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Chapter 9: Family Communication
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Those extended relational networks of cousins, second cousins, children of cousins,
aunts, uncles, and even long-term friends who are considered family are called ______.
a. transacted families
b. social networks
c. friend-families
d. kin networks
2. The term that describes the larger family clan from which you descended is called
your
a. extended family
b. family of origin
c. family of generativity
d. family of descent
3. A group of people that you decide is your “true” family even though there is no
genetic connection is known as a(n) _______.
a. extended family
b. blended family
c. family of choice
d. binuclear family
4. Which one acts as an important mechanism for the creation of a sense of family
identity?
a. Norms
b. Family storytelling
c. Family rituals
d. Boundary management
5. What is meant by the kin-keeping function in a family?
a. The parent or guardian who is best suited to have custody of the children following a
divorce
b. The act of connecting with siblings in order to carry out adolescent rebellion
c. The act of serving as a reservoir for information about family members and passing it
on
d. The act of using rituals to reestablish the “we-ness” of the family group
6. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a system (and, consequently, a family
system)?
a. Synergistic
b. Mutually interdependent
c. Self-regulating
d. Goal oriented
7. Rules that guide family communication and relationships are called _______.
a. rituals
b. prescriptions
c. norms
d. scripts
8. The bidirectionality hypothesis concerns which of the following?
a. A promise of a future vacation
b. A planned holiday activity
c. A parent choosing what night is “movie night” and the child choosing the movie to see
d. A phone call
9. The act of praying before dinner represents which of the following features of family
communication?
a. Family ritual
b. High conformity
c. Low conversation
d. Family norm
10. The ways families change to adapt to their environment or external situations are
due to which characteristic of a system?
a. Goal-oriented
b. Mutually interdependent
c. Hierarchical
d. Self-regulating
11. What is the one defining feature of traditional views of family?
a. Transgenerational caretaking
b. Marriage
c. Blood ties
d. Authority structure
12. The facts that religion is strongly connected to family and legitimate meanings of
family are debated in politics and mandated by law illustrate how families are _______.
a. interconnected
b. seen as institutions
c. private entities
d. transacted
13. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways Segrin and Flora argue families can
be defined?
a. Functionally
b. Transactionally
c. Structurally
d. Psychologically
14. A family you start for yourself and you are one of the parents of at least one child is
known as what type of family?
a. Nuclear family
b. Family of choice
c. Family of generativity
d. Extended family
15. If you are the child of two parents and spent some of your childhood with one or
both of them, this is what kind of family?
a. Single-parent family
b. Family of descent
c. Family of choice
d. Family of origin
16. Children are influenced not only by their families but also by schools, classmates,
and the families of their friends. In addition to their family culture, they are immersed in
a(n) ______.
a. external network
b. peer group
c. kid culture
d. social network
17. What type of everyday communication gives a sense of what the family is like and
also how the family deals with difficult or traumatic experiences?
a. Family identity
b. Family secret
c. Family transaction
d. Family narrative
1. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which of these changes are considered as normal
growth in intergenerational families?
a. Children are born into the family.
b. Children go to school.
c. Children become independent.
d. Children leave home and start families of their own.
2. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. What key terms from systems theory have family
scholars applied to families?
a. Mutual interdependence
b. Self-regulation
c. Hierarchy
d. Common fate
3. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which are characteristics of a binuclear family?
a. Two families based on the nuclear form
b. The children’s father and their stepmother
c. The children’s mother and their stepfather
d. The parents plus their genetically related children
4. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. What kind of information do most people use when
they construct a family tree?
a. Names
b. Relationships
c. Dates
d. Events
5. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Which are possible characteristics of blended families?
a. A family created by a group of people you decide is your “true” family
b. When parents adopt nongenetic offspring
c. When divorced parents remarry other partners
d. When a family has as its center a nuclear family but also includes grandparents,
aunts, cousins, or other blood relatives
6. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Structural views of families can be defined according to
which of the following?
a. Biological ties
b. Legal definitions
c. Communicative definitions
d. Sociological definitions
1. The most appealing definitional approach for family communication scholars is the
transactional approach.
Difficulty Level: Medium
Short Answer
1. Name one example of immediate change in a family.
2. Boundary management, which focuses on the way marital couples manage talking
about private matters with each other, is also known as ______.
3. In some families, the _________ stresses the role of one parent as head of the
family; others stress equality of all the mature members.
4. A family that has at its center a nuclear family but also includes grandparents, aunts,
cousins, and all other living forms of blood relatives is known as what kind of family?
5. What definition of family is the most appealing definition for communication scholars,
and why?
6. For many purposes, families are seen primarily as social or demographic structures
that contain and connect particular individuals, such as two parents and a child, father
and son, or daughter and aunt. This way of seeing “family” is structural or ______.
7. In the process of family storytelling, families create a shared sense of meaning about
the family experience, whether positive or negative. This way of indicating how families
develop a common story about such experiences and events is known as ______.
8. Change is inevitable in families and can be immediate or gradual, large or small,
good or bad, and recognized or unrecognized. In all cases, these changes are
transacted and understood through what process?
9. Name one or more changes in families that are seen as fractures in the surface of
normality.
10. What is the term for an extended relational network of cousins, children of cousins,
aunts, uncles, and even long-term friends who are considered family, too?
1. Why is the study of family communication important?
2. Give an example of how the structure of a family can remain the same but the
communication dynamics can change.
3. Explain why privacy management might be a salient issue for blended families.
4. Explain how family communication and relationships might change over time.
5. Explain the bidirectionality hypothesis.
6. Explain how a single-parent family is different from a family of origin?
7. Describe how gradual change takes place in families.
8. Explain how family secrets held within and among family members are different from
family secrets concealed from people outside the family group?
