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Chapter 7
Family Communication
The importance of family
communication
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Family is the site where our socialization begins
Families help to create, instill, and frame cultural values
Family communication is essential to the ways we see
ourselves and the world, more generally
Family relationships are often considered non-voluntary;
for the most part, we do not choose our family
What is family?
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Family as a social ideal
◦ We have the tendency to think of family
interaction as separate from other relational
interaction.
◦ We have a tendency to idealize the concept of
family.
◦ Our cultural idealization of the family is
certainly partially constructed by the public
discourse about the family as a highly
important social institution.
Family as social ideal, continued
Family is strongly implicated in religion
 What is allowable for family is continually
debated in politics and is sanctioned by law
 We are told through laws, debates,
advertisements what constitutes a “good” or
“legitimate family”; one which is formed through
biological ties, is heterosexual, monogamous,
and with children
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Functions of Family; Family functioning
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Scholars have identified two defining functions of family:
nurturing and control.
A family provides goods for its members in the forms of
emotional support, educational support, and financial support.
Family also exerts control over its members, not only in the
form of parent/child behavioral control, but also in the form of
socialization towards the world and in the form of enacting
and disciplining social rules for the way family life and
relationships are conducted.
Although family often does and is certainly expected to provide
members with positive rewards, family experiences are not
always positive.
Family relationships, more often than other relationships, are
sites of violence.
Defining Family
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Structural definitions of family are those based on
biological ties or legal ties (marriage or adoption)
Functional definitions of family are those based on
the ways family relationships work, and work well,
such as by giving social and financial assistance
 Transactional definitions of family are those based
on the communication that happens between
people that serves to constitute a relationship as
familial and to create family identity
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Variations in Family Structure
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Nuclear family: parent(s) and children
Extended family: larger familial networks the
include grandparents, in-laws, aunts and uncles,
cousins, and often times family members we never
even meet
Family of origin: the family in which you were
born (or adopted); your parents and siblings.
Family of descent : the larger ancestral clan from
which you come
Single parent families: families where one parent
cares for a child; may be a result of a single parent
adoption or can arise from situations where a
formerly two parent family is disrupted via divorce,
death, military separation, etc.
Variations in Family Structure
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Family of generativity and family of choice
refer to the family you might choose to start for
yourself consisting of a partner (or not) and your
children, the latter sometimes being reserved for
adopted family members
Blended family: divorce, remarriage, and/or
adoption has occurred, forming a new family
configuration
Bi-nuclear family: children may find themselves
spending time with two nuclear-type blended
families, where they have two sets of parents (one
step in each set) and two households.
Structure meets Communication
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Koerner and Fitzpatrick’s typology of families: family
communication can be classified along two dimensions:
conformity orientation and conversation
orientation.
◦ Conformity orientation refers to the degree to which
families stress cohesion and homogeneity or
alignment of values, beliefs, and attitudes
◦ Conversation orientation refers to the degree to
which families encourage participation and interaction
among members
These two dimensions create a four-category typology
of families, where families score either high or low on
the two dimensions.
Family Types (Koerner & Fitzpatrick)
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Protective families are high in conformity and low in
conversation orientation; parents rule and do not include other
members in conversations or decision making; all members are
expected to conform to the same value and belief set
Pluralistic families are low in conformity and high in
conversation orientation; everyone is encouraged to offer opinions
and differences in attitudes and beliefs are not only tolerated, but
encouraged.
Consensual families are high in both conformity and
conversation; parents expect children to follow rules and conform
to common attitudes and beliefs, but do allow for conversations
about these rules, attitudes and beliefs.
Laissez-faire families are low in both conformity and
conversation, allowing family members to make their own rules and
follow them; not much talk about rules, attitude, values, or belief
happens in this family type.
Systems Theory & Families
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Systems are goal-oriented and self-regulating.
The parts (individuals) of the whole work together
toward a common objective and that the system
checks its own activity, adjusting when and how it
needs to in order to continue toward the goal.
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Systems contain hierarchy(ies). One or more parts
(individuals) of the system are in charge of other
parts.
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Systems are mutually interdependent, that is the
action/performance of one part (individual) will affect
the actions/performance of the other parts
(individual )and of the system as a whole (family).
Transacting Family: Features of
Family Communication
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Interactions in a family do more than just send messages:
They convey both content and relational components
Families have norms, which are habitual rules for
conducting family life and relationships, as well as rituals,
which are formalized routines that guide certain types of
events (e.g., dinner, birthdays).
Families are sites where power or authority structures
exist.
Power can be formally structured in families, with parents
regarded as the figure of power, but can also be informally
structured or bidirectional where children have some
form of power or influence as well.
Features of Family Communication
All family members must negotiate quite
frequently about privacy and its violation.
 There are often issues of communication
boundary management and privacy
management most often related to personal
information that specific persons or members
may have and that others do not know
 Family secrets may exist that members agree
to conceal from other people outside the family
group; such secrets can be either toxic or
bonding
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Features of Family Communication
Family storytelling acts as an important mechanism for
the creation of a sense of family identity.
 Family narratives indicate a family’s sense of what it is like
in general but also indicate how it deals with difficult and
traumatic experiences.
 Some families are more discourse-dependent than others,
having to account for how they are family or why their family
is different.
 Long-distance relationships may exist in families where
kin-keeping becomes an important communicative act. One
or a few members serve as reservoirs of family information,
keeping everyone informed of the others’ whereabouts,
status, well-being, and life events.
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Family Communication is not static!
Family is always dynamic and changing; something is usually
going on in it.
 Viewed as a communication system, family communication is
obviously always changing within that basic framework, even
when the membership stays the same.
 Some of these changes are seen as normal growth—new
children are born; children go to school; children become
more independent, turn into adolescents, leave home, and
start families of their own; the parents’ age and need to be
looked after and eventually die.
 Other forms of fracture in the family are also transacted in
discourse. Both big and gradual changes are accompanied by
or transacted in dynamic patterns of communication.
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