Entropy
Disengagement
Subsystems
Gender Sensitive Family Therapy
Epistemology
Perceived Role
Enacted Role
Double Bind
Homeostasis
Family Life Cycle
Genogram
Enmeshment
Task-specific power
Nuclear Family
Feedback Loops
System
Feminist Family Therapy
Developmental Tasks
Executive Power
Prescribed Role
Paradigm
Covert Power
Cycles of interactions, that are used to exert influence over families and family members
A family composed of a husband, wife and their offspring, living together as a family unit
The tendency of a system to go into disorder, and, if unimpeded, to reach a disorganized and undifferentiated state
The concentration of formal decision-making authority into the position of a broadly recognized leader or set of leaders
A form of collaborative, egalitarian, nonsexist intervention, applicable to both men and women, addressing family gender roles, patriarchal attitudes, and social and economic inequalities in male-female relationships
A therapeutic perspective, regardless of theoretical persuasion, that examines the impact of gender socialization on the outlooks, attitudes, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships of men and women
Held by family members who, for example, enter into coalitions to challenge or circumvent executive or task-specific power
Diffused boundaries
A schematic diagram of a family’s relationship system in the form of a genetic tree and usually including at least three generations
Expectation of self, relative to one’s social position
A dynamic state of balance or equilibrium in a system or a tendency toward achieving and maintaining such a state in an effort to ensure a stable environment
The series of longitudinal stages or events that mark a family’s life, offering an organizing schema for viewing the family as a system proceeding through time
Inappropriately rigid boundaries
A set of interacting units or component parts that together make up a whole arrangement or organization
The study of the origin, nature, and methods, as well as the limits, of knowledge; thus, a framework for describing and conceptualizing what is being observed and experienced
The view that an individual who receives important contradictory injunctions at different levels of abstraction- about which he or she is unable to comment or escape- is in a no win, conflict-producing situation
A set of assumptions delimiting an area to be investigated scientifically and specifying the methods to be used to collect and interpret the forthcoming data
Evident when member of the family make decisions about which other members conform or follow
An organized, coexisting component within an overall system having its own autonomous functions as well as a specified role in the operation of the larger system; within families, a member can belong to a number of such units
Problems to be overcome and conflicts to be mastered at various stages of the life cycle, enabling movement to the next developmental stage
Engagement in the behavior relative to a specific status or position
Influenced by the expectations that others hold with regard to a social position
