Questions and CORRECT Answers
family - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- networks of people who share their lives over long
periods of time, bound by ties of marriage, blood, law, or commitment, legal or otherwise,
who consider themselves as family and who share a significant history and anticipated future
of functioning as a family
process definition of family - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- a group of intimates who generate a
sense of home and group identity, complete with strong ties of loyalty and emotion, and
[who] experience history and future; this perspective emphasize the personal, voluntarily
connected relationships among family members instead of relying on biological or legal ties
role lens
socio-legal lens
biogenetic lens - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- what are the three lenses to define a family?
role lens - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- we consider people family when they act and feel like
family; establishes a social behavior (what people do and say) and emotion (feeling like a
family) as the defining characteristics
socio-legal lens - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- laws and regulations define and sanction family
relationships
constitutive approach - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- it centers communication in the process of
co-creating family and challenges the conception of one dominant form of family life
biogenetic lens - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- a family defined by whether they share genetic
material (related by blood) or whether they have the potential to or have produced children;
focuses on humans' evolved motivations to connect with one another because of their genetic
relatedness
1) There are many ways to be a family - none of them "perfect"
,2) Each family must work to create its own identity, while being influenced by its larger
context
3) Communication is how families construct and reflect family relationships
4) Communication is the process by which family members create and share their meanings
with each other
5) Families interact and socialize members to their underlying values and beliefs about
important life issues (i.e. gender, health, religion)
6) Family communication involves multigenerational patterns
7) Families reflect cultural communication patterns
8) Well-functioning families work to understand and negotiate their communication patterns;
members invest effort to build and maintain their relationships - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔-
what are the 8 core beliefs about families?
1st: The family is a system of interconnected relationships
2nd: Communication is the primary way in which families develop, create, maintain, and
alter identity - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- what are the two guiding principles regarding
family?
system - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
-families are more complex than the sum of individuals that are in them
communication- relationships are formed, maintained, and changed through interaction
(communication) - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- what is the centerpiece of a family system and
why?
, family systems theory - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- individual members of a family function
together to meet family goals; based on the assumption that the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts; families exhibit characteristics that reflect individuals and the interplay of family
members and are understood in the context of that whole.
interdependence - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- each member of the family is connected to
each other and to the whole; so interrelated as to be reliant on each other to function
the parts form the whole; changes in one part will result in changes in the others - CORRECT
ANSWER✔✔- why does interdependence serve as the centerpiece of a system?
wholeness - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- the synergy that exists within a family cannot be
understood outside of the family context; of that whole.
equilibrium - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- families function around balance; behaviors
patterns develop that help maintain that balance (make family life predictable to members of
that family)
relational culture - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- shared set of meaning, expectation, and rules
for interaction which help create a family communication system; should change over time
behavioral patterns
communication rules
calibration - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- what are different types of self-regulating patterns?
behavioral patterns - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- meanings and rules that serve to regulate the
family system and make life somewhat predictable
communication rules - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- rules designating which behaviors are
expected or prohibited in a relationship; can be implicit or explicit
calibration - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- maintaining stability within a system