Chapter 2:Theory and Research
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Theories and our Understanding
• Psychoanalytic Theory - Freud• Psychosocial Theory – Erikson• Object Relations Theory• Behavioral Theory - Skinner• Social Learning Theory - Bandura• Cognitive Theory - Beck• Humanistic Theory – Rogers• Biological Theory• Family Systems Theory
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• General Systems Theory- • elements or parts of system are
_____________ and • strive to maintain _______• GST - broad, applies to all types of
systems - the body, home heating and cooling, schools and businesses
• Needed a systems approach related to the family.
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Characteristics – Family System
• Focus is on ______ not individual members
• Family is made up of ____________ parts
that interact in ___________________ ways
• Something must regulate and govern how the system functions
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• What produces this regular, enduring and persistent pattern? It is . . .
• _____ that govern interactions and regulate repetitive behavior
• Rules - where are they?
• Often, rules are outside the family’s _________.
• You must have individuals to have a family but the individuals themselves do not create the ___________
• No system until …
• This pattern is created by _____.5
Wholeness
• Family - more than the ___ of the individual parts,
more than a collection of _________• As family members interact they create a __________ that is far more
than just the combined sum of each individual member.
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• The Smith family
a complex group organized around a set of _____,
acting and reacting to each other in many ways as they function as family
• To understand this family, one must _______ the dynamic relationships
that exist among family members as they _______.
• How does one get to know the Smith family?
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• Wholeness focus: change in one part of the system influences __________________________
• The system is constantly changing, acting and reacting to _____ of various kinds
• There is interdependence• Example…• Satir’s mobile model
Homeostasis and Feedback• The family system-
complex patterns of interactions
governed by rules
• This pattern makes the family comfortable and __________. Behaviors are _________.
• Deviations from this pattern (rules) are reacted to so that
the customary _______ is maintained.
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• The process of monitoring stability and balance is done through ________
• A system which does this monitoring so that balance is maintained is called a ______ ______.
homeostatic system• Examples: - the body - the home heating system - the family.
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• The family - not static system
• Some feedback pushes for change; other forces seek the previous balance
• How well the system adjusts is important to the health of the system
• Positive feedback (amplifying feedback) pushes for ______
• Negative feedback (attenuating feedback) ______________________.
• Input/Output: System monitors _____ to see if it is in accepted range
• Behavior is ______ for the individual, yet it is input for the system.
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• If a member’s behavior ________ falls outside the accepted range,
this information is fed back into the system ______
and this results in responses
that attempt to bring the system back into _______.
• Subsystems in families –
- the spousal subsystem
- the parental subsystem
- the sibling subsystem
• Other subsystems12
Boundaries
• Boundary - line of demarcation between two systems, subsystems, or entities
• Example: city limits
• Boundaries in families are more_____________. May be physical or psychological
• Boundaries protect – ________________________ ___________________
• Examples in families.
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• The ease with which a system allows information to flow in and out
relates to boundary ___________• Permeability may change over time • Much information flow - __________• Little information flow - ___________• Families fall on a continuum
Closed -------------------- Open
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Causality: Two Types
• Linear Causality: A B C
• The cause of behavior can be determined if
• we can just find the chain of events leading up to the behavior
• A person takes a drug. Drug causes physiological changes. Changes lead to dizziness
• How do we explain dizziness?
• It is caused by the drug which produces physiological changes.
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Circular Causality
• Family systems theory - where you have many parts which interact with each other in an organized but complex way, linear causality is _________
• The Circularity Causality Model In families forces influence each other in a ___________ or
_____________ way
• A change in one person influences every family member
• This change is feedback into the system and influences every other part of the system.
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• So it goes in a never ending cycle
• Searching for one true cause is pointless; answers are not found in the individual parts,
but in the ______ itself
• X does not cause Y;Y does not cause X
• Rather X and Y interacting together _____ each other.
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• Searching for a starting point is fruitless
• When parents ask children, “Who started it,” each child blames the other.
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Circular
Causality
• Who started it depends on…
• where in the chain of the feedback loop the search begins
• FST does not look for “the cause” but turns the attention to _______
attempting to discover the pattern of interactions taking place which influence the whole system
• Behaviors are the result of constant and complex interactions within the system.
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• Environmental forces outside the system may ______ the system,
but these forces do not determine what a system does
• Example: A ball and what happens when someone kicks things that are in the shape of a ball
• A soccer ball ____, a bubble ball______, and a cannonball ____________.
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• Response is determined by the specific structure of each object
• The environment does not determine how the system responds,
but provides the context for allowing the system to respond in a way which its ________ determines
• Just as the structure of objects differ, the structure of families also differ
• Example: family therapist.
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• In Family Systems Therapy knowing what causes C or predicting what
effect A will have, becomes futile• Focus instead is on process – how family
members interact• Focus is on ____ rather than why• Focus on _______ rather than past.
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• Family system theorists ask how questions: How do family members communicate as
they interact with each other?• This is in contrast to ____ questions: Why do family members say what they say?
Why do they do what they do?
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Equifinality / Equipotentiality• These concepts relate to prediction and causality
• Equifinality - many activating events can be associated with the same result/outcome
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Event A
Outcome A
Outcome BOutcome C
(equipotentiality)
Event A Event B
Same Outcome
(equifinality)
Equipotentiality - the same activating event can be associated with many different results/outcomes.
• Equifinality: A parent’s overprotective behavior or a parent’s over permissive behavior could result in a child’s rebellious behavior.
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• Equipotentiality: A spanking may lead to more misbehavior, less misbehavior, or no change in behavior.
Overprotective behavior
Over permissive behavior
Rebellious behavior
Spanking
More misbehavior
No change
Less misbehavior
• Research: Helping us understand• Science – based on empirical data-information
that is systematically _________, ________, and ________
• Goals of researcher• To accurately ________• To accurately _______• To accurately _______• Description• The survey: importance of random sample• Naturalistic observation - Gottman• The case study
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• Prediction• Correlation Studies
• Ascertaining the relationship between 2 variables
• Findings reported using ___________________
• A number from ____________
• Researcher interested in ______________ and power - how close to +1.00 or –1.00
• Let’s look at direction
• Let’s look at power
• Examples
• Caution – correlation does not prove ________.
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• Explanation• The Experiment• Highly controlled situation in which experimenter
__________ a variable, ________ a variable, and _______ for extraneous variables.
• Manipulates a variable – independent variable• Observes a variable – dependent variable• Control extraneous variables – usually through
random assignment• Example.
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