Exam One Key Terms Flashcards
Key terms
Testing
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Attachment theory
Study of the innate tendency to seek out closeness to caretakers in the face of stress
Black box metaphor
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 inside
Boundary
An emotional barrier that protects the integrity of individuals subsystems and families
Boundary making
Negotiating the boundaries between members of a relationship and between a relationship and outside world
Circular causality
The idea that actions are interrelated through a series of reclusive loops or repeating cycles
Closed system
a functionally related group of elements regarded as forming a collective entity that does not interact with the surrounding environment
Complimentary
The reciprocity that is the defining feature of every relationship
Complementary relationship
Based on differences that fit together we’re qualities of one makeup for lacks and the other one is one-up while the other is one down
Constructivism
A relativistic point of view that emphasizes a subject construction of reality. implies that what we see in families may be based as much on our preconceptions As on what’s actually going on
Content
What is talked about as opposed to how it is talked about
Culture
Shared patterns of behavior and experience derived from settings in which people live
Cybernetics
The science of feedback how information especially positive and negative feedback loops can help self-regulate a system
Differentiation of self
Bowens term for psychological separation of intellect and emotions and Independence of self from others opposite of fusion
Disengagement
Psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family
Double blind
A conflict created when a person receives contradictory messages on different levels of abstraction and an important relationship and cannot leave or comment
Emotional reactivity
The tendency to respond in a knee jerk emotional fashion rather than calmly and objectively
Enmeshed
Emotional over involvement
Enmeshment
Loss of autonomy do to a blurring of psychological boundaries
Ethnicity
The common ancestry through which groups of people have evolvd shared values and customs
False self
A defensive facade that characterizes some people’s dealings with others
Family homeostasis
Tendency of families to resist change in order to maintain a steady state
Family life cycle
stages of family life from separation from one’s parents to marriage having children growing older retirement and finally death
Family rules
A descriptive term for redundant behavioral patterns
Family structure
The functional organization of families that determines how family members interact
Feedback loop
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)
First-order change
Temporarily or superficial changes within a system that do not alter the basic organization of the system itself
General systems theory
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
Group dynamics
Emergent patterns of interaction in groups and families
Identified patient
The person whom others in the family assume that family problems for side with
Linear causality
The idea that one event is the cause and another is the effect; end behavior, the idea that one behavior is a stimulus, the other a response.
Metacommunication
Communication about communication usually at another level
Morphogenesis
The process by which a system changes its structure to adapt to new contexts
Mystification
Laing’s concept that many families distort their children’s experience by denying or relabeling it
Narrative therapy
An approach to treatment that emphasizes the role of the stories people construct about their experiences
Negative feedback
Information that signals a system to correct a deviation and restore the status quo
Open system
A set of interrelated elements they exchange information energy and material with the surrounding environment
Positive feedback
Information that confirms and reinforces the direction a system is taking
Positive feedback mechanism
Signaling a system to amplify change
Process
How members of a family or group relate
Process / content
How members of a family or group (process) as opposed to what they talked about (content)
Pseudo
Wynne’s term for superficial bickering that masks pathological alignments in schizophrenic families
Pseudomutuality
Wynne’s term for the facade of family Harmony that characterizes many schizophrenic families
Reframing
Relabeling a family’s description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change for example describing someone as lazy rather than depressed
Role playing
Acting out the parts of important characters to dramatize feelings and practice new ways of relating
Rubber fence
Wynne’s term for the rigid boundary surrounding many skitsofrantic families which allow only minimal contact with the surrounding community
Runaway
Unchecked positive feedback that causes a family or system to get out of control
Schizophrenogenic mother
Frida Fromm-Reichmann’s term for aggressive domineering mothers thought to precipitate schizophrenia in their offspring
Second-order change
Basic change in the structure and functioning of a system
Social constructionism
Like constructivism, challenges the notion of an objective basis for knowledge. Knowledge and meaning are shaped by culturally shared assumptions.
Solution-focused therapy
Steve de Shazer’s term for a style of therapy that emphasizes the solutions that families have already developed for their problems.
Subsystems
Smaller units in families, determined by generation, sex, or function.
Symmetrical relationship
A relationship of equality or parallel form
Systems theory
Understanding an organized unit such as family based on the parts and how they interact
Triangle
A three-person system, according to Bowen, the smallest stable unit of human relations
Triangulation
Detouring conflict between two people by involving a third person, stabilizing the relationship between the original pair
Undifferentiated family ego Mass
Bowens early term for emotional stuck togetherness or fusion and the family, especially prominent and schizophrenic families.
Done
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