Family Interaction

This week was about family theories. First, we made the distinction between hypotheses, theories, and laws. An hypothesis is an educated guess, applies to a specific situation, and is the application of a theory.

Theories are attempts to explain phenomena that we observe. A law is a "truth" as we understand it.

There were four basic theories we discussed: Conflict, Symbolic, Exchange, and Family Systems. Our main focus was on the Family Systems Theory which emphasizes that the family whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

I also learned about unspoken family rules and came up with some from my family:

• Don't call Mom and Dad by their first names.
• Don't bite.
• Don't spit.
• Don't swear.
• Do your homework.
• Get good grades in school.
• Rinse your dishes after dinner.
• Don't eat anything between meals without asking.
• All the meals are to be eaten as a family.

All of these rules (or acceptable behaviors) were never really said out loud, but my siblings and I knew we had to obey them or else there would be consequences.

The last thing we discussed this week was family mapping. Mapping is a way of showing how individuals in a family interact and the boundaries they have between each other. It's a little hard to explain them exactly without a picture, but I will say that there are three basic types of boundaries: diffuse, clear, and rigid. Diffuse is when one family member is overly involved with another family member (ex: a mother is overly protective of her daughter). Clear boundaries are healthy boundaries because they mean that the individual interact and are not overly influential or protective of each other. A rigid boundary means that there is hardly any interaction or communication, like there's a wall there (ex: a reclusive son never talks with is parents or siblings).

Like usual, this week was interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't have any amazing experiences like last week, but it was still fun to learn about family interactions and made me think more about my own family and how well we all get along with each other compared to some other families out there. I love my family, both nuclear and extended!! :)