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FAMILY COMMUNICATION
COMM 3510-001
Fall 2015
Instructor: Andrew B. Long / Class Location: MCOL E186Office: Hellems 14 / Class Time: MWF 1:00-1:50 p.m.
E-mail. / Office Hours: MW 11:30-12:30 p.m. or by appt.
Course Overview
This course examines a range of theoretical perspectives that have been developed to understand family communication, including systems theory, dialectical approaches, and narrative views. This course is designed to help you learn to analyze communication within family relationships from a theoretical perspective and to provide insight about how family relationships impact our experience of self and our understanding of others. It will also provide an opportunity for you to examine how our cultural expectations about family shape the way we enact and experience family life in the United States.
Course Objectives
1. Recognize and define key terms and major theories used in the study of family communication.
2. Articulate key issues and methods found in family communication.
3. Identify and analyze common communication patterns observable in family interaction.
4. Be able to explain how systems of relationships are developed and managed over time.
5. Be able to articulate how the nature of family life influences our experience of self.
6. Be able to explain how the demands of family life differ for families in different social circumstances.
Required Readings
Required Books
Turner, L. H., & West, R. (2012). Perspectives on family communication (4th ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Additional Readings
We will also read selected research articles and book chapters on course issues. The following readings will be made available online through D2L and are required readings:
(in alphabetical order):
Afifi, T. D., & Keith, S. (2004). A risk and resiliency model of ambiguous loss in postdivorce families. Journal of Family Communication, 4, 65-98.
Coontz, S. (2000). The way we never were: Defining the family in crisis. In The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap (pp. 8-22). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Hays, S. (2005). The mommy wars: Ambivalence, ideological work, and the cultural contradictions of motherhood. In A. Skolnick & J. Skolnick (Eds.), Families in transition (pp. 49-65). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Kellas, J. K., LeClair-Underberg, C., & Normand, E. L. (2008). Stepfamily address terms: Sometimes they mean something and sometimes they don’t. Journal of Family Communication, 8, 238-263.
Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2013). Time for family. In E. Ochs & T. Kremer-Sadlik (Eds.), Fast-forward family: Home, work, and relationships in middle-class America (pp. 217-231). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Townsend, N. (2005). The four facets of fatherhood. In A. Skolnick & J. Skolnick (Eds.), Families in transition (pp. 290-298). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Wolin, S. J., & Bennett, L. A. (1984). Family rituals. Family Process, 23, 401-420.
Course Assignments
Exams (2 x 100 points each)
We will have two exams—a midterm and a final exam. They include both objective and essay items but will emphasize essay responses, which involve integration and analysis of concepts.
Reflection Paper Assignment (20 points)
This short paper (about 2 pages in length) is designed to help you reflect on and apply a concept we have been reading about and discussing in class. Further information about this assignment will be provided in class.
Discussion Questions Assignments (3 x 10 points each)
You will be required to complete and turn in discussion questions for the non-textbook readings we complete. These are due in typed, hard copy on the date we discuss the reading in class; they are preparation for our discussion. No DQs will be accepted late for credit because the goal of these is to prepare you to participate in our discussion.
Unequal Childhoods Discussion & Summary/Analyses (2 x 25 points each)
We will be reading Unequal Childhoods and will be discussing it in class and in discussion groups. This book is an interesting ethnographic study that provides rich description of different families’ lives. You will be asked to provide two written analyses of the book (each reflecting about half of the material in the book), each about 4-5 pages long; these analyses will help me assess your understanding of the book and your reactions to it. Further instructions about analyses will be provided in class. Please note that analyses must be submitted on the due date or you will not be allowed to participate in the discussion group, which is also a portion of your grade. I will assign discussion groups that will meet twice on designated dates (see schedule). Further information will be provided in class about expectations for discussion groups.
Participation & In-Class Assignments (50 points)
Attending class is important to your overall performance in the course. It is also important that you attend class prepared to discuss the reading and ideas we are exploring. A grade will be assigned based on the contributions you make to class discussion and the completion of short assignments and activities given in class.
Semester Project (100 points total)
There are two options for the semester project. Further information will be provided in class. I will ask you to work with a partner on the semester project, and each pair of students will submit one final paper as well as assignments leading up to the final paper (for which they will both earn the same grade). If you have a specific reason that you need to work alone, please let me know.
Project options.
Thematic analysis of online discourse about family. For this assignment, students will conduct a thematic analysis of the views of a family process that are reflected in an internet forum. The goal of this project is to use internet discourse to develop insight into people’s experiences of family and to reveal the cultural views and values we ascribe to family processes. You will select a family process you are interested in that is the focus of discussion on the internet. A variety of family processes are openly discussed on the internet in forums/discussion boards that are open. These include parenting, step-parenting, divorce, and adoption. You will first identify a process you want to learn about and then we will identify a discussion forum for you to examine. You will develop your knowledge of this family process by reading research literature that develops your conceptual understanding of the process. Then you will examine the discourse in the forum you’ve selected to see what themes emerge around this process. You will develop a mini-research paper (of approximately 12-15 pages) that provides a summary of the research literature on the process you selected, a discussion of the discourse you examined, and an analysis of the themes evident in the discourse.
Multigenerational family interviews. For this assignment, each student will interview at least three people
from different generations in their family (for a total of six interviews per student pair). The goal of this project is to better understand a specific aspect of family experience across generations. To meet the expectation of three generations, you would need to be able to interview a grandparent, parent or stepparent, and sibling or cousin. In order to make this project meaningful, you need to identify an aspect of family life/experience that might have changed across the generations. One aspect that works well for this project is religion or religiosity. Another topic that could work well is marriage and expectations for gender roles and work. If there is another topic that you think would work well with your family, please talk with me about it. You will first examine research that provides insight into your selected aspect of family life. Then, you will use resources I provide to create interview guides for each of the interviews. Then, you will conduct and record interviews with each family member. Your final paper will be about 12-15 pages and will report on the literature you read about this topic as well as provide an analysis of the interviews you conducted and their connection to the literature your read.
Course Grading
Course grades will be based on the point system below. Grades for assignments will be posted on the D2L gradebook within one week. I advise you to track your own grade progress throughout the semester.
Possible Points
Midterm Exam 100
Final Exam 100
Reflection Paper 20
Discussion Questions 30
UC Book Analyses & Discussion Groups 50
Participation & Short Assignments 50
Semester Project 100
Total Possible Points = 450
Final grade assignment will be determined as follows: 93% and above=A; 90%-92%=A-; 87-89%=B+; 83-86%=B; 80-82%=B- 77-79%=C+; 73-76%=C; 70-72%=C-; 67-69%=D+; 63-66%=D; 60-62%=D-; 59% or below=F
Grading Philosophy
“A” is an extremely good grade. It means you have demonstrated excellent mastery of the material; your work and performance were consistently better than nearly everyone else in the class.
“B” is a very good grade. It means you did all of the required work and performed in class at a level that is noticeably and demonstrably superior to many of your classmates.
“C” is a good grade. It means that you met all of the expectations for students noted in the syllabus, and you did all of the required work at a level that was competent.
Anything below “C,” means you did not master the material adequately. A grade below C should prompt you to assess your study/classroom habits and visit office hours so you can diagnose what you need to do differently in your studying, assignment preparation, etc.
Grading Note
Your goal in this course should be to take advantage of a learning opportunity. I want you to learn things about family communication that will help you in your own relationships and will teach you to better analyze complex relational systems that emerge in other contexts (like at work, school, or in your community). Earning a high grade in this course is a good thing, but be honest with yourself and with me about your efforts here. Remember, there is an expectation of 3 hours of work for each hour in class as the appropriate standard for work requirements. This means that for this course you should expect to spend up to 9 hours per week on the course (excluding class time). Therefore, if you have many other demands on your time or are highly focused on other coursework, earning a high grade may be difficult. I cannot make grading changes simply to help students avoid academic consequences such as delayed graduation, academic probation, loss of scholarship, etc. If you have questions or concerns about a grade, please contact me within one week of a graded assignment being posted on the D2L gradebook.
COMM 3510 Course Policies
Student Expectations
Learning is an active process. There is considerable and convincing research that we learn best by reading, writing, and talking about information. I expect you to complete the assigned reading (on schedule) and to be ready to discuss it. I also expect you to work diligently on writing assignments and to be sure that they reflect your best thinking and writing. I expect your comments in class to contribute to our understanding of the material and to show that you have been thinking about the issues before you arrive in class. Finally, I expect you to arrive to class on time and leave at the end of class. If you have a special reason to come to class late, please inform me in advance; if you need to leave class early, please sit near the door that day and let me know about your early departure before class.
Technology Use
Please silence and refrain from using cellular devices during class. Other devices such as tablets or laptops should only be used for note taking and assigned classroom activities and are not to be used during classroom discussions. If you violate this policy, it will be sanctioned. Also note that there is very little evidence that taking notes on a device improves your learning; in fact, there is evidence technology use may even decrease retention of information. Moreover, recent research shows students who are not using technology experience lower learning when others around them are multitasking during class (Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013). Please keep this in mind when you are using technology in this classroom.
Classroom Discussion
Everyone has some expertise about family by virtue of living. But knowing one’s own lived experience of family is just one step toward understanding family communication. In a course such as this, it is important that you focus on trying to expand and discipline your understanding of family. This is particularly important during class discussion. Please remember that while sharing experiences or applying the course concepts to your own experience can be useful, we want to be careful not to let the discussion shift to simply personal reflection or disclosure. Additionally, while participation is important, you are not required to share anything personal about your own family experience in class discussion to receive a high participation grade. The value of a course like this is to gain perspective on complex relational issues and analyze what occurs in relationships. This gives us insight into relationships in general and helps us understand important social processes such as cooperation, continuity, and conflict. Finally, I expect everyone in class to be thoughtful and respectful of others contributions during our discussions.