Expression of emotion through family grouping schemata, distance, and interpersonal focus.

Used a family doll placement technique to study separateness and connectedness within the family as this varies over positive and negative emotional themes. All members of 10 intact families (father, mother, and 2 children), in which 1 child had learning difficulties, participated. Separateness and connectedness were measured by (a) family grouping schemata categories, describing the groupings and subgroupings of dolls; (b) linear distance between dolls; and (c) interpersonal focus of dolls. As hypothesized, positive emotional themes were represented by closer doll placements than negative themes. Parents tended to group the family as a single unit more than children. The child with learning difficulties tended to orient dolls away from one another in painful emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)