Families and Family Systems

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FSPSY 201: Families and Family Systems

COURSE SYLLABUS

Overview

This course focuses on understanding how families are structured, how the members of families communicate with one another, and how psychologists have attempted to intervene to bring change into family systems. Since each of us has had some kind of contact with families, this course will also be an opportunity to reflect on our own values and our own experiences growing up in a family, and our own experiences will give us some of the material we need for understanding more general family processes. Along the way we will learn about the clinical method for psychological research into family functioning and become familiar with some of the conventions for writing and speaking in psychology. It should be interesting!

Class Sessions

The class sessions are the heart of the course, and I will expect you to attend each one of them. The only reasons I will accept for missing a class session are illness, family emergency, or a sanctioned College event; if you miss class for any other reason, expect your grade to reflect that. The primary format will be discussion, though we will also do some experiential exercises and a number of student presentations.

In all of these various formats I will encourage and expect your active participation. For most of the sessions I have assigned readings. I expected you to read these articles and chapters and come in prepared to ask questions about them. When the class convenes, one student will be chosen at random from the group to begin the discussion by reflecting on each assigned reading, summarizing the main points, asking questions which still remain in his or her mind, and giving any comments he or she would like to make. (For instructions on how to be prepared in case it is your turn to analyze the readings, see the please see the "resources" section of my web site.)

Readings

There are two required books for the course. They are:

American Psychological Association (2005). Concise rules of APA style. Washington, DC: Author.

Napier, A. Y., & Whitaker, C. A. (1978). The family crucible: One family's therapy - an experience that illuminates all our lives. New York: HarperCollins.

There are also a few additional readings that I will hand out to you during the course or that you can find on electronic reserve or hard copy in the library. They include:

Anderson, S. A., & Sabatelli, R. M. (2007). Family interaction: A multigenerational developmental perspective (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. [pp. 3-18]

Baumeister, R. F. (1991). Meanings of life. New York: Guildford Press. [pp. 154-160]

Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: J. Aronson. [Ch. 24]

Coontz, S. (2005). Marriage, a history: From obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage. New York: Viking. [pp. 1-12, 305-313]

Dallos, R., & Draper, R. (2005). An introduction to family therapy: Systemic theory and practice (2nd ed.). Maidenhead,UK: Open University Press. [pp. 17-35]

Goldenberg, I., & Goldenberg, H. (2000). Family therapy: An overview (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. [pp. 83-107]

Haley, J. (1970). Family therapy. International Journal of Psychiatry, 9, 233-242.

Haley, J. (1973). Uncommon therapy: The psychiatric techniques of Milton H. Erikson, M.D. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Hare-Mustin, R. T. (1978). A feminist approach to family therapy. Family Process, 17, 181-194.

Lidz, T., Cornelison, A. R., Fleck, S., & Terry, D. (1957). The intrafamilial environment of schizophrenic patients: II. Marital schism and marital skew. American Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 241-248.

Minuchin, S., Rosman, B. L., & Baker, L. (1978). Psychosomatic families: Anorexia nervosa in context. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [pp. 23-73]

Papp, P., & Imber-Black, E. (1996). Family themes: Transmission and transformation. Family Process, 35, 5-20.

Satir, V. (1983). Conjoint family therapy (3rd ed., revised and expanded). Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books, Inc. [pp. 1-12, 117-143]

Satir, V. (1988). The new peoplemaking. Mountain View, CA: Science and Behavior Books. [pp. 1-19, 116-129]

Selvini Palazzoli, M. (1985). Self-starvation: From individual to family therapy in the treatment of anorexia nervosa (A. Pomerans, Trans.). New York: J. Aronson. [Ch. 22]

Simon, R. (1992). From ideology to practice: An interview with the women's project in family therapy. In One on one: Conversations with the shapers of family therapy (pp. 45-54). New York: Guilford Press.

Slater, L. (2008). This thing called love. In K. R. Gilbert (Ed.) Annual editions: The family (08-09) (pp. 30-35). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Wynne, L. C., & Singer, M. T. (1963). Thought disorder and family relations of schizophrenics I. A research strategy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 191-206.

I will announce others as they become available.

Respect & Confidentiality

Because we will be at times talking about our own families in the course, it is important that you respect the details of your colleagues' lives that they might share. The rule is simple: you may not repeat anything that any of the other students says about his or her own family without that student's permission. That means repeating it to your friends, roommates, parents, dogs, etc. Breaking this rule is grounds for failing the course. If you have questions about this rule, please let me know.

Assignments & grading

Your grade will derive from two sources: the graded written and oral assignments and your class participation. Class participation includes your attendance; participation in discussions (the quality of what you say, not the quantity); preparation for class sessions (as shown by your ability to analyze the readings when your name is on the board); leading the discussion; and your completion of any ungraded assignments I might assign.
At the end of the semester, your grades will be calculated as follows:

Participation (including attendance, preparation/contribution to the discussion, discussion leading, oral assignments, and ungraded assignments) 150 points
Writing analysis I 20 points
Writing analysis II 20 points
Writing analysis III 20 points
Writing analysis IV 20 points
Writing analysis V 20 points
Family analysis 50 points
Family presentation 20 points

Total: 320 points

I will assign grades at the end of the semester according to the normal formula (90-100% = A, 80-89% = B, etc.).

A Final Note

This course is designed to be exciting, interesting, and conducive of new ways of thinking. Please let me know if you are having difficulties with any aspect of the course, so that we can try to correct those problems. I look forward to working with you!