Theories of Marriage and Family Exam Review Flashcards
What is the Theoretical One Liner for Contextual Family Therapy?
Pathology is defined as relational injustice or mistrust due to unbalance ledgers or pathological legacy/loyalty issues.
Who is ther founder of Contextual Therapy?
Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy
What sets the stage for symptom development in Contextual Therapy?
When a breakdown of fairness and trustworthiness occurs through disengagement from multilateral caring and accountablity.
Class #3 Notes p.15
What is the key goal of Contextual Therapy?
Help family members reconnect and repair present or past unfair, unjust, interactions and transactions.Class #3 Notes p. 15
In Contextual Theory the I/Thou concept is characterized by:
Openness reciprocity, and a deep sense of personal involvement in “thou”.
Class 3 Notes p. 2
In Contextual theory how do loyalties connect is to our family of origin and previous generations.
They create a bondwith our family-of-origin and previous generations. .
Class 3 Notes p.4
How does Nagy’s concept of fairness in Contextual Therapy differ from universal principles?
Families in dialog determine what is fair and they have a right to expect to be treated fairly in all familial relational interactions and transactions.
Class 3 Notes p. 5-6
In Nagy’s concept of Contextual Therapy what is a ledger like?
An interpersonal relational account book of what has been given, to what degree and to whom.
Class 3 Notes p. 6
What is the result when persons have experience a high degree of “fairness” in their family of origin.
Their respective ledgers will be balanced.
Class 3 Notes p.5
In Contextual Therapy what comprises a Family Legacy for Nagy?
It is comprised of the family expectations that children grow up with which are transmitted to then by their family of origin (your smart, your dump). Part of their destiny.
Class 3 Notes p. 7
What is the result when persons have “Balanced Ledgers”?
They are able to build new relationships on principles that value each person’s welfare, interest, and, needs.
Class 3 Notes p.6
Define “Merit” in Contextual terms.
Those actions that one does in consideration of the welfare, interest and needs of others.
Class 3 Notes p. 8
Contextually, what is compromised when only one person’s interest are considered?
Fairness and loyalty.
Class 3 Notes p. 9
Define Entitlement in Contextual terms.
What I am owed by others.
Class #3 Notes p.10
Define Indebtedness in Contextual terms.
What I owe to others.
Class #3 Notes p.10
Contextually, when is trustworthiness established?
When people take their own and the other person’s interest into consideration.
Class #3 Notes p.10
How does Contextual therapy view Mutuality and Trustworthiness?
As a fundamental building block of family and social relationships.
Class #3 Notes p.11
Define Destructive Entitlement in Contextual terms.
The experience of not being cared for by one’s parents (mistreated, neglected, or exploited - emotionally or physically).
Class #3 Notes p.12
What is the consequence of Destructive Entitlement?
Future relationships are potentially compromised. Individuals try to collect uncollected debt from the wrong people.
Class #3 Notes p.12-13
Define a Revolving Slate in Contextual terms.
How patterns are repeated from on generation to the next. Unconscious binging legacies that prevent avoiding the patterns.
Class #3 Notes p. 13
Contextually, what is Rejunctive action mean?
To reconnect and repair present or past unfair, unjust interactions and transactions.
Class #3 Notes p. 15
Define Object Relations Theory
Pathology is defined as unresolved family of origin pain from the past that foster unhealthy projections and reactivity in the present.
Class #4 Study notes P. 1
What are the 3 key names associated with Object Relations Theory?
Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and Ronald Fairbain.
Class #4 Study notes P. 2
What does Object Relation Family Therapy seek to do?
Make the unconscious, conscious.
Class #4 Study notes P. 2
There are no single MF Theorist associated with Object Relations FT - who are the significant contributors?
James Framo Nathan Ackerman David and Jill Scharff Sameul Slipp Class #4 Study notes P. 3
In ORFT past influences provide the answers about what?
Problems being experienced in the present.
Class #4 Study notes P. 4
What does Object Relations therapist emphasize?
The basic human need for relationship and attachment to others.
Class #4 Study notes P. 5
An Ideal object is associated with ORFT, what is it ?
An internal mental representation that has a positive impact on our perspective of self and our interaction with others.
Class #4 Study notes P. 6
What is a Rejecting Object associated with ORFT?
An internal mental representation of the caregiver interrelated with instances when needs for attachement were rejected resulting in anger or negative emotions.
Class #4 Study notes P. 6
Define ORFT concept of an Exciting Object.
An internal mental representation of a caretaker formed when need’s for attachment were overstimulated and leads to longings for unattainable/tempting objects.
Class #4 Study notes P. 6
In ORFT how does Freud define Splitting?
A defense mechanism that helps people live with contradictory forces.
Nichols P. 167
Class #4 Study notes P. 7
What did Fairbain include in ORFT process of Splitting?
The mother, father and our emotions.
Class #4 Study notes P. 8
How does ORFT define introjections?
(Distorted) internal mental images that we have of ourselves and our important objects - how we think of ourselves.
Class #4 Study notes P. 9
What is a Projection as it relates to ORFT?
The process by which one’s repressed traits, urges and emotions and dispositions are ascribed to another.
Class #4 Study notes P. 10
How would an ORFT describe Projective Idenfication?
Defending against anxiety by projecting split-off or unwanted parts of self onto another who is manipulated by the projections.
Class #4 Study notes P. 12
Discribe the concept of Transference in ORFT terms.
One person projecting onto another repressed, unwanted feelings and attitudes based on relational patterns from a former relationship.
Class #4 Study notes P. 13
ORFT requires Joining. What is it?
Establishing trust with each family member.
Class #4 Study notes P. 14
What is a Protective Holding Environment?
A safety zone where unconditional positive regard is offered to all family members.
Class #4 Study notes P. 14
What are the 4 basic techniques used in ORFT?
Listening, Analytic Neutrality, Empathy and Interpretation.
Class #4 Study notes P. 15
How is Listening employed in ORFT?
Engaging in a strenuous, silent process that requires concentration and effort.
Class #4 Study notes P. 16
What does the ORFT need to do to establish Analytic Neutrality?
Concentrate on understanding without solving problems.
Class #4 Study notes P. 16
Nichols P. 175
How is the technique of Empathy used in ORFT?
Empathy is used to help family members open up before using reassurance, advise or confrontation.
Class #4 Study notes P. 16
How is the technique of Interpretation used in ORFT?
To clarify hidden aspects of the family’s experience after they open up.
Class #4 Study notes P. 16
Nichols P. 175
What is the study of feedback in self-regulating systems called.
Cybernetics.
Nichols P. 55
What is the TOL for Bowen’s Family SysteMs theory?
Pathology is defined as low differentiation that manifests fusion, cut off and triangulation.
Who was the main developer/author of Family Systems Theory?
Murray Bowen.
How does Bowen describe a Symbiotic Relationship?
One between individuals where very close interdependencies exit and over overcloseness to the point of pathology.
Class 5 study notes p. 2
How is Bowen’s term Differentiation of Self described?
The capacity to think and reflect, not respond automatically to internal/external emotional pressures - the ability to be flexible and act wisely in the face of anxiety.
Nichols p. 76
Class 5 study notes p. 4
Describe, in Bowenian terms, a person with a “solid Self”.
The person operates on the basis of clear defined beliefs, convictions, opinions, and core values.
Nichols p. 78
Class 5 study notes p. 4
Describe in Bowenian terms, a person with a pseudo-self.
The person is emotional fused with the family emotional system.
Nichols p. 78
Class 5 study notes p. 5
What are the characteristics of an undifferentiated person?
The are stuck together with others in the family emotional system. Unresolved emotional attachments effect their lives and their relationships.
Nichols p. 78 (for more details)
Class 5 study notes p. 5
Describe a triangle.
When 2 people struggle with conflict they can’t resolve they involve a 3rd party. It is the smallest stable unit of relationship.
Nichols p. 21
Class 5 study notes p. 8
What does Bowen’s concept of the Nuclear Family Emotional Process refer to?
The emotional patterns that operate in families over time in recurrent patterns.
Class 5 study notes p. 10
Nichols P. 79
Define Bowen’s concept of fusion.
An excess of emotional reactivity in families created by too much togetherness
Nichols P. 79
What does Bowen call the process by which parents transmit their lack of Differentiation to their children?
Family Projection Process.
Class 5 study notes p. 12
Describe Bowen’s Multigenerational Transmission Process.
The transmission of “increased fusion” from generation to generation - across multiple generations.
Class 5 study notes p. 13
How does Bowen describes Cut-Off?
Distancing from ones family in an effort to avoid and deny unresolved conflicts which make unexamined fusion.
Class 5 study notes p. 12
How did Bowen define Societal Emotional Process?
He extended his principles related t the family to hypothesize that these same principles can be seen the the larger society.
Class notes p. 15
Nichols p. 80
How is Family Therapy defined by Bowen?
Therapy is designed to help bring about change in the family though one or more family members.
Clinical Application of Bowen Family Systems Theory P. 8
How does Bowen define differentiation?
The degree in which people are able to distinguish between the “feeling process” and the “intellectual process”,
Clinical Application of Bowen Family Systems Theory P. 8
The concept of differentiation defines people according to what?
The degree of fusion, or differentiation between emotional functioning.
Clinical Application of Bowen Family Systems Theory P. 8
Bowen replaced the Undifferentiated Family Ego Mass with what term?
Multigenerational Emotional Unit
Clinical Application of Bowen Family Systems Theory P. 9
In an effort to facilitate change, what is the major focus and most important system for Bowenians?
The marital dyad.
Class 6 notes. P. 1
According to Bowen how does change in families come about?
Through a change in an individual.
Class 6 notes P. 3
How is “Parental We-ness” defined?
An emotional mixture in which the child has difficulty seeing each parent as separate beings.
Clinical Application of Bowen Family Systems Theory P. 15
What is a Bowenian’s Genogram?
A 3 generational schematic diagram or family map.
Class 6 notes P 4
What is the purpose of process questions?
They help people understand what is going on inside of themselves and between others.
Class 6 notes P. 5
What does Relations Experiments do?
It asks clients to into their families and be different and move against being emotionally driven.
Class 6 notes P. 5
One primary goal of Brownian therapy is Detriangulating. What does it do?
It helps the clients neutralize unhealthy triangles (detriangulate themselves)
Class 6 notes P . 5
Bowen preferred the term “coach”. Why?
To avoid taking over for the client and/or becoming triangulated.
Class 6 notes P . 5
What are “I statements” based on?
A person’s opinions, beliefs, and core values.
Class 6 notes P . 5
How do Bowenians use Replacement Stories?
Like parables, they help family members achieve distance in order to see their role in a family system.
Class 6 notes P . 6
What do Bowenians pay attention to?
Patterns of emotional reactivity in a family (process) and interlocking triangles.
Class 6 notes P . 1
Define Pyscho-education.
Teaching clients Bowen’s there to empower clients to change.
Class 6 notes P . 7
How is Strategic Family Therapy defined?
Pathology is defined as maladaptive sequences of interaction of dysfunctional hierarchy.
Who were the founders of Strategic Family Therapy?
Jay Haley and Cloe Madane
Class notes P. 1
According to Strategic Family Therapy, the regulatory mechanisms that help the system maintain homeostasis is referred to as what?
Feedback.
Class 7 notes P. 13
Nichol’s P. 102
What are the 2 types of feedback in Strategic Therapy?
Negative and Positive Feedback.
Class 7 notes P. 13
What is the purpose of Negative Feedback?
It preserves and protects the status quo (homeostasis) and resists disruption to maintain a steady state. It returns the system back to homeostasis.
Class 7 notes P. 13-14
What is it called with a family resists change and maintains homeostasis?
A negative feedback loop.
Class 7 notes P. 13
Nichol’s P. 102
What is Positive Feedback in Strategic terms?
When the response to a family member’s problematic behavior exacerbates the problem causing devastation from homeostasis and accommodates change.
Class 7 notes P. 14
Nichol’s P. 102-
Don Jackson used the Strategic term “family rules” as what?
As a description of regularity not regulation.
Nichol’s P. 102
What is a first order change?
When only a specific behavior within a system changes.
Class 7 notes P. 8
Nichol’s P. 102
Describe a second order change.
When the rules of the system change and prompt the way people interact and change perspective an assumptions.
Class 7 notes P. 8
Nichol’s P. 102
What purpose does reframing serve?
It helps clients reconceptualize certain behavior and frame it in positive terms.
Class 7 notes P. 14
Nichol’s P. 102-
Describe Marital Quid Pro Quo.
A marriage where each partner gives something in order to receive something in return.
Class 7 notes P. 12
Nichol’s P 112
Explain the Strategic concept of “more of the same”.
In dealing with stress a client system might “do more of the same” which leads to “more of the same”. A potential solution - do something different.
Class notes P 7-8
What is straightforward directive in Strategic Therapy?
Giving advise, coaching, setting up ordeals and exact penance to be preformed outside of therapy.
Haley P.8
Class 8 notes P. 6
What does Meta communication include?
Non-verbal cues that accompany the content (Saying I love you with a scowl)
Class notes P. 9
Describe the Strategic Therapy Redundancy Principle.
Family members settle on certain rules or redundant patterns instead of using the full range of possible behaviors.
Class notes P. 10
Describe “Punctuation” in Strategic terms.
Each person punctuates the interaction in a way that it reads like they believe it should.
Class notes P. 11
How are Strategic Complimentary Relations described?
One person assumes a position and the other assumes the opposite position which results in a hierarchy and inequality.
Class notes P. 11
What is relabeling?
An attempt to alter the meaning of a situation by altering its conceptual and/or emotional context in a way that the entire situations perceived differently.
Class notes P. 16
Describe Cloe Madane’s Structural “Pretend Technique.
Asking a client to “pretend” they have achieved their goal for a specific period of time to help them make the desired change.
Class 8 notes P. 4
Strategically, what is the premise of an Ordeal?
If one makes it more difficult to have a symptom than to give it up, the symptom will be given up.
Class 8 notes P. 9
What is a counter-paradox?
No matter what you do, you do something that moves the client in a new/right direction.
Class 8 notes P. 14
What is the TOL for Structural Family Therapy
Pathology is defined as inappropriate family organization and boundaries that foster enmeshment and disengagement.
Who is the founder of Structural Family Therapy?
Salvatore Minuchin?
Class 9 notes P. 1
What are 3 interlocking constructs in Structural Family Therapy?
Family Systems, Subsystems and Boundaries.The ways subsystems interact and transact to coordinate family life successfully.
Class 9 notes P. 2- 3
What does Family Structure refer to?
The ways subsystems interact and transact to coordinate family life successfully.
Class 9 notes P. 3
What areas is there Family Structure concerned with?
- Authority and Power
-Communication - Interaction?Alliances and Coalitions.
The ways subsystems interact and transact to coordinate family life successfully.
Class 9 notes P. 3
How would you describe the patterns that a family establishes to transact various tasks?
Consistent, repetitive, organized, predictable behaviors.The ways subsystems interact and transact to coordinate family life successfully.
Class 9 notes P. 3
How is the family structure reinforced?
Through established rules.
Class 9 notes P. 4
How is the family structure shaped?
Party by universal rules/constraints and partly bey idiosyncratic rules and constraints.
Class 9 notes P. 4
Name the 5 subsystems of the Structural family.
Individual, spousal, parental, sibiling, and extended sub-system.
Class 9 notes P. 5
What are invisible boundries?
Rules that serve to regulate contact with others.
Class 9 notes P. 5
Structurally- Name one negative aspects of a Rigid Boundary.
It can restrict contact between family members and subsystems.
Class 9 notes P. 6
Structurally - Name a positive aspect of a Rigid Boundry.
It can facilitate facilitate autonomy and freedom - independence.
Class 9 notes P. 6
Structurally - how does a clear boundary function?
They are firm, yet flexible and enhance well being.
Class 9 notes P. 7
What do diffuse boundaries foster?
Enmeshment.
In Structural termm, what 2 functions of interaction do families have.
Reciprocal and complimentary.
Class 9 notes P. 4
What do Structural therapist do as opposed to solving problem?
The seek to help families make structural changes.
What is the Structural technique of joining and accommodating?
It is employed to enter into the culture and respectfully observe in an effort to understand.
Class 10 Notes P. 2
Structurally what is Enactment?
Observing the family patterns and dynamics that may be contributing factors to the problem.
Class 10 Notes P. 3
What is the purpose of Structural Mapping?
They reinforce efforts to re-conceptualize the problem from and individual issue to a structural/system issue.
Class 10 Notes P. 4
How is Structural unbalancing accomplished?
By seeing to realign relationships and change family structure.
Class 10 Notes P. 6
What is the TOL for Experiential Family Therapy?
Pathology is defined by family rigidity, low self esteem and poor communication.
Who are the founders of Experiential Family Therapy
Carl Whitaker
Viriginia Satir
Experientially, how do healthy families hand problems?
Through negotiation.
Class 11 Notes P. 4
According to Whitaker’s Experiential approach, how are roles determined and what characteristic should they have?
Roles are determined by generation an should be flexible.
Class 10 Notes P. 5
