose the popular one which actually identifies the society. On the other hand, no one said they preferred their friends decision. By these percentages, we can compare peoples perception. In our country, family and society are great influencer in case of decision making in our life. These decisions include decisions regarding education, marriage, education etc. But this graph shows that now days people are preferring their own choice while choosing their career. As we can see, half of the people said, they chose it as they liked it. On the other hand, among the other half, most of the people said they preferred their parents decision. It means family influences are still there. A small portion said they choose the popular one. This again proves social influences. We also saw that no one said they preferred their friends decision. That means they dont think this important decision can be taken by their friends. Overall this graph shows that people are becoming more serious about their career now days. So most of them want to get rid of any influence and like to take this decision by themselves. Though there are still some influences, but the majority wants to choose their career by their own.

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Question Regarding Marriage:

Do you think its okay if family members choose our life partner for us?

Yes No

The pie chart shows peoples perception about choosing their life partner. Here, the question was is it okay with them if their parents or family members choose their life partner for them? 50% of the people said Yes and other 50% said No. so the percentage is equally distributed among general people. Choosing life partner is one of the important decisions in our lives. Both family and societal influences are huge in this issue. But as we can see in the chart, people chose both answers equally. Half of them think their family can choose their life partner. The other halves think that they need to select that person by themselves. There was a time in our country, when most of the people thought it is natural that family members will settle their marriages. If someone chose

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 11 his/her life partner, it was considered as a negative attitude that time. But now days things are changing. Half of the people think that family members should not choose our life partners. But there are still some influences. That is why, half of them still think family members can choose that person for us.

Question Regarding Strength of Family and Societal Influences:

In case of decision making, do you think family and societal influence is stronger than our own choice?
15%

25%
15% 5%

Yes No Not always Most of the time It depends

40%

The pie chart shows peoples perception about family and societal influences in case of decision making.

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 12 The question to general people was, in case of decision making, do they think family and societal influence is stronger than their own choices? 40% of people said Not always. 25% of them said Yes. 15% said Most of the time and It depends. Only 5% said No. Family and societal influences used to be stronger than our own choices in the past. Specially in our country, family and society are great influencers. But as we can see in the graph, situations are changing now days. Peoples perceptions are also changing. The research was applied on people aged 20-30. So the new generation is not influenced by family or society always. We saw that most of the people said that family and societal influence is not stronger than our own choice. That means they are not influences by others in all cases like before. But there is still a portion, who think family and societal influence is still stronger than our own choice. Some think most of the time it is stronger. And some of them answered that it depends. A small number of people said the influence is not stronger than their own choice. So there are few people who think their own decision is stronger than family and societal influences. This replicts that family and societal influences are still somewhat stronger than our own choice.

Question Regarding Preferences of General People: When the respondents were asked that while taking a decision, what do they prefer? 50% of them said they prefer asking family members. 30% said they decide it by themselves. And other said they prefer asking friends or random people around them. This shows the existence of family influences and also the changing attitude of some people in the society.

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 13 Question Regarding Choosing Study Area: The question was who chose your undergraduate major for you? 50% of people replied, Parents. And 30% said they chose it by themselves. Other said, Brothers/sisters and Other family members. This clearly indicates family influences in choosing the study area of a student. At this age, family influence is great on a person.

Question Regarding Acceptance of Family Influences: The question was- do you think it is okay if parents take the decision for us? Most of them said Sometimes. Other said Yes. Some people also said No. So there are different answers in this matter. We can see some people are accepting the influence and some are denying it.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Influences are always present in our society. And it was so massive all through the past years. All the article, journals, books are also saying that there are family and societal influences in decision making. But after my research, I found that in some cases, this influences are reducing. The new generation doesnt want to get influenced in every matter regarding their own life. The immense change was found in case of decision regarding peoples career. Most of the people are now choosing their career by their own and dont want to listen to others about this. They think career is an important factor and by that time they are mature enough to decide what should be their career. So family and societal influences are diminishing in this segment.

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 14 There was a time when this sounds normal if our family find the right person for us. But this has changed also. Now half of them think no one can choose their life partner except themselves. While taking a interview of an university student Ahmer, this question was been asked that why he dont think his family can choose someone for him? But he says, marriage is all about understanding. And leaving this in familys hand is just taking a chance. It might or might not work. And he does not want to take the chance in his life. On the other hand, while the same question was asked to a parent, Mr. Saiful Hoque, the answer was not that much different. He said he would be happy if his son and daughter marry someone of his choice but after all it is their life. And he will not pressurize them in this matter. So we can see the change in the society. Now it is considered as a normal thing if we choose our life partner by ourselves. But still there are 50% who thinks parents can choose that person for them. So the scenario has not changed totally, it just started to change. The effects of these influences are like tiny piece of stone that hurt slightly on our feet when we walk on a sea beach bare foot. It always disturbs a person mentally. If someone has to do something that he did not want to do, it will not make him happy in any way. And if it brings any bad for him, he will be more upset than he would be if he had taken the decision by himself. An interviewee of my research, Mrs. Muslamath, who is a professor of Psychology, said that the effects of these influences are mostly mental disturbance and depression. Many times children dont want to do something that parents want them to do but they have to do it. It creates pressure in their mind which is not good for them. There are many parents who think whatever they feel is good for their, is good. They dont want to consider their childrens choice. This is not good for both the parents and their children. It not only creates mental pressure for the child, also harm the relation between parents and children.

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 15 So after my findings, I founded something different than my hypothesis. I thought family and societal influences are always there in our country. But after doing research on this, I found that situation is changing in some matters. So now I dont agree with all of the articles and journals that I read. CONCLUSION Bangladesh is a conservative country. There are many societal limitations which results as family limitations by time. In the past, people were used to with the fact that they have to listen to their family on each and every matter. No matter what, they cannot go against their family or the society. But day by day, this concept is changing. People are becoming more independent now. Though they still face many influences in their lives, but in some issues, they dont want to comply with what others are saying. And this change has brought a positive effect in our society. And the new trend is saying that family and societal influence must be there - but not in every single cases. Because end of the day, every individual has the right to take the decisions regarding his/her own life.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Allwood,C.M., & Selart, M. (2001). Decision Making: Social and Creative Dimensions. Retrieved December 8, 2010 from http://books.google.com/books?id=i5MyodTYe1MC &printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false This book talks about the social dimensions of decision making. It also discusses decision making from different perspectives.

Yuvrani, R. (2004, July 04). Family Influence and Decision Making. Retrieved December 8, 2010 from http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/family-influences-decision-makingfamily-decisionmaking-1014177.html This article describes family influence on individual decision making and sociological variable affecting those decisions.

Dietrich, C. (2010, February 23). Decision Making: Factors that Influence Decision Making, Heuristics Used, and Decision Outcomes. Retrieved December 8, 2010 from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/180/decision-making-factors-that-influence-decisionmaking-heuristics-used-and-decision-outcomes

Family and Societal Influences on Decision Making 17 This article depicts the factors that influence the decision making process. It also talks about the final outcomes and different issues regarding decision making.

Spenzzano, G. (2010, April 7). Can Parents Influence Their Childs Career Choice. Retrieved December 8, 2010 from http://www.familyanatomy.com/2010/04/07/can-parents-influencetheir-childs-career-choice/ This article talks about parents perception of influencing their childs decision regarding career choice. It discusses the opinion of parents on this issue.

Michigan State University (2010, February 21). Parents Still Major Influence on Childs Decision to Pursue Science Careers. Science Daily. Retrieved December 8, 2010 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100220204814.htm This article shows that parental influence and access to science courses are likely to guide students to careers in science. In this way, parents are influencing childrens career choice.

Khan, M. A. (2004, March 9). Arranged Marriages: A Different Perspectice. Star Lifestyle. P. 4 This article talks about arranged marriages in our society. It also discusses the forcing of women into arranged marriages.