1. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
COMMTheory
The Interactional View: Palo Alto Group
Slide 1

2. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 2
• Assumes that relationships are embedded within a
________
• Reject idea that communication is about
______________ motives and personality traits
• Instead
• How individual behavior affects system
• How system affects individual behavior
The Family as a System

3. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 3
• Relationships are complex functions in the same
sense that mathematical functions link multiple
variables.
• Each family plays a one-of-a-kind game with
homemade rules.
• Family ________________: status quo
The Family as a System

4. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 4
• One Cannot Not Communicate
• Communication is not always _____________
• Is perception reality?
• Symptom strategy
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications

5. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 5
• Communication = Content + ________________
• The latter classifies the former
• metacommunication
• Each message attempts to express content,
but it also says something about the
relationship
• Nonverbal elements are particularly
important
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications

6. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 6
• The Nature of a Relationship Depends on How both
Parties ____________ the Communication Sequence
• See p. 175
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications

7. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 7
• All Communication is Either Symmetrical or
Complementary
• Concerns questions of status, control, and power
--One-up communication is movement to gain control
of the exchange.
--One-down communication is movement to yield
control of the exchange.
--One-cross communication is transitory
communication that moves toward neutralizing
control.
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications

8. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 8
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications
Figure 12.2: Matrix of Transactional Types

9. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 9
• Family systems are highly resistant to change.
• We learn to play roles that maintain status quo
• Family members are often caught in the double bind
of mutually exclusive expectations.
• “You ought to love me!”
• “Be spontaneous!”
Trapped in a System with No
Place to Go

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Slide 10
• The paradox of the double bind is that the high-status
party in a complementary relationship insists that the
low-status person act as if the relationship were
symmetrical, which it isn’t.
• “I want you to stop drinking for your own sake.”
Trapped in a System with No
Place to Go

11. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 11
• Effective change for the whole family will only
come about when members are helped to step
outside the system and see the self-defeating
nature of the rules under which they’re playing.
This is called reframing. (Watzlawick).
• Reframing is similar to waking up from a bad
dream; relief comes only when you step outside
the system by waking up.
Reframing: Changing the Game
by Changing the Rules

12. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 12
• Reframing your (status quo) attitudes
• Shifting your perspective
• Example: quit blaming
Reframing: Changing the Game
by Changing the Rules

13. © 2003 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 13
Critique: Adjustments Needed
Within the System
• Watzlawick’s co-author Bavelas has recommended
some modifications to their original axioms.
• Although the first axiom states that we cannot not
communicate, she concedes that some nonverbal
behavior is not communication.
• In some cases, no _____-________ relationship
• Systems theories involving people are difficult to
evaluate because of their equi-finality—a
characteristic that means a given behavioral
outcome could be caused by any or many factors
that are interconnected.