Family, friends and personal communities: changing models-in-the-mind

Abstract

‘Models-in-the-minds’ about the ‘proper’ and ‘right’ way to be a ‘true’ friend or to ‘do’
family behaviour may not necessarily fit lived experience, especially in cases where
relationships become fused and distinctions between ‘family’ and ‘friend’ become blurred. We suggest the idea of a personal community - the micro-social world of significant others for any given individual - as a practical schema for capturing the set of relationships in which people are actually embedded.