Applying Delphi methodology in family therapy research

The Delphi technique, which is increasingly seen in family therapy publications, encourages the articulation of refinement in family therapy practice and theory. Combining both quantitative and qualitative methodology, this technique involves consideration of information that might otherwise have been overlooked. Due to lack of clarity on this approach, a dilemma exists in applying this research procedure in family therapy. To remedy this deterrent, this paper reviewed 11 studies and outlined use of the technique in regard to design, procedure, and sampling.     

The family life cycle: Impressions

This paper is concerned with the kind of everyday family experiences that most of us have gone through. It is written in a style that is more poetry than science, but, like poetry, probably gets closer to the truth about the nature of family life than does more technical conceptual material. Too often professionals write in such abstract, theoretical terms about families that they end up sounding unlike any family you ever knew. In this paper, I tried to write about the natural, typical incidents that occur to people as they get married, have kids, grow old, and die. It is hoped that the reader will connect and identify with these evocations, get shocks of recognition, as well as, who knows, some private chuckles. Families are where you live, emotionally and physically. Our family experiences — the passions, hates, loves, mysteries, paradoxes, measureless sacrifices, joys, injustices, jealousies, storms, comforts, bonds, and patterns— are burned into the cauldrons of the mind. The family memories lived through intimate others persist through space and time, sometimes sharply, usually as vague wisps of unremembered pasts, shaping the meanings of our lives and those close to us. The family, not anatomy, is destiny.a founder and past president of the American Family Therapy Academy.Editor's Note: This paper by Jim Framo was written 25 years ago, but for various reasons has not been published until now. Despite the fact that it focuses on the traditional middleclass family in the United States, it has wider implications and appeal than that focus.     

The development of an autonomy scale

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and relaible instrument to measure four areas of autonomy. The instrument is composed of four subscales that measure the following constructs of autonomy: (a) family loyalty autonomy, (b) value autonomy, (c) emotional autonomy, and (d) behavioral autonomy. A detailed four-step procedure was used to provide the scale with construct, content, and predictive validity. Presented here is the four-stage process used to develop the Autonomy Scale, data supporting the validity and reliability of the scale, and the final version of the instrument.This article is based on dissertation research in partial fulfillment of degree requirements at Texas Woman's University.     

Evolutionary roots of intuitive parenting: Maternal competence in chimpanzees

Intuitive parenting behaviours have been shown to be universal in humans and appear to be based on psychobiological preadaptedness. This study is an exploration of the evolutionary roots of intuitive parenting through naturalistic observation of mother chimpanzees' interaction with their very young infants. Maternal competence is demonstrated initially through the behaviours of carrying the newborn infant and allowing the infant to nurse. Very early mother–infant interactions include play, ‘exercise’, cradling and grooming. Chimpanzee mothers also assess their offspring's behavioural state and muscle tone through visual inspections and movement of legs, arms, fingers and toes. Chimpanzee mothers and infants, as early as 2 weeks of age, spend some time in mutual gaze. Neonatal chimpanzees are capable of sustained face-to-face interactions, as these were observed in nursery-reared chimpanzee interactions with human adults; however, it appears that chimpanzee mothers encourage mutual gaze with their infants for only brief durations. Chimpanzees with good maternal competence exhibit sensitive responsivity to infants' communicatory signals. Thus the results of this study support the claim that there are evolutionary and comparative foundations of intuitive parenting evident in the maternal behaviour and maternal competence of chimpanzees.     

Developmental perspectives and family therapy: The marital life cycle

Developmental perspectives have been part of family therapy for more than two decades with a primary focus on the family life cycle and individual development. Most efforts at recognizing a marital life cycle have subsumed marital tasks under rubrics based primarily on parental roles. This paper offers a marital life cycle based on marital development with specific tasks for each of four stages-the marital breakup and remarriage phases are not included here-and provides implications for therapy.     

Stress and family health

This study investigates the difference between perceived everyday individual stress and levels of family health. Subjects completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (FACES III), the Derogatis Stress Profile, and a personal data form. Quota sampling of 121 subjects was used to obtain 25 subjects in each of three groups: balanced, mid-range, and extreme family types. Individuals identified as members of mid-range families reported less overall stress than balanced or extreme family members. Significant differences appeared between the balanced and mid-range groups. Balanced individual family members reported slightly higher levels of stress than extreme family members.     

The effects of a short-term social problem solving programme with children

This study examined the effectiveness of a short-term training programme for improving children's interpersonal cognitive problem solving ability and social status. Subjects were twenty primary school children aged seven-to eight-years old. Children in the training condition participated in a four week programme aimed at improving their ability to think of alternative strategies to problematic social situations and recognize the consequences of interpersonal actions. Children in the intervention condition showed significant improvements in their levels of alternative solutions thinking (p <0.005) and consequential thinking (p < 0.05) but not sociometric status (p > 0.05).     

Attributions related to wife abuse: A comparison of the perceptions of volunteer advocate-counselors and marriage and family therapists

Attributions related to wife abuse held by advocate-counselors working in women's shelter home settings and marriage and family therapists were compared. The major finding was that the two groups were surprisingly similar in their attributions even though their theoretical backgrounds and training were considerably different. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

Exploratory Factor Analysis: A Users’Guide

In 1978, Comrey wrote a guide to factor analysis in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. This paper provides an update of the information given by Comrey in relation to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for work and organizational psychologists, and particularly those involved with test development, interpretation and validation. In doing so, it offers a user's guide to contemporary methods and available techniques and introduces heuristics for dealing with problems of skew and kurtosis, social desirability response set, and factor naming.     

Social knowledge and social competence: number and quality of strategies as predictors of peer behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of two different measures of preschool children's social strategy knowledge to predict classroom behavior with peers. Thirty-two 4- and 5-year-old children attending a university sponsored preschool were administered the Preschool Interpersonal Problem-Solving Tests (PIPS) and an enactive assessment of strategy knowledge. Observational and teacher-rating measures of children's positive and aggressive peer behavior were also obtained. Significant correlations were obtained between (a) the number of strategies produced in the enactive measure and cooperative play ratings by teachers, (b) the number of strategies produced in the PIPS and observations of positive peer behavior, and (c) ratings of friendliness in the PIPS and teacher-rated cooperative play and aggression and observations of aggression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for social skill training.