Structural Family Therapy Can Be Effectively Used, Essay Example

The goal of this research project is to determine how structural family therapy can be effectively used for different family types, with an emphasis on the comparison between patriarchal and matriarchal families. In the modern era, it is not unusual for families to be led by single fathers or mothers, or for either parent to be the dominant member of the family when both members are present. This research question will be used to test two hypotheses. It is hypothesized that family members with patriarchal family structures are more likely to feel that their participation in the family is suppressed, while family members with matriarchal family structures feel that they would benefit from a greater degree of support. The null hypothesis is that family members that belong to both family structures will feel that their familial relationships are well-balanced and that they feel well-supported.

To test this hypothesis, three matriarchal families and three patriarchal families will be selected from the community. A list of 30 eligible families will be compiled for each group and three families will be selected at random from each. These families will be identified by questioning friends and family and by partnering with several school psychologists. To eliminate variables, the six families that will be selected will come from the same zip code in order to control for socioeconomic status. Furthermore, each family will have the same number of family members and belong to the same race. Families will be preferentially selected if the parents are within a similar age range. If it is not possible to identify families for which all of these variables controlled, a case-control study will be conducted in which pairs of matriarchal and patriarchal families are closely matched based on these characteristics. This will allow each of the three pairs to have different demographics, while still enabling family structure comparisons to be made.

The six families will be observed three times each and participate in structural family therapy an additional three times. Each of these sessions will occur one week apart. Their family relationships, behaviors, and patterns will be noted throughout each of the six evaluations. During the preliminary observations, the researcher will attempt to identify recurring interactions amongst family members, determine whether they are positive or negative in nature, and attempt to determine the impact that the head of the family has on these interactions. In this manner, the researcher will have preexisting knowledge of the family before the counseling sessions, which will allow the questions asked and discussions had to be more relevant to the particular case. Each therapy session will build upon the previous ones in an attempt to reverse the negative patterns that occur in the relationships between the family members.

During the three therapy sessions, role-playing activities will be employed as an intervention. Each family will be followed up with one month following the final therapy session and the results will be recorded. The progress that each family makes will be tracked over time. It is expected that different problems will be common for each family type, whether it is patriarchal or matriarchal. It will be the responsibility of the researcher to determine how the role-playing activities should be effectively adapted to benefit each type of family. No assumptions should be made prior to the start of therapy for any group, aside from utilizing the knowledge that the researcher has gained concerning the relationship problems that each family has. It is important for the researcher to record how these strategies have altered for each family as the sessions continue in addition to determining how this intervention has contributed to the stability of each family either short or long term.

While research of this sort is typically qualitative in nature, the family environment scale will be used to code this information in a manner that will allow it to have a qualitative value. The family characteristics that will be examined using this model include a variety of relationship dimensions, personal growth dimensions, and system maintenance dimensions are rated. All 10 characteristic subscales will be utilized, in which a score from 1 to 100 is obtained for each. A score that represents the average of these 10 characteristics will be used to assess the impact of the family environment family functioning for each of the six families (Goldenberg et al., 2013). Each family type will be compared by taking an average of each score across the three families. A student’s t-test will then be utilized to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between both matriarchal and patriarchal families. The variance of scores will also be calculated to determine whether the scores of families in the same category are similar are different, which will also be necessary in order to understand the results (Creswell, 2013).

Specifically, data collection of this sort would involve assessing each family on the basis of their cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active recreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis, organization, and control. This would involve rating each family on a scale of 1 to 100 for each trait and averaging their score together. This would allow the researcher to draw conclusions pertaining to the stability of different family types based on the aforementioned characteristics.

In this particular experiment, the family environment scale should be used several times. Before each family is observed initially, it should be issued in order to determine a baseline score before treatment. Then, immediately after each therapy session, it should be issued so that the researcher will be able to track the progress of each family over time. The last time that this assessment should be issued is during the follow-up period one month following the last therapy session. These numbers will be analyzed to determine whether or not the role-playing intervention is successful for each family in addition to determining the extent to which this is the case for patriarchal and matriarchal family types.

The methodology used for this experiment was selected because it effectively codes qualitative data into quantitative data. In this manner, the research could take advantage of statistical analysis that would not be possible with qualitative values. Ultimately, the goal of the research is to distinguish a difference between two different groups, and these differences become more apparent when behaviors are described in numerical form. After completing this research, if there is a need to identify confounding variables and to determine which patterns and relationship factors contribute to the differences between patriarchal and matriarchal families, a multivariate regression analysis could be performed. This would not be possible using qualitative data.

This experiment is intended to serve as a preliminary study for a future experiment that would recruit a larger sample size of participants. Before this is possible, it would be necessary to determine whether there is a significant difference between the two family types in question. If this is not the case, it would not be worthwhile to invest the time and money into creating a study on a larger scale. Therefore, it is expected that the results of this study would only be internally valid. Since a small sample size is being used, we can assume that the trends observed may be true of the families that fall within the demographic factors of the families utilized in this study. However, for the results to be externally valid, it would be necessary for the study to be repeated with a larger sample size.

In order to eliminate bias, it would be necessary for all six of the families on study to be observed using the same criteria. Therefore, it would be helpful for the researcher to record the exact steps taken as the observation progresses to ensure that all families are observed equally. With the exception of the interventions that are applied as a consequence of identified family patterns, the therapy sessions should be equivalent in nature. For example, the researcher should maintain the same level of involvement in each session, offer each family similar advice, and allow the family to engage in their own discussions an equal amount across the board. This should be the case for all observation, therapy, and follow-up sessions.

References

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Goldenberg H, Goldenberg I. (2013). Family Therapy: An Overview. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.