chapter 3

Question 1

In order to understand how families exert their influence, it is necessary to have

Answer 1

some theoretical understanding of family systems and how they operate.

Question 2

the study of how systems are governed by feedback.

Answer 2

Cybernetics

Question 3

in order to understand the behavior of family members it is necessary to look at the whole family and how its members interact this is the suggestion of what?

Answer 3

Systems theory

Question 4

socially influenced assumptions shape how people behave and interact.

Answer 4

Scoial constructionism

Question 5

universal need for emotional closeness,

helps therapists look beneath family quarrels to the underlying needs that sometimes get obscured.

Answer 5

Attachment theory

Question 6

interpersonal context,
complementarity of relationships, 
circularity of most interactions, 
triangles, 
process/content distinction, 
family structure, 
family life cycle, 
family narratives,
the role of gender and culture.

Answer 6

Family therapist practices taking into account

Question 7

The return of a portion of the output of a system, especially when used to maintain the output within predetermined limits (negative feedback), or to signal a need to modify the system (positive feedback).

Answer 7

Feedback loop

Question 8

Information that signals a system to correct a deviation and restore the status quo

Answer 8

Negative feedback

Question 9

Information that confirms and reinforces the direction a system is taking.

Answer 9

Positive feedback

Question 10

the idea that actions are interrelated through a series of recursive loops or repeating cycles

Answer 10

circular causality

Question 11

Unchecked positive feedback that causes a family or system to get out of control.

Answer 11

Runaway

Question 12

family rules
negative feedback
sequences of family interactions
positive feedback

Answer 12

families cybernetics focus

Question 13

A descriptive term for redundant behavioral patterns.

Answer 13

family rules

Question 14

Recurrent patterns of behavior that families engage in, especially around their presenting problems.

Answer 14

sequences of family interactions

Question 15

Communication about communication, usually at another level.

Answer 15

metacommunication

Question 16

focused on the feedback loops within families, otherwise known as patterns of communication, as the fundamental source of family dysfunction

Answer 16

Family cyberneticians

Question 17

The idea that because the mind is so complex, it’s useful to study people’s input and output (communication, behavior) rather than try to speculate about what goes on inside them.

Answer 17

Black box metaphor

Question 18

A biological model of living systems as whole entities that maintain themselves through continuous input and output from the environment; developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy.

Answer 18

General system theory

Question 19

A set of interrelated elements that exchange information, energy, and material with the surrounding environment.

Answer 19

Open systems

Question 20

A functionally related group of elements regarded as forming a collective entity that does not interact with the surrounding environment.

Answer 20

Closed system

Question 21

The process by which a system changes its structure to adapt to new contexts.

Answer 21

morphogenesis

Question 22

A system as more than the sum of its parts

.
Emphasis on interaction within and among systems versus reductionism.

Human systems as ecologic organisms versus mechanism

Concept of equifinality.

Homeostatic reactivity versus spontaneous activity.

Answer 22

summarized Bertalanffy

brought up many of the issues that have shaped family therapy

Question 23

The eye of the frog, for example, doesn’t register much but lateral movement—which may be all you really need to know if your main interest in life is catching flies with your tongue.

When this new perspective on knowing was reported to the family field by

Answer 23

Paul Watzlawick

Question 24

Constructivism is the modern expression of a philosophical tradition that goes back as far as

Answer 24

The eighteenth century

Question 25

Who regarded knowledge as a product of the way our imaginations are organized

Answer 25

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

Question 26

outside world doesn’t simply impress itself onto the tabula rasa (blank slate) of our minds, as who believed

Answer 26

John Locke

Question 27

our minds are anything but blank. They are active filters through which we process and interpret the world who argued this

Answer 27

Immanuel Kant

Question 28

Relabeling a family’s description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change; for example, describing someone as “lazy” rather than “depressed.”

Answer 28

Reframing

Question 29

The first application of constructivism in family therapy was

Answer 29

The technique of reframing

relabeling behavior to shift how family members respond to it.

Question 30

When constructivism took hold of family therapy in 1980s what did it trigger

Answer 30

triggering a core shift in value

Question 31

we relate to the world on the basis of our own interpretations.

Answer 31

Constructivism

Question 31

interpretation of experience as a mediator of behavior are focused on both

Answer 31

constructivism and social constructionism

Question 32

Study of the innate tendency to seek out closeness to caretakers in the face of stress.

Answer 32

Attachment theory

Question 33

seeking closeness in the face of stress is

Answer 33

Attachment

Question 34

Early family therapists concentrated on assessing and altering behavioral interactions surrounding problems. Next it was recognized that those interactions were

Answer 34

manifestations of a family’s underlying structure and structure became the target of change

Question 35

Family therapists, naturalists on the human scene, discovered how behavior is shaped by

Answer 35

transactions we don’t always see.

Systems concepts—feedback, circularity, and so on—helped make complex interactions predictable.

Question 36

In family therapy, the interpersonal ______, including the family but also other social influences.

Answer 36

context

Question 37

person’s behavior is powerfully influenced by interactions with

Answer 37

Other family members

Question 38

The reciprocity that is the defining feature of every relationship.

Answer 38

complementarity

Question 39

Family therapists should think of complementarity whenever they hear one person complaining about another.

Answer 39

Complementary

Question 40

Whenever people are perceived as nagging, it probably means that they haven’t received

Answer 40

a fair hearing for their concerns.

Question 41

The idea that one event is the cause and another is the effect; in behavior, the idea that one behavior is a stimulus, the other a response.

Answer 41

linear causality

Question 42

detouring conflict between two people by involving a third person, stabilizng the relationship between the original pair

Answer 42

triangulation

Question 43

The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact.

Answer 43

Family structure

Question 44

Psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family.

Answer 44

Disengagement

Question 45

Loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries.

Answer 45

Enmeshment

Question 46

Shared patterns of behavior and experience derived from settings in which people live.

Answer 46

Culture

Question 47

The common ancestry through which groups of people have evolved shared values and customs.

Answer 47

Ethnicity