chapter 3 Flashcards
In order to understand how families exert their influence, it is necessary to have
some theoretical understanding of family systems and how they operate.
the study of how systems are governed by feedback.
Cybernetics
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?
Systems theory
socially influenced assumptions shape how people behave and interact.
Scoial constructionism
universal need for emotional closeness,
helps therapists look beneath family quarrels to the underlying needs that sometimes get obscured.
Attachment theory
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.
Family therapist practices taking into account
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).
Feedback loop
Information that signals a system to correct a deviation and restore the status quo
Negative feedback
Information that confirms and reinforces the direction a system is taking.
Positive feedback
the idea that actions are interrelated through a series of recursive loops or repeating cycles
circular causality
Unchecked positive feedback that causes a family or system to get out of control.
Runaway
family rules
negative feedback
sequences of family interactions
positive feedback
families cybernetics focus
A descriptive term for redundant behavioral patterns.
family rules
Recurrent patterns of behavior that families engage in, especially around their presenting problems.
sequences of family interactions
Communication about communication, usually at another level.
metacommunication
focused on the feedback loops within families, otherwise known as patterns of communication, as the fundamental source of family dysfunction
Family cyberneticians
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.
Black box metaphor
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.
General system theory
A set of interrelated elements that exchange information, energy, and material with the surrounding environment.
Open systems
A functionally related group of elements regarded as forming a collective entity that does not interact with the surrounding environment.
Closed system
The process by which a system changes its structure to adapt to new contexts.
morphogenesis
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.
summarized Bertalanffy
brought up many of the issues that have shaped family therapy
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
Paul Watzlawick
Constructivism is the modern expression of a philosophical tradition that goes back as far as
The eighteenth century
Who regarded knowledge as a product of the way our imaginations are organized
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
outside world doesn’t simply impress itself onto the tabula rasa (blank slate) of our minds, as who believed
John Locke
our minds are anything but blank. They are active filters through which we process and interpret the world who argued this
Immanuel Kant
Relabeling a family’s description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change; for example, describing someone as “lazy” rather than “depressed.”
Reframing
The first application of constructivism in family therapy was
The technique of reframing
relabeling behavior to shift how family members respond to it.
When constructivism took hold of family therapy in 1980s what did it trigger
triggering a core shift in value
we relate to the world on the basis of our own interpretations.
Constructivism
interpretation of experience as a mediator of behavior are focused on both
constructivism and social constructionism
Study of the innate tendency to seek out closeness to caretakers in the face of stress.
Attachment theory
seeking closeness in the face of stress is
Attachment
Early family therapists concentrated on assessing and altering behavioral interactions surrounding problems. Next it was recognized that those interactions were
manifestations of a family’s underlying structure and structure became the target of change
Family therapists, naturalists on the human scene, discovered how behavior is shaped by
transactions we don’t always see.
Systems concepts—feedback, circularity, and so on—helped make complex interactions predictable.
In family therapy, the interpersonal ______, including the family but also other social influences.
context
person’s behavior is powerfully influenced by interactions with
Other family members
The reciprocity that is the defining feature of every relationship.
complementarity
Family therapists should think of complementarity whenever they hear one person complaining about another.
Complementary
Whenever people are perceived as nagging, it probably means that they haven’t received
a fair hearing for their concerns.
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.
linear causality
detouring conflict between two people by involving a third person, stabilizng the relationship between the original pair
triangulation
The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact.
Family structure
Psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family.
Disengagement
Loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries.
Enmeshment
Shared patterns of behavior and experience derived from settings in which people live.
Culture
The common ancestry through which groups of people have evolved shared values and customs.
Ethnicity
