FAMILY VALUES MARCH 2017 • ISSUE 1 • VOLUME 1 • $ 12.00
CONDITION AND FAMILY MEMBER
FAMILY DYNAMICS
FAMILY THEORY APPLICATION
Mallory Steinkellner NURS480: Family Nursing
California State University, San Marcos
Family Assessment ISSUU Visual Report
Figure 1. [Untitled still of the Addams Family photo]
MEET WEDNESDAY ADDAMS AND HER STRUGGLE WITH CONDUCT DISORDER
W
ednesday Addams is the oldest daughter of Gomez and Morticia. She takes after her mother in personality, who is even in temeperament, muted, and witty. Wednesday is pale, wears her dark hair in twin braids, primly dresses, and loves the color black. She seldom smiles, can be quite secretive, and is grim-looking. Wednesday is fascinated with death and macabre and is seen as having sadistic tendencies with a dark personality, such as burying a cat alive and having a morbid interest in harming her brothers. She has a deep interest in the Bermuda Triangle, raises spiders and can be seen carrying around a headless doll that she requested her brother guillotine. When sent to camp, Wednesday plots her escape by feigning perkiness and agreeing to play the role of Pocahontas in order to lead a revolt within the camp and causes chaos by starting a fire.
Figure 2. [Untitled still of Wednesday Addams
C
onduct disorder is a serious behavioral and emotional disorder that often begins in childhood and adolescence. It is behavior that is marked by a pattern in which the rights of others and the rules of society are violated along with societal norms and rules. Conduct disorder is thought to precede antisocial personality disorder. Some presenting signs and symptoms include (Varcarolis, 2015): -Aggressive behavior towards others -Physical cruelty to people/animals -Destructive behavior -Use of weapons -Deceitfulness -Lack of remorse -Callous/lack empathy -Unconcerned about school, work, or other activities -Does not express feelings or show emotion -May be described as shallow, insincere, or superficial
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LURCH The family butler.
GOMEZ Husband to Morticia, father to Wednesday, Pugsley, and Pubert (not shown), son to Grandmama, and brother to Fester.Â
y l i m a f MORTICIA Wife to Gomez, mother to Wednesday, Pugsley, and Pubert (not shown).
GRANDMAMA Mother to Gomez and Fester, grandmother to Wednesday, Pugsley and Pubert (not shown).
FESTER Lost for 25 years, brother to Gomez, son to Grandmama, uncle to Wednesday, Pugsley, and Pubert (not shown).
PUGSLEY Son to Gomez and Morticia, grandson to Grandmama, brother to Wednesday and Pubert (not shown), nephew to Fester.
Figure 3. [Untitled still of the family photo]
FAMILY STRUCTURE
s n o cti n Fu Figure 4. [Untitled still of the Addams Family at the front door]
al t n e m es p o g l e A s Dev c i m a n y The Addams Family ge D a t S The Addams Family is an extended family unit consisting of the nuclear family of Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Pubert. Uncle Fester and Grandmama make up the extended portion of the family. Together, they fall within the stage of a family with adolescent children within the Family Life Cycle. However, they have a new infant within the family and, therefore, are in two developmental stages at the same time (Kaakinen, Coelho, Steel, Tabacco, & Hanson, 2015).
ages range from infant to age 65+. Pubert, the youngest, is still in the age of infancy. Pugsley, the oldest, and Wednesday are about a year apart, ranging between 12 to 14 years old. Gomez, Morticia, and Fester all range between 35 to 45 years old. Grandmama, the eldest, is 65 or older.
-Gomez is an eccentric multi-billionaire in which most of his wealth comes from inheritance and investments. He does own many businesses around the world. He is passionately in love with his wife and is a devoted family man. -Morticia is the real head of the family who is soft spoken and subtle but is a homemaker with fierce family loyalty. -Fester, also heir to the family inheritance, is known for his bizarre behavior and strange ability to produce electricity. He is gentle and caring, respects Gomez and Morticia, and loves his niece and nephew. -Grandmama shows interest in the occult by concocting potions, spells, and hexes as well as dabbles in fortunetelling. -The older children go to school, take part in talent shows, and are not expected follow societal norms.
TRADITIONS
Culture
English is the primary language. They are a close knit family who all share macabre interests. They view their own behaviors as "normal" and are puzzled when visitors are horrified since they believe the rest of society shares their views. They live in a gloomy mansion next to a cemetery and swamp.
STRENGTHS
Figure 5. [Untitled still of Wednesday and Pubert]
Religious The family follows occult practices, believing in the supernatural and mystical. It is believed that they came from a line of witches from Morticia's side of the family.
CHALLENGES
COMMUNICATION PRACTICES Overall, the Addams Family display an open line of communication with each other. While Gomez and Fester are more likely to display outbursts of emotion, the others, especially Morticia and Wednesday, are more subtle, muted and seldom show emotion, such as smiles. Gomez and Morticia show affection to each other through kisses and dance,
Close-knit family Encourage individuality Have fun being themselves Similar interests Care about each other's well-being as they see fit Encourage the children to participate in extracurricular activities, such as theater and sword play
Figure 6. [Untitled still of Gomez and Morticia]
Figure 7. [Untitled still of Wednesday and Pugsley in the electric chair]
Do not understand how their beliefs clash with societal norms Laissez-faire parenting style
APPLICATION OF FAMILY THEORY According to the Family Systems Theory, the family is made of individuals that interact with each other to form a whole. Its focus is on the connections and interdependence of all the individuals within the system. Therefore, a change in functioning of one part of the system affects the entire family (Kaakinen, Figure 8. [Untitled still of Wednesday with a bottle] Coelho, Steel, Tabacco, & Hanson, 2015).  Some immediate problems include Wednesday's actual and potential for other-directed violence, impaired social interaction, and defensive coping due to history of violent antisocial behavior, such as ignoring instructions, physical cruelty to people and animals, fire setting, and disturbed relationship with parents due to inadequate role models. As a family, their interests in macabre and morbidly based ideologies lead to a misunderstanding of the seriousness of Wednesday's diagnosis of conduct disorder. There is an inability to recognize the presence of the disorder and the family does not believe that Wednesday's behavior needs correcting. Therefore, there is also an inability to provide a home environment that is conducive to personal development as well as health maintenance. Ultimately, Wednesday's violent behaviors also poses a threat to society, which could negatively affect the family in the long run, such as getting kicked out of school, incarceration, and elevation of violent attempts that lead to murder (Buitelaar, Smeets, Herpers, Scheepers, Glennon, & Rommelse, 2013; Townshend, 2015; Vera, 2012).
Figure 9. [Untitled still of Wednesday dressed as Pocahontas]
APPLICATION OF FAMILY THEORY (CONTINUED) es ions
t rven e t n I
Assess parents, other family members, teachers and patient for a careful history and psychiatric interview/observations. Determine the perception of each family member in regards to the diagnosis and how they recognize the illness. Help the Addams family to identify problems that may be necessary to change. Encourage all members of the family to point out a family process that they would like to see be changed and promote group discussion about ways to promote change. Discuss coping strategies and encourage each family member to discuss how he/she copes with stress and adversity. Promote examining the possible contribution of each family member to the family's problems and discussion of possible solutions.Â
com Out Effective communication patterns will be demonstrated by each family member and each member will be able to express their thoughts and feelings openly and honestly. All family members will develop and establish more adaptive coping strategies. Members of the family will be able to point out patterns of function that are destructive and be able to effectively problem-solve them.
(Buitelaar, Smeets, Herpers, Scheepers, Glennon, & Rommelse, 2013; Townshend, 2015)
References
Buitelaar, J., Smeets, K., Herpers, P., Scheepers, F., Glennon, J., & Rommelse, N. (2013). Conduct disorders. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 22(Supple. 1), S49-S54. doi: 10.1007/s00787-012-0361-y Kaakinen, J., Coelho, D., Steel, R., Tabacco, A., & Hanson, S. (2015). Family health Care nursing: Theory, practice and research (5th ed.). F.A. Davis: Philadelphia. Townshend, M. (2015). Psychiatric mental health nursing: Concepts of care in evidence-based practice (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company. Varcarolis, E. M. (2015). Manual of psychiatric nursing care planning: Assessment guides, diagnoses, and psychopharmacology (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders. Vera, M. (2012). Family nursing care plan: Assessment and diagnoses in family nursing practice. Retrieved from https://nurseslabs.com/family-nursing-care-plan-assessment-diagnoses-in-familynursing-practice/ [Untitled still of the Addams Family photo]. Retrieved from http://www.moviestillsdb.com/movies/theaddams-family-i101272 [Untitled still of Wednesday Addams]. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/440015826075443406/ [Untitled still of the family photo]. Retrieved from http://ravepad.com/page/judithmalina/images/type/photo/4 [Untitled still of the Addams Family at the front door]. Retrieved from http://www.screeninsults.com/addams-family-the.php [Untitled still of Wednesday and Pubert]. Retrieved from https://moviepilot.com/posts/3560089 [Untitled still of Gomez and Morticia]. Retrieved from http://rebloggy.com/post/baby-black-and-whitecreepy-gothic-spooky-the-addams-family-gomez-gomez-addams-m/24929802817 [Untitled still of Wednesday and Pugsley in the electric chair]. Retrieved from http://www.screeninsults.com/addams-family-the.php [Untitled still of Wednesday with a bottle]. Retreived from http://29secrets.com/style/hocus-pocus-12halloween-costume-ideas-for-the-lazy-girl/9/ [Untitled still of Wednesday dressed as Pocahontas]. Retrieved from http://www.screeninsults.com/addams-family-the.php