Model developed to enhance understanding of group processes and dynamics and to help plan for intervention and research in treatment or task groups. Presents a cognitive map of a group, incorporating five sets of group variables: (1) member characteristics; (2) behaviors; (3) group characteristics; (4) episodes; and (5) output. (Author/NRB)

Describes a systems framework for conceptualizing and delivering paradoxical interventions (where the counselor tells the family what to do with the expectation of noncompliance) during family therapy. Notes appropriate times for use of paradox, and potential problems with this intervention. (WAS)

A training program was implemented to provide consultation services in a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed individuals. Prior to the program's implementation, clinicians were discouraged and frustrated because staff needs could not adequately be met. Psychological services to 36 severely disturbed females, ages 12 to 22, were…

Proposed a meta-system (family, church, and school) for the coordination and delivery of primary preventions to all segments of the population. Explores the problems and possible solutions in combining these subsystems in relation to the characteristics of systems in general and the pragmatic demands of implementation. (Author/LLL)

A system for describing the specific elements that constitute any psychological intervention is presented. The system includes 39 operations or controlling responses which may be administered by the psychologist, the client, or both together. Varying the administration of the operations can provide over 100 source/operation elements in the coding…

Notes that family therapists may focus on systematic aspects of problems, inadvertently neglecting children's individual issues. Presents ways in which family therapists make use of a psychodynamic understanding of the child's issues while continuing to employ brief, action-oriented intervention strategies. Crucial to the approach described is the…

Presents a strategy for intervening into rigidly homeostatic family systems. Identifies system rules which reveal "nodal" themes. Describes four types of nodal themes and clues for identifying them within families. Suggests ways of using system rules and nodal themes in developing paradoxical interventions. (Author/RC)

Proposes an outline for a counseling model which combines individual and ecological approaches to assessment and intervention in a general systems theory, followed by an application of these principles to family assessment and intervention. Case examples illustrate how the ecological systems model is translated into clinical practice. (Author/WAS)

Presents a family systems model for understanding the impact of chronic illness on family functioning and describes family-focused interventions related to reducing the stress involved during the adjustment process. (Author)

Uses a case study to show how a therapist can help a family by breaking their loops of preferential behaviors. Describes a systemic approach that helps prevent families from using the same feedback loops that lead to dead-ends in their behavior. (JAC)

Describes a framework for systematic decision making by career counselors. The counselor who uses this model selects an intervention based upon the client's presenting request and the counselor's assessment. This framework was developed for use with both adolescents and adults. (Author)

Applies structural family systems perspective to clinical intervention in violent families. Describes structural family therapy techniques which were used with a multi-problem family whose symptoms included family violence. Discusses cooperation needed among researchers, therapists, and therapy trainers who would use a systems approach to analyze…

Presents a model showing how symptoms differ from other adaptive behaviors by their low productivity. Symptom's paradoxical dual norm structure result from communication patterns and indirect strategies which control the environment. Suggests if such structures are to be removed promptly, different but equally stable dual norm structures are…

This paper focuses on the systems approach in family therapy and attempts to further the development of this approach by defining its assumptions and delineating the relationship between the assumptions and their operationalization in assessment and therapy. The first section identifies two basic assumptions of a systemic approach, i.e., that the…

Discusses symptom production and symptom maintenance in terms of psychodynamic and system-oriented family therapy approaches. The conceptual and operational hypotheses of both approaches stem from different logics. Describes their different sets of data, lines of inquiry and treatment strategies. (Author/JAC)