ABSTRACT
The last few points can be summarised by understanding that families (human systems) are not only in¯uenced by structures or feedback but also by meanings. Within families some interactional patterns happen in short time periods from seconds to hours, others go from days to weeks, others from weeks to years and yet others span at least one generation and beyond. With each family pattern there will be some agreement as to the `meaning' of that pattern, i.e. how that particular interactive process is to be perceived, understood and then acted upon. Meaning is central to the interactional process. Within families there are different levels of meaning that also constitute a `context' (Pearce and Cronen 1980). As in Points 5 and 6, we can begin with a speech act, which is a verbal or non-verbal message from one person to another. Then there is an episode, which is a short pattern of reciprocated interaction. At the next level is a relationship, which is the conception of how and on what terms two or more people engage in interaction over longer periods of time. The next level of meaning is a life script, which involves a person's conception of their self in interaction throughout their development, and ®nally we have the family myth (Bagarozzi and Anderson 1989), which includes general conceptions of how personal roles and family relationships work and how that family relates to the outside world.
