Literature Review

I was searching the internet to find a subject that I felt presented an unethical situation for a class requirement. It could be in any form of media including areas in writing, painting, or live video. I discovered a report done on 9/5/2013 by Matt Hoverton from CNN introducing a new ‘concept’. A company in Waco, Texas called Hornet Signs specializes in signs and marketing and currently design and apply vehicle wrap-around advertising.  On a whim, the owner of the company decided to have the artist within the company design different types of images to stimulate reaction and possibly increase sales. The image that was highlighted during the news clip was an actual photograph taken of a female coworker, placed in the cargo section of a pickup truck. She was unidentifiable because her hair obscured her face, however she was lying down in a fetal position and her hands and feet were bound with rope. A photograph was taken of her, processed and transferred onto a plastic vehicle wrap and mounted to the closed tailgate of a pickup truck. This photograph was so convincing that when I continued to watch the video the reporter dropped the tailgate of the truck showing that it was simply an image, not a real person contained in the back of a truck. Multiple feelings began to flood my mind. I strongly disagreed with the illustration, even though I did view it as a form of art. The end of the video questioned the value of such a design and if it was detrimental.  The owner of the company stated that sales had markedly increased since displaying the new illustrations (CNN Video).

                  The viewing of the video caused me to reflect upon my own personal reaction to the vehicle design. I remembered seeing multiple vehicle wraps in the past advertising a business done in large, colorful, detailed graphics to as simple as a small mount on the driver’s door. Whether the design covered large areas of the vehicle or just a small side of the vehicle, the message I saw was intense and certainly got my attention. I began wondering what other people may think about this bound image. Would gender, age, or area of study effect their reaction? Would they experience an emotion and if so, would that emotion be positive or negative and to what intensity? Upon review of the literature there are several articles that attempt to measure some variables. 

Fisher, R., & Dub, L. (2005). . Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 850-858.Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/ucpjconrs/v_3a31_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a850-858.htm

The main idea of this research article was gender similarities and emotional experience. After review of current literature, emotional experiences between the genders revealed mixed results. The authors set out to determine if gender makes a difference in responses to advertising. In the past, women were self-reported as being more emotional than men and found that if men were emotional, they generally expressed anger.

               In this research article, the hypothesis was “Do males and females react differently to emotional advertising?” Before the research was conducted there were a group of 32 judges that viewed 15 ads and selected 4 that in their opinion solicited a variety of emotions. The judges were undergraduate business students that did not participate in the research study. The ads were associated with emotional descriptors which included high and low, and positive and negative responses. 

            There were a total of 160 participants; 40 male and female pairs that knew each other. Participants were recruited through signs located throughout the campus of a major Northeastern university. Recruitment was accomplished by posting signs to “attract” same-gender and mixed-gender pairs to participate. The participants were randomly assigned to view the ads as pairs or individuals. After viewing each ad, participants answered a questionnaire using items from the established Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance 8 Point Scale asking questions that ranged from unhappy to contented. This self-reported scale was taken before the viewing of the ads to determine where the participants were emotionally before viewing the ads. The participants were randomly placed into viewing areas in couples, or alone to measure gender response and if social context had anything to do with their reaction. Immediately after viewing each ad, the researchers answered a six point Attitude Scale ranging from “bad” to “loved it” to measure their self-reported attitude, before viewing the next ad. The outcome of the research raised the possibility that females and males had the same emotional responses and it did not matter whether they sat with the same gender or with the opposite gender or by themselves.

             The research seemed to be well thought out and the research process did attempt to prevent many pitfalls. The students were asked to volunteer to participate and were randomly arranged however, there was no indication if their confidentiality was protected. The selection of participants was done by questionable means.  The researchers shared that signs were posted to “attract” people to participate.  It was not disclosed by the researchers what the signs actually said. They advertised for same-gender and mixed-gender couples, but did not define what this meant. The selection of participants was limited because they could only participate if they had an associate that was willing to participate as well.

           The site of the study was “a Northeastern University” which makes the reader wonders why they did not disclose the site. The researchers did not share if confidentiality was maintained and how they kept responses properly assigned for later tabulation. The group that determined which ads would fall into which category were undergraduate business students. They did not participate in the study, but the group did all belong to a school of business and the validity of their opinions about emotional responses to the ads is questionable, as their field of study could have skewed their opinions. The research was vague about actual participants, and did not indicate their ages (assumed to be college age) or majors which could have had an impact on their emotional impressions of the ads. The use of the established scales was a good strategy as well as being sure that each participant viewed the ads and then immediately completed the emotional response scale before moving on to view the next ad. Having couples participate that already had knowledge of the other should have helped correlate if their emotions were affected when they were with someone else, but that cannot truly be assured.

Barrett, L. F., Robin, L., Pietromonaco, P. R., & Eyssell, K. M. (1998). Are women the "more emotional sex?" Evidence from emotional experiences in social context. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 555-578.

This research study had 104 students sampled; 56 students from the University of Massachusetts and 48 students from Pennsylvania State University. Only 70 students chose to participate; 28 males and 42 females. They were encouraged to participate by receiving course credit and being entered into a lottery drawing for 50 dollars.

         The study wanted to know “whether sex differences and emotion are related to the social context and address differences between global, retrospective, online, momentary, and self-descriptions of emotional experience and expression.” The researchers were attempting to find out if women are more emotional than men.

         Participants were given a code number and were not identified by name to maintain confidentiality. Before entering the room the participants had to rate their mood based on a self-reported Likert Scale which ranged from "do not like at all” to “strongly agree.” The participants were brought into a laboratory setting three different times. The first time the participants were encouraged to keep records of their social interactions with other people for a week. When they came in for the second visit, the participants returned the completed record. When the participants came in the third time, the experimenter interviewed the participants to make sure they followed the directions.

        The participants completed another self-reported Likert Scale where they did a self-analysis of their social interaction that they logged for the week describing the quality and the emotion of the interaction and rated their intimacy with the person they interacted with.

         The results of the study provides some evidence that culturally, women are seen as more emotional than men but the results of this study indicated that neither men nor women are any more emotional than the other.

          The research did attempt to protect the confidentiality of the participants which is good; how participants were recruited was not indicated. The number females drastically outnumbered the male participants. This may skew the results, especially considering the fact that the researchers were attempting to determine if females react emotionally more than males.  Offering course credit and a chance at lottery money would encourage students to participate, however it could affect the outcome of the study by having participants that were motivated due to outside influences rather than desire for research.

Dalebroux, A., Goldstein, T., & Winner, E. (2008). Short-term mood repair through art-making: Positive emotion is more effective than venting, 1-8. Retrieved from https://www2.bc.edu/~winner/pdf/shorttermmoodrepair.pdf

The hypothesis for this study was “can short-term moods be repaired through making art? “There were 75 participants; 53 female and 22 male ages 18-22, which were undergraduates from a Psychology Department, from the same college, and participated at random. The participants were randomly placed in 3 groups and viewed a film, “Band of Brothers Concentration Camp.” This was a film that highlighted concentration camps during WWII.  Participants were given a self-report to gauge their mood after viewing the movie.  This study implemented a chi square analysis and an Affect Grid Scale which has been shown to be valuable and reliable by repeated and consistent results use in previous research studies.

        The participants were split into three groups after viewing the film; 25 participants in each group. 25 participants were placed in a group called venting and were asked to draw art scenes that depicted their current mood, 25 participants were placed in a group called fantasizing and were asked to draw pictures depicting something that made them feel “happy”, and the control group consisted of 25 participants that were placed in a group called distracted and were asked to scan sheets of specific symbols.

        Moods were assessed using the Affect Grid Scale after each activity and the preliminary evidence suggests that the participants who drew happy pictures felt more positive and had rid themselves of negative feelings. Those who drew negative pictures maintained a negative mood and the control group had no change in mood.

                The conclusion of the study provided some evidence that when people vent by utilizing art such as drawing, they do not rid themselves of their own negative emotions, however when people who have a negative mood are asked to draw a happy picture, it requires them to fantasize.  The brain function of fantasizing is what makes the person feel better.

         One concern about this study is that the number of females was more than two times the number of males and all undergraduate students from the same field of study, psychology.  This factor may not affect the research, but is to be considered.  Random selection of participates was done, but how was not indicated and there was no indication that their confidentiality was protected in any way.  There was no pre-viewing assessment evaluating the participant’s moods so it is difficult to measure how much the film actually affected them.   

Timmor, Y. and Katz-Navon, T. (2008), Being the same and different: A model explaining new product adoption. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 7: 249–262. doi: 10.1002/cb.249

The hypothesis for this study was what affects customers to purchase new products?” The study was conducted by the Arison School of Business at a university in Herzliya, Israel. There were 158 undergraduate students that participated in the research study. A brain storming event occurred among the researchers and three students who did not participate in the study to identify the new products to be researched in the study. A pilot study was conducted among 50 students before the 158 students were polled. The researchers requested that each participant answer a questionnaire that indicated their reaction to new products: a cell phone with camera, memory stick, and a new fashion item. The fashion item was not specified by the researchers, however each participant had to identify a new fashion item of their choice and rate the item.

          The participants were asked to respond to Brewer’s self-reported 5 point Likert scale, ranging from “do not agree” to “agree”, measuring need for assimilation and need for distinctiveness. The researchers studied correlation coefficients and the variables included assimilation vs. distinctiveness (participants want what others have vs. wants to be different). Assimilation means “purchasing to belong to a larger group as a whole.” Distinctiveness means “desiring to be different.” The study did raise the possibility that when consumers are getting ready to buy a new product, the higher the number of perceived consumers that own the product, the higher the correlation of the consumer purchasing the product. The researchers did note that marketers advertise and promote products by giving the impression that everyone has or will need the product. This action by marketers skewed results of the study because participants had already been exposed to the promotion of the product, even though the items were new on the market.

         The researchers did not indicate what school of study the participants were from, what ages (assumed 18-25 years), how they were selected, what sex they were, or if their confidentiality was protected. Any of these variables could affect the outcome of the research.  The reader questions why the researchers had each participant think of and react to a new fashion item.  Possibly more consistent results would have occurred if the researchers had selected a fashion item for the participants to assess. 

Another variable that was not explored was if the participants had the financial ability to purchase the products. Being college students could affect their financial purchasing power and this variable could have affected their reaction to the product knowing that they were unable to actually purchase it. The participants may actually want the new products, but do they really need the product. This could have entered into their reaction towards the products.  

          There is an indication in all four research studies of further research needing to be done. Fisher in 2005 examined if there are gender differences in responses to emotional advertising. Barrett in 1998 examined women versus men emotional experiences within a social context. Dalebroux in 2008 examined the effect of positive art versus negative art on human emotions. Timmer in 2008 examined what factors affect the success of the marketing of a new product.

       Each research article was selected due to the concepts related to my hypothesis of “do people react positively or negatively to pick-up truck tailgate wrap-around illustrations?” Even though there is research in the literature that examines art, gender, and human emotions, there is no research related to the way wrap-around illustrations on vehicles are perceived and in turn, affect individuals. If I were to conduct my own study, I would have 100 randomly selected participants including 50 males and 50 females which would include 25 Caucasian males, 25 Caucasian females, 25 non-Caucasian males and 25 non-Caucasian females.  Within the study is a variety of age groups from 11 years of age and older, from a variety of undergraduate programs, classes, and faculty and students from a local junior/senior high school.

         For my research I would print colored still shots from the CNN video of the bound woman illustration. One still shot would be of the illustration on the pick-up tailgate when it is up. The second still shot would be of the illustration on the pick-up tailgate when it is down. I would allow participants to view the first still shot while the second still shot was hidden.  Afterwards, they would view the second still shot. The measuring tool of this study would be a self-reported, five-question, five-point Likert scale questionnaire, gathering demographic information and the participants’ emotions and their degree of emotion after viewing the still shots. The researcher feels that studying this hypothesis will be beneficial to a career in human services management.  Understanding gender and potential ethical dilemmas will enhance the researchers understanding of emotional reactions and the management of those emotions.    

Works Cited

Barrett, L. F., Robin, L., Pietromonaco, P. R., & Eyssell, K. M. (1998). Are women the "more emotional sex?" Evidence from emotional experiences in social context. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 555-578.

CNN Video (2013, September 7). Would this Make you Call the Cops? Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/09/07/dnt-texas-truck-decals.kwtx.html

Dalebroux, A., Goldstein, T., & Winner, E. (2008). Short-term mood repair through art-making: Positive emotion is more effective than venting, 1-8. Retrieved from https://www2.bc.edu/~winner/pdf/shorttermmoodrepair.pdf

Fisher, R., & Dub, L. (2005). . Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 850-858.Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/ucpjconrs/v_3a31_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a850-858.htm

Timmor, Y. and Katz-Navon, T. (2008), Being the same and different: A model explaining new product adoption. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 7: 249–262. doi: 10.1002/cb.249

Manager Interview

Management Interview

Professor Dianne Tuzzolino

Lynnette Lockwood

December 15, 2013

 Table of Contents

 Introduction: Management

Hillside Family of Agencies

Middle Management

Decision-Making, Planning, Communication

Managing Workers

Ethics

Leadership Style

Structural Design

SWOT Assessment

360-Degree Feedback/Evaluations

Conclusions

Works Cited

Appendix A: Questions Asked During this Interview

 Chris Brown

Assistant Program Manager

Hillside Children’s Center

9-30-13

Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human resources to achieve goals efficiently and effectively. Efficiency is the development of goals and testing them to see how effective they are. Effectiveness is the degree to which goals are met with due to correct action and skills. There are 4 goals to great management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Planning is selecting goals and creating a plan to achieve it. Organizing involves establishing a task and then selecting strong management relationships that allow people to work together to achieve objectives. Leading involves managers to motivate, coordinate, energize, and help the workers understand the roles, create harmony, and perform at a high level. Controlling involves accurately measuring and monitoring how well goals have been met. Goals have to predetermined, have a specific plan and allocate funds (Jones and George, 2011).

        Ms. Brown is the Assistant Program Manager at Hillside Children’s Center and has been with the agency 17 years with 7 years in a management position. She became interested in this career in high school when she took the ACE course, Introduction to Psychology through Corning Community College. When she attended college at Elmira College for four years she majored in Psychology and Criminal Justice with a minor in Human Services. Brown started at the agency as a Youth and Family Development Specialist and progressed to a position of Primary Family Specialist and then progressed to a management position in case management. She is currently obtaining a Master’s Degree in Human Services from the University of Pittsburgh (Brown, 2013).

Hillside Family of Agencies:

Hillside Family of Agencies is one of the largest non-profit agencies in New York State located for 175 years in Rochester, New York. Hillside is available to its clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Using a budget of more than $120 million per year, Hillside provides more than 120 services to children and families at more than 40 locations across Western and Central New York and in Prince George's County, Maryland and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation.  Hillside retains more than 2,200 staff members who provide a variety of services to more than 12,000 families on an annual basis. Hillside provides individualized health, education, and human services in partnership with children, youth, adults, and their families through an integrated system of care. The organization offers multiple programs such as: adoption, early childhood development, customized services, education and day treatment, developmental disabilities, services for youth, home and community based services, detention services, outpatient treatment, residential, foster care, and youth development. Hillside adoption services specialize in infant, international, and special-needs adoptions. Early childhood development offers neighborhood and home-based services that support and enhance the development of children from birth to five years of age. Customized Services develop services

on an individual basis that meets the needs and strengths of children, families, and communities.

Educational and day treatment serve youth, ages 3-21, who are experiencing school-related and/or family challenges. Developmental Disabilities provide support for community-based or at-home care. Community based services send staff to visit families in the home for support in resolving challenges. Detention Services evaluate youth waiting for due process in family court by addressing medical and psychological issues. Outpatient treatment provides crisis intervention, individual/family/group psychotherapy, diagnostic evaluation, and assessment. Residential treatment offers care for children and adolescents with severe emotional challenges 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The foster care makes connections between trained and experienced foster parents and children in need.  The youth development provides school and home-based that cares for at-risk youth to stay in school and achieve academic success” (Hillside.com).

       Brown has an immediate supervisor who oversees the Hillside’s local satellite office and those manager answers to the CEO and the Hillside Board of Directors located in the Rochester, N.Y. office.  Brown is third in the line of command under a CEO and the top manager. Brown’s position is middle management. This agency handles approximately 150 children by 15 workers averaging 10 children per case load per worker per week.  Some workers may carry more or less depending upon the intensity of each case (Brown, 2013).

Middle Management

Middle management is responsible for multiple responsibilities and must focus on effective management of resources and supporting other workers. Brown as a manager is responsible for organizing and facilitating all management meetings. She calculates time cards that include routine work time, on-call time and mileage accumulated due to driving to meetings and home visits. She directly supervises staff that coordinates 1:1 foster skill building.  She is responsible for performance appraisals that include verbal and written warnings, as well as interviewing new hires and dismissing inadequate workers. She has a case load of her own to carry that has direct supervision of the foster children, the home they are placed within and the foster parents.  If any of the staff are ill, on vacation or absent she is responsible to provide coverage for those families. She takes telephone referrals of potential foster children and does intake interviews about each child and is on call over weekends on a rotation basis (Brown, 2013).

      Brown is also responsible for staff performance supervision, interviews, contacting other agencies related to services needed, making referrals, doing county and state audits. Brown continuously evaluates which workers are the most appropriate match for which child and who can provide the best level of care while meeting that child’s specific needs. Documentation of all care and evaluation of the outcome of that care ensures that documentation is kept up to date and thorough for each county level (Brown, 2013).

     Brown aides the organization to identify children that require advanced levels of care to determine if outsourcing or partnership with other agencies is needed. This generates a higher cost of care provided. She determines what referrals require an immediate response and how satisfied Hillside will be considering the financial constraints. The decision is always placing the child in the best level of care required, while also considering financial reimbursement levels (Brown, 2013).

      The middle management responsibilities for Hillside are numerous but the main focuses are: selection of the most appropriate worker to take the case of a new client and considering the most appropriate services to meet the client’s needs for the best price. The manager needs to experienced and able to make quality decisions and handle stressful situations of downsizing while increasing quality of services. Maintenance of quality would include: role modeling, on the job training and close supervision of workers. Motivating workers can be difficult and an important aspect of the job.  Managers have to be good organizers and time efficient to be able to coordinate all the facets of the job. The difficulty that Brown deals with is that the organization expects her to be a top, middle and worker position simultaneously. She is expected to carry out top management decisions frequently, do her own middle management position and carry a client case load as well.  The rewards to this type of management style are higher financial margins of profit for Hillside, but blurs workers’ line of duty (Brown, 2013).   

        Workers can become confused by thinking Brown is one of them because she carries a case load like they do, but go to her with their middle management mentoring questions as well.  Workers become frustrated and impatient because they do not realize that there is limited time for Brown to complete all the expectations. Experienced managers are required to deal with downsizing while facilitating a high work performance from the workers. The manager can become overloaded, have limited time to deal with nuisance situations, and are required to make fast and efficient decisions.  The outcomes of a decision can be difficult to predict because of the constant change of the clients’ needs and what is right today may not be right tomorrow (Jones and George, 2011).

Decision-Making, Planning, and Communicating

There are several important concepts that a manager needs to do well that include: decision- making, planning, and communicating. Decision-making includes utilizing a programmed response, and following rules and guidelines driven by the rational model. Programmed decision making has a routine, and contains automatic regulations that follow expected rules and guidelines. The rational model of decision-making has six steps. The first step is recognizing a need for a decision, generating alternatives, assessing alternatives, choosing among alternatives, implementing the chosen decision/alternative, and learning from feedback.  An exceptional manager should be able to determine a need for a decision. Generating alternatives are possible courses of action for a need, assessing alternatives examining the legal, practical, ethical, and economic feasibility of the chosen course of action. Once all the pros and cons are determined the course of action that is the most feasible should be chosen. Implementation is accomplished and then an evaluation of the outcome occurs to derive why the goal was or was not met, and to determine guidelines for future decision-making (Jones and George, 2011).

      Planning at Hillside is done in a business-level management style incorporating a time horizon. Business-level planning has long-term goals and outlines specific methods to compete against rivals such as: Kinship, Pathways, and New Directions. The time horizon is carefully calculated and defines the period of time that the plan is to be accomplished. Hillside uses both standing plans, which are used for routine and repetitive occurrences such as children intakes, and single use plans that are done on an individual bases and are specific to each child’s particular needs (Brown, 2013).    

      Communicating involves managing by objectives and setting goals. The organization’s goals are determined by the CEO, top manager and middle manager. Communication of all goals occurs through face to face interaction, email, personal written communications, conference calling, and impersonal written announcements (Jones and George, 2011).  

 Managing Workers 

Brown applies a combination style of technical and human skills management. Technical skills involve job specific altering, leading, and controlling of workers’ behavior. This involves communicating and motivating individuals to complete tasks. Her job includes multiple roles with pressures producing high levels of stress. Some of these pressures come from: customers, competitors, economics, and suppliers. The customers are the biological parents and the children being served, the competitors are Kinship, Pathways, and New Directions, suppliers include Child Protective Services (CPS), persons in need of supervision (pins), probation, and the courts and economic pressure is the funds that come from the three counties; Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua that this Hillside satellite office serves (Brown, 2013).     

            Every manager needs to function and manage outside forces from multiple sources that add challenge to the work environment. These forces would include: pressure from customer, technology, competitors, economics, suppliers, and from political/legal (Jones and George, 2011).  

 Ethics

Anyone that works for an organization like Hillside knows the mission statement expects everyone that works for this organization to exercise ethical aspects in all areas of their work. There are multiple gray areas that make determining the best ethical decision difficult.  Being ethical means making reasonable decisions that are found by general society as acceptable behavior and an unethical decision gains at the expense of hurting others (Brown, 2013).   

      A manager when making a decision making an ethical decision takes into account the impact that it will have upon the major stakeholders of that organization such as the managers, workers, customers, suppliers, the local community, and society.  This organization has firm standards, laws, customs, practices, norms, and values. A human services worker employed by Hillside has a code of ethics as defined by the human services profession which details how to behave and are influenced by their own personal code of ethics that was derived from family, peers, and their own personal upbringing. Society adds pressure through standards, laws, customs, practice, norms and values (Jones and George, 2011).    

 Leadership Styles  

There are multiple leadership styles that Brown utilizes within her leadership role. She has legitimate power, coercive power, expert power, and reverent power.  Legitimate power hires, assigns, and monitors workers and praises performance.  She mentors, supervises, and distributes evaluation appraisals to workers and she can exercise coercive power by making treats of punishment. The upper management encourages the use of authoritarian management style utilizing negative reinforcement by all levels to correct and monitor workers’ on the job behavior. This creates a negative environment and causes the workers to feel resentful and they may even seek revenge towards their upper management. There is no constructive recourse for the workers because they are non-unioned, there is limited ability to obtain a pay raise, minimum promotions available, and there are no bonuses (Jones and George, 2011).   

       The Hillside Organization attempts to balance the negative appraisal style of leadership by utilizing the 360-degree performance appraisals and feedback. While using this style, any worker’s performance is appraised by a variety of sources. These sources could include: supervisors, peers, self, subordinates, customers, and clients. Everyone that affiliates with Hillside is included utilizing an anonymous evaluation within the appraisal process.  Each manger in turn meets personally with each worker and discusses the appraisal together.  The major downfall for this type of assessment is that each affiliate must feel trust on every level of the organization. Brown states that she uses encouragement and positive reinforcement, but the threat of ongoing assessment is constantly present. Great leaders possess certain skills such as: listening skills, encourage change, trustworthy integrity, remaining calm in stressful situations, confidence in abilities, patience, competence, and inspire others (Tracy, 2013).

     Brown has expert power because of her experience working in this job for several years. She exercises this power by role modeling to other workers and gives them direction when assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating a client’s care. To improve all workers skill levels they are encouraged to attend approximately 30 hours per year of educational training (Brown, 2013).   

      Reverent power is showed by the management when she communicates to the workers that she is interested, has concern, and gets to know the employees personally.  This technique works well, but needs to be limited so that workers do not feel that one is being favored over another. Brown demonstrates that she has low employee-centered behavior, and high job-oriented behavior (Brown, 2013).     

 Structural Design

Hillside is made up of several structures: divisional, matrix, authority, mechanistic, and network. The divisional structure produces goods and services for the foster children. Hillside’s impact is widespread geographically over three counties and market to a variety of customers. This structure works well because it takes a team approach to focus on a single service (Gillikin, 2013). The organization uses a matrix structure because it is flexible. There are multiple children moving in and out of the organization’s services and speed is critical to the organization. If the organization does not move fast enough a rival competitor could take over the client’s case.  The authority part of the structure utilizes a strong chain of command that ensures that everyone associated with Hillside progresses through the system by levels of management. The mechanistic part of the structure is driven by the external environment which is the foster children. It has a narrow span of control, it has a tall and vertical structure with hierarchical layers, it is centralized with power maintained at the top of the organization, high degree of formalization with lots of standardizations, rules and procedures and decision-making is decentralized (Williams, 2012).The network structure is if a child comes into the agency and has a deep psychological problem and all the services are filled then Hillside can contract with another agency to work with the client for a specific price. Subcontracting is allowed but outsourcing must be limited due to the drastic increase in cost (Brown, 2013).

SWOT Assessment

Hillside has multiple strengths. Their goals are to respect all people by accepting diverse thoughts, ideas, and opinions to build a strong, culturally competent, and inclusive community. Their goal is to empower everyone through individuals, families, and team decision-making processes through strong leadership. They strive to create partnerships with children, youth, parents, and families as partners. The Hillside organization has multiple opportunities to make children’s lives better and ultimately improve society. The services that they offer are diverse, a variety of levels of intensity, easily accessible, boundaryless and outsources (Brown, 2013).
                   The weaknesses are the multiple levels of management that are expected of the middle management personnel. This allocation to employees to fill multiple roles simultaneously is not efficient and makes the manager less effective. The manager becomes overwhelmed, impatient with multiple questions and contacts from workers and does not have sufficient time to organize, plan, implement or evaluate their expected duties (Brown, 2013).

      There are multiple threats to the success of the Hillside Organization which would include: decreased regulations, rivalry between outside organizations, power of the suppliers and customers, and substitution of a product. Hillside does outsourcing of services so working well with these other agencies is crucial. Not having rivalry between organizations keeps the professional relationship healthy and makes Hillside more effective and efficient when they cooperatively coordinate services with other agencies. The recognition that the children within their care can exercise their autonomy and file complaints related to the care they are receiving is possible.  Generally children being cared for by the agency do not have a lot of autonomy, but their input is considered. The foster parents that are raising and supporting these children have input related to the success of the services offered. The courts and Child Protective Services (CPS) are other customers and suppliers that require satisfaction of adequate services, in a timely manner, and at a reasonable price.  There is always the threat that if Hillside charges too much for the services they offer or offer poor quality services, they could lose potential clients and other agencies could take advantage of the situation and absorb their customers and suppliers (Brown, 2013).

        If the county and/or NYS regulations were be decreased many more agencies that offer similar services could be developed. Currently in the region that Brown works there are other agencies that do similar services such as Pathways, Kinship and New Directions. The threats to the Hillside organization are: the rivalry between organizations, and decreasing of regulations allowing more competitive agencies to develop.  The power of the suppliers such as CPS is a threat because they could assign the children over to other agencies for care if they are dissatisfied with Hillside. This is when a rival organization can increase their work load and Hillside loses revenue. The final threat is substitution of current services for lower quality. The charges for the care and quality depend on the organization and Hillside is viewed as being more expensive but that does not necessarily reflex that the rival organizations have better care or quality even though it may have a better price. It is difficult to always have a better cost with differentiation. As a manager Brown decisions must follow rules, guidelines and the code of ethics to balance cost with quality differentiation on a daily basis.  Quality develops by continuing education, which is encouraged and close supervision of workers (Brown, 2013).  

360-Degree Feedback:

The 360-degree feedback method is used by Hillside at every level of employment. This style of evaluation includes: direct feedback from an employee's subordinates, peers, and supervisor(s), as well as a self-evaluation. Hillside also includes feedback from external sources, such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders. The results from 360-degree evaluations are used as work appraisals to give feedback to workers to help plan and map their specific paths for improvement and further personal development. Although pay increases can be limited within the Hillside organization the 360-degree feedback evaluations are used in making administrative decisions related to pay and promotions (Jones and George, 2013).

Conclusion

Hillside is an extremely well organized, efficient and effective agency.  It has a good reputation and providing excellent care to all of their customers and clients. The workers have the opportunity to really make a difference in children’s lives. It appears that the workers are satisfied with the organization, but some frustrations are present.  To have management levels work successfully there needs to be clear lines of authority, responsibility and support.  The middle management position functioning in more than one role simultaneously is exhausting and confusing for everyone. Human service jobs can routinely be overwhelming and stressful considering the issues that they work with on a daily basis.  Clear cut lines of management are a must and workers are more likely to be motivated to do their job which will result in higher performance.

         The 360-degree evaluation process is a good method to use with this organization. It empowers all people involved in the process, giving each the ability to evaluate and voice their viewpoints to motivate constructive change. Good interpersonal relationships, growth through self-development and being productive can have a direct effect on the organization to make great services even better.

         Brown advises that anyone that desires to be successful in any level of management needs to remember that the responsibility ultimately falls on them and it is a stressful job. They need to consider political ramifications with each action and learn to balance budgets. Brown stated that even though her middle management position can be challenging she feels: empowered, “in the know”, more actively involved in facilitating change, contributes to policy making and has more control over quality improvements (Brown, 2013). 

                                                         Works Cited

Brown, C. (2013, October 15). Assistant Program Manager, Hillside Children’s Center. Personal Interview.

Gillikin, Jason. "Advantages & Disadvantages of Divisional Organizational Structure." Small Business. N.p., 4 Aug. 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-divisional-organizational-structure-611.html.

Jones, Gareth R., and George, Jennifer M. Essentials of Contemporary Management. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2011. Print.

Tracy, Brian. "Management Skills- What Makes a Good Leader, Leadership Qualities." Brian Tracy. N.p., 5 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. http://www.briantracy.com/business-success/management-skills-what-makes-a-good-leader/.

 Williams, Diana D. "Leadership - Mechanistic and Organic Organizational Structures."Ezinearticles. N.p., 23 July 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. http://ezinearticles.com/?Leadership Mechanistic-and-Organic-Organizational-Structures&id=7422850.

www.hillside.com

Couple Therapy

Marriage between heterosexual couples in Western culture continues to be a common occurrence. Statistics indicate that 90% of U.S. citizens, both male and female, marry by 50 years of age (Emery). Unfortunately, current statistics also indicate that out of the 2.7 million marriages per year in the U.S., 40-50% end in divorce. Poor communication, financial struggles, and infidelity deteriorate many couples’ relationships and cause them to seek outside guidance and resolution (Emery, 2013).

      When a man and a woman enter into the legal/economic/social binding of a marriage, expectations are focused on success and happiness (Wallerstein and Blkeslee, 1996). However, multiple factors enter in that can disrupt these goals.  These interrupting factors are numerous and influences upon the marriage from each partner need to be considered.  Interrupting factors could include: current social-economic status, age, religion, commitment, feelings of love, and desire for children. Current data indicates that married couple’s median age is 26 for women and 28 years of age for men, respectively. Approximately 64% of people currently married in the U.S. are 52% of all males and 48% of all females. However 40% of all first time marriages end in divorce and the divorce rate is even higher for subsequent marriages (Wallerstein and Blkeslee, 1996).

       Researchers indicate that there are multiple tasks that a married couple should accomplish in order to be successful which include: emotional separation, restricting autonomy, supporting during a crisis, forming a safe haven, and maintaining romance. Emotional separation from their immediate families and becoming a new entity as a couple is an important initial step. The couple needs to build intimacy and that can be accomplished by forming strong boundaries; restricting each individual’s autonomy. When either partner is confronted by crisis, they need to be joined closely together and give the necessary support and acceptance to the other partner. A marriage bond should ideally provide a safe haven for each partner where they feel that either of them can express their differences, anger, and conflict. Although maintaining the feeling of romance is a desirable characteristic, providing comfort for each other is a key element. Longevity of a marriage can be reinforced by avoidance of boredom and isolation as a couple (Wallerstein and Blkeslee, 1996).

       Although the division between partners can have multiple causes, there are many common themes. Research indicates that one of the most frequent issues is poor money management skills. Entrance into a marriage bond theoretically should enhance economic security for each partner by sharing in the overall cost of living expenses. Many couples have high hopes of obtaining financial security that is difficult and nearly impossible to achieve as an individual. Any threat to this ideal can prove to be overwhelming and disappointing for one or both partners (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

      Multiple troubled couples have shared that their partner has participated in an extramarital affair. Even though statistics indicate that 25% of marriages are impacted by a physical affair, also it indicates that both genders participate equally. A non-physical affair can be just as destructive as a physical affair because one of the partners ignores the other. Any type of affair threatens the marriage relationship and causes unstable emotions (Emery, 2013).

      Personal problems carried into the marriage by either partner become part of the formula for the couple. These personal problems can have multiple origins such as: medical conditions, psychiatric disorders, medications, psychological issues, sexual dysfunction, irrational behavior, high levels of fatigue, eating disorders, biochemical imbalances and substance abuse (Wallerstein and Blkeslee, 1996).

      Distorted expectancies can produce inappropriate responses (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).  Marriage partners many times expect a certain reaction to a specific situation. These expectations can encompass positive or negative feelings leading to distorted interpretations by either partner resulting in defensive or even aggressive responses. Through their distorted views the partner projects negative characteristics towards their partner with irrational thoughts. These negative thoughts build over time and the pressure can be released in unhealthy, repetitive behaviors (Emery, 2013).  

       Communication and conflict management becomes a key to the survival of the marriage. Negative feelings towards a partner pave the way for conflict such as: criticism, blaming, defensiveness; not taking responsibility, feelings of contempt, projecting superiority or stone walling within the relationship. Basically, any married couple can experience any of these issues at any stage of the relationship. Statistics indicate that disruptive factors are higher within the first marriage and many of these marriages will dissolve within the first five years (Emery, 2013).

        Even though statistics indicate that nearly 50% of marriages in the U.S. dissolve into separation or divorce, there is still a hope that couples are able to recognize major dissention and consequently seek outside resources. Distress in an intimate relationship is the most common reason for the referral of clients. Many distressed couples view couple therapy as a “last ditch” resort, but it should be viewed as a positive.  If they do seek assistance and the outcome improves the relationship or even saves the marriage, then this type of treatment could be beneficial to the couple by preventing single-parent homes (Weatherhead and Flaherty, 2011).

      20 years ago couple therapy was not readily accepted, not only on a personal level, but publicly or professionally. In more recent years the acceptance of marriage therapy has improved and more people understand its legitimacy and helpfulness. Modern day marriage therapists recognize that the institution of marriage has historically evolved. Throughout history many marriages were culturally prearranged and each spouse entered with distinct expectations. Marriage was viewed as fulfilling traditional roles and obligations as approved culturally and there were firm boundaries of gender roles for both men and women. Each partner felt duty and responsibility and focused on the development of their family that generally included children and acquiring real estate. Frequently referred to as the nuclear family, these historical traditions have drastically changed. Changing couples have originated through factors such as family of origin, personality development, and views about the definition of love (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011).

        Research has found that there are many theories that are effective in couple therapy such as: Bowen’s Systems Therapy and Adlerian Therapy. Bowen’s Therapy focuses on each member of the family making up a whole and that no one is alone in any issue because the whole family shares the experience. Adlerian Therapy supports that everyone has a past, present, and future with each member striving for perfection to help overcome their feelings of inferiority. Birth order, taking responsibility for reactions to life events, and the family socialization of a child before the age of five are major themes. He refers to the “me first” mentality that can drastically affect a marriage relationship. Bowen’s Systems Theory and Adlerian Theory seem to be appropriate theories to apply toward couple therapy (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

         Adlerian therapy was developed by Alfred Adler.  He believed that people were influenced their conscience not by instincts (Driskell, 2009). Adlerian Therapy has had a long tradition of being effective in helping couples (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). This theory supports the view that there are three universal tasks that a person must master. The first one is the social task; the purpose is to build friendships. The second task is the love-marriage task; the purpose is to develop intimate relationships. The third is the occupational task; the purpose is to contribute to society (Driskell, 2009).

          Adlerian Therapy holds two basic assumptions: people are social beings and no thought, feeling or act can be understood without the social aspect, and every thought and feeling are goal-directed. Adlerian Therapy supports that people choose their own paths and their own future regardless of their past or genetic makeup (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). This concept of an individual’s choice is the main theme of the therapy (Driskell, 2009). Subjective perceptions of the world and behavior formulate rules that guide their life because of a set of beliefs that include: distortions, exaggerations, and mistakes. Examination of an individual’s choices can be assessed by the therapist helping to gain insights into why certain choices are made. The therapist combines the individual’s set of beliefs, family dynamics, past experiences, and lifestyle to individualize the therapy (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

          The behavior between partners is important to determine intent or goals of each person and can be used to help unlock a couple’s conflict that can facilitate change or be destructive to a relationship (Driskell, 2009). The therapist works with each individual to uncover values and assumptions. When a person becomes aware of how their misconceptions affect their behavior it becomes the task of the therapist to redirect them to a more useful way of living (Mitchell, 2010).

       Adlerian therapy contains 6 concepts: holism, field theory, teleology, creative self, lifestyle, and private intelligence. The therapist applies holism when they interpret: verbal and nonverbal behavior, communication, content of information from the family, overall impression about each family member’s positive or negative behavior, roles and interactions (Abramson, 2007).   According to Mitchell filed theory is applied by the therapist by observing each family member’s interactions within the family and society as a whole.  Teleology is each family member’s motive to strive for avoidance of the “inferiority-complex” and accomplish “goal-direction” that focuses on self-competence based on the past, present and the future. The creative self is the therapist’s belief that each family member needs to be accountable for their own personality and response. A person needs to control their own behavior and not blame others. The lifestyle of each family member is understood by examining their early life experiences which can create a lifetime theme.  Interpretation of their theme dominates understanding their behavior. Private intelligence is the thinking processes of each family member used to justify their sown self-serving actions and reactions towards life. The therapist collects and interprets these six concepts of each family member and begins to develop a therapeutic plan (Mitchell, 2010).

          There are 4 stages of therapy: relationship, investigation, interpretation, and orientation. If both partners are not willing to actively participate in therapy, building a therapeutic relationship and having positive results can be difficult. The therapist must show the resistant person that the therapy is beneficial to them; must immediately assure the couple that the therapist understands and respects their private logic and point of view. In the investigation the task of the therapist is to discover the premise of how they operate and contribute to their relationship and their lifestyle, which gives insight into their difficulties. Ultimately to understand the couple the therapist needs to see how they interact with each other. This can pinpoint the real issues at the core of couple’s conflict (Abramson, 2007). The therapist must discuss with the couple a contract and negotiate areas that the therapist and the couple may disagree. These negotiations reflect how the dynamics and behaviors are contributing to the long-term disruption and how intervention can take place (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

        Intervention strategies often include taking responsibility for behavior once they know the mistake or lifestyle dynamics that created the problems. The couple must set goals and take the initiative to change (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). In reorientation the therapist informs the clients about rules of relationships and communication. They try to guide them away from competiveness, criticism, and humiliation toward a lifestyle that is built on mutual respect, equality, encouragement, and cooperation (Abramson, 2007).The therapist establishes an action plan, makes changes to the interactions they have toward each other, and evaluates (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

        The goals of Adlerian Therapy are to examine the lifestyles, develop couple insight, and change behaviors. People make goals and plans for the future. Adler believed that humans are future-oriented (Driskell, 2009). One of the goals of this therapy is to overcome the inferior parts of self. Adler believed that the inferiority of the subconscious and defense mechanisms play the largest role to determine someone’s behavior. Feelings of inferiority lead to unhappy, incomplete, frustrated, and unsatisfactory lives. An inferiority complex may be developed if the person feels overwhelmed with life and begins to focus on those feelings. An inferiority complex can be communicated to others as an attitude of superiority, which is really a defense mechanism to cover the inferiority. Bullies are a prime example. This complex can cause feelings of shyness, insecurity, indecisiveness, cowardly, submissiveness, and being overly compliant. (Mitchell, 2010).                 

        Adler believed that birth order influenced the way that people behave and this influences personality development (Topness, 2010). Each birth order level has its’ positive and negative aspects (Shulman and Mosak, 2010). The oldest children are usually high achievers, perfectionists, and are intellectual, conscientious, and dominating in social situations. They are parent pleasers, and set examples for younger siblings, and are responsible for other siblings.

       The oldest child usually receives the majority of attention. If a new sibling comes along they might feel threatened and this may lead to resentment of their siblings. The older sibling may feel that they are in competition for attention and this may lead to stress and conflict in the siblings’ relationship. The second born child can be outgoing, less anxious, competitive, and rebellious, attempt to be the best, feel less constrained by rules, and excel at what the first born could not (Topness, 2010).

       The middle child may feel cheated by other siblings and this may lead to feelings of inferiority (Topness, 2010). The middle child is sensitive to mistreatment or unfairness; they are afraid they will miss out. The middle child struggles to figure out where they belong, are eager for parent praise, excel in negotiation; serve as peacemakers of the family, and can be manipulative (Shulman and Mosak, 2010).

       The youngest child can be pleasing to the rest of the family, dependent, selfish, spoiled and pampered due to being taken care of by the family and have a hard time dealing with being told “no”.  They are confident, like to have fun, have great social skills, are independent and are high achievers (Topness, 2010). The youngest child will want to catch up with other siblings and are motivated to achieve this goal (Shulman and Mosak, 2010).

        An only child does not have a rival to compete with so it is sometimes difficult for them to learn to share. They are usually similar to the first born child in that they can be selfish and pampered, have high achievement and are driven, are mature, more comfortable around adults and relate to others well.  They often succeed well intellectually and creatively, but lack social skills (Shulman and Mosak, 2010).

       Family serves as the basic socialization of children (Topness, 2010). Birth order is not the absolute determinant of personality development but does have some influence. There are many variables that influence how a person may develop. Everything within the personality; thinking, feelings, memory, dreams, fantasy, and even handwriting, formulates during childhood (Mitchell, 2010).  The psychological component of the child depends on his birth order. Each child has their own expectations and behavioral demands. How well a child acts and how satisfied they are within their role influences what traits they develop as an adult (Shulman & Mosak, 2010). The social goals associated with adulthood are friendships, comradely, social contact during a career and those they love within a marriage. It’s a failure to meet these results in neurotic personalities (Mitchell, 2010). If fate is determined by birth order, alone we take away the individuals freedom of choice which Adlerian therapy rejects (Shulman & Mosak, 2010).   

        The role of the counselor is to act as a teacher, model, detective, and humorist. He/she needs to explore the conscious thoughts, beliefs, and logic of a couple to get the couple to recognize each other as equals and promote the therapeutic relationship (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). The therapeutic relationship must be an integration on which both couples can agree (Abramson, 2007).  The therapist is an encourager that exams their faculty logic, has them take responsibility, and empowers the couple.  Change occurs through homework assignments and re-education. The therapist alliance focuses on couple strengths and resources (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). The counselor must act as an encourager by expressing positive sides of each person in the relationship despite difficulties, stress ways that the couple needs each other and meets needs, and foster pride (Abramson, 2007). Encouragement can be more effective and bring more change if the couple can move away from scolding and criticizing each other. Encouragement can build up a sense of community and cooperation. But it should not be used where one person of the couple is demeaning of the other. It helps them learn that the real solution is to get rid of the control and create an atmosphere where both parties are accepted (Abramson, 2007).

         There are multiple techniques that Adlerian therapist use. Some techniques include: rapport, examining life style, insight, paradoxical intention, conformation, challenging logic and behavior, and task setting. The question helps to understand how the problem avoids its responsibilities (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011). The couple is asked to imagine what life would be like if they no longer suffered with the problem. Paradoxical intention requires the couple to engage in a problem to see what they can learn and resist pre-set patterns. Once the problem is deemed illogical, the underlying goal of the behavior is revealed. As the couple learns to understand their own personal goals, they develop more confidence and consequently make better choices. Ongoing behavioral monitoring is a must to make the change permanent and successful. It puts insight into action and stops the person from falling into old habits. The therapist assigns homework for the couple that is tailored to bring about change.  Another technique of Adlerian Therapy is assessment. It is an ongoing process and in depth. How the person fits into their family of origin, how their emotional needs are met, and their struggles are examined. Termination of the therapy has to be mutually agreed upon by the couple and the therapist, once the main goals are accomplished (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011). 

                        Systems Therapy supports that when people exist they invariably will develop relationships. Human experiences are best understood in relational terms and situations that connect within their relationships. Family is an open system and is influenced by other factors such as: society, culture, and the economy (Weatherhead and Flaherty, 2011). Families change over time and difficulties within the family may stem from attempting to adapt to changes. A couple is together because of a lack of completion in ways that they feel they have a deficiency, but when the partner fails to complete the deficiency they relive experiences from the past and experience feelings of dependency, isolation, and defensiveness. When they come to therapy they bring unmet emotional needs and expect the therapist to quickly fix the problems, but therapy can be long-term and require many sessions. Being comfortable with oneself results from comfortable acceptance by others, awareness of own needs and feelings, communicating clearly, and accepting disagreements when others disagree. The three important concepts in the organization of the relationship are: wholeness, withdrawal, and boundaries.  Wholeness is where the therapist examines patterns between the couple and sees the larger pattern of interactions between the dyad. The second is withdrawal which includes nagging and passive-aggressive behavior. The third is boundaries which may be strengthened, loosened, or changed through therapy.  Addressing the wholeness, withdrawal, and boundary patterns of the couple by the therapist help the relationship function effectively (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

                        Research has found that conjoint couple and family therapy have been effective in producing change. Approximately 60-75% of couples in treatment together solved more issues compared to 35% of couples that attempted to solve problems individually. Therapy was particularly effective with couples that were dealing with mental illness causing distress and dissatisfaction within the marriage (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005).

       Murray Bowen developed Family Systems Theory. This theorist supported the idea that the family is the emotional unit and includes a network of interlocking relationships that are disciplined and engaged. The driving force of behavior is the submerged ebb and the flow of family life and the push and pull between family members for distance and togetherness. The core issue of conflict results from the balancing life forces that cause family togetherness but at the same time the desire for individual autonomy. If the two forces are successfully balanced the couple can maintain intimacy while differentiating themselves sufficiently (Goldenberg, 2011).

        According to Bowen there are eight interlocking concepts which are: need for differentiation of self, triangles, the nuclear family’s emotional system, family projection, emotional cutoffs, multigenerational transmission, sibling positioning, and society regression. All of these concepts can escalate conflict and stress levels for couples.

         Differentiation of self is one’s ability to separate feelings from cognitive thinking. This concept is demonstrated by the degree to which a person can think, plan, and follow their set of values. In family therapy the therapist encourages the individual of the dyad to not be emotionally detached, but to strive for balance and achieve self-definition.  Being driven purely by emotion adds distress and the goal is to obtain a balance between emotion and cognition. If there is too much fusion between thoughts and feelings the couple will be too emotional attached and become dysfunctional. A person with strong sense of self has conviction and clearly defined beliefs. Fusion within the couple can develop a dysfunctional pseudo-self that generates fearfulness, emotional neediness, and altered thinking to believe that these feelings are real.  In reality, these emotions are composed of feelings and values towards each other (Goldenberg, 2011).

            Bowen developed a scale to measure fusion and self-differentiation ranging from 0-100.   If the person scored below 50 they are low on self-differentiation which means that they like to please, support, seek support from others, lack the capacity for autonomy, need security, avoid conflict, and have difficulty thinking independently. If a person scored between 51 and 75 they have average self-differentiation which means they have definite beliefs and values, are overly concerned with the opinions of others, and are impulsive. If a person has a score of 76-100 they have high self-differentiation which means they have clear values and beliefs, are goal-directed, flexible, secure, autonomous, and can tolerate stress and conflict.  The goal is to obtain the highest score possible which equals a clearer defined self-differentiation, which can contribute to a healthier relationship (Goldenberg, 2011).

             The second concept is triangles which are the building blocks of the Family Systems Therapy. Triangles involve bringing a third party into a family issue.  The intention is to attempt to break a stalemate and ask others their opinion about the conflict (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluos, 2011). This dilutes anxiety, creates stability and flexibility, becomes more flexible and creates higher self-differentiation and which can allow an optimal level of closeness and distance between family members, therefore lessening anxiety. Too many triangles can heighten the problem by projecting their anxiety towards the third person. Projection may cause temporary stability for the couple, but it does not resolve the true issue (Sperry Carlson, and Peluso, 2011).     

         Triangles have 4 possible outcomes such as: the stable person can be destabilized by the third person, the stable couple can be destabilized by the removal of the third person, the unstable couple can be stabilized by the addition of the third party, or the unstable couple can be stabilized by the removal of the third party (Goldenberg, 2011).

        Family Systems Theory focuses on the nuclear family as an emotional system. When a couple is fused it can lead to fighting, distancing, and exploitation of each other. This therapy emphasizes that the dyad and family must have a proper balance of fusion and self-differentiation. Too much togetherness without sufficient self-differentiation causes fusion and the couple becomes highly reactive, emotional, and their strong attraction towards each other turns into dependency and anxiety. Too little togetherness with insufficient self-differentiation leads to disengaged relationships, isolation, and high anxiety. Too much or too little self-differentiation within the couple will over time cause reactive patterns and when not resolved, can lead to a destructive pattern to the family and the couple. Physical or emotional dysfunction of either spouse can lead to a chronic condition.  Overt, chronic, and unresolved marital conflict leads to emotional distancing, over-closeness, extremely negative feelings during conflict and extremely positive feelings during closeness. Low self-differentiation can cause one of the adults within the family to focus on a child and this will cause psychological impairment for that child (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011).

         Family projection involves the couple transmitting their level of self-differentiation onto a child, furthering their separation. Low self-differentiation within the family can cause one member to have over adequate reciprocity, which means they are designated to carry most of the responsibilities (Goldenberg, 2011).

        Emotional cutoff is accomplished by extreme emotional distancing in an attempt to break all emotional ties which escalates into unresolved fusion, high anxiety, and high emotional dependence (Goldenberg, 2011).

        Multigenerational transmission process is a severe dysfunction which is the result of chronic anxiety transmitted over several generations. This transmission of dysfunction will interrupt healthy family patterns for years (Goldenberg, 2011).       

          Sibling positioning contributes to the definition of roles, personality development and interaction between family members. This positioning affects family historically and will contribute to more dysfunction if self-differentiation is not clearly defined (Goldenberg, 2011).           

          Society regression happens when there is extreme anxiety caused by a social environment that causes the couple to surge into a state of togetherness.  This social regression can cause overall social isolation that will contribute to no outside interaction, building a higher level of dysfunction (Goldenberg, 2011).

            The goal of the therapist utilizing the Systems Family Theory includes goals such as: solving problems, improving communication, developing uniqueness, managing anxiety, and increasing individual autonomy within the existing family structure. The therapist needs to interpret the family’s cycle of problems and how to solve those problems more effectively. Communication must be improved by examining how each member handles conflict. The family with the guidance of the therapist examines how each member is self-differentiated and how decision-making is fused emotionally and cognitively. Finding each family member’s uniqueness and their development of the ability to think and behave outside the family is an important goal (Wood and Wood, 2008).  Family therapy helps manage anxiety and achieve a high level of self-differentiation to improve the couple’s ability to adapt to issues within the relationship (Goldenberg, 2011). Increasing individual autonomy and fostering self-actualization and self-esteem are important goals in family therapy (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011).

        The therapist analyzes the past and future emotional system, guides the management of anxiety, eliminates triangles and aides each member to increase their individual self-differentiation. The therapist acts as a coach for the couple and their family and is the active expert to assist members to clarify emotional responses to one another. The couple is encouraged to listen to each other, think about situations, control reactions, learn to express their positions, and avoid triangles. The therapist guides them to develop an authentic, emotionally engaged relationship with other members of the family rather than repeating old, dysfunctional patterns. Confrontation by each family member is discouraged by the therapist and considered non-productive. They are encouraged to talk to the therapist rather than to each other without blaming, but to focus on the part they play in the dyad (Goldenberg, 2011). The therapist’s role is to develop new ways for the couple to handle issues, to make connections between different levels of the relationship and to include the past, present, and future. The therapist must remain open-minded (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2005). The therapist examines the communication styles, problem-solving skills, of the family and then models new ways for the family to interact (Wood and Wood, 2008).

            There are several techniques a therapist uses in family therapy such as: evaluation, interviews, genograms, sculpturing, circular casualty and circular thinking, hypothesis and formulating. An evaluation interview usually happens on the phone between a family member and the therapist. History of the present problem, symptoms of anxiety and distress and the impact upon each person in the relationship, emotional intensity and functioning, how the members seek relief, and what they hope to gain are examined. The degree of dysfunction, pattern of the problem, anxiety level at various stages of life, amount of stress in the past and present, patterns of fusion and degree of emotional isolation are examined. The therapist searches for clues of how these pressures have been expressed within the family relationship and how effectively they have been adapted by the dyad, which includes the nuclear as well as the extended family. A new road map for the emotional system is developed (Goldenberg, 2011).

          Genograms are frequently utilized in family therapy which examines multigenerational patterns of members within a family (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011). Genograms summarize and gather a large amount of data about the relationships, history between family members and the timeline of events (Weatherhead and Flaherty 2011). Genograms usually include names, siblings, ages, marriage status, divorce, adoptions, religion, work, ethnicity, location, socio-economic status, health, and life events for three generations of each partner. (Goldenberg, 2011).

      Sculpturing techniques explore the long-term beliefs and feelings that have shaped the views of each partner and their relationship. Searching for long-term issues can uncover underlying difficulties between the dyad (Goldenberg, 2011).

       Circular causality is when both partners are involved and there is resistance. The therapist pays close attention to patterns and what connects them. The couple needs to be empowered by the therapist to change patterns.  A therapist’s goal for change is an important ingredient to affect long-term relief and resolution of a couple’s issues. Surface changes can reduce symptoms and resolve the presenting problems, but do not substantially affect the underlying issues. An attitude change and new behaviors must be created within the dyad. (Sperry, Carlson, and Peluso, 2011).

        Circular thinking is presented to the couple by the therapist that causes them to examine the issues, causes and effects, gather information, and look for the true root of the problem. Understanding a conflict can be difficult, but it can be enhanced when it is demonstrated how it is connected and how it becomes circular in nature. This circular pattern can be explained by the behavior, beliefs, and feelings maintained by a partner exhibited through their actions. The therapist guides the family to become aware of new ideas and patterns in a non-confrontational manner.

      The therapist hypothesizes and formulates ideas about the family based on their changes over time when different situations are presented. These ideas need to be examined and discussed with the family to validate the therapist’s understanding of the dynamics and offer encouragement to the family. The greater the insights to the situation improve communication within the family to make them more aware of behavior, therefore leading to changes in behavior. The therapist will look at the solutions and successes between sessions, focus on change, and assist the couple and other family members to find long-term solutions for the problems so that when therapy is terminated future difficulties can be prevented (Weatherhead and Flaherty, 2011).

         A combination of Adlerian Therapy and Family Systems Therapy would be the ideal approach. Any therapist could combine the theories that take into account conscious decision- making and rely on the family dynamics, past experiences, values, and lifestyle to gain insight into a problem. Taking into consideration that child development and experiences formulate personality, it is important determinant of who the person becomes as an adult. The past greatly contributes to the person’s potential feelings of inferiority, irrational thoughts and behaviors within their social circle. The past, present, and future are taken into account in relation to how a person can successfully move towards change if they do not understand where the feelings of inferiority, irrational thoughts and behaviors originated. Many times even though a person becomes aware of their behavior that is driven by their own personal misinterpretations, they do not always know how to change.

       Being social is important for a person to be able to move towards meeting their needs, live a satisfied life and reach self-actualization. Intervention strategies and evaluations are helpful for a therapist to use to guide the dyad away from competiveness, criticism, humiliation and lead them toward mutual respect, equality, encouragement, and cooperation. If a partner has an inferiority-complex the couple experiences unhappiness, incompleteness, and feelings of dissatisfaction, exhibited by shyness, insecurities, indecisiveness, cowardliness, submissiveness, and over compliant lives. Self-differentiation is important because it is the ability to separate feelings from thinking. Without self-differentiation a couple cannot think independently and they will suffer from isolation, dependency, and expand their individual autonomy away from the dyad. When these types of dynamics exist and if the relationship ends, there is not enough self-differentiation as individuals, and the dyad may find that they have isolated themselves from the world socially and will lack enough support system to be successful.