Family therapy without the family: a framework for systemic practice

This paper contrasts the basic tenets of systemic thinking with some guiding principles of the psychodynamic approach, and outlines specific techniques which family therapists can use when seeing individuals. It is argued that a useful systemic framework can be maintained if the therapist aims to keep the therapy system 'open' for relevant others to join at any time.     

Training family therapists in observational skills

A study was conducted to develop procedures for training observational skills using concepts derived from structural family therapy. Experienced family therapists provided operational definitions of key concepts in family interaction, and videotaped segments of interactions were prepared which exemplified the concepts. A group of trainee family therapists was compared with a group of experienced therapists in the way they applied the concepts to interaction sequences in therapeutic sessions. In demonstrating that inexperienced trainees can be instructed relatively rapidly to identify and use structural concepts, the results suggested that this analytical approach to the training of family therapists shows considerable promise.     

d-Amphetamine-chlorpromazine antagonism in a food reinforced operant

Dose effect curves for d-amphetamine and chlorpromazine were obtained with rats on a milk reinforced FR 10 schedule. A dose of d-amphetamine (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) which completely suppressed all responding for 60 min was administered simultaneously (concomitant with the pretreatment times) with various doses of chlorpromazine. The d-amphetamine-induced cessation of responding was removed by several of the doses of chlorpromazine with maximal antagonism occurring at a dose of 1.5 mg/kg i.p. This dose of chlorpromazine, when administered independently, produced no observable side effects and showed no effect on the FR 10 schedule. One animal appeared to develop tolerance to the repeated dosages of d-amphetamine.     

Poverty,state, and the family: A challenge for family therapy

Much family therapy writing has focused on work with discrete presenting problems in circumscribed clinical practice settings. This paper takes a broader focus of poor families which do not fit easily into the one-hour therapy schedule, in the context of the powerful forces of politics and economics. If the prevailing political attitudes and economic realities are ignored, direct practice with families may fail to meet them at their point of experience. Examples of political views, and therapeutic and research thinking which do not pay attention to these aspects, are used to highlight the author's point of view.     

Collusion after a collision: Witnesses' reports of a road accident with and without discussion

In a study of the accuracy of recall of witnesses to a road accident, subjects watched a video recording of a natural scene for a few minutes. Two vehicles collided, and reports from the witnesses were taken using a version of the report form used by officers investigating road accidents in the UK. Witnesses were asked questions about the scene of the accident, about each of the two vehicles, and about the timing of the collision relative to a traffic signal. Does the accuracy of report depend upon the isolation of the witness? The study investigated this question by having some witnesses watch the video recording and complete the questionnaire alone, while other witnesses were encouraged to discuss their perceptions and recollections both while watching the recording and during an interval of a few minutes prior to administration of the questionnaire. All witnesses completed their reports in isolation. As a check on witnesses' expectancies, some of them, both individual and group witnesses, were informed prior to seeing the video recording that they would see a road accident and that they would be asked about it. The ‘uninformed’ witnesses were told to expect questions about the road scene. There was no overall difference between the recall accuracy of individual and group witnesses, but there was an interaction between groups and expectancy. When expecting to see a collision the group witnesses were more accurate than the individuals. Social facilitation in recall was restricted to occasions when the witnesses could anticipate the focus of the questions to be asked.     

Acceptance patterns of retaliatory aggression among adjudicated youth by sex and race

This study investigates sex and race differences in normative beliefs about the acceptability of aggression across dimensions of severity of provocation (weak versus strong) and sex of provoker (male versus female). Students in the sample of 311 included those required to attend three Department of Youth Services schools after placement by the juvenile court system from across the state of Alabama (N=392). Results show that males were significantly more likely than females to approve of retaliation to weak provocation and against females. There were no significant differences between males and females for retaliation with strong provocation and against males. Results also show the Black group was significantly more likely than the White group to approve of retaliation to weak provocation, strong provocation, and against females.     

Effects of short-term interaction coaching with mothers of preterm infants

This study examined the effects of eight 40-minute interaction coaching sessions on the mother-infant interaction patterns of mother-preterm infant dyads. Thirty-five preterm infants and their mothers were matched for sex and then were assigned randomly to a treatment and a no-treatment control group. Behavior counts and ratings of maternal and infant interactive behavior (Interaction Rating Scale; Field, 1980) were obtained from naturalistic home observations, precoaching, postcoaching, and at a 2-month follow-up. It was hypothesized that coaching, which was intended to facilitate more sensitive responding by mothers, would positively influence mother-infant interaction and mothers' knowledge of infant development. The only marginally significant difference between the groups that emerged over time was in knowledge of infant development, in which the treatment group surpassed the control group.