家庭系統的測量與應用

Measurement and Application of Family System

雖然採取系統觀點的家庭心理學已漸受重視，但是由於系統概念的複雜與抽象，國內以此思考方向來探討家庭系統測量的研究則仍在起步階段，有許多相關的理論及實際操作的課題都有待積極澄清與推展。因此本文除了介紹家庭系統的測量工具，分析其內容與方法，並且評估其中的測量困境之外，並進而以青少年問題為例，討論目前在台灣使用系統量表評估家庭動力與青少年適應行為的實徵研究。作者發現，這些研究基本上已超越單一家庭層面（如父母管教態度或家庭氣氛），而試圖應用不同的家庭系統量表，來測量家庭成員中人際關係的處理（如凝聚力、溝通表達、問題解決）、對家庭系統的整體感覺（如滿意度)、或是對家庭系統如何維持（如家庭規則、權力結構、權力互動）等向度。但是由於其研究方向多偏重於量化的問卷調查，以及目前可以用來反映及評量家庭系統觀點在測量方法上的限制，現階段有關的家庭系統研究幾乎都無法捕捉成員之間的動態歷程、循環觀點或整合個人、關係、家庭乃至社會文化等大小不同層面的次系統。因此，如何發展出一套策略來因應測量工具以及實徵研究上的困境，仍是未來家庭研究有待克服的課題。

Recent studies have called for an increase attention to the family system as a crucial context for understanding the individual development. Although many research scales based on the family system perspective have been developed, considerable empirical difficulties have been identified. In order to clarify such theoretical and methodological issues, this paper first reviews the fundamental definitions of family system theory from a family therapy and family psychology perspective. In addition, five family system scales as well as their relative empirical studies are also discussed. While much work has been undertaken to examine the relationship between family interactions and adolescent problem behaviors, the author argues that vary few of the studies have been addressed to the systemic perspective of wholeness, multi-level, and multi-directional views. Pervious research has been mostly conducted through independent, unintegrated lines of studies. It is not clear how dynamic processes play an important role in the family system. Based upon the research deficiencies stated above, the author further suggests that a more integrated and sophisticated method is needed to synthesize the existing literature into a more processed-oriented model that explains how family members within the family subsystem (e.g., marriage, parent-child, and sibling) interact with each other.