This guide provides the basis for a study-discussion course in the social psychology of the American Family. The course is designed to give an overview of major areas of stress in contemporary family life, to define and offer possible solutions to these problems, and to present some consideration of their meaning for individuals. This manual is divided into nine units of work, each with its own introduction, collection of readings, and questions for individual student work and group discussion. The first four units give a perspective on changing functions of the family, materials on adjustmental requirements occasioned by change and adaptation to stress, a diversity in styles of child rearing, and the modern problem of developing an adequate self in a society which seems increasingly anomic. The second portion of the course, addressed to the life cycle, includes four units dealing with socialization, characteristics of the childhood and adolescent periods, and problems of the middle and later years of life. A final section deals with the degree to which the family is affected by changing values. (se)