Biomaterial Database

Fixation and regression in the family life cycle. 1978

L R Barnhill, and D Longo

In spite of the obvious fact that families differ significantly depending upon their current stage of the life cycle, most of the family therapy literature focuses on intervening in ongoing family interaction without specific attention to the dimension of family development. Family sociologists, on the other hand, while not dealing with modifying family functioning, have provided more detailed tools with which to understand variations in family functioning based on stages of family development. Our work with families in acute distress suggests the need to increase the specificity with which our assessments and interventions are tailored, by incorporating the family developmental view. This paper explores the utility of the family developmental view using the concepts of fixation and regression in the family life cycle. These concepts were found to be relatively refined and quite pragmatic assessment devices that assist therapists in specifying developmental issues of the family. Case examples of actual families in crisis are presented in order to demonstrate the utility of these conceptual tools.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008016	Life Change Events	Those occurrences, including social, psychological, and environmental, which require an adjustment or effect a change in an individual's pattern of living.	Life Course,Life Crises,Life Crisis,Life Experiences,Course, Life,Crisis, Life,Event, Life Change,Experience, Life,Life Change Event,Life Courses,Life Experience
D008297	Male		Males
D010287	Parent-Child Relations	The interactions between parent and child.	Parent-Offspring Interaction,Parent Child Relationship,Parent-Child Relationship,Interaction, Parent-Offspring,Parent Child Relations,Parent Child Relationships,Parent Offspring Interaction,Parent-Child Relation,Parent-Child Relationships,Parent-Offspring Interactions,Relation, Parent-Child,Relationship, Parent Child,Relationship, Parent-Child
D010551	Personality	Behavior-response patterns that characterize the individual.	Personalities
D011599	Psychopathology	The study of significant causes and processes in the development of mental illness.
D012043	Regression, Psychology	A return to earlier, especially to infantile, patterns of thought or behavior, or stage of functioning, e.g., feelings of helplessness and dependency in a patient with a serious physical illness. (From APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994).	Psychological Regression,Regression (Psychology),Psychology Regression
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002657	Child Development	The continuous sequential physiological and psychological maturing of an individual from birth up to but not including ADOLESCENCE.	Infant Development,Development, Child,Development, Infant
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D003220	Conflict, Psychological	The internal individual struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, or external and internal demands. In group interactions, competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons). (from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed)	Conflict, Psychology,Psychological Conflict,Psychological Conflicts