Work organization: paradigms for project management and organization

A factor analysis of four commonly used self-report measures of family functioning (Bloom, 1985) yielded 15 5-item factors. Five of these item sets have now been revised and strengthened. These modifications were undertaken because a review of the literature has revealed that the results of the factor analysis are being increasingly used in family studies. The rationale and description of the revisions of the factor item sets are presented. Psychometric analysis of the revised factors suggests that factor scores are highly reliable as well as stable over time. In addition to presenting comprehensive reliability data, this article provides information regarding factor score intercorrelations and structure, as well as a commentary on the factors themselves.

Self-report measures of family functioning: extensions of a factorial analysis.

The theory of family paradigms provides an integrative framework for under-standing and systematizing the diverse ways that families organize and make sense of family life. Using formal methods of analysis based on logical and geometrical arguments, the priecise implications of models of family types can be investigated and compared. The paradigmatic framework can thus be refined and extended to form a more rigorous theoretical grounding for family typologies is explored and a miltidimensional model is derived the geometry of which is equivalent to, but more succinctly captures, the underlying structure of uariation in family para-digms. In Part II, the resulting model is interpredtd and explored in terms of implications for family theory, theory construction, and family therapy. Clarifying the basic dimensions of the paradigmatic framework also permits more precise exploration of interrelationships among related models of family types, which can be understood as reduced models derivable from the complete geometry of the paradigmatic framework.

The structure of family paradigms: an analytical model of family variation

TIrc theoretical linits to vaiation in the organizational and interactional premises of family systems are investigated. A formal logic is.applied to tJrc'elementary requiieients of hrunan systems in the abstract, independentof empiical issuis. This teads b tlrc conclusion that, with reasonable restrictions on'tlrc dontain of application, only a finite seies of fundamentally distinct family paradigms are psts;6t.. Beyond-the four uaiants previously recognized (closed" 'randoh, open, and synclronous), ai additional regime, representing a syntlt.sis of "open" ind "syncironous" systems,,is hypothesize-d asnecessary and nfficient to close the seies and account for alt possible mechanisms of regulation' Some characteistic features of tltk fonn of systemic organization and operation have been deived.

Larry Constantine

Papers

On Fundamental Limits Of Variation In Family Systems: Logical Extensions To The Theory of Family Paradigms