ABSTRACT
A central tenet of sociology is that social and cultural change are not only possible but probable. Americans' characters and personalities are influenced heavily by cultural performance ethic that produces all sorts of standards for human assessment and measurement, and the measured self is a direct outgrowth of the performance culture. It is an identity and sense of self expressed in performance terms: how well one is doing on a host of measured competences, statuses, and traits. Changes in cultural orientations and character come very slowly and haltingly, but it is timely to envision new forms of selfhood if Americans are going to be more genuinely free to live the kinds of lives that make them more fully human. There is a certain danger in generalizing about family life and in thinking that only one type of family exists, for there is no single type of American family; thus, admonitions about future of "the family" are both suspect and inaccurate.
