The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives (An Allyn & Bacon Classics Edition) (with MyHelpingLab) (3rd Edition) [Hardcover]

Betty Carter (Author), Monica McGoldrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0205488293 | ISBN-13: 978-0205488292 | Edition: 3

Now featured in a Classics Edition with a new Foreword by Donald Boch, The Expanded Family Life Cycle integrates theory and current research with clinical guidelines and cases by two of the most-respected authors, teachers, and clinicians in the field of family therapyACarter and Monica McGoldrick. This classic Family Therapy text provides "and more comprehensive way to think about human development and the life cycle," reflecting changes in society away from orientation toward the nuclear family, toward a more diverse and inclusive definition of "family." This expanded view of the family includes the impact of issues at multiple levels of the human system: the individual, family households, the extended family, the community, the cultural group, and the larger society. The text features a ground-breaking integration of individual male and female development in systemic context; our increasing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity; the emergence of men's movements and issues; the growing visibility of lesbian and gay families; and the neglected area of social class.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Classics Edition of The Expanded Family Life Cycle, with a new foreword by Donald Bloch, continues to provide "a new and more comprehensive way to think about human development and the life cycle," reflecting society's shift away from the nuclear family toward a more diverse and inclusive definition of family. Theory and research are integrated with clinical guidelines and cases by two of the most respected authors, teachers, and clinicians in the field of family therapy–Betty Carter and Monica McGoldrick.

 

“This text is a classic in the field of family psychology and family therapy. It provides a framework in which current family life cycle stressors, family intergenerational history, and current sociocultural factors are beautifully integrated and applied to an understanding of family functioning. Further, it is one of the few texts I know that can span undergraduate and graduate education, providing information relevant for both beginning and more advanced students. The information is presented clearly and is written by experienced clinicians who supply lots of clinical cases to exemplify the points they are trying to make, resulting in absorbing reading. I have been using this text for the past ten years or so, and plan to use it indefinitely.”
–Leslie Brody, Boston University

 

“The text's primary theme is diversity. The contents cover a broad range of topics from Latino family life cycle to gay and lesbian life cycle. Issues such as death, migration, violence, and gender add to the breadth and interest of this text and it position it to be useful to many....The text is easy to understand and engaging,...is written with clarity and an excellent balance between knowledge and application. The case illustrations throughout the book are helpful in providing an illustration of the concepts and holding the interest of the reader.”
–Kathleen Briggs, Oklahoma State University

 

“The text is well written, which makes it a pleasure to read. I find the use of metaphors and analogies very effective....The Adam and Eve reference in the conclusion of chapter one is a favorite quote of mine regarding the timelessness of family violence....The chapter on self in context is particularly valuable. It introduces some key concepts regarding developmental and social issues relevant to gay and lesbian youth that continue throughout the text....The Carter and McGoldrick text is a valuable component of students' foundation studies related to family issues.”
–Margarete Parrish, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 3 edition (December 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0205488293
• ISBN-13: 978-0205488292
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Monica McGoldrick, M.A., M.S.W., Ph.D., is co-founder and director of the Multicultural Family Institute in Highland Park, New Jersey, and adjunct faculty at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her books include Ethnicity and Family Therapy, Third Edition, Genograms: Assessment and Intervention, Third Edition, The Expanded Family Life Cycle, Fourth Edition Living Beyond Loss, 2nd edition; Revisioning Family Therapy, 2nd edition; and The Genogram Journey, a new edition of You Can Go Home Again, a book published to explain family systems therapy for the general reader. This book offers the genograms and family histories of many famous people from Barack Obama to John Kennedy and Sigmund Freud.

Monica McGoldrick was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up there and in Solebury Pennsylvania. Her ancestors (on the McGoldrick side came from Donegal, Ireland, and her mother's Cahalane ancestors came from West Cork. She majored in Russian Studies at Brown University (called Pembroke in her time), and then received a masters degree in Russian Studies at Yale University, before switching to social work and family therapy, receiving her MSW and later an honorary PhD from Smith College School for Social Work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The authors' agenda overrides all else, May 24, 2003

By 

Anonymous - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

I used this book, which came highly recommended, to teach a graduate-level course in Family Therapy. At first glance it seemed like a useful text, having earned a great deal of praise from other professors. However, the book was a disappointment to both myself and my students.

While I would not go so far as to say that the book contained no useful information, much of the book's potential utility was overshadowed by the authors' transparent political agenda. An example of good clinical advice provided by the authors was to ask wealthy families, in an initial interview, how they are using their funds to help the poor. Coming across with this overtly judgmental and clinically irrelevant question in the first interview is clearly not the way to win over a troubled family.

When studying the book, it was often possible to forget that families seeking therapy may actually have troubles of their own. The articles in the book focused largely on sociopolitical issues. Obviously, one cannot discount the influence of the larger context; however, struggles with gender unfairness in the workplace are rarely the presenting problem which drives an entire family into a therapist's office. Perhaps it was for this reason that focused, practical clinical advice for the budding clinician was nearly absent from many of the articles.

Pragmatics aside, the book was also lacking in terms of scholarship. A variety of grand claims were made by various authors with limited citations to support these claims. Despite the reference lists at the end of each chapter, I found it jarring to read several consecutive paragraphs without footnotes describing, for example, the "typical" presentation of clients from different cultural groups. There was also a surprising tendency on the part of some authors to make detailed references to their personal lives in the article. While anecdotes can certainly be illustrative, they should not serve as the basis of an article.

Overall, I was very disappointed in this book and would not assign it again. While there was some useful information embedded in a few of the articles, on the whole this book attests to the need to keep textbooks agenda-free.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Looking hard for the merit, March 7, 2008

By 

zinotrope "zinotrope" (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives (An Allyn & Bacon Classics Edition) (with MyHelpingLab) (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

I had to read this book as part of my grad school program, but found every chapter a chore. As has been said before, the authors' political bias and agenda permeates nearly every page, and the chapters that aren't directly written by McGoldrick and Carter, although more promising, are still etched with this harmful bias. Having read other writings by McGoldrick especially, I was not entirely surprised by this bias, but to find it so codified and oppressive in a textbook is inexcusable.

Another huge complaint is how dated the book is. Yes it received a new edition, but most of the academic references are no more recent than 1997 or so, and the cultural references are so horribly out of date (at least 2 references to the Dan Quayle/Murphy Brown controversy in a 2005 book anyone?) that its usefulness is in question. It is unfortunate that there is apparently no better textbook dealing with the family life cycle than this angry, biased, pessimistic, closed-minded and out-dated textbook. There is some good information scattered here and there, but I think most critical thinkers will be working so hard to see it through the political haze they will have a hard time finding it.

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The book should not be recommended for University programs, November 11, 2005

By 

Erco "Lana" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Expanded Family Life Cycle: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives (An Allyn & Bacon Classics Edition) (Book Alone) (3rd Edition) (Allyn and Bacon Classics in Education) (Hardcover)

I am very disappointed, could not force myself to finish it! This book should not be recommended for University programs. It is biased, full of stereotyping, and has "popular", rather than scientific references (with all my respect to Daniel Goldman's Emotional Intelligence commercial success). Textbooks should be professional and free of political agendas.