Family

Psychology
PS 320
 1
LECTURE
 What is a family and a marriage?
A family is a group of two or more persons
The family group should be related by birth, marriage, or adoption who
distinguished from a live together; all such related persons are
household, which may include considered as members of one family.
boarders and roomers sharing
a common residence.

Frequently the family is not

differentiated from the marriage
pair, but the essence of the
family group is the parent-child
relationship, which may be
absent from many marriage
pairs.
 INTRODUCTION TO FAMILY PSYCHOLOGY
FAMILY PSYCHOLOGY (FP)
is a specialty in professional psychology that
is focused on the emotions, thoughts and
behaviors of individuals, couples and
families in relationships and in the broader
environment in which they function. It uses
the broad conceptual foundations of
Systems Psychology uniquely focused on
both the understanding and the
intervention in systemic relational systems
(couples, families, groups, organizations and
society in general). The unique focus on
both systemic and relational elements of
behavior is unique to FP.
All happy families are alike;
every unhappy family
is unhappy in its own way.
—Tolstoy 1828-1910

All happy families are more

or less dissimilar;
all unhappy ones are more
or less alike.
—Nabokov1899-1977
 Normal Happy Family

01 02
Tolstoy’s view Nabokov’s view
a cultural standard of “the definition of “family” must be
normal family”—to be happy expanded
and raise children well to encompass a broad
spectrum and fluid reshaping
of relational and household
patterns.
Normal family
Our language confounds understanding when such terms as
“healthy,” “typical,” and “functional” are used interchangeably
with the label “normal.”

Building on their synthesis of views of individual normality,

four perspectives can be usefully distinguished to clarify
conceptions of a normal family:
1. normal as problem-free(asymptomatic);
2. normal as average;
3. normal as healthy;
4. normal in relation to basic transactional processes in family
systems.
 Family is a system, unit.
Psychologists who work with families usually see them as
a unit. It is assumed that all members have different
personalities, habits, perspectives and interpretations of
events. What one member does or doesn’t do affects not
only him or herself but everyone else in the family as well.
In other words, the action of one member affects everyone
else in that family system
The family as a system performs its
functions through certain
mechanisms:
• structures of family roles;
• structures of family subsystems;
• external and internal boundaries
between them.
The family system also includes:•
public and unspoken rules of life in the
family;
• features (standards, stereotypes) of
interaction;
• family myths;• family history; • family
stabilizers.
 Types and structure of the family

nuclear (simple), extended (complex),

consisting of parents and represented by two or Single parent, onle
their minor children; more generations of mother or father
families.
 Types of families, depending on the place of residence of
the spouses:
patrilocal - young people live in the husband's family;
matrilocal - in the family of the wife's parents;
neolocal - settle separately from their parents.

Types of families depending on the criterion of family

power:
matriarchy - power in the family belongs to a woman;
patriarchy - a man is at the head;
democratic, family in which the status equality of spouses is
observed (is the most common at present).
 Main functions
reproductive (childbearing) - reproduction of offspring -the main function
of the family;
educational - the primary socialization of children, their upbringing,
maintaining the reproduction of cultural values;
household - housekeeping, caring children and elderly family members;
economic - material support for minors and disabled family members;
primary social control – regulation moral responsibility in relations
between members and families:
spiritual and moral - the development of the personality of each family
member;
social status - providing a certain social status of family members;
leisure - organization of rational leisure, mutual enrichment interests;
emotional - providing psychological support to members families.
 2
LECTURE
A little girl asked her Mom, “Where do
humans come from?” Her mom answered,
“God made Adam and Eve and they had
children and that’s who we all descend
from.” A few days later the girl asked her
dad the same question. Her dad answered,
“Many years ago there were monkeys from
which people evolved.” The confused girl
returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how
is it possible that you told me the people
were created by God, and Dad said people
evolved from monkeys?” Her mom
answered, “Well, dear, it’s very simple: I told
you about my side of the family, and your
father told you about his.”
 Family attachment theory:

- Attachment theory is focused on the

relationships and bonds between
people, particularly long-term
relationships, including those between
a parent and child and between
romantic partners.
- Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964)
investigated if attachment develops through a
series of stages, by studying 60 babies at
monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life
- The children were all studied in their own
home, and a regular pattern was identified in
the development of attachment.
- The babies were visited monthly for
approximately one year, their interactions with
their carers were observed, and carers were
interviewed.
- A diary was kept by the mother to examine the
evidence for the development of attachment.
Three measures were recorded:
They discovered that baby's attachments develop in the following sequence:
Very young infants are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli, both social and non-social, produce a
favorable reaction, such as a smile.
From 3 months infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular
caregiver.
The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort, and protection.  It shows fear of strangers
and unhappiness when separated from a special person/separation anxiety. 
Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than
others, nevertheless, they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed an attachment. 
This has usually developed by one year of age.
Many of the babies from the Schaffer and Emerson study had multiple attachments by 10 months
old, including attachments to mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings and neighbors.
The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments.
By 18 months the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments.
Exchange theory

- The fundamental concept of the theory of social

exchange is cost and rewards. This means that
cost and reward comparisons drive human
decisions and behavior. Costs are the negative
consequences of a decision, such as time, money
and energy, love, information. Rewards are the
positive results of social exchanges.
 Conflict Theory

- Conflict theory highlights the role of

power in family life and contends that the
family is often not a haven but rather an
arena where power struggles can occur.
Conflict theorists may study conflicts as
simple as the enforcement of rules from
parent to child, or they may examine more
serious issues such as domestic violence
(spousal and child), sexual assault, marital
rape, and incest.
- Role theory
Role theory refers to the
cultural norms regarding
psychological and interactional
aspects of members of society,
such as mothers, fathers, sons,
daughters, and grandparents.
 3
LECTURE
 Family Theories
Family systems theory
When understanding the family, the Family Systems
Theory has proven to be very powerful. Family
Systems Theory shares the functional approach of
considering the dysfunctions and functions of complex
groups and organizations. Family Systems Theory
claims that the family is understood best by
conceptualizing it as a complex, dynamic, and
changing collection of parts, subsystems and family
members.
Why Is Family Systems Theory Important?
- According to Dr. Bowen’s theory and study of the family,
even for disconnected members of the family, Bowen
family systems theory suggests that one’s family unit or
family center overall still has a profound impact on their
emotions and actions. Though the degree of
interdependence can vary between different families
depending on how their family emotion system operates
or their unique family center or human relationship
systems, all families have some level of interdependence
among the members in one’s family.
The Eight Concepts Of Family Systems
Theory
-Triangles
Bowen family systems theory suggests triangles provide the smallest stable
form of a family emotional system, if tension builds between the insiders, the
two closer people in the triangle, one of them will choose to grow closer to the
outsider.
-Differentiation Of Self
Even within a family unit, every person is unique. Bowen’s study of the family
revealed people differ with the degree to which one develops their sense of self
and it is dependent on familial relationships during childhood and
adolescence as seen in the study of the family.
 Nuclear Family Emotional Process
The nuclear family emotional process is composed of four relationship patterns that govern familial
problems. Bowen’s study of the family outlined four basic relationship patterns:
Marital Conflict: As family tension increases, spouses will externalize the anxiety they are feeling onto their
marital partner and their relationship.
Dysfunction In One Spouse: One spouse will pressure another spouse to think or act a certain way, exerting
control over their partner and if any family tension arises, the subordinate partner may experience high levels
of anxiety.
Impairment Of One Or More Children: A parent may focus all of their anxieties on one or more of their
children which can limit their differentiation of self. This makes the child vulnerable to internalize family
tensions.
Emotional Distance: Emotional distance results in avoiding family tension. Family members will distance
themselves from tension and one another to reduce the intensity of emotions.
All of the nuclear family emotional processes can overlap, which can have profound effects on each
previously stable relationship within the nuclear family emotional system.
- Family Projection Process
- This concept describes how parents may transmit
their emotional problems onto their children. The
family projection process, according to Dr. Bowen
and the Bowen family systems theory, follows three
steps:
- The parent focuses extra attention on one child in
the family system out of fear that there is
something wrong with the child
- The parent finds something in the child’s actions or
behavior that they perceive as confirming their fear
- The parent then treats the child as if there is
something truly wrong without analyzing the
child’s positive and negative traits
 "Everyone needs a
house to live in, but a
supportive family is
what builds a home."