Society, mainly the media, has had a hold on how the family is presented to us in Television. Whether it be on Maury’s focus on family dysfunction, infidelity and uncertain paternity, the soap operas that glorify high drama situations and negative reactions to issues in relationships, or the sitcoms that laugh off serious issues that would take more much effort to mend than implied. . This builds ground for “Conflict Theory” (most commonly associated with Karl Marx when compared to all other founders of social sciences) which thrives on the discord and competition between individuals in relationships, and oddly enough holds the eye of many individuals who choose to watch these programs to watch how drama unfolds. Plenty of episodes of Maury revolve around paternity and whether it comes out positive and negative, or Jerry Springer with the all-too-famous “Jerry! Jerry!” chant when things escalate physically between whoever is in the show, and by using these conflicts within these families, it gives the impression that many American families are dysfunctional and many families go through these things. However, many believe that conflict is necessity in relationships mainly because people have differing personalities, beliefs, ideas and aspirations, and in turn that leads to the family in a circle of inescapable conflict, but it doesn’t mean all of these conflicts have to be necessarily negative. Another theory that I have learned about that piqued my interest is the Social-Exchange Theory, formed in the late 1950’s and late 60’s through the work of sociologists George Homans, Peter Blau, John Thibaut and Harold Kelley. Basically it has an individual measure interactions by cost and benefit, with the outcome basically based on Reward - Cost = Outcome. In terms of relationships, people will either try to :