Chaos and Regulated Change in Families

In this chapter I outline a general approach to how families change. I draw heavily from a new understanding of deterministic and nonlinear systems in physics and biology that has come to be called “dynamics,” and is also known as “bifurcation theory” or “catastrophe theory.” Part of this new understanding lies in a new definition of the term “chaos.” The ideas of this fascinating new area have recently been popularized in a national bestseller by Gleick (1987).