Samspill i terapirommet : videoanalyse av interaksjon i terapirommet
Abstract
The theme of this master thesis is family interaction. The intent with the study is to increase our knowledge on how children, parents and families interact when in therapy. The research question is as follows: In what ways is family therapy part of putting focus on family interaction? Two questions have been particularly important for my investigation of the research question: How is family interaction displayed in the video recordings? And; In which way can the child become the symptom-bearer for the conflict in the family? I have chosen to apply theories which focus on how therapy is used to help changing family interaction, theories on children in therapy and theories on dealing with family taboos. I have, furthermore, applied theories of stress and achievement (mastering of a situation). A symbolic interaction perspective has been salient throughout the paper. This is because this perspective projects that all interaction is social, that we use symbols to interact, and that we are set in the now. Methodically, one approach has been to study video recordings of therapy sessions. I chose this method because videos are better than pure written transcriptions at conveying a complete portrayal of family interaction. Especially, concerning the mood and use of symbols in the therapy room. Getting informants that were willing to take part in this study was challenging, however my opinion is that the ones who accepted proved to be useful. The empirical findings are presented in chapter four. In chapter five the findings are analyzed against the theories. Antonovsky’s theory on salutogenes, considering the sense of coherence, did not turn out to be as useful as expected. While Trost and Levin’s interpretation of the symbolic interaction perspective, on the other hand, has shown to be of great salience to interpret many of this paper’s empirical findings. The most salient contribution of this study has been to identify taboo areas, detecting motion (when informants are showing change in their approach to each other), and by showing how therapy can help families to look at situations in a different way. By focusing on family interaction, family therapy reveals areas where families are dysfunctional. Thereby family therapy contributes to finding the particular areas in family interactions that demand change for the families to function better. To solve a problem, one has to know what the problem is.
Description
Master i familiebehandling