| Abstract: | Analysis of whole families is delineated as a field of psychological study. Relevance to psychology of personality and social psychology is shown. Emergence of the field is traced, and major current approaches are examined. A general conceptual framework, growing out of and integrating data from psychology and other behavioral sciences, is shown to be developing. Evidence suggests that a great range of psychological phenomena, including, illustratively, social attitudes, psychosomatic symptoms, cognitive functioning, identity formation, affiliative behavior, can be illuminated by psychological study of whole families. Principal current research methods are briefly discussed. (3-p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
