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CHAPTER 4 Interlocking Systems: The Individual, the Family, and…
CHAPTER 4
Interlocking Systems: The Individual, the Family, and the Community
Family Systems and Rules
75. Did your family ever move from one community into another with very different social, economic, and cultural characteristic? If so, identify and describe an enduring change in your family experience that resulted from the move.
76. All families have certain unspoken rules, such as: no discussion of sex; deny mother’s drinking; never raise your voice; if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. What were some of the rules in your family of origin?
77. What rules did your family of origin have about the position of children both at home and in the community? Did these rules have more to do with custom or tradition or were they based on characteristics of your specific family?
78. Think of an important rule within your family of origin that applied to you (for example, girls are to behave passively) Did this rule and the behaviors associated with it cause you any difficulties as you matured and started to form your own relationships (for example, a girl striving to behave passively frustrates a husband who would appreciate a more assertive woman)? Identify and describe any conflicts and analyze how (or if) you overcame the conflicts.
79. A “marital quid pro quo,” in which one partner in a relationship gives something to the other in exchange for something else, is present in all couple relationships. Can you recount some of the marital quid pro quo experiences your parents established? What about the rules in your current relationships?
80. According to Jackson, family members interact in repetitive behavioral sequences (the redundancy principle). Can you describe some significant, recurring patterns in your family of origin? Looking back, can you see how these recurring patterns limited your family in terms of the options it had at its disposal to address issues and problems? Identify and describe a recurring behavioral pattern and the limits it imposed on your family.
81. Scapegoats within a family go under many guises. Do you recognize any of these in your family?
___ idiot ___ mascot ___ wise guy ___ fool ___ clown ___ saint
___ malingerer ___ black sheep ___ villain
___ imposter ___ sad sack ___ erratic genius
Describe the behavior of one of the persons so labeled. What were the consequences for that individual later in life?
Maintaining Family Homeostasis
82. Homeostasis refers to the family’s self-regulating efforts to maintain stability and resist change. Identify and describe one instance from your family life when a return to stability and resisting change was a benefit and one instance when a successful return to stability maintained or introduced a serious problem.
83. Crises occur in all families. Some are resolved relatively quickly, others linger. Describe two such situations in your family – one in which homeostasis was restored quickly, another in which resolution was more difficult.
Feedback, Information and Control
84. How do you signal for attention with someone you care about? Verbally? Nonverbally? Is this tactic different or the same one you used as a child?
85. Recall your adolescence. How did positive and negative feedback experiences throughout your adolescence support or impede or your development?
86. Trace the feedback loops that occurred after a misunderstanding between two members of your family. Was the subsequent exchange of information used to attenuate or escalate the problem?
87. According to the text, family stability is actually rooted in change. Identify and describe a time when your family, called upon to cope with change, found it difficult to do so, creating instability and introducing a new set of problems.
Subsystems, Suprasystems, and Boundaries
88. Identify and describe the important subsystems of your family. Were they organized primarily by generation, gender, alliance against another family member or faction, or by a similar dimension?
89. Identify the different subsystems you belonged to within your family of origin. Describe how your needs, expectations, and behaviors with one subsystem conflicted with those of the other subsystems. How were you affected?
90. How permeable was the parental boundary when you were growing up? What effect did the relative openness or closeness of your family boundaries have on your development?
Open and Closed Systems
91. How would you assess the degree of openness of your family or origin? Were the boundaries open to neighbors? Distant relatives? Were your friends welcome or kept at a distance?
92. Sometimes a family will attempt to close a system when they perceive danger in the environment. Under what set of circumstances does your family close its borders? Does stress in the family prompt them to close down or reach out for help?
Families and Larger Systems
93. What macrosystems were significant in the life of your family (church, social agencies, health care programs, etc.)? Discuss.
94. Do you recall a time when the school intervened in your family system? Briefly describe the experience and evaluate the effects of the intervention.
95. Depict your family graphically by creating an ecomap. Include the systems with which your family had contact (schools, medical services, churches, community centers, etc.).
