Classical Conditioning: - A learning paradigm studied and practiced in a laboratory or other controlled environment in which a stimulus called the unconditioned stimulus (US) which naturally elicits an unconditioned response (UCR), is paired with a neutral stimulus that does not initially elicit a response. Through the repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus (now the conditioned stimulus - CS) begins to elicit the desired response (now the conditioned response - CR). Coercion (Aversive Control): - From behavioral family therapy, one person uses aversive stimuli to control the behavior of another. Coaching - In Bowenian therapy (used by other models as well), the use of an objective person, such as the therapist, to guide a family member to interact with other members in new ways and prevent the family from seducing the person back into older, dysfunctional behaviors. The therapist takes an educative role, rather than an emotional one. Sibling Position: - Bowen theory incorporates the research of psychologist Walter Toman as a foundation for its concept of sibling position. Bowen observed the impact of sibling position on development and behavior in his family research. However, he found Toman's work so thorough and consistent with his ideas that he incorporated it into his theory. The basic idea is that people who grow up in the same sibling position predictably have important common characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers. The characteristics of one position are not "better" than those of another position, but are complementary. For example, a boss who is an oldest child may work unusually well with a first assistant who is a youngest child. Youngest children may like to be in charge, but their leadership style typically differs from an oldest's style. (From the Bowen Center website) Cognitive Behavior Family Therapy (CBT): - Therapies based on both behavioral techniques, which grew out of scientific, laboratory experiments, and on the cognitive therapy models. People learn to modify behaviors both by altering the reinforcement contingencies and/or changing the cognitions that influence their behaviors and interactions. Cognitive Maps: - Mental models by which incoming information is perceived, understood, transformed, and stored, together with a corresponding repertoire of behavioral options. Maps are based on the integration of experiences. Each part of the cognitive map - i.e., input and output - forms the individual's internal representation of reality. Cognitive maps shape actions and communication. They may be flexible, able to change and expand cumulatively with new information and experiences, or they may be rigid and limiting. Maps have both language and spatial aspects with a private vocabulary and imagery that determines how incoming communication is interpreted. Collaborative Language Family Therapy: - From Goolishian and Anderson, a model of family therapy based on the idea that problems are maintained in the family's language and may be resolved by changes in their use of language. The therapist asks questions from a not knowing stance, designed to draw out the client's own views of the problem. The problem is "dissolved" as new meanings and actions evolve. Communication Theory: - Originated by the MRI group, the study of the process by which verbal and non-verbal information is exchanged within a relationship. Communication can be analogic which has little structure, but is rich in content, or digital which is verbal communication perceived and interpreted based on meaning. (see various types of communications: Haptic; Kinesthetic; Paralinguistic; and Streptic). Contextual Family Therapy: - A theory and therapeutic model developed by Boszormenyi-Nagy based on the ethical dimension of family relationships. The family maintains invisible, intergenerational loyalties, which members hold in their personal ledgers. Problems in relationships are thought to result either from an attempt to maintain or change the balance sheet of what members owe to one another. Collaborative Couples Therapy: - Couples treatment in which each partner is seen by his/her own therapist (See Concurrent and Conjoint Family Therapy). Concurrent Couples Therapy: - Couples therapy in which one therapist works with both spouses at different times (see Collaborative and Conjoint). ABC-X Family Crisis Model: - Reuben Hill's model used to explain whether or not a stressful event would result in a crisis in some families but not in others. A = the stressor, B = the family's crisis-meeting resources, C = the family's definition of the stressor, and X = the crisis (see Double ABC-X Family Stress Model). Autopoietic Systems: - Originated by postmodern Chilean biologist, Maturana, systems that are self-organizing and self-maintaining, such as biological and human systems. Autopoietic Systems can be described by second-order cybernetics. Circularity (Circular Causality): - Originally developed by Bateson in his book, Steps to an Ecology of Mind. This concept was of particular interest to the Milan Systemic Group who posited that causality in families cannot be thought of as a simple, single cause and effect relationship (linear causality). Instead, events, behaviors, and interactions are seen in a more complex way, as mutually influencing one another (feedback loops). Each is the effect of a prior cause and in turn influences future behaviors. Family system events create an endless (and beginning-less) circular chain. In this model it is meaningless to identify an individual as having caused or started a problem. Instead, all elements of the problem coexist and are reciprocally reinforcing. The problem could not be maintained if any one element were to be removed.