Single-Case Experimental Designs in Family Therapy Research: Limitations and Considerations

Recent authors have encouraged the use of single-case experimental design in family therapy research. However, several issues related to the application of these designs have not been addressed. The present article suggests that the applicability of single-case methods to family therapy research may be limited. The first issue raised is the general lack of adequate dependent measures of family interaction that fulfill the requirements of the single-case experimental designs. Suggestions for development of appropriate measures are given. Second, the necessary reliance on relatively weak single-case designs often allows only relatively weak conclusions. Finally, the strategy of beginning the single-case study of family functioning and family therapy in laboratory settings is suggested.     

Family Characteristics and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Follow-Up of Israeli Combat Stress Reaction Casualties

This study assessed the role of family status and family relationships in the course of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The sample consisted of 382 Israeli soldiers who suffered a combat stress reaction episode during the 1982 Lebanon War. Results showed that one year after the war married soldiers had higher rates of PTSD than did unmarried soldiers. Furthermore, higher rates of PTSD were associated with low expressiveness, low cohesiveness, and high conflict in the casualties' families. Theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications are discussed.     

Individual Marital Therapy: A Critical Reappraisal

The belief that individual marital therapy (IMT) is an ineffective form of treatment for marriage problems and markedly inferior to the conjoint approaches has become almost an article of faith in family therapy circles. This position was originally advanced in the influential reviews of the research literature conducted by Gurman and Kniskern, and their conclusions have been cited in numerous other articles. This paper re-reviews the research studies purportedly supporting this conclusion and finds almost all of them to be invalidated by gross flaws in design and implementation. It is argued that from the highly inadequate evidence available, no conclusions can be reached concerning either the absolute or relative effectiveness of IMT.     

Quantifying Family Process:Issues in the Analysis of Interaction Sequences

The analysis of behavior sequences can be a useful technique for understanding family process and has been increasingly employed as a result of developments in family theory. Some of the most popular sequential analytic methods are reviewed, and problems of applying these methodologies to investigations of family interaction are discussed. Independence-of-observations, nonstationarity, and autocontingency are differentiated as three distinct types of serial dependence. In addition, issues concerning the choice of data type, analysis of low base rate behaviors, and the decision as to whether to correct for base rates are considered. Guidelines are presented for dealing with each of these issues in the context of the research or clinical question being addressed.     

Sandra Day O'Connor and the justification of abortion

The recent Supreme Court decision upholding Roe v. Wade and in particular, the dissent by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, sheds new light on the issue of abortion. Let us consider any stage of a pregnancy when abortion is medically safe for the mother. If at that stage it is also medically viable to save the fetus, is an abortion performed at that stage of pregnancy morally justifiable? For example, if it is, or becomes, medically safe to perform abortions after first trimester of pregnancy and at the same time saving a fetus is, or becomes, medically viable or not unusual during some stage of the second trimester, can abortions during and after that stage of pregnancy be justified? With a number of qualifications I shall argue the thesis that as a general rule, but not an absolute rule, abortion in these instances is not usually justifiable. For if it is, then one will also have to grant the moral justification for a number of other highly questionable medical practices. This thesis is not to be identified with the stronger claim that abortions of viable fetuses can never be performed. There are surely exceptions such as when the life or health of the mother is in danger. But, I shall argue, the justification for making such exceptions is on different grounds than is sometimes claimed because one must weigh the health of the mother against the life of another human being.     

The Ramsay Family in Virginia Woolf''s To the Lighthouse: A Study of Arrest at Stage Three of Family Development as Delineated in Solomon''s "A Developmental, Conceptual Premise for Family Therapy"

The five stages of family development and their phase-specific tasks as delineated by Michael A. Solomon in an article that appeared in this journal (1973) are given dramatic representation by Virginia Woolf in her novel To the Lighthouse (1927). The novel begins with the Ramsay family system arrested at the third stage of development; and it is only after the death of Mrs. Ramsay that the remaining family members begin to attend to the phase-specific tasks of stages four and five, and family development commences.