Family Collage: “A Picture is

Worth a Thousand Words”

By: Pete Hyatt

Family can be defined as networks

of people who share their lives over

long periods of time bound by ties of

marriage, blood, law, or commitment

who consider themselves as family

and share a significant history and

anticipated future of functioning as a

family. I originally came from a two-

parent biological family. After 20

years of marriage my parents

divorced. My father has since re-

married and now I have a blended

family.

! Each family has a theme. A theme can be viewed as a pattern of feelings,

motives, fantasies, and conventionalized understandings grouped around

a particular form in the personalities of individual members.

“You can always depend on family” was a theme my father instilled in me and

my siblings as we grew up. We are a very close group, everyone keeps in touch,

visits one another frequently, and everyone knows that a family member can be

relied upon. Themes are an important part of understanding the communication

behavior of a family.

A family ritual is defined as a voluntary, recurring patterned communicationevent whose jointly enacted performance by family members pays homage to

what they regard as sacred, thereby producing and reproducing a family!sidentity.

My family is a hockey family. Everyone in my family is a

die hard New York Rangers fan. It has become tradition

for us to get together for a few games a year and we

make lots of food and have fun together. We have been

having these “Ranger Parties” for the last 15 years.

Rituals

Family Roles

! Each member of my family has a specific role. These recurring

patterns of behavior have developed over the years. These roles

exist only within the family dynamic.

! My dad is the provider of the basic resources, he has worked

multiple jobs over the years to provide for the family.

! My mother provides family management and kinship

maintenance. She is the one who keeps us connected with our

extended family in New York.

! My stepmother provides nurturing and emotional support. She

takes care of my younger brother and sister and performs many

traditionally domestic tasks. She is a great cook, and everyone

looks forward to visiting because we know we are going to get a

great meal!

Communication and Power

! The dynamic of one-up and one-down positions existed in both of my father!smarriages. In each marriage he was the one-up person or the one who

attempts to exercise more power control over another. In each marriage mymother and step mother are the one-down person or the one who accepts thecontrol implied from my father.

! As kids we we were in the one-down position but as we have grown up we takeon new roles.

Communication Patterns

! Cohesion is defined as the emotional bonding that family

members experience with each other and includes concepts of

“emotional bonding, boundaries, coalitions, time, space, friends,

decision-making, interests and recreation”.

! My family!s cohesion levels are a mix of…

! Connected: “family members experience emotional

independence as well as some sense of involvement and

belonging”

! Cohesive: “family members strive for emotional closeness,

loyalty, and togetherness with emphasis on some

individuality.

Conflict

! Conflict is an express struggle between at least two

interdependent parties, who perceive in compatible goals,

scarce resources, and interference from the other party in

achieving their goals.

! Conflict naturally exists in any family and my family is no

exception. Because we are a blended family, conflict arises

between my father and mother concerning issues within the

family. Because my siblings and I are older, we also have

opinions about how the family dynamic should be and that can

create additional conflict.

Decision Making

! Decision making is the process by which family members makes

choices, reach judgments or arrive at solutions that end

uncertainty.

! My dad has always be the primary decision maker for our family.

He set the rules for my siblings and I to follow. It can be a tough

role, being the decision maker, each decision will have an effect

on each family member, and often will have different effects on

different members.

Commitment! Commitment implies intense singular energy directed toward

sustaining a relationship. Many couples view commitment as a

lifetime promise to stay in the marriage.

! My fiancée and I are getting ready to start our own family. In our

relationship there is a high level of personal dedication, which

involves one!s internal devotion to the relationship.

The Extended Family

Work Cited

Galvin, Bylund, Brommel (2012)

Family Comunication Cohesion and

Change (8th edition)