Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods, 1993
A Contextual Approach

Origins We call this book on theoretical orientations and methodological strategies in family studies a sourcebook because it details the social and personal roots (i.e., sources) from which these orientations and strategies flow. Thus, an appropriate way to preface this book is to talk first of its roots, its beginnings. In the mid 1980s there emerged in some quarters the sense that it was time for family studies to take stock of itself. A goal was thus set to write a book that, like Janus, would face both backward and forward a book that would give readers both a perspec tive on the past and a map for the future. There were precedents for such a project: The Handbook of Marriage and the Family edited by Harold Christensen and published in 1964; the two Contemporary Theories about theFamily volumes edited by Wesley Burr, Reuben Hill, F. Ivan Nye, and Ira Reiss, published in 1979; and the Handbook of Marriage and the Family edited by Marvin Sussman and Suzanne Steinmetz, then in production.

Overview: Family Theories and Methods (W.J. Doherty et al.). Metatheory and Family Studies (D.M. Klein, J.A. Jurich). The Emergence of Family Theories and Methods: The History of Family Theory (B.N. Adams, S.K. Steinmetz). Comparative Methods in Family Research (G.R. Lee, L. Haas). Family Theories and Methods Emerging During 1918-1929: Symbolic Interactionism and Family Studies (R. LaRossa, D.C. Reitzes). Qualitative Family Research (P.C. Rosenblatt, L.R. Fischer). Family Theories and Methods Emerging During 1930-1945: Quantitative Measurement in Family Research (K.S. Wampler, C.F. Halverston, Jr.). Family Theories and Methods Emerging During 1946-1960: Family Development Theory (R.H. Rodgers, J.M. White). Family Theories and Methods Emerging During 1960-1980: Systems Theories (G.G. Whitechurch, L. Constantine). Family Theories and Methods Emerging During the 1980s: Communication Theory and the Family (M.A. Fitzpatrick, L.D. Ritchie). 17 additional articles. Index.