focuses on interactions, the face-to-face encounters and relationships of individuals who act in awareness of one another
-explores the daily conversations, gestures, and other behaviors that go on in families
-children develop self-concepts based on feedback from those around them
-family identity, traditions, and commitment emerge through interaction, with the development of relationships and the generation of rituals-recurring practices defined as special and different from the everyday
-sometimes this perspective explores family role-making as partners adapt culturally understood roles
