North Seattle Community College
Framework for Family
Communication
Lecture 2
Gender and Family
Communication
Framework for Family Communication
Families are defined primarily through their
interaction rather than through their structure
(Whitchurch & Dickson, 1999). “Through
their communicative practices, parties
construct their social reality of who their
family is and the meanings that organize it”
(Baxter & Braithwaite, 2002).
This belief places communication at the core
of family experience.
Communication Process

Communication may be viewed as a symbolic,
transactional process of creating and sharing
meaning.
Symbolic means that symbols are used to
create meaning and messages (feelings, ideas,
kisses, special food, teasing, etc.) Symbols
must be mutually understood for the meanings
to be shared. If family members do not agree
then confusion will result.
Communication Process

Communication may be viewed as a symbolic,
transactional process of creating and sharing
meaning.
Transactional means that when people
communicate, they have a mutual impact on
each other. Thus in relationships, people are
both affecting and being affected by other
others simultaneously. The focus is placed on
the relationship, not the individual participants.
Communication Process

Communication may be viewed as a symbolic,
transactional process of creating and sharing
meaning.
To say communication is a process implies that
it is continuously changing
Messages and Meanings

A primary task of families is “meaning
making” or the “cocreation of meanings.”

“Each partner’s definition of reality must be
continually correlated with the definitions of
the other” (Berger and Kellner (1964). The
meaning-making tasks of family members
serve to create a relational culture or world
view that characterizes the family system.
Communication Patterns and
Family Functions
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication

Cohesion: the emotional bonding that family
members have towards one another, and
include concepts of “emotional bonding,
boundaries, time, space, friends, decisionmaking, interests and recreation (Olson,
2000). “Distance regulation” is a major
family function (Kantor and Lehr, 1976).
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication
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There are four levels of cohesion:
Disengaged – family members maintain extreme
separateness and little family loyalty
Separated – family members experience emotional
independence with some joint involvement
Connected – Family members strive for emotional
closeness, loyalty, and join involvement with some
individuality
Enmeshed – Family members experience extreme
closeness, loyalty, and almost no individuality
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication
There are four levels of adaptability (change):

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Rigid – Family members operate under autocratic
decision-making styles and strict roles and rules.
Structured – Family members experience
authoritarian and some equalitarian leadership and
stable roles and rules.
Flexible – Family members experience negotiation
and decision making and easily changed roles and
rules.
Chaotic – Family members have nonexistent
leadership, confused decision making and varied
rules and roles.
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication
Cohesion-Adaptability Axis: Most wellfunctioning families are found short of the
extremes, except when they are under
high levels of stress. Also, families shift
from one point to another on the axis
during different stages of development
Family Behavior: Cohesion,
Adaptability, and Communication
“The family is a system constituted,
defined, and managed through its
communication. Family members
regulate cohesion and adaptability to
develop a collective identity through the
flow of patterned, meaningful messages
within a network of evolving
interdependent relationships located
within a defined cultural context”
(Family Communication 49).
Supporting Family Functions
(Hess & Handel 1959):
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Families…
Establish a satisfactory congruence of
images
Evolve models of interaction into central
family themes
Establish the boundaries of the family’s
world of experience
Deal with significant biosocial issues of
family life, such as gender, age, power,
and roles
The material for this lecture was excerpted
from Chapter 2, Family Communication:
Cohesion and Change, Kathleen Galvin et al.