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CHAPTER 3
FAMILY THEORIES
TRUE/FALSE
family members first.
educational systems.
family system, affects every part of the system.
between insiders and outsiders.
marital dyad operates.
you need to see him or her interact within primary family relationships.
family members based upon situational contexts.
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developed over time within a family.
apology is an example of metacommunication.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following statements explains the complex hierarchy that exists in the
structure of any family system?
A. Complexity depends upon the subsystem that exists within its boundaries.
2. Angela and Alberto constantly spend evenings and weekends together with their
children. Their children go to school but are not encouraged to join school or
community activities. They may not have friends in to play or to stay overnight.
This family would be described as:
D. A random system
3. Which of the following is not correct thinking from a systems perspective?
A. A member needs a human group for identity and satisfaction.
4. Without rules, family systems would more likely be:
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A. Boring and uneventful
5. Al grew up in a family in which members did not talk about affection for each other.
When he married Fatimah, she said, “Goodbye, I love you,” every time she left him
or her in-laws. After a few years, Al and his family began to do the same. This is an
example of:
A. Maintenance feedback
6. Which of the following statements is correct?
A. From a family systems perspective the image is one of the family members in the
foreground and the relationships between the members in the background
7. What is the function in a family system that regulates stability and/or change?
A. Morphostasis
8. Which statement about family subsystems is true?
D. Wholeness more readily develops when subsystems operate independently
9. Analyze the following problem and identify possible outcomes for the family
system:
When the Wilson family adopted a four-year-old boy, Alexander, from Russia, his
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needs were very great for the first eight months. His adoptive parents spent almost
all of their waking hours helping him adjust to the environment, teaching him
English and managing some of his health problems.
What is least likely to have been the effect on Alicia Wilson, his eight-year-old
sister?
D. Alicia became very clingy and anxious
10. Jenn was brought up in a lower middle class household and becomes highly anxious
when her partner buys expensive computer equipment or audio components. This
difference is best understood through the following concept:
D. Boundary management
11. The Taylors rely on one another and share skills to accomplish family tasks. This
system characteristic is called:
D. Mutual influence and punctuation
12. Which is not a characteristic of communication in a family relationship?
A. Each family member creates a context for other members.
13. When you punctuate a sequence of behavior to give it meaning, you are saying
D. “This has to stop.”
14. The Rodriguez family is well known for its spirit of generosity. Members can be
counted to give aid. This system characteristic is called:
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15. Dialectical tensions are:
D. Healthy
16. Which of the following is not true from a social constructionism perspective?
A. People make sense of the world by developing their own model of how the world
works
17. From the perspective of narrative theory, which of the following is most important
to keep in mind when researching family storytelling?
D. There will always be components of a story that contradict each other
18. While visiting home for Thanksgiving break, Lindsay decides to take the family
dog, Parker, for a good long walk in the woods near her house while her parents are
at work. The weather is colder than she expected and all she has is a thin fleece, so
she borrows her dad’s winter coat for extra warmth, and as she puts in on, a pack of
cigarettes falls out of the pocket. Lindsay is shocked, because her father quit
smoking 20 years ago, along with everyone else in their family, when her
grandfather died of lung cancer from smoking. Which of the following terms best
describes what Lindsay is experiencing right now?
A. Boundary turbulence
19. Family therapist Salvador Minuchin once said, “Decontexted individuals do not
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exist.” Which family theory does this most embody?
A. Narrative theory
20. The Ramirez family is very traditional. They celebrate traditional Mexican holidays
and strictly observe Catholic holidays/holy days as well. They assume very
traditional gender roles and expect strict and complete obedience from their
children, without question. According to the Circumplex Model, which level of
adaptability does the Ramirez family demonstrate?
21. When Tom refers to his wife Cheryl, he calls her “my ball and chain.” Which of the
Circumplex secondary family functions does this demonstrate?
A. Boundaries
22. Of the theories discussed in this course, which focus on the tensions inherent in
family communication?
A. Circumplex Model
23. Which family system characteristic best explains the following scenario: The same
final outcome in a family may occur from a variety of starting points. Thus, the
Smith family may achieve the “good life” in quite different ways than the Miller
family.
A. Calibration-feedback
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24. When Beverly’s family engages in conflict, they usually display passive aggressive
tendencies, wherein the members demonstrate their anger through manipulation
and quiet discontentment. During her family’s last fight, Beverly wanted to change
this pattern of passive aggressiveness, but found herself falling back into old
patterns. What characteristic of systems theory does this demonstrate?
A. Change-promoting feedback
25. According to the systems theory principle of ___________________, family members
should not blame each other for their behaviors because they all contributed to the behavior
in some way, at some time.
A. Complex relationships
26. Aly and her boyfriend Michael disagree on when they officially started dating exclusively.
Aly believes it was May 19, whereas Michael believes it was March 30 because he had a
date with another girl on May 21. This discrepancy causes them quite a bit of tension, and is
an example of:
A. Complex relationships
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Using a real or media family, identify one young person who is portrayed as a
problem child and try to explain this person’s behavior from a family systems
perspective. How have the family dynamics contributed to the role this young
person plays in the system?
2. What does the following statement mean? “In order to form a joint worldview,
partners must negotiate a set of common meanings through interaction and mutual
accommodation.” Use some concrete examples to demonstrate your understanding
of the statement.
3. Recount a time in your life when you’ve experienced or witnessed boundary
turbulence or a privacy dilemma in your family. First, discuss the boundary rule
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formation before the turbulence occurred. What do you think let the turbulence to
occur? How were boundaries re-coordinated afterwards (if at all)? Knowing what
you now know about communication privacy management, do you think the
turbulence was handled effectively? Why or why not? Explain your reasoning.
4. Can a family be functional without family stories? First, discuss the tenets of
Narrative Theory. Second, using those tenets, explain why family stories are
essential to families. Then, describe what Narrative Theory would say about a
family that doesn’t possess or tell family stories (i.e., can they still be “functional”
without stories?).
5. How do Dialectics Theory and Systems Theory complement and contradict each
other? First, identify the elements of the theories that complement each other, and
then those that contradict each other. Be sure to address how the dialectic
management strategies fit into the Systems Theory framework. Then, using a real or
fictional family, describe a specific stressful situation for a family, and how
Dialectics and Systems Theories might explain that situation differently and/or
similarly.