Patterns of Turn-Taking and Alliance Formation in Family Communication

The interaction of a sample of families with at least one drug addict (N = 62) was compared to a control group of "normal" families (N = 25) to determine differences in their communicational patterns & organization behavior. Each family took part in a structured interaction session in which its members were asked to plan a family menu & discuss a recent family argument, symbolizing decision making & conflict resolution. The amount of rigidity displayed was measured on a matrix describing the process of turn-taking & alliance formation. The hypothesis that addict families display greater rigidity was confirmed on the decision-making task; there were no differences between the 2 groups for alliance making on the argument task. It was found that normal families display some patterns of organization, but they are considerably more flexible than addict families. 2 Tables, 24 References. S. Karganovic.