Family Theory and Therapy Chapter 1

Why are group dynamics relevant to family therapy?

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

Who is know for ushering in feild theory?

Kurt Lewin

What did Lewin draw on for his feild theory?

Gestalt school of perception

What is quasi-stationary social equilibrium?

changing group behavior first requires “unfreexzing”

What is family homeostasis?

a balanced steady state of equilibrium

What is Bion’s basic assumption theory?

that group members become diverted from the group task to pursue unconscious patterns of fight-flight, dependency, or pairing

What is the flight pattern of therapy?

families skirt around hot issues

What is the fight pattern of therapy?

families bicker endlessly, never really contemplating compromise

What is the dependency pattern of therapy?

masqurades as therapy when families allow therapists to subvert their autonomy in the name of problems solving

What is the pairing pattern of therapy?

when one parent colludes with the children to undermine the other parent

What is process?

how members of a family or group relate

What is content?

what a family or group talk about

What is process content?

how members of a family or group relate as opposed to what they talk about

What psychodynamic theory had important applications to the study of families?

role theory

Who was a psychologist who studies roles in family therapy?

Virginia Satir

What did Alfred Alder help children alliviate in his child guidance clinics in Vienna?

feelings of inferiority

What was Alder’s goal in helping children alleviate feelings of inferiority?

to work out a healthy lifestyle achieving confidence and success through social usefulness

What did David Levy say was the cheief cause of childhood psychological problems?

maternal overprotectivness

What are the two types of maternal overprotectivness?

domineering and over indulgent

What is the schizophrenogenic mother?

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s term for aggressive, domineering mothers thought to precipitate schizophrenia in their offspring

Who examplified the transition from individual therapy to a family approach?

John Bowlby

What is metacommunication?

communication about communication, usually at another level

What group has one of the strongest claims to oiginating family therapy?

Gregory Bateson’s research on schizophrenia and the nature of communication

What is communicaiton theory?

the study of relationships in terms of the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages

What is a double bind?

a conflict created when a person recieves contradictory messages on different levels of abstraction in an important relationship and cannot leave or comment

What is the first feature of a double bind?

two or more persons in an important relationship

What is the second feature of a double bind?

repeated experience

What is the third feature of a double bind?

a primary negative injunction, such as “Don’t do X or I will punish you”

What is the fourth feature of a double bind?

a second injunction at a more abstract level conflicting with the first, also enforced by punishment or percieved threat?

What is the fifth feature of a double bind?

a teriary negative injunction prohibiting escape and demanding a reponse

What is the sixth feature of a double bind?

the complete set of ingredents is not longer necessary once the victim is conditioned to perceive the world in terms of double binds.

What happens to a victim who has suffered through all of the features of a double bind?

any part of the sequence becomes sufficent to trigger panic or rage

Who is the identified patient?

the person whom others in the family assume that family problems reside with

What is psuedomutuality?

Lyman Wynne’s term for the fascade of family harmony that characterizes many schizophrenic families

What is psuedohostility?

Lyman Wynne’s term for superficial bickering that masks pathological alignments in schizophrenic families

What is a rubber fence?

Lyman Wynne’s term for the rigid boundary surrounding many schizophrenic families, which allows only minimal contact with the surrounding community

What did Wynne link the new concept of communicaiton deviance with?

the older notion of thought disorder

What is the difference between communication deviance and thought disorder?

communication deviance being more interactional and more readily available

Who was John Spiegel?

a role theorist

What did John Spiegel theorize?

second-order cybernetics

What is second-order cybernetics?

the idea that anyone attempting to observe and change a system is therefore part of that system

What is interaction?

when thing collide but remain essentially unchanged

What is transaction?

things come together in ways that not only alter each others corse but also bring about internal changes

What is mystification?

Laing’s concept that many families distort their children’s experience by denying or relabeling it

What happens when a parent mystifies a child’s experience?

children project a false self

What is family group therapy?

Bell’s approach to therapy relying primarily on stimulating open discussion to help families solve their problems

What is family homeostasis?

tendency of families to resist change in order to maintain a steady state

What is a complimentary relationship?

based on differences that fit together, where qualities of one make up for lacks in the other; one is one-up while the other is one-down

What is a symetrical relationship?

a relationship of equality or parallel form

What are family rules?

redundant behavior patterns within any committed unit

What is scapegoat?

a member of the family, usually the identified patient, who is the object of diplaced conflict or criticism

What is differentiation of self?

Bowen’s term for psychological separation of intellect and emotions and independence of self from others

What is the opposite of differentiation of self?

fusion

What are triangles?

a three-person system; according to Bowen, the smallest stable unit of human relations

What is emotional reactivity?

the tendency to respond in a knee-jerk emotional fashion, rather than calmly and objectively

What is a undifferentiated family ego mass?

Bowen’s early term for emotional “stuck-togetherness” or fusion in the family, especially prominent in schizophrenic families

What are enmeshed families?

Minuchin’s term for chaotic and tightly interconnected families

What are disengaged families?

Minuchin’s term for isolated and seemingly unrelated families

What is a first-order change?

temporary or superficial changes within a system that do not alter the basic organization of the system itself

What is a second-order change?

basic change in the structure and functioning of a system

What is the assumption of family in individual therapy?

family shapes individual

What are the assumption of family in family therapy?

family continues to influence individual

What are the classic models of family therapy?

Bowenian, Strategic, Structural

What are the post-modern models of family therapy?

Solution-Focused and Narrative

What are the extentions of individual therapy models?

Experiential, Cognitive-Behavioral, and Psychodynamic

What is equifinality?

different initial circumstances or experiences can lead to the same outcome or behavior within a family