Reference no: EM133234184

Assignment:

Read the following prompts and answer the questions:

Step One

In a Word doc, heading called, Family Roles. Under this heading, list all the names of the people who were central to your family system growing up. This list will likely include your parents, step-parents, and siblings. It may also include grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and step-brothers/sisters. Decide on which names to list based upon how relevant they were to your upbringing, and their level of participation in the family system. For this exercise, it's best if you list only those names who were intimately participated in the system (on a day-today basis, or close to it). Not listing a name does not mean that person was irrelevant or unimportant!

Step Two

After carefully reading the chapter, "Family Roles," try to identify which role was assigned to each person on your list (especially yourself). The various roles to choose from are as follows: caretaker, hero, scapegoat, mascot, and lost child. If you're having a hard time deciding which role a particular member was assigned, do not worry. It may be that roles in your home were flexible, rather than rigid, and perhaps people moved "in and out" of their assigned role at various stages. Assign what you think is the most applicable one given the choices, even if it's an imperfect fit.

Then, ask yourself, "does this person continue on in this role?" If so, put a YES next to the role name. Next, tell me whether that person's role was flexible or rigid? Finally, tell me which person on your list:

a) usually restored the family system to relative homeostasis after anxiety was encountered;

b) usually caused the anxiety in the family system (or was perceived to be the person who typically caused the anxiety, which may indeed be a bit of a different question);

c) how was the anxiety in the family system passed around (i.e., circulated)-- did it tend to "travel" from one person, to another, and then perhaps to the member in charge of restoring homeostasis?

Step 3

Now that we've looked at family roles, let's turn to individual scripts. On page 79, determine which of the following scripts (sometimes called life positions) best applies to you: I'm not OK, you're not OK; I'm not OK, you're OK; I'm OK, you're not OK; or I'm OK, you're OK. Once you identify which script best fits your experience, explain why in two hundred words. Does the script continue on in this form, more or less?

Step 4

As we seek to identify more about your script, please answer any three of the following questions (see pages 81-86 for more details):

• Who were/are your heroes and villains?
• What events keep recurring in your life?
• What were your favorite stories and who were your favorite characters in childhood?
• Describe your shadow side (or some part of it)?
• How does your body figure into the script?
• What behavior patterns do you tend to repeat over and over?
• How is spirituality woven into your script?
• How does your script define your gender?

Step Five

As the final part of this assignment, cast a glance back to your childhood once again, and answer the following questions about the rules of your home.

Were the rules in your family system: covert or overt (mainly)? Appropriate or inappropriate (and by this I mean in relation to developmental stages, and whether the rules were appropriate to your developmental stage)? Flexible or rigid (mainly)? Healthy or toxic?