Psychological study of whole families.

In his article “Abnormalities of Behavior,” White (1959) introduces a group of references oh schizophrenia with this comment: “It is reassuring to find that several workers are using the concept of interaction patterns in families rather than the questionable cause-effect model of parent influencing child p. 279.” The implied rarity of this concept in the psychological literature is indicated by the fact that four of the five publications White mentions are of psychiatric origin, while only one is psychological; the rarity is underscored by the fact that Hoffman and Lippitt’s ( 1960) entire presentation of family research methods in child psychology is cast explicitly within the cause-effect framework of. parent influencing child.