1. CHAPTER 2: The Theoretical Context of Family Therapy
Family Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice
6th Edition
Samuel T. Gladding
Developed by Nathaniel N. Ivers, Wake Forest University
© (2015, 2011, 2007) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

2. Overview Factors associated with defining a family
Significance of cybernetics, feedback loops, and causality
Individual development and family development
Six-stage cycle of most middle-class families
Prevalent factors leading families to seek counseling
Fit of therapist with family

3. What Is a Family?
The definition is not monolithic and varies according to cultural group
U.S. Census Bureau definition
Based on one’s family of origin
Excludes some elements, such as close friends and ancestors
Textbook definition
Biological and psychological connection
Historical, emotional, or economic bonds
Perception of a household

4. System
Interacting set of units, parts, or persons that make up a whole arrangement or organization.
Each element affects all other elements of the system
Principles of a system (Bertalanffy, 1969)
Whole greater than the sum of its parts
Compilation of subsystems arranged in a hierarchical structure
Self regulates to maintain homeostasis
Capacity to adapt and change in response to environmental conditions

5. Systems Theory
Focused on interconnectedness of elements within a system
When change occurs in any one member of a family system, all aspects of the family are affected, for better or worse
Lens through which the majority of family therapists have traditionally viewed families

6. Cybernetics
Term that describes systems that regulate themselves through feedback loops
The way families stabilize or change in an effort to maintain homeostasis
Basic elements: receptor, center and effector, and a feedback system
Introduces the idea of circular causality

7. Circular Causality
Human behavior is complex and always occurs within a system of relationships
Describes how complex actions are a part of a causal change, in which each influences the other

8. Feedback and Feedback Loops
Feedback – communication process within a system
Negative feedback loops – also called attenuating feedback loops, promote return to equilibrium
Positive feedback loops – also called amplifying feedback loops, lead to change in the system
Major family task:
To maintain a balance between steadiness and change.

9. Individual and Family Development
Individual time – between birth and death
Social time – landmark social events (e.g., marriage, parenthood, retirement)
Historical time – culture
Life Cycle
Active way to conceptualize time in human development
Denotes continuous development of people over time in multiple contexts of their lives.

10. Individual Life Cycle Development
Erickson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development:
Trust vs. mistrust
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
Initiative vs. guilt
Industry vs. inferiority
Identity vs. role confusion
Intimacy vs. isolation
Generativity vs. stagnation
Integrity vs. despair

11. Family Life Development
Family life cycle
Initial version proposed by Evelyn Duvall (1977)
Describes developmental trends within the family over time
Includes all dimensions of individual life course
Also emphasizes the family as a whole
Describes tension between person as an individual and the family as a system

12. Family Life Cycle
Six-stage life cycle of intact middle-class, nuclear family developed by McGoldrick et al. (2011)
Single young adults leaving home
The new couple
Families with young children
Families with adolescents
Families launching children and moving on
Families in later life

13. Single Young Adults: Leaving Home
Major tasks of this period:
Disconnecting and reconnecting with family
Establishing identity
Striking a balance between career and/or marriage ambitions and a desire for personal autonomy
Dealing with tension to marry
Cohabitation
Cohabitation Effect

14. The New Couple Characterized by adjustment and adaptation
Learning how to share space and meals, work, leisure and sleep activities
Adapting to each other’s wishes, requests, and fantasies
One of the most likely times for couples to divorce due to inability to resolve differences
Limitations
Finances
Time

15. The New Couple: Why They Seek Therapy
Adjustment from singlehood to living as a couple
Difficulty with relatives
Inability to work through interpersonal issues, such as difficulties with communication
Decisions about whether or when to have children

16. Families with Young Children
Becoming a parent
Can be a joyful as well as a tough experience
Affects the couple’s lifestyle and relationship
Leads to restructuring of roles and responsibilities, as it creates stress an disequilibrium.

17. Why they seek family therapy?
Changes in roles and responsibilities
Parenting

18. Families with Adolescents
Tension may occur as the result of the following
Taking care of adolescent children and aging parents (sandwich generation)
Process of adolescence

19. Why they seek family therapy?
Conflict between parent and adolescent
Friction in couple relationship related to unrealized dreams and opportunities
Stress associated with balancing the care of aging parents, work, and family life

20. Launching Children and Moving On
Empty nest – life without child-rearing responsibilities
For women:
May be a time of energetic interest in focusing on one’s own interests
It also may be a time of sadness, depression, and despondency
For men:
May focus more on marriage, their physical self, and their careers, as well as their wife’s changing behavior

21. Why they might seek family therapy
Feeling a sense of loss regarding self, marriage, or the moving out of child
Conflict with child over not becoming sufficiently independent
Frustration and anger regarding marriage or career ambitions

22. Families in Later Life
Usually composed of a couple in final years of employment or early retirement
Potential challenges:
Physical decline of individuals related to age, known as senescence
Loss, such as loss of driver’s license, hearing, or even a spouse
Potential advantages:
Being a grandparent
Doing what one wants and one’s own pace
Joy of having experienced many life cycle events

23. Why they might seek family therapy?
Feeling a lack of meaning or enjoyment as a result of loss
Concern about adjustments to aging
Difficulty in relationships with children, in-laws, or grandchildren

24. Unifying Individual and Family Life Cycles
Focus on growth and development
Viewed as a system and from the perspective of systems
Complementary and competitive

25. Implications of Life Cycles for Family Therapy
Match of life cycles between family and therapist
Ethnicity and life cycles
Acute and chronic illnesses and life cycles
Special-needs children and life cycles
Poverty, professionalism, and life cycles