Subjects: Relationships / Family / Parenting

Focuses on how communication shapes family roles. A discussion about role expectations and role enactment sets the stage for this discussion on family roles. Special attention is given to the role of kinship maintenance and that of gender socialization. Students trace gender socialization from infancy and see how it affects adult behavior. Also included is a discussion on how changes in family structure affect family roles. Featured interview: Dr. Charles Wilkinson, Marriage and Family Therapist and Professor Julia Wood (University of North Carolina).

Focuses on the challenges and dilemmas that families face when they attempt to balance work and family. The class explores the problem of “overload”, the clash between personal and social norms, the problems posed by identity issues, and the challenge to developing a social network. Discussion also touches on the dynamics frequently experienced by couples as they try to share life roles and areas of responsibility. Hochschild’s three ideological marital models – traditional, transitional, and egalitarian – are explained. Real-life advice is given by a couple that is successfully managing work and family obligations. Featured interview: Professor Julia Wood (University of North Carolina) and Brian Cooper and Sharon Holyfield Cooper, a dual-career couple.

Describes the characteristics of various family and marital typologies. Lehr’s family types – open, closed and random – are explained. Discussion explores three types of couple/partner relationships: traditional, independent, and separate. Topics also include the question of whether couple types shift over time and whether the same models can be applied to homosexual couples. Featured interview: Professor Mary Anne Fitzpatrick (University of Wisconsin – Madison).

Explores the dynamics of power and decision-making in families. The class includes discourse on the difficult decisions families face today, ranging from child rearing and caring for older family members, to relocation and monetary considerations. Various decision making models are introduced and described, including consensus, accommodation, and de facto decision-making. The concept of power is defined and factors that affect family power structure are discussed. Featured interview: Professor Bernard Brommel (Northeastern Illinois University).

Reinforces the idea that marital and family conflict is a normal side of life that needs to be managed for healthy family communication. Conflict is defined, and several misconceptions about it are discussed. The class also explores the various ways in which patterns of conflict emerge in the family structure, and discussion addresses the predictable, habitual nature of conflict. The six stages of family conflict are described: prior conditions, frustration awareness, active conflict, solution/non-solution, follow-up, and resolution. Featured interviews: Professor Douglas Kelley (Arizona State University – West) and Professor Michael Roloff (Northwestern University).

Focuses on destructive and constructive family conflict patterns, and pays particular attention to verbal aggression as a destructive pattern. The class explores the implications to communication caused by verbal aggression, as well as the long-term damage caused by psychological abuse and parental hostility toward children. Students are walked through a variety of methods that help to hold abusive conflict at bay, including techniques for fighting fairly, criticizing behaviors instead of people, avoiding hot buttons, engaging in reflective listening, and scheduling communication “checkups”. Featured interview: Professor Douglas Kelley (Arizona State University – West) and Professor Teresa Sabourin (University of Cincinnati).

Looks into over two decades of research on marital interactions conducted by John Gottman and his associates. The class begins with an overview of Gottman’s major contributions to the literature on marital interactions, including such proprietary concepts as the three categories of marital styles, the “negativity-to-positivity ratio”, and “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. In a visit to Gottman’s research laboratory, students see this important multi-methodological research in action. The role of the psychological process in marital relations is also discussed. Featured interview: Professor John Gottman (University of Washington – Seattle).

Focuses on the various developmental changes families face over time and the impact those changes have on family communication. The class delves into the changes that occur with in a traditional family cycle model. Also discussed: the transition to parenthood and the change it initiates in marital communication/role expectation, the re-establishment of a relationship when new roles are incorporated into the family, and the transmission of culture as an important parental function. Featured interview: Professor Glen Stamp (Ball State University).

Focuses on how transitional periods influence family communication. Discussion reveals how conflict patterns and marital satisfaction change over a relationship’s life cycle, what theories can help us examine how change impacts communication over an individual’s lifetime, and the elements of social, family, and historical time. Also included is discussion on how the role of ritual moves the family from one stage of communication to another. Featured interview: Professor Michael Roloff (Northwestern University).

This episode focuses on how family communication is affected by stresses that cannot be foreseen from either a developmental or a life course perspective. The Baines’ model for determining how severe a stressor will be on a family is introduced and explained. Stressors resulting from divorce are discussed, with particular attention given to the changes in roles and responsibility in a post-divorce family. Featured interview: Professor Marcia Dixson (Indiana-Purdue University).