Towards a theory of human behavior : emphasis family centricity

• Main Author: Miracle, Wayne
• Other Authors: Baumann, Karen S.
• Format: Others
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Human behavior.; Families.; Developmental psychology.
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/178649; http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/414573

The purpose of the study was to advance the understanding of human behavior. In order to do so, a theory emphasizing the importance of family interactions with regard to both their effects on individuals and their centricity in understanding social systems was developed.There exists no current theory which affords clear cognitive schemata for understanding human behavior, and perhaps there never will. Certainly the present theory does not purport to have achieved that end. More realistically, the value of the study is believed to lie in it's potential to stimulate interested Individuals who have chosen to devote their thinking and their efforts toward discovering closer approximations to the truths off human existance.Extensive, though by no means comprehensive, perusal of various fields of literature preceeded this writing. Concepts and references were ultimately drawn from the fields of anthropology, biology, communications, philosophy, psychiatry, semantics, sociology, and of course, psychology.The lack of concepts that were both comprehensive and integritive regarding interpersonal interactions; and the paucity of language to describe those same interactions, led to the presentation of the theory in three sections, centering on the three major topics of personality, family, and larger social institutions. Each section attempted to indicate that all three are interactive, to keep that concept at least in the background, if not in the foreground, of the reader's attention, to indicate how they are interactive by presenting theorized parallels whenever possible, and to emphasize the central importance of the developmental family to human behavior. The theory was intended to be both interpersonal and social, in the broadest sense. A fourth section, relating the theory to the practice of therapy, was included. Finally, conclusions were presented.Following the introduction, which contained the assumption that the primary nature of the human individual is good, the section on personality focused upon the concept of the creation of the secondary nature of the human being through the process of socialization. The theory proposed that this process parallels the development of the self system, that part of the person generally accepted by the individual and admissable to awareness. The concepts of identification, alienation, and denial were heavily utilized in the description of the formation of the person within the interactions of the family.In the second section, families were viewed in terms of their functions, structures, processes, and systems. The concepts of homeostasis, role stabilization, differentiation and communications were emphasized and examined in some depth. The relationship between some of our language limitations and unhealthy human living was broached. The central importanceof family interactions was again stressed.The third major section was based on the premise that all social Institutions, as well as social interactions beyond the family, are based on extensions and/or modifications of family patterns which have either evolved from lesser to greater complexity or been reduced from complexity to simplicity. A single extended example, the power hierarchy was developed to illustrate the position. The therapy section assumed that resistance to therapeutic change is based upon denial and defense of the self system. Functions of therapy, rationale, and indicated approaches were presented. The major conclusion was that man has become alienated from his nature and the nature of his environment because he has developed self validating personal and social systems upon his conceptions and eliminated corrective feedback. Man's return to integrity is conceived to depend upon his ability to charge his social systems and learn to live in harmony with nature.