Family system theory has been developed within general systems theory, and its basic concepts apply to physics, biology, and social sciences, among other sciences. An Ecological Theorist would start his research by investigating these areas of the childs life. A basic tenet of this theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) is that child and youth development is influenced by many different contexts, settings, or ecologies (for example, family, peers, schools, communities, sociocultural belief systems, policy regimes, and, of course, the economy). When one resource outweighs another resource then it may become a barrier(e.g., the wifes income may be a resource that enables her to leave the marriage, but her husbands income may be so great that it may be a barrier to leaving since she wont be able to enjoy the life to which she has become accustomed without his income).14 Barriers are the costs of making a choice.15 Several studies find when barriers are many and alternatives are few individuals may remain in dissatisfied marriages.16, Alternatives are the variety of possible exchange relations available to individuals. Talcott Parsons' (1956, pg. Matriarchal family is matrilocal in residence. She made her funeral plans, made sure her children would be cared for then prepared to die. The microsystem is the immediate social settings which an individual is involved in. He posited that peoples self development is closely linked to early stages of development, like breastfeeding, toilet training, and sexual awareness (Freud 1905). Binoculars serve to magnify, enlarge, clarify, and expand our view of the thing we are looking at. Not only is a memory of past costs and rewards used in determining present exchanges, a forecast of future costs and rewards is considered also.19 When an exchange relationship is imbalanced, the individual who is less dependent will have the most power, or the power advantage.20 For instance, a woman who has no college education and lacks a stable job that provides her with a good income is more dependent on her husband, who earns the household income, than he is on her. When the discussion about closing military bases comes up in Washington DC, Senators and members of Congress go to work trying to keep their communitys bases open. In the diagram below you can see the process by which a theory leads sociologists to perform a certain type of study with certain types of questions that can test the assumptions of the theory. Parsons believed that the family benefitted society in . After the Enron collapse, every company offering stocks for trade underwent a government supervised audit of its accounting processes in order to restore the public trust.