Chapter 1 Evolution Of Family Therapy

Question 0

Why are Group Dynamics applicable to the family?

Answer 0

Because family and group life is a complex blend of individual personalities and superordinate properties of the group.

Nichols p. 10

Question 1

What two developments, concerning individual family members, that forced therapist to recognize the family’s power to alter the course of treatment?

Answer 1

1. They noticed that often when a patient got better, someone else in the family got worse.
2. Patients improved in the hospital only to get worse when the got home (decompensated).
   Nichols p.9-10

Question 2

What did Kurt Lewin point out in regard to “quasi-stationary social equilibrium”?

Answer 2

Changing group behavior requires “unfreezing”. Only after something shakes up a group’s beliefs will its members prepare to change.
Nichol p.10

Question 3

What did Wilford Bion assert as it relates to groups?

Answer 3

Most groups become diverted from their primary task by engaging in patterns of fight-flight, dependency, and pairing.
Nichols p. 11

Question 4

Explain process/content.

Answer 4

• Attending as much to how people talk (process) as to the content of their discussions (what they are saying).
• PROCESS - how people talk to each other
• CONTENT - what they are saying.

Ex: Message content: don’t play with Barbie doll > images of bubble headed beauty > message > respect yourself as a person

   Message process: mother disparages daughters wishes > your feelings don't count.

Nochols p. 11
Class note p.

Question 5

What makes Role Theory useful in understanding families?

Answer 5

Roles tend to be complimentary and reciprocal - they reinforce each other.

In couple’s work: ​Pursuer/distancer, ​​​​​​​​
Overfunctioning/underfunctioning
Parenting issues: ​Strict/lenient
​​​​good/bad
​​​​ involved/uninvolved

Nichols p. 12

Question 6

How does group therapy differ from family therapy (4 reasons)?

Answer 6

1. Revealing self to strangers is different than exposing yourself to family.There is a loss of safety that group therapy provides
2. The stressful environment is brought to the consulting room.
3. In families, the power structure is hierarchical - someone has to be in charge.
4. The identified patient may feel isolated - the problem.

Question 7

What did child guidance centers gradually conclude?

Answer 7

The real problem was not the child’s symptoms but the tension in families that were the source of the symptoms - Mothers/fathers/significant others.

Nichols p. 13

Question 8

David Levy believe what was the chief cause of children’s problems?

Answer 8

Maternal over protectiveness.
Mothers who were deprived of love became overprotective.
- some became
domineering > children submissive at home > difficult making friends.
Indulgent > children disobedient at home > well behaved at school.
Nichols p. 13

Question 9

Describe Homeostasis.

Answer 9

Whenever a family system is threatened or disturbed, it endeavors to maintain stability.
Ex: parents fight > child child exhibits symptomatic behavior to stop the fighting by uniting the parents concern and preserving a family equilibrium.