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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