COMM 4471: Communication in Marriage and Family

1. COMM 4471: Communication in Marriage and Family Spring 2007 Updated 4-24-07

2. Defining Family • Structural • by social role • Task-Orientation • by goals & outcomes • Transactional • by communication behaviors & outcomes

3. Structural Definitions • Nuclear • Stepfamily • Single-Parent • Blended • Gay-Parents • Multigenerational • Adopted

4. Task-Oriented Definitions • Family of Origin • Family of Orientation • Dysfunctional • Abusive • Effective

5. Transactional Definitions • Supportive • Alcoholic • Cold • Neglecting • Open • Conversation oriented • Authoritarian

6. Consequences of Definitions • Social • Legal • Psychological • Theoretical

7. Defining Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal Communication is any interaction between two or more persons who exchange information, create meaning, and influence each other and who through this process create social reality for themselves and others and create and maintain relationships with each other.

8. Circumplex Model of Family Functioning • Two primary dimensions: • Adaptability (Flexibility) • Cohesion • Facilitating Dimension • Communication

9. Functioning Family Functioning Dimension: adaptability/cohesion

12. Family Communication and Facilitation

13. Criticisms of Olson’s Model • Lack of evidence for curvilinear relationships of adaptability and cohesion with functioning • “Communication” largely underconceptualized

14. McMaster Model Problem Solving Communication Family Roles A-response Functioning A-involvement Behavior Control Family Behavior

15. Culture and Family Comm. • Communication takes place in a cultural context • Culture instantiated thru individual psychology • Culture instantiated thru group practices • Culture instantiated thru societal structures

16. Dimensions of Culture • Hofstede • individualism-collectivism • masculinity-femininity • power-distance • Hall • Context • Space & time • Control-fatalism

17. Correlates of (Sub)Culture • Demographics • Family size & composition • Marital status of parents • Age at childbirth • SES • Values, Beliefs & Practices

18. Values, Beliefs & Practices • Religion & religious participation • Political orientation & participation • Gender roles • Intergenerational relations • Community relations • Stance toward institutions

19. Exercise • Identify cultural aspects most relevant to families in US society. If you are familiar with sub-cultures, describe where and how they differ from the mainstream. • Discuss the consequences of culture for families and provide examples.

20. 4 Theoretical Approaches • Systems Theory • Symbolic Interactionism • Attachment Theory • Dialectic Theory

21. Communication Systems • Wholeness: Complete interdependence of parts • Nonsummativity: System is more than sum of parts • Openness: Systems do not exist in isolation • Equifinality: Outcomes are not pre-determined by inputs • Hierarchy: Systems interact with other systems

22. Evaluation of Systems Theory • Strengths • Emphasis on whole family & interdependence • Clarification of role of external factors • Weakness • Complexity and interdependence make testable hypotheses difficult or impossible

23. Symbolic Interactionism Humans ability to interact symbolically with one another is their defining characteristic and has important implications for Meaning, Language, and Thought. (Mead, 1934)

24. Core Concepts of Symbolic Interactionism • Meaning • Root cause of human behavior • Arises from human interaction • Language • Social symbols, containers of meaning • Thought • Symbolic, Reflective & Perspective Taking

25. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis • a.k.a. Linguistic Determinism • Thought depends on language • Ungrammatical thought or thought w/o vocabulary is impossible • Consequently, our language determines what and how we think

26. Examples of Language Independent Thought • Emotions (anger, hate, love, etc.) • Visualizations • Spatial Orientation • Pre-verbal Infants • Inability to put an idea into words • Memories of sounds, smells, pain, etc.

27. Sapir-Whorf and Reality • Most thought independent of language • Even if thought were to depend on language, language is generative • Appearance of thought=language result of language facilities monitoring thought for immediate communication

28. Attachment The Strong Bond between Infant & Primary Care Giver • Innate (shared with many other animals) • Necessary for Survival & Development • Characterized by Multi-Stage Reaction to Separation

29. Attachment (cont.) • Necessary for Survival & Development • Secure Base Function • Save Haven Function • Characterized by Multi-Stage Reaction to Separation: • Protest • Despair • Detachment • Rebound from Detachment

30. Ainsworth’s Attachment Styles(determined by Strange Situation) • Secure - briefly upset; easily reattach • Avoidant - no emotional response; then avoid mother • Anxious/Ambivalent - very upset, then ambivalent

31. PCG’s Behavior and Infant’s Attachment Style • Reliably Available  Secure Attachment • Reliably Unavailable  Avoidant Attachment • Unreliably Available/Over Involved  Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment

32. Kobak’s Attachment Dimensions Secure Secure Dismissing Preoccupied Dismissing Avoidant Preoccupied Insecure

33. Bartholomew’s FourAttachment Styles Model of Self _ + + Preoccupied Secure Model Of Other _ Fearful Avoidant Dismissive

34. Infant Complementary Parent or Other Adult Exploration System easily overwhelmed Adult Reciprocal Peer & Sexual Partner Separation has to be sever to elicit attachment like reaction Comparing Infant and Adult Attachment

35. Relational Dialectics • Unlike Hegelian Dialectics, no synthetical resolution • Most crucial in 3 dimensions • Affiliation • Predictability • Intimacy • Dialectics are internal & external

36. INTERNAL Connectedness – Separateness Certainty – Uncertainty Openness – Closedness EXTERNAL Inclusion – Seclusion Conventionality – Uniqueness Revelation – Concealment Internal & External Dialectics

37. More Functional Spiraling Alteration Segmentation Integration Reaffirmation Less Functional Denial Disorientation Balance Recalibration Responses to Dialectics

38. Ways of Learning • Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Social Learning

39. Classical Conditioning • Before: CS --/--> R; UCS ----> R • Conditioning: UCS + CS ----> R • After: CS ----> R CS = Conditional Stimulus UCS = Unconditional Stimulus R = Response

40. Operant Conditioning • Associating behavior with an outcome through reinforcement • Reinforcement • positive = presence of outcome • negative = absence of outcome • Outcome • positive = desirable (reward) • negative = undesirable (punishment)

41. Social Learning • Associating behavior with an outcome through observation • Observation of • presence/absence of positive & negative outcomes • approval/disapproval of behavior by socialization agents (incl. significant others)

42. Children’s Learning • Children learn in all 3 ways • Because social learning requires extensive cognitive representations of social world, social learning is dependent on child’s cognitive development

43. Active vs. Passive Learning • Passive Learning • focus of traditional learning theories • how environment is structured determines what is learned • Active Learning • focus of social learning theory • how learner constructs (perceives) environment determines what is learned

44. Family Interaction Norms • Quantity of time spent • No great changes in last 20 years • Quality of time • Type of activity • Warmth & intimacy of interaction • Increase in last 20 years?

45. Family Communication Patterns • Associated with Shared Social Reality • Two means to share reality (McLeod &Chaffee) • concept (conversation) orientation • socio (conformity) orientation

46. Two Dimensions ofFamily Communication • Concept (Conversation) - Orientation - open discussion of ideas - family values interaction • Socio (Conformity) - Orientation - children’s adoption of parental values - family values conformity

47. Significance of Conversation Orientation • facilitates socialization of children • increases cognitive complexity • validates children’s opinions, enhances self-esteem

48. Significance of Conformity Orientation • determines autonomy and independence of children • determines children’s decision making

49. Family Types Protective Consensual Conformity Orientation Laissez-Faire Pluralistic Conversation Orientation

50. Assignment • Think about 2 important rituals in your family and what they mean to you (i.e., the family) • Write about it in 1-2 paragraphs and bring to next class