Famology

A New Discipline

Bibliographic Data

ID2588134
AuthorsWesley R Burr (corresponding author), Geoffrey K Leigh
Year1983
Volume45
Issue3
Pages467
Publication date1983-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/351653
OpenAlexW2037308277
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited14

ters and many thoughtful comments on the questionnaires. The response confirmed that there is an identity problem. They also convinced us that there is a more basic issue, which has implications for how we should deal with the identity problem. In this paper, therefore, we deal first with the more basic concern, then with the identity questions, and finally with some proposed solutions. The more basic issue is whether the family field is a bona fide discipline, an interdisciplinary area of study, or a unique combination of both. To try to cope with this issue, we examined some literature about the emergence of disciplines and tried to identify: (a) the processes that fields go through in becoming disciplines, and (b) the criteria for determining when an area of study is a discipline. This has been an illuminating process, and we would like to share first a portion of what we have learned about the processes. Di ciplines do not appear full-blown in a short period of time. They start out with small groups of scholars working in relative obscurity. They then grow in a gradual and uneven pattern, with some parts maturing more rapidly than others and with some developments leading to growth in other areas. It is fruitless, therefore, to try to identify a date when a discipline appears because the process is more of a chicken-and-egg pattern in which there is no single cause. This difficulty in finding causes in processes has been labeled a punctuation problem in the family process litrature (Watzlawick et al., 1967). The development of a discipline also takes considerable time, and disciplines are not always easily accepted in the academic community. For example, the term was introduced in 1839 (Timasheff and Theodorson, 1976), but it was accepted only after a severe and protracted struggle (Branford, 1903:145). Yet, as Fletcher (1971) indicates, even though sociology is well established in the United States, it is still not viewed by many as a separate discipline in Great Britain

Aesthetics · Discipline · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Identity (music · Period (music · Process (computing · Punctuation · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Primary Care and Health Outcomes · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research