Affinographs : A Dynamic Method for Assessment of Individuals, Couples, Families, and Households

Affinographs A Dynamic Method for Assessment of Individuals, Couples, Families, and Households Davor Jedlicka The word __family__ traditionally referred to two parents and their children, a concept that has been subject to constant revisiting over the past half-century with society’s gradual acceptance of single-parent, blended, adopted, and same-sex families. And as the relationships increase in complexity, so do their problems, requiring innovative professional tools for understanding and assessing families. Affinographs expand on the genogram and other methods currently in use by translating complex family narratives into dynamic, gender-neutral graphic images. Affinograph explains how to create and use these images to generate hypothesis for clinical interventions. The affinographs represent relationships as clients see them (such as having more than two parents). The book offers varied uses of the method in working with troubled families over diverse situations and across the helping disciplines. Case studies illustrate __compound__ families formed through serial marriages, multiple generations, and multiple households. Extramarital relationships, from the briefest to the most committed, are also examined. The book covers: * Constructing the affinograph. * Charting patterns of divorce and remarriage. * Assessing gay and lesbian families. * Using affinographs in family therapy. * Applying affinographs to child protection work. * Integrating affinographs into genealogy. Family therapists, sociologists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and others who provide services to families will find __Affinographs__ both highly informative and eminently useful. The book also lends itself to research and teaching applications. The need for a new method for assessment and imaging of families, couples, and individuals has emerged in response to changes in family forms during the twentieth century. In the twentieth century divorce, remarriage, out-of wedlock child bearing, and alternate life styles have replaced monogamy as predominant form of marriage and the family. The methods of representation and assessment on the other hand remain based on the nineteenth century eugenics models embedded in the modern day genograms. This book is based on the premise that changes in family structure require changes in methods of representation, assessment, research, and teaching. This book introduces such a method in the form of a model named the affinograph. The affinograph provides a method which allows a greater respect for individuals, especially if their relationships contradict the preconceived institutional notions of marriage and the family. Improvement in visualizing families of various types and complexities can make affinographs an important new method that can bring together the theory, research, and application across varied disciplines that comprise family sciences. Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What Is an Affinograph?....Pages 1-6 Why Affinographs?....Pages 7-14 How to Construct Affinographs....Pages 15-26 Critical Issues in Protecting Children and Serving Families....Pages 27-36 Patterns of Divorce and Remarriage....Pages 37-45 An Affinograph Method of Assessing Gay and Lesbian Families....Pages 47-55 Affairs and Ephemeral Relations with Lasting Consequences....Pages 57-65 Affinographs in Family Therapy....Pages 67-75 Affinology: The Affinograph Method for Genealogy....Pages 77-86 The Future of the Affinograph....Pages 87-90 Back Matter....Pages 88-88