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How One Family Perceives Another: The Relationship Between Social Constructions and Problem‐Solving Competence
Author(s) -
REISS DAVID,
COSTELL RONALD,
BERKMAN HELEN,
JONES CAROLE
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1980.00239.x
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , perception , psychology , social psychology , social environment , social competence , construct (python library) , style (visual arts) , developmental psychology , social relation , social change , sociology , computer science , social science , archaeology , neuroscience , programming language , economics , history , economic growth
This paper delineates a rarely studied but important family process: how a family perceives and understands the relationships in other families it knows. We hypothesize that these perceptions of other families are fundamental components of a family's shared construing of its social world. Families differ in how they perceive other families, specifically, and in their approach to construing or apprehending their social world, generally. We have hypothesized that these general differences also play a crucial role in shaping the style and competence of family problem‐solving. A family's approach to any problem depends upon how it construes or interprets the social context of that problem. Using these general concepts of family life, we construct specific hypotheses linking family problem‐solving and interfamily perception. We describe methods for measuring both family problem‐solving and how a family perceives other families. Findings confirm our major hypothesis: A family that searches for underlying and subtle patterns in a problem‐solving situation will develop a more differentiated and organized conception of other families.