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Definitional Deficit: A Model of Senile Dementia in Context
Author(s) -
HANSON BARBARA GAIL
Publication year - 1989
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.1545-5300.1989.00281.x
Subject(s) - typology , context (archaeology) , categorization , sketch , psychology , interpersonal communication , identification (biology) , dementia , cognitive psychology , ethnography , developmental psychology , social psychology , sociology , medicine , computer science , disease , geography , artificial intelligence , biology , botany , archaeology , algorithm , pathology , anthropology
This article presents some general theoretical concepts that can be used to consider processes of reality construction in interpersonal contexts. I developed a model of family context that taps affective dimensions of reality construction and used this model to explore these processes as highlighted by the labeling of symptoms of senile dementia. Ethnographic observations of 45 families with aged members were used to sketch a dichotomous typology of family‐context patterns that promote symptom identification versus patterns that do not. The model suggests that the categorization of behavior as symptomatic or normal in context may be related to the extent to which reality construction processes are shared among members.