How One Family Perceives Another: The Relationship Between Social Constructions and Problem‐Solving Competence

Abstract

This paper delineates a rarely studied but important family process: how a family perceives and understands the relationships in other families it knows. We hypothesize that these perceptions of other families are fundamental components of a family's shared construing of its social world. Families differ in how they perceive other families, specifically, and in their approach to construing or apprehending their social world, generally. We have hypothesized that these general differences also play a crucial role in shaping the style and competence of family problem-solving. A family's approach to any problem depends upon how it construes or interprets the social context of that problem. Using these general concepts of family life, we construct specific hypotheses linking family problem-solving and interfamily perception. We describe methods for measuring both family problem-solving and how a family perceives other families. Findings confirm our major hypothesis: A family that searches for underlying and subtle patterns in a problem-solving situation will develop a more differentiated and organized conception of other families.

Families' Schemata of Social Relationships

“…Evidence for the validity of problem‐solving measures as markers of paradigm variation has been obtained from associations found, among families with disturbed adolescents, between problem‐solving measures and families' actual patterns of social perception and interaction on a psychiatric ward (2, 26, 27). More recent studies, however, have been concerned with charting analogous kinds of variation among families with a more typical range of problems and stresses.…”

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Family Problem-Solving Intervention

“…Notwithstanding, families who do not work cooperatively are less adaptive, and they fail to reconcile the varying perceptions of family members (Reiss, Costello, Berkman, & Jones, 1980). Therefore, an alternative to the therapy approaches that focus on solutions or on problems is the promotion of overall cooperative skills within typical family environments.…”

Family Stress as Community Frame

“…These naive psychologies are patterned, similar across individuals and capable of systematic, cumulative study; indeed much of Heiderian thought is an effort to explore the nature and function of these intuitive systems. Similarly, Reiss, Costell, Berkman and Jones (1980) have explored what might be called a "naive family sociology. " Families develop elaborate appraisals of psychological and social attributes of other families.…”