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How Structural Family Therapy Works

Verywell / Jiaqi Zhou

• What SFT Can Help With
• Strengths of SFT

Things to Consider

How to get started.

Structural family therapy (SFT) is a type of family therapy that looks at the structure of a family unit and improves the interactions between family members. This approach to therapy was originally developed by Salvador Minuchin and has become one of the dominant forms of family intervention.

It suggests that dysfunctional family relationships can create stress and mental health problems for members of that family. 

By addressing how members of the family relate to one another, the goal is to improve communication and relationships to create positive changes for both individual family members and the family unit as a whole.

What Are the Primary Components of Structural Family Therapy?

Structural family therapy relies on a technique known as family mapping to uncover and understand patterns of behavior and family interactions. During this process, the therapist creates a visual representation that identifies the family's problems and how those issues are maintained through family dynamics.

This map diagrams the basic structure of the family, including the members of the family unit, their ages, genders, and relationships to one another. Aspects of the family observed during this process include:

• Family rules
• Patterns of behavior
• Family structure/hierarchies

This process frequently involves having family members themselves make their own maps describing their family. This not only boosts engagement in the therapeutic process but also gives a therapist a better understanding of how individual family members view their place within the family.

"Inviting family members to place the people and write their names inside a circle promotes a recognition of their mutual belongingness, an awareness that 'these are us,'" explained Salvador Minuchin and his colleagues in Working With Families of the Poor .

After this initial process, the therapist observes the family during therapy sessions and in the home environment to track interactions and develop a hypothesis about the nature of the family's relationships and interaction patterns.

Other techniques that may be used during SFT include:

• Joining : This technique involves the therapist developing a sharing and empathetic relationship to "join" the family.
• Boundary-making : The therapist will help the family identify, explore, and adopt clear boundaries and hierarchies within the family.
• Role-play : This involves acting out scenarios with the therapist's guidance to look at certain patterns of behavior, identify dysfunction, and practice enacting alternatives.
• Reframing : In cognitive reframing, the therapist helps family members think about situations in different ways or see things from a different perspective. This can help people see experiences more positively.

What Structural Family Therapy Can Help With

Structural family therapy can be helpful for many families, but it is often recommended in situations or life events that involve:

• Families affected by trauma
• Divorce, separation, or remarriage  
• Blended families
• Intergenerational families
• Single-parent families
• When one family member is affected by a mental health condition such as depression , anxiety , substance use, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Families affected by chronic illness or disability
• Significant life changes such as changing careers, coming out , or moving

Any family that is coping with tension or conflict can potentially benefit from structural family therapy.

Vulnerable families faced with readjustments caused by shifting roles, changed norms, and new demands may benefit from this type of therapy, which has been shown to help empower and strengthen the entire family system.

Benefits of Structural Family Therapy

Families struggling with conflict can benefit from this type of therapy for many reasons. Some of the ways it may help include:

• Corrects imbalances within a family
• Establishes healthy boundaries
• Helps individuals improve their reactions to changing demands
• Improves communication
• Improves hierarchies within the family system
• Increases parental competence and satisfaction
• Improves relationship dynamics
• Reduces anger and resentment

SFT recognizes that many aspects of a family's structure—including behavior patterns, routines, habits, and communication—can contribute to dysfunction. However, this approach to therapy can help families become more stable and improve support to individual family members who may need extra help by working to address these issues.

It can be beneficial for families that have dealt with some significant change in their lives. For example, this might involve the death of a family member, a change in the family structure through a divorce, or some trauma such as interpersonal violence or an accident. 

What Are the Strengths of Structural Family Therapy?

Structural family therapy has been shown to be effective at helping to address problems within families. Studies have also demonstrated the efficacy of this type of therapy. 

• A 2019 study looking at the impact of family therapy on adolescents with mental health problems and their families found that therapy incorporating SFT offered several benefits. For example, the results indicated that after treatment, teens exhibited fewer externalizing and internalizing symptoms. In terms of other improvements, parents also reported increased family cohesion, better parental practices, and greater perceived efficacy as a parent.
• A small 2020 case study found that structural family therapy was an effective approach for improving marital mediation and reducing marital distress. However, the study authors noted that follow-up was needed to evaluate the long-term effects of treatment better.

Since its initial development in the 1960s, SFT has become one of the predominant family counseling theories.

The amount of time needed for treatment to be successful often depends on the dynamics of the family and the situation they are facing. Some families may require relatively short-term treatment lasting a few weeks, while others may need more sessions lasting several months. 

Participation and cooperation play an important role in the success of this type of treatment. However, some family members may be less cooperative or may refuse to participate altogether.

If you think that structural family therapy may be helpful, ask your doctor if they can refer you to a professional who practices this type of treatment. You may also search an online directory to locate professionals in your area who specialize in SFT. 

Some questions you might ask before you begin treatment include:

• How much experience does the therapist have with SFT?
• How long treatment is expected to take?
• How will progress be measured?
• What happens if some family members miss therapy sessions?

During your first appointment, your therapist will ask you questions to learn more about the problems you are facing and how your family currently functions. They may ask you to create a family diagram to describe relationships between members of the family and work to get a better view of the dynamic between individuals in the family.

After your initial session, your therapist will then be able to provide a fuller view of your family's treatment plan and what else you can expect during treatment.

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American Psychological Association. Structural family therapy . APA Dictionary of Psychology.)

Jiménez L, Hidalgo V, Baena S, León A, Lorence B. Effectiveness of structural⁻strategic family therapy in the treatment of adolescents with mental health problems and their families .  Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2019;16(7):1255. doi:10.3390/ijerph16071255

Colapinto J. Mapping in structural family therapy . In: Lebow J, Chambers A, Breunlin DC, eds. Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy . Springer International Publishing; 2019:1-3. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_972-2

Minuchin P, Colapinto J, Minuchin S. Working With Families of the Poor . New York: Guilford; 2007

Sexton T. Functional Family Therapy in Clinical Practice: An Evidence-Based Treatment Model for Working with Troubled Adolescents. Routledge; New York, NY, USA: 2011.

Ulya Z. Structural family therapy as mediation process for marital conflict (case study) . Journal of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Behavioral Research . 2020;1(1).

Cottone RR. Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Individual and Relational Approaches . 1st ed. Springer Publishing Company; 2017. doi:10.1891/9780826168665.0011

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Structural Family Therapy with a Client Diagnosed with Dissociative Disorder

Moorshid mon thayyil.

1 Dept. Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Akanksha Rani

Structural Family Therapy is one of the most widely used family therapy model which focuses on bringing change in structural and functional aspect of the family. This article focuses on the use of structural family therapy with a client diagnosed with Dissociative Disorder. An in-dept analysis of the case was done by using case study design. The Case Study is presented with client's background, individual assessment, family assessment, the treatment plan with techniques and outcome of interventions. Individual assessment showed that client had low self-esteem, poor problem-solving skills, insecure attachment and inter-personal conflict with the father. Family assessment revealed that client was never allowed to explore and develop according to his individual and unique characteristics. As he grew older the mother became more enmeshed and father became too rigid in terms of his expectation from the client. In order to reduce tensions between parents and cope up with stressful situation client started dissociating. Individual therapy focused on enhancing client's current level of functioning, improving his coping skills and learning to be more assertive in a relationship. Therapy with family emphasized on restructuring unhealthy boundaries by regulating power dynamics within relationship and correcting dysfunctional hierarchies. The outcome of interventions was improvement in family's functioning, interaction pattern and changes in power dynamics within relationship.

Dissociative disorder is characterized by a feeling of being outside one’s body or a loss of memory, identity, emotion, behavior, or a sense of self. It is usually considered as a complex and chronic disorder and usually occurs after a traumatic event. 1 Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a subtype of dissociative disorder which is most complex and chronic in nature as well as constitutes an overarching syndrome covering all dissociative phenomena. 2 Attachment theory of dissociation states that traumatic childhood experiencing in the form of rejection or emotional neglect by the caregiver can lead to disorganized attachment style, making it difficult to develop trustful adult relationships and increasing the likelihood of developing dissociative symptoms later in life. 3 Kluft’s four-factor theory emphasizes that family chaos, inconsistency in parenting in terms of parental demand and reinforcement style, modeling of dissociation, and inadequate emotional support from parents can act as risk factors for developing dissociation. 4

Taking these factors into consideration, the current study tries to examine the relationship between a client’s dissociation and parental inconsistency and how the client was using dissociation to maintain homeostasis and reduce conflict within the family. Psychotherapy with the client needed to be eclectic in approach, focusing on providing support, reducing symptoms, enhancing coping skills, and integrating traumatic memories. 5 Family therapy in such cases should identify dysfunctional structure, close and rigid boundaries, power differentials within the relationship, and how it affects interaction pattern and developmental issues that maintain problems within the family. 6

Case Introduction

The client was a 21-year-old single Hindu male from middle socioeconomic status. He was from an urban area of Trivandrum, Kerala, and had studied up to secondary. He was admitted to a tertiary hospital located in south India, which provides treatment and therapeutic services to people all over India. The client was referred by the psychiatrist concerned as a regular case referral for family therapy. An in-depth analysis of the case was done by using the case study method.

The stages of treatment were building therapeutic alliance, assessment, case conceptualization, goal setting, interventions, and termination. 7

Stage 1: Building a Therapeutic Alliance

The initial stage of treatment focused on building rapport and creating trust in the therapeutic process. The therapist explained to the client and the family that symptoms are a by-product of dysfunctions within the family and reassured them that they will not be asked to tackle any issues within the family that they are not comfortable in addressing. The therapist maintained professional objectivity while maintaining a strong therapeutic alliance and empowering the client’s and family’s abilities for self-regulation and willingness to bring change within the family structure. 7

Stage 2: Assessment

Chief complaints.

The client presented with 3 months’ illness characterized by his mind and body being taken over by another person named “Robot.” The other self of the client, as “Robot,” appeared whenever the client’s father criticized him or expressed his disappointment on seeing the client not being able to stand up to the father’s expectations. There were also anger outbursts, directed mostly towards the parents; they were secondary to the interpersonal issues with the father. For 3 months, the client also had difficulty in concentration, muttering to self, feeling sad and helpless, decreased need for sleep, and poor self-care, secondary to dissociation.

Treatment History

This was the first admission for the client, and he had not received any treatment or therapy before. When admitted to the hospital, he was given on a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to reduce emotional distress. Once the behavioral manifestations of the symptoms reduced and the client stabilized, he and parents were referred for family therapy.

Clinical Diagnosis

As per ICD-10, a diagnosis of DID was made.

The client’s background information and the presenting concern were assessed by following the Meyer and Gross’ psychiatric assessment proforma. 8 The proforma gives guidelines for assessing the history of psychiatric symptoms; premorbid personality; personal history in terms of education, employment, and functionality; and past treatment history. The family assessment was done by following structural family therapy’s (SFT) four-step model. 6 This model states that assessment is not just about information gathering but a more active and dynamic process that requires four steps: (a) exploring presenting problems from the family’s perspective; (b) highlighting dysfunctional structures, boundaries; and subsystems; (c) understanding why the family is maintaining homeostasis and the current interaction pattern; and (d) developing a shared understanding of the problem and designing a roadmap to the change.

Stage 3: Case Conceptualization

This case study can be conceptualized through an integrated theoretical framework by making use of both attachment theory model and SFT model. 3 , 5 One of the developmental needs of the child when growing older is to individuate, develop, and grow as a person. At this stage, parental criticism or rejection and high control increase the conflict within the family. 12 SFT can be one of the most appropriate models of family therapy in such cases as it focuses on improving parental practices and makes the family more cohesive by restructuring the boundaries and subsystem. 11 , 12

Individual Level

Dissociation arose in this client due to a disorganized attachment style with the father, which was a result of rejection by the father. The rejection led to a difficulty to form a cohesive, unified personality and negatively affected the client’s selfesteem, problem-solving skills, stress tolerance, and coping skills.

The client had completed higher secondary education and was planning to pursue graduation. He was good in studies and never had any stress related to the studies.

After the onset of the illness, the client became socially withdrawn and developed poor self-care; the parents had to give repeated prompts for taking a bath or changing clothes.

Family Level

The client was raised to conform to his father’s expectations and was never allowed to explore and develop according to his individual and unique characteristics. As he grew older, the mother became more enmeshed and the father became too rigid in terms of his expectation from the client. The client tried to individuate from his family of origin by making decisions in terms of his career, friends, or hobbies. He was not supported for making those choices, and disapproval was shown through criticism and hostility, mostly by father, as he was the leader of the family and the primary decision maker. When the client was not able to cope up with the father’s behavior, he acted out by dissociating. Whenever he would dissociate, he was able to stand for himself and confront his father. The client learned to use dissociation as a defense mechanism from his mother, who was using it to cope up with marital discord, which was mostly due to differences in parenting styles. The power structure within the family was gender specific, and the client’s mother was expected by the client’s father to perform her roles and responsibilities without voicing her opinion. She desired more emotional support from the father, who was unable to understand the need for more communication and closeness towards the mother. Both the parents failed to understand that differences in parenting they need to be more sensitive to the client who was struggling to individuate and develop his own identity.

Family Mapping ( Figure 1 )

Adapted from Minuchin and Nichols, 1998.

This map was drawn to understand the family’s structure. The map showed that there is a cross-generational coalition between the client and the mother against the father, which had resulted in a conflict between the father and the client, a strenuous relationship between the father and the mother, as well as an enmeshed relationship between the client and the mother.

Stage 4: Goal Setting

The intervention with the client focused on achieving the following goals: (a) to intervene in the faulty attachment pattern; (b) to help the client to develop a cohesive, unified personality and enhance his coping skills; (c) to make the client more assertive in a relationship; and (d) to restore the client’s functioning.

The intervention with the family focused on the following: (a) to psychoeducate the family about dissociation and (b) to address interpersonal issues within family members and restructuring boundaries around various subsystems (couple, parents, and parent–child).

The expected outcome of the intervention was to improve the client’s functioning and to make the family more cohesive by discussing the developmental issues with the family.

Stage 5: Interventions

Intervention plan.

Interventions focused on building trust and rapport with the client, stabilizing him, and then helping him to accept the altered personality and to work on affect regulation by enhancing his coping skills. Treatment also centered around making him more assertive in a relationship and improving his overall functionality. Eleven sessions were taken with the client to work on these aspects of interventions. Booster sessions may be provided on an outpatient basis to help the client to adjust to a new, integrated personality.

Interventions followed guidelines given by the International Society for the study of Trauma and Dissociation. 9

Process of Interventions

• Assessment and feedback of client’s attachment pattern: The client had a disorganized attachment with the father as the father was not able to be emotionally available and had high expectations from the client and was quite controlling by nature. He had a secure attachment with the mother as she met his emotional and individual needs for care and support. Feedback was given to the client about how the insecure attachment with the father affected the client’s way to self-soothe himself during a stressful situation, and that whenever the client dissociated, he was able to stand for himself and confront his father.

The therapist also discussed with the client ways to enhance his coping skills. Suggested techniques at the physiological level were focused breathing and engaging in coping self-talk. At the behavioral level, he was advised to practice attentionshifting tasks like watching TV or playing games, listening to music, and involving in other pleasurable activities. In the long term, emphasis was given to identifying a problem and working on it by using steps involved in problem-solving.

• Assertiveness Training: It focused on helping the client to be more assertive in a relationship. The client was encouraged to make more use of “I statements” to express his opinion. Through role-play, he was made to practice the technique of broken record, which was to be persistent and stick to the point of discussion. Role-play also helped the client to realize the importance of maintaining the tone of voice, gestures, eye contact, facial expression, and posture while talking to others. The therapist discussed with the client how he needs to focus on the father’s specific behavior and communicate to his father how his behavior was affecting the client and what specific changes he wants in his father’s behavior.
• Activity scheduling: The client had depressive symptoms, which affected his day-to-day routine as well. Therefore, there was a need to monitor, schedule, and maximize the client’s engagement in mood-elevating activities. The activity schedule started with a short-term goal. The goal was to introduce small changes, building up the level of activity gradually towards long-term goals. Different types of positive reinforcers and basic rules of giving positive reinforcement were discussed with the parents. Some of the activities given were going for a walk, making a new friend, playing badminton in the evening, and maintaining a diary.

At Family Level

It focused on building rapport, joining the family, understanding how boundaries were created within the relationship, making the boundaries permeable, restructuring relationship hierarchies, and addressing developmental issues within the family. All these aspects of interventions were addressed by taking 12 sessions with the family. Booster sessions can be provided to the family on an outpatient basis to maintain therapy gains and prevent relapse.

Interventions followed guidelines given by the Minuchin Centre for the Family. 10 – 12

Process of Intervention

• Psychoeducation about dissociation: Parents were educated about how the client was using dissociation as a defense mechanism to cope with relationship difficulty with father and how he was getting secondary gain by dissociating, in the form of parental attention and father’s affection and support, which were not there normally.

The therapist aligned with the family by using the technique of “mimesis,” which helped in imitating the style and content of the family’s interaction pattern to reflect the problems within the communication patterns.

Couple subsystem: The couple was encouraged to share their feelings and emotions by making use of “I statements” and to communicate their feelings even if it appears distasteful. In order to make the couple develop ability to listen to each other, they needed to acknowledge what they say to each other, without criticizing, interrupting, or attacking and communicate back their understanding of what the partner was saying. They needed to avoid abstract form of statements that were not clearly communicating what they wanted to say. The couple was asked not to use critical statements like “you never support me” or “you always behave like this.” Such statements will make the person feel accused; so they will not hear the request for change and will instead be defending themselves.

Parent subsystem: The therapist discussed with the parents the need to adopt an authoritative parenting style by being consistent in enforcing boundaries and by being more empathic in recognizing and responding to the client’s needs. Parents were also asked to encourage the client for direct expression of thoughts and feelings, without reinforcing dysfunctional dissociative strategies (e.g., giving him more positive attention and selective reinforcement when he was not dissociating).

Parent–Child subsystem: The therapist informed the parents that they need to learn to negotiate with the client by making him see the pros and cons of his behavior and that they should set limits with positive and negative consequences for his behavior. They can encourage the client to start taking up certain household responsibilities and make minor decisions in his day-to-day life, which will initiate the process of separation-individuation.

There was a need to relabel the interaction between the family members in positive terms and reduce the scapegoating of the client by the father. The techniques used were:

• Positive reframing: The therapist chose different words and phrases to identify and positively label the family’s problems.
• Enactment: The family members were asked to review the enacted incident step by step, and to describe the reactions of each family member involved in the incident. The therapist also gave feedback about the problematic dynamic that took place, in the form of how they interacted with each other during the incident and how they can improve communication. The therapist also appreciated the family members for taking the feedback of the therapist in a positive way.
• Unbalancing: For most of the sessions, the therapist tried to change the hierarchal relationship of the parent–child subsystem by siding with the client who had less power and status within the family, which also affected the family’s homeostasis. The therapist tried to change pre-existing family interaction patterns by first unbalancing the client’s father and then realigning the system. The therapist refocused his attention on the client and the client’s feelings, needs, intentions, strengths, and abilities.
• Predischarge counseling: In predischarge counseling, the previous sessions were summarized. The therapist focused on helping the parents identify the client’s early warning signs, for seeking help immediately. The therapist highlighted the need for continuing medicines postdischarge to control depressive symptoms.

Stage 6: Termination

The therapist addressed the client’s and family’s feelings, concerns, and anxieties related to the termination and explored the anticipated challenges that might lead to a setback in the future and how they can handle those difficulties. Throughout the therapy, the therapist placed the responsibility of change on the client and family, so that they do not become dependent on the guidance of the therapist. Termination of therapy was mutually decided by the client, family, and therapist once the therapeutic goals were attained. Therapist informed client and family about the option of receiving telephonic follow-ups and booster sessions, if required, in the future, which can be planned on outpatient basis for a long-term maintenance of treatment gains.

Outcome of Therapy

Individual therapy helped the client’s inner self to become less fragmented, which also helped him to become calmer and improved his interpersonal functioning and coping skills.

Family therapy helped the parents understand under what circumstances the client was dissociating and how the changes in the family dynamics helped the client to develop a cohesive and integrated personality. Parents became aware of the symptoms and how to handle them during future crisis situations.

Minuchin recognized that change within the family is normal and inevitable, but how a family adapts to those changes will decide whether the family is functional or dysfunctional. 7 The changes in the client’s family came when he tried to individuate by taking decisions in terms of his career, friends, or hobbies. He was not supported for making those choices, and disapproval was shown through criticism and hostility, mostly by father. If we see the client’s situation from the perspective of Margaret Mahler’s separation-individuation theory, which states that as a child tries to develop a separate sense of self and identity as they grow up, it may not be allowed and accepted by the parents, who can often induce in the child a sense of guilt, shame, or fear. 13 It may affect the child’s confidence, and the child may feel hesitant to express himself/herself in front of others because of self-doubts and uncertainties, which often results in anxiety, depression, and social isolation in the child’s later life. 14 Therapy helped the client to accept negative feelings such as the feeling of being let down or rejected, anger, and frustration, and to build his capacity to modulate those feelings and thus handle them appropriately. Kluft 15 states that interventions for persons with DID should focus on achieving optimal cohesiveness and integration of the altered identities so that the person can have adequate emotional, interpersonal, and occupational functioning, which was achieved through interventions in the client’s case.

Stressful family environments can promote the development of dissociative disorder. 16 In this case, the client learned to dissociate by modeling his mother, who used it as a defense mechanism to cope up with interpersonal conflict with the client’s father. Mann and Sanders 16 state that if a parent has dissociation, a child may have a tendency to dissociate because of genetic vulnerability and modeling of the behavior. Parents’ rejection and child dissociation are also related, which can be explained by the psychodynamic theory, which states that the child strongly tries to identify with the rejecting parent in order to regain his or her love. 17 The client’s mother reported that whenever the client disassociated, he behaved like his father—authoritative and critical. Luxton 18 believed that inconsistency in parenting in terms of giving positive reinforcement and setting consequences of behavior could negatively affect a child’s sense of self-worth or self-esteem, which happened with the client as well. According to Pais, 19 in such cases, intervention with family should focus on helping the family understand the need to provide a safe and secure environment that can help persons with DID to re-experience trauma without feeling guilty and shameful. By doing so, a person with DID will be able to cope up with the splitting of personality without indulging in self-injurious and homicide behavior, which was the outcome of intervention with the family in this report.

Treatment Implication of the Case

In persons with DID, frequent dissociation can lead to comorbid conditions like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-injurious behavior, resulting in a long-term course of treatment. 20 Medications like antidepressants or anxiolytics are prescribed for comorbid conditions; they do not specifically treat the dissociation. 21 Psychotherapy, which has been effective in such cases, needs to be eclectic in approach, focusing on providing supportive or crisis interventions, enhancing coping skills, and making the clients aware of the dissociated aspect of self, helping them to accept and integrate it into their personality. 20

SFT is a powerful model for working with persons with DID and their families. It is based on the basic principle that the client’s problem can be understood and treated in the family context. 11 The effectiveness of SFT has also been seen in psychosomatic illnesses, 22 eating disorders, 23 drug abuse, 24 and borderline personality disorder. 25

Barriers and Challenges to the Case Management

Limitations of the case study.

The authors of this article were the primary therapists, which may have led to experimenter bias. To lessen the possibility of bias, the article was written after the therapy was concluded. Secondly, this case study is an in-depth analysis of a single case, so it cannot be generalized to all the adult clients with dissociation, as a difference in client characteristics, family context, and the therapeutic relationship may have affected the outcome of the study.

Limitations of the Therapy

Family therapy can bring intense discomfort in persons with DID by bringing back traumatic memories of the conflict with other family members, which can be counterproductive to the therapeutic progress. 19 Therefore, before starting the sessions, it is important to clinically prepare the client to handle the session and to prevent revictimization. 19 It is important to assess domestic violence in all clients who come for family therapy as it would affect the course and outcomes of the therapy. Babcock et al. 26 reported that severe domestic violence may be a contraindication for SFT as the focus would shift from changing the family functioning to addressing more immediate concerns like safety planning. When educating the clients about dissociation, they may resist accepting altered identities as part of self, so it is important to build trust and a sense of safety within the therapeutic relationship and to discuss negative transference that may arise during those discussions. 19 The therapist should not side with or outrightly reject the viewpoint of any altered identity but should be emphatic, validating, and flexible and use language that is accepting of all the identities of the client. 11

Recommendations

It is important to research and see the applicability of SFT with individual clients who are at different life cycle stages (e.g., adolescent, adulthood, or old age). 16 To bridge the gap in the research on the effectiveness of different models of family therapy, it is important to apply SFT techniques on more individual clients and compare the effectiveness with that of other systemic models such as Bowenian. 19 There is also a need to do a long-term follow-up study to see the effectiveness of SFT techniques on individual clients with different types of psychiatric illnesses. 5

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Use of Structural Family Therapy With an Individual Client Diagnosed With Intermittent Explosive Disorder: A Case Study

(Fisher, 2017) While significant contributions have been made in analyzing the efficacy of the systemic approach with individual clients, debate on the subject continues to cast a shadow of doubt on the practice. In this article, the author presents the use of Structural Family Therapy with an individual adult client, diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder. The use of the systemic approach as the foundation for the treatment plan was shown to be effective, as demonstrated by the client’s reduction in hostility and improved overall well-being. The outcomes revealed this approach to be effective in improving the individual client’s functioning, without working directly with the entire relational system. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DaukIrIPenpyAwVdV3IM/full

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Family Therapy Model and Application: Structural Family Therapy Case Study

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Introduction

Case study description, transcription.

Families comprise different people who influence one another in unpredictable ways. This interrelationship makes family therapies difficult. The structural family therapy offers a theoretical and practical model that guarantees order to build and maintain a long-lasting and positive relationship.

In theory, the appreciation of the existence of a family structure is founded on the view that members of a family show some consistency in terms of their behaviors. From this theoretical paradigm, this paper confirms that families comprise living systems, which grow and undergo some changes with time.

Failure to adapt to the changes threatens their viability and the coexistence of the individual family members. From the basis of a case study, which involves Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s family, this paper identifies the structural family therapy as a therapeutic approach that recognizes that families have different strengths where each member plays a role to boost or bring down the family bonds.

Families encounter a myriad of problems, which may lead to psychological challenges among couples and their children. Families, which look for help from therapists or chancellors, are usually concerned about a specific problem. The problems may range from misbehaving children to couples who fail to get along with one another.

When therapists face such situations, they look beyond the provided specifics of the problems that affect a family by evaluating the efforts of the family unit to deal with the challenges. This strategy determines family interaction dynamics. For example, misbehaving children may be brought up by parents who repeatedly engage in scolding behaviors without rewarding any change of conduct.

In such situations, scolding, which is an attempt to resolve the child’s behavioral problem, contributes to further destruction of parent-child relationships. Some parents may differ in opinions and/or cannot engage in an open debate without using destructive arguments. In such a situation, destructive arguments increase the couple’s conflicts, although the underlying problem is a variation of opinions.

This observation suggests that through the deployment of the structural family therapy, therapists intervene to resolve family problems both in an organized and systematic way. Indeed, the structural family therapy borrows its basic theoretical tenets from the systems theory.

This paper discusses the structural family therapy together with its theoretical tenets that help to resolve familial problems. It first establishes a case study that forms the basis of discussion for this paper. The applicability of the structural family therapy to the case is based on the assertion that a family comprises a system, which is a part of a social grouping.

Since family members regulate each other, a change of an individual leads to a corresponding change in the family dynamics. Hence, in the process of administering family therapy, problems that arise from an individual can be solved. The model influences the behavior of other members by building long lasting positive family relationships.

Several cases have been registered in schools where teens turned violent to the level of killing their fellow students and teachers. For instance, in 1999, on 20 April, Dylan Klebold and his friend Eric Harris staged an assault in a school that is based at Colorado. In the assault, 13 people were killed while 23 others were critically injured.

They later turned bullets against themselves. It is perhaps impossible to establish what caused this attack or even other recently established children-executed crimes. However, in the case of Dylan Klebold and his friend Eric Harris, a possible cause of the violent attacks was a video game that had brutal themes and characters (Ward, 2011).

Children‘s abusive behaviors towards their peers are commonplace in schools and in various other social settings. As it is revealed in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s family, abusive behaviors among children may be tracked from the familial structural problems. Mr. Brown’s family consists of his wife (Mrs. Brown) and their two children, James and Anthony.

However, the couple has divorced. Their separation is now turning two years. The divorce occurred because Mr. Brown engaged in repeated abusive behaviors towards his wife. The children witnessed all the abusive sessions before Mr. Brown shifted to a different state when the divorce decision was finally granted in a family court in New Jersey.

The children, Anthony (seven years old) and James (four years old), meet their father thrice annually. Mrs. Brown has a full-time job while Anthony attends school as his brother goes for the daycare. On 27 January 2015, Anthony’s principal called referring Mrs. Brown to a therapist who was based in the school.

Anthony’s behavior while in school underlined the reason the therapist requested Mrs. Brown’s family to undergo a counseling session. For more than two months, Anthony’s class teacher reported that he had been attacking his peers without being provoked.

Anthony also withdrew from social skills forums and any activities that could bring together all children to build their cognitive skills and/or foster social development. This conduct only occurred in the school settings. Mrs. Brown indicated that Anthony did not show the behavioral problem in the home settings. His brother, James, neither showed such behaviors while at home nor school.

The investigation by the therapist into Mrs. Brown’s family structure indicated that when the divorce occurred, Mrs. Brown had seized a sizable amount of power of family control. She had also been attempting to adapt to numerous changes that her family had experienced.

The therapist identified that her family had been incredibly flexible and organized in such a way that Mrs. Brown would adapt to changes following her divorce. Due to many cases that the school therapist handled, the chancellor felt it was wise to refer Mrs. Brown’s family to an external family therapist in the attempt to resolve Anthony’s unwelcome behavior.

In February 2015, Mrs. Brown and her two sons visited a New Jersey-based family therapist. In a preliminary assessment, the therapist noted Mrs. Brown’s possession of the power to control her family as evidenced by her two sons’ high degree of respect towards her authority.

For instance, when she requested them to do some task, they obeyed diligently without hesitation. She noted that she insisted on her children to maintain high standards of discipline while at the same time advocating any disciplinary action in any situation that involved deviance from authority. However, in school settings, this discipline was never witnessed.

Anthony did not respect authority. He could bully and beat weak targets and his peers. An emerging question is whether structural family therapy can successfully help to deal with this deviant behavior challenge.

The Historical Context of the Structural Family Model and its Founders

Salvador Minuchin founded the structural family therapy. Since its establishment, it has constituted a central model for family therapy. The model addresses problems of family functionality. This goal is accomplished through its attempt to gain access to a family system with the objective of identifying rules that regulate the functioning of a family.

For example, in the context of the case study about Mrs. Brown’s family, the chief rule that regulates the conducts of the children is strict obedience to her. Under the structural family therapy model, therapists “map the relationships between family members or between subsets of the family, and ultimately disrupt dysfunctional relationships within the family, causing it to stabilize into healthier patterns” (Vetere, 2008, p.138).

Indeed, Minuchin asserts that pathology only rests within a family system, but not within an individual. Writers such as Charles Fishman support the propositions of the structural family therapy by claiming that family structures have restrictions, which can be inflexible, apparent, and defined by tasks and connections (Vetere, 2008).

Other concepts of the model are that the family comprises hierarchies, substructures, cross-generational partnerships, and nurtured kids. The historical development of the model relates to its main concepts since the model views a family as a system that bears other subsystems that need to interact positively to ensure collective change to the system.

To this extent, one of the primary tenets of the structural family therapy is that therapists get into a family in the capacity of a catalyst that serves the purposes of inducing positive changes. This claim suggests that changes occur when a therapist builds a positive relationship with the family. He or she becomes integrated into the family boundaries such that any incepted changes can influence all components (individuals) that make up the family.

The theory regards families as structures that are organized as subsystems that have bendable or strict limits. The boundaries can permit or discourage contacts between different family members. An equally valuable concept in the historical development of the structural family therapy is the enactment technique.

Under the technique, family members are “encouraged to deal directly with each other in sessions that permit therapists to observe and modify their interactions” (Vetere, 2008, p.134). Therefore, every person’s influence in the behavior of a given family is inseparable from the other family members.

This situation has introduced the significance of the complementary concept in administering therapy interventions within families. Could the behavior of Mr. Brown (abusing a weak target, Mrs. Brown, in the presence of Anthony) have influenced Anthony’s bullying behavior that was directed towards his peers in school settings? Based on the ideas of the structural family therapy, this case is most probable.

The Role of the Therapist or Counselor in the Structural Family Therapy Model

The primary goal of therapists entails heralding repetition of sequences. This goal is accomplished through interruptions of familial hierarchical structures. This process involves power shifting through the alteration of interaction styles.

However, in the case of structural family therapy, the therapist plays the role of changing dysfunctional structures of a family by facilitating growth of various individuals with the objective of inducing positive transformation of the whole (family) as the strategy for developing new ways of interaction.

Through the structural family therapy, therapists also play the role facilitating system restructuring. They also act as choreographers and directors of the desired change. For example, in case of Anthony, a therapist has the role of building the cognition that Mrs. Brown is not the only source of power in the family.

Secondly, the therapist needs to demonstrate to Anthony that targeting weak peers with his violent behaviors is an unacceptable norm. Therefore, he can realize that his father was wrong when he was abusing his mother and that such behaviors have bad consequences on both, including divorce or suspension from school.

The structural family therapy closely relates to the theory of change. It advocates the alteration of family relationships to build different schemes that then influence all components of the family system. The manner in which a parent’s past shapes the social development of a child is widely not predictable.

Thus, “parenting can be viewed as a longitudinal trajectory–accumulative, sequential pathway in which continuities and/or changes occur across time” (Gutman & Feinstein, 2010, p.535). Therefore, parents should alter their parenting styles as their children progress age wise for them (children) to develop fully to meet the anticipated social developments at various specific ages.

The structural family therapy encompasses a model that helps therapists to join in influencing change in a family such that parents contribute positively to the process of child development. In situations such as the one that involves Anthony, change from the schemas that he has already copied due to his exposure to violence against weak targets is necessary. If structural family therapy can help to alter Anthony’s behavior in a school setting, the model relates to the theory of change.

An emerging question is, ‘what is the health or pathology view that applies to the case based on the structural family therapy?’ In the case of Anthony, a pathological condition that regulates his behavior is codependency. This concept refers to the psychological condition in which a person who experiences a pathological situation such as uncalled-for hostility depends on another person for control to encourage and uphold constructive behaviors (Mogford, 2011).

From this context, a healthy pathological view that is applicable to the case based on the structural family therapy model is that poor families’ experiences spread to influence all members because of their interdependency and inability to separate individual behaviors from the family behavior.

This observation may reveal why Anthony violently attacks weak targets just like his father without being provoked. This situation may comprise attempts to secure a high power of control just like his mother or father.

Analysis and Application of the Underlying Rationale of the Structural Family Therapy to Diagnosis and Assessment

From the discussion of the case study, the diagnosis of the family relationship problem is that domestic violence ends up affecting Anthony negatively to the extent that he justifies bullying his peers in school settings. The issue of concern here is whether this situation is unique to Anthony. School-based bullying is common in most nations, including the US.

In a study by Nansel et al. (2011), roughly 17% of the US learners complain being bullied in school. This prevalence level is lower compared to other places in the world. For example, Nansel et al. (2011) assert that some countries record up to 70% learners who claim to have experienced harassment. Schools across the globe have reported a high prevalence of frequent maltreatment.

For example, research on a Malta sample indicated 19% occurrence level while a sample on Irish school bullying reported roughly 2% frequency levels (Forero, McLellan, Rissel, & Bauman, 2009). Can one trace Anthony’s bullying behavior from domestic violence experiences in his life?

A meta-analytical research conducted by Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, Smith, and Jaffe (2003) concluded that domestic violence is harmful to children. It compromises developmental outcomes for children such as cognitive, behavioral, societal, and their wellbeing functioning. Nevertheless, the effects of domestic violence on children relatively vary depending on the context.

Experiences of the actual child violence increase behavioral and emotional damages relative to exposure (Wolfe et al., 2003). Therefore, it is most likely that Anthony’s exposure to domestic violence may have contributed to his normalization of violent behavior towards a weak target.

His watching of a shift of power control of the family from the father to the mother may also have created the necessity of authority towards weak targets. Before the divorce, the power of family control was vested in their father were the mother was a weak target. After the divorce, the power shifted to the mother.

Now, in the school setting, with cognition of power and authority, his peers become the weak targets such that he can exercise his learned power by harassing them. This situation suggests that Anthony’s behavioral problems can be attributed to his family structure. Hence, the structural family therapy becomes an effective therapeutic intervention.

From the above expositions, domestic violence denies children their overall good in the society. This good entails the right to grow in a socially conducive environment to foster their behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional development in equal thresholds to those who grow in an environment where such experiences do not prevail.

In particular, in the case of Anthony, witnessing violence has been detrimental in his social development. Cases such as his missing in social skills development forums and the fact that he does not develop good social relationships with his peers since he bullies them evidence this claim. The parenting boundary is rigid enough to permit any misbehavior at home.

However, the boundary between Anthony and the external environment (school setting) is flexible to permit his childhood experiences to influence his conduct. Therefore, the intervention that is required to solve the problem should focus on restructuring Anthony-peers subsystem and his boundaries in the school setting.

Interventions and the Underlying Assumptions of the Structural Family Therapy Model

Structural family therapy assumes that even though family structures do not primarily cause complications, problems can be located within a family structure. Therefore, alteration of a family structure produces changes in the individual experiences. The model also assumes that to achieve long-term results, a therapist should not move directly from problems to solution development (Vetere, 2008).

Rather, excellent results are obtained by moving gradually. An important assumption of the theory, which is highly applicable in situations that involve Anthony, is that problems that children experience relate mostly to boundaries between them and parents. This case involves parental subsystem or the marital subsystem.

Consistent with the above assumptions, various interventions can be adopted. Structural therapy deploys family mapping to accommodate and/or join family settings. Areas of intervention include the family structure, rules, and family patterns. Minuchin identified six central areas of consideration when altering a family structure.

These areas are “transactional patterns, flexibility, resonance, context, the family development stage, and maintaining family interactions” (Vetere, 2008, p.132). To this extent, the necessary interventions involve modifying interactions, challenging any fruitless suppositions, and increasing the passion to permit system change.

The above interventions can be accomplished by joining Mrs. Brown with the children. Firstly, a therapist or counselor needs to communicate to Mrs. Brown that he or she (therapist) is joining the family to help in the situation, but not to blame the members for Anthony’s deviant behavior in school.

The second intervention entails restructuring Mrs. Brown’s perception that she only possesses the power to control and influence her children only in the home setting. Making her realize she also has the power to influence Anthony’s behavior in school settings is effective in restructuring the interactions between the home subsystem and school-setting substructure.

This strategy underlines the necessity for her to meet Anthony’s educators and jointly develop and exercise power on him. This move facilitates the restructuring of hierarchical power between the school system and the family structure. In case of Anthony, it is imperative to intervene while not regarding him as a bad child.

The intervention should involve making Anthony realize that he does not operate in the right way in school. This strategy leaves room for him not to accept blames in case things do not move well in school. It also permits him not to take up the blame for his exposure to domestic violence by developing antisocial behavior in school.

Rather, it allows Mrs. Brown and Anthony to understand the cause of the negative behavior. It also prepares them to embrace positive skills to cope with the problem.

Families have hierarchical structures that determine the role, responsibility, and behavior of each person. However, within the family system, during interaction processes, problems may emerge to the level of influencing the behavior of each family member in different ways.

This finding is perhaps the case for Anthony and his siblings, James, who have witnessed their father abusing their mother. Although James does not show behavioral problems in school, Anthony bullies his peers even when he is not provoked. The difference between the siblings may be explained by the fact that James had not acquired the cognition of using the power to abuse a weak target.

He was too young by the time Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown divorced. Considering that Anthony’s behavior is highly unacceptable, it is appropriate to engage Mrs. Brown’s family in therapy. The paper has proposed and discussed the structural family therapy as an effective therapeutic intervention to correct Anthony’s behavior by restructuring the hierarchy of power at home and school subsystems.

Forero, R., McLellan, L., Rissel, C., & Bauman, A. (2009). Bullying behavior and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia: cross sectional survey. BMJ, 319 (7), 344–348.

Gutman, M., & Feinstein, L. (2010). Parenting behaviors and children’s development from infancy to early childhood: changes, continuities, and contributions. Early Child Development and Care , 180(4), 535–556.

Mogford, E. (2011). When Status Hurts: Dimensions of Women’s Status and Domestic Abuse in Rural Northern India. Violence against Women, 17 (7), 835-857.

Nansel, T., Overpeck, M., Pila, R., Ruan, R., Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2011). Bullying behaviors’ among US youth: prevalence and association with psychological adjustment. JAMA, 285 (16), 2094-2100.

Vetere, A. (2008). Structural Family Therapy. Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review, 6 (3), 133–139.

Ward, M. (2011). Video games and crime. Contemporary Economic Policy, 29 (2), 261-275.

Wolfe, D., Crooks, C., Lee, V., Smith, A., & Jaffe, P. (2003). The Effects of Children’s Exposure to Domestic Violence: A Meta-Analysis and Critique. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6 (3), 171-187.

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Keith: a case study of structural family therapy

• PMID: 744221
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1978.00339.x

This is an edited case presentation of marital therapy of a couple whose child was originally presented as the problem. Two primary themes are emphasized throughout the case. The first is that therapy consists of stages involving critical transitional points that need to be appropriately timed. The second is the use of a task to bring about structural realignment within the family. Excerpts were chosen because they clearly represent the process of movement in the therapy, illustrating both the stages of therapy and the utilization of an assigned task by the therapist. Commentary on the case material is interspersed throughout transcriptions.

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• What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

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1.5 Atomic Structure and Electron Configuration

7 min read • june 18, 2024

Jeremy Kiggundu

We're back to atoms! Remember how small they are? ⚛️

Recall that an atom is made up of three subatomic particles :

John Dalton and the Atomic Theory

One of the principles that chemists use to understand atoms is  Dalton’s Atomic Theory , which has four parts.

• Each element is made up of indivisible and indestructible atoms.
• All atoms of a given element carry the same properties.
• Atoms combine in whole-number ratios to form compounds.

Coulomb's Law

Now that we know the structure of an atom, we’ll need to be able to calculate the force, or attraction, between two atoms. This is where  Coulomb's Law comes in:

Breaking down Coulomb's Law

The formula above is made up of the following variables:

• Fe represents the calculated electric force between the two particles.
• k represents Coulomb's constant .
• q1 and q2 represent the charges of the two particles.
• r represents the distance between the nuclei of the two particles.

Understanding Coulomb's Law

You don't have to memorize this formula, but you should understand that the strength of the forces depends on two factors:

• Magnitude of charge - The greater the charge, the stronger the attraction.
• Distance between the nuclei of the particles - The closer the two particles, the stronger the attraction. The smaller the distance and the higher the charge, the stronger the attraction but don't worry about this yet! We'll come back to Coulomb's Law in a future unit.

The Atom: Electrons

We're back to electrons! We know that each element has a certain number of electrons, but how do we represent them? In this section, we also learn about how to properly write out the  electron configuration of an element.

The Bohr Model

Let's begin with the basic Bohr Model . Neils Bohr predicted that electrons orbit the nucleus in a circular orbit just like how the planets in our solar system orbit the Sun. ☀️🪐

However, unlike the planets in our solar system, Bohr's orbits exist only at specific, fixed distances from the nucleus. This causes the energy of each orbit to be fixed, quantized, or stationary.

The Bohr Model of Sodium

Let's look at the Bohr model of sodium, which has 11 electrons. 

The atomic number of sodium is 11, which indicates that there are both 11 protons and electrons. This is why there are 11 electrons represented in the above diagram.

Bohr understood that electrons in an atom are arranged in a set of electron shells, or energy levels , around the nucleus. Each energy level corresponds to a specific energy state of the electron, which is again, fixed.

He also made the connection that the closer an electron is to the nucleus, the less energy the electron has. Therefore, the  valence electrons , or the outermost electrons, have the most energy. Valence electrons are found on the valence shell of an atom, or the outermost energy level.

Taking a look at the above diagram, you can see that there is only one valence electron in the valence shell. 

The Electron Configuration of an Atom

Electron configuration refers to the arrangement of electrons in an atom or molecule. The idea behind electron configuration is quite similar to drawing out the shells in the Bohr model, in that each shell only holds a certain number of electrons.

How is the electron configuration derived? 💭

Not only are the electrons in different energy levels, or shells, but they are also located in different subshells . The four different subshells are s, p, d, and f. The maximum number of electrons in each subshell, respectively, are 2, 6, 10, and 14. 

Core and Valence Electrons

Outer electrons are called  valence electrons , while inner electrons are called  core electrons .

• Valence electrons occupy the outer s and p orbitals.
• Core electrons occupy the inner d and f orbitals.

Electron Subshells on the Periodic Table

Here is a breakdown of the different subshells on the periodic table: 

This will be super helpful when we begin writing the electron configurations from scratch, but first, there are some rules to cover for writing them.

Electron Configuration Rules

• The Aufbau Principle states that you must fill electrons in order of increasing sublevel energies. Remember that Bohr discovered that the outermost electrons in the valence shell have the greatest amount of energy, so the order of increasing sublevel energies is as follows: 1s-2s-2p-3s-3p-etc.
• The Pauli Exclusion Principle states that no two electrons in the same suborbital can have the same spin. One must spin clockwise and the other must spin counterclockwise. We'll see what that looks like in the orbital diagrams below.
• Hund's Rule says that unpaired electrons must fill an unoccupied orbital before pairing up with a single electron in a previous orbital. This rule is a result of electrons trying to fill the lowest energy orbitals first.

How do we write the electron configuration of an atom?

Let's begin with an easy example: boron (element 5).

If you compare boron's spot on the periodic table to the labeled one above, you would see that Boron is in the "2p" spot. You must memorize the labeled periodic table in order to write out the electron configuration of atoms.

To start, you should put your finger on the element you are trying to find (boron). Then, start at Hydrogen (1s) and read the periodic table as if you are reading a book. Therefore, you would go to helium, and then down to lithium all the way to boron. 

To know the electron configuration, note all of the subshells that you passed on your way to boron, which in this case, would be 1s, 2s, and 2p. 

Now, how many elements did you pass in each block? 

1s: H, He = 2

2s: Li, Be = 2

These numbers represent electrons and are noted as superscripts in the electron configuration. Putting it all together, Boron's electron configuration is:

To understand this conceptually, the superscripts are an electron. Boron's atomic number of 5 indicates that it has 5 electrons, and all the superscripts added up are equal to 5. The electron configuration is telling us that 2 electrons occupy the 1s orbital, 2 electrons occupy the 2s orbital, and one electron occupies the 2p orbital.

The Noble Gas Shortcut

The noble gas shortcut becomes especially helpful if you are asked to write the configuration of an element really far into the periodic table, such as element 86. Let's start practicing using the noble gas shortcut with boron.

To do this, you would go to the noble gas before Boron and then start reading the periodic table from there instead of from Hydrogen. Since Helium is the noble gas before Boron, the electron configuration would read: 

You could use either method to write electron configurations, just make sure you put brackets around the noble gas if you choose the shortcut. 

Where do the rules apply?

You may also see electron configurations represented like this, in orbital diagrams:

Each arrow here represents a singular electron. The Aufbau Principle is easily seen here since the electrons are filling up orbitals in the order of increasing energies (1s ➡️ 2s ➡️ 2p).

Pauli's Exclusion Principle is represented here as well by the arrows facing opposite directions. No two electrons can face the same way, or in reality, spin the same way in a single subshell.

Hund's Rule isn't actually represented here since there is only one electron in the 2p orbital, but here is a good visual:

The left is correct since the electrons are filling unoccupied orbitals before pairing up with one another. Remember that this occurs so that the electron fills the lowest energy orbital first! Everything in chemistry strives for the lowest energy possible.

Writing the Electron Configuration of Element 26 (Fe)

Here is Fe on the periodic table:

Fe actually includes the d block in its electron configuration, and it is listed after the 4s orbital. Here it is:

Just make sure to include the d block! You got this, just keep practicing. It is very unlikely that you will be asked to write the electron configuration of an atom in the f block.

If you wanted to use the Nobel gas shortcut for iron, you would have to use argon in brackets!

Understanding Core and Valence Electrons

Given the following electron configuration of As, how many valence electrons does one atom of As have?

First, you always want to look at the outermost shell, which in this case, is n=4. Remember, only the electrons in the s and p orbital are valence electrons! Therefore, you just add up the electrons in the 4s orbital and the 4p orbital, giving you a total of 5 valence electrons. 

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Altered Structural and Functional Connectivity in Large-Scale Neural Networks in Healthy Elderly with White Matter Hyperintensities

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White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are common neuroimaging findings in brain scans of elderly people. WMH lead to structural and functional changes in brain connectivity and impact cognitive function. Using 7T MRI, we examined 40 cognitively healthy subjects (16 females, mean age 69.3) with WMH presence, clustered into three groups of low, moderate, and high WMH burden. We used diffusion tensor imaging data to construct structural connectivity matrices and resting-state functional MRI data to construct functional connectivity matrices. Using network-based statistics (NBS) and graph-theory analysis (GTA), we compared the structural and functional network differences between the groups and their association to cognitive function. NBS analysis revealed altered structural connectivity strength in the default mode network (DMN) in the high WMH burden group, which correlated with the Trail Making Test scores. GTA revealed, that compared to the low burden, the high burden group had increased small-worldness and modularity in the structural connectivity, and increased assortativity in the functional connectivity. We found altered betweenness centrality (BC) in the DMN on both structural and functional connectivity. The BC difference in the functional connectivity in the DMN between the high and the low WMH burden groups had a linear relationship with Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores. Our results demonstrate that WMH burden alters both structural and functional brain connectivity and affects large-scale network organization at local and global levels in an otherwise healthy elderly population.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Clinical Trial

NCT05086055

Funding Statement

This study was funded by The Research Council of Norway PROTEQT Grant number 302523 and Samarbeidsorganet Helse Midt-Norge HMN NTNU Clinical Academic Group for Alzheimers disease Grant number 5981.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Regional Ethical Committee of Central Norway (Regionale komiteer for medisinsk og helsefaglig forskningsetikk, REK midt) gave ethical approval for this work. (REK Number 171264)

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Data Availability

Raw and processed MRI data that have been used are confidential. Other data will be made available upon reasonable request.

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The Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Commercial Banks in Ethiopia

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INNOVATIONS in pharmacy

Vol. 15 No. 3 (2024)

Copyright (c) 2024 Christopher S. Wisniewski, Jennifer N. Wisniewski, Rachel Whitney, Emily P. Jones

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

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Incorporating Evidence-Based Teaching into Pharmacy Education: A Report on the Use of Educational Theory in the Backward Design of a Drug Information Course

Christopher S. Wisniewski

Medical University of South Carolina

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1330-7127

Jennifer N. Wisniewski

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1696-1047

Rachel Whitney

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9648-055X

Emily P. Jones

University of North Carolina

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4294-7564

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/iip.v15i3.5873

Keywords: Drug Information, Evidence-Based Teaching, Backward Design

Background : One way to incorporate evidence-based teaching into healthcare education is through backward design, a pedagogical design process that starts with creating learning outcomes, then moves to assessments, followed by content creation. This study uses backward design as a framework to present an applied experience of evidence-based teaching in the design and refinement of an introductory drug information course presented in the first year of a traditional 4-year PharmD curriculum. Case Description: In addition to backward design, evidence-based teaching methods included scaffolding, pass-fail grading standards, formative assessments, flipped classroom, and gamification. Additionally, innovative assessment techniques and teaching activities were created. The full evolution of this course, along with student performance, student perceptions, faculty workload and faculty experience, are described. Case Themes: Overall, using evidence-based methodologies led to improved organization and enhanced faculty and student satisfaction. Data showed students performed well based on both assessment and course averages. Faculty workload was substantial during the initial development of the course and was mitigated once structure and organization had been better optimized over years of revision. Impact: This report provides a model for others to incorporate evidence-based teaching methods into course design in both incremental and large-scale changes. The incorporation of these ideas takes time and work from faculty but this effort has the potential to yield improved student learning and perception. Dedication to continuous review and revision of developed educational content is encouraged. Faculty found this experience rewarding and felt that it made them better and happier educators.

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