Blended Family

Given the assumption that the social psychological object are persons with particular subjectivities (Book 1, Chapter 3) who are also immersed in a broader social context, the method followed in this research sought to respect this dynamic process, also assuming that social psychological methods have effects on the knowledge they produce. Therefore, I designed two qualitative individual interviews consisting of a set of open questions and guided by the Fee Association Narrative Ideas method (FANI), with the goal of explaining the social settings behind the causes of conflicts in blended families.
The above method named as FANI enables the participant to structure his or her own discourse allowing connections to be formed between one idea and

In this concern, the social psychoanalytic approach helps in understanding how people express themselves through culturally available discourses, “but interprets what people say in their interviews in terms of psychoanalytic concepts such as unconscious investment or introjection and projection” (Project Booklet, Section

Remembering that my research question deals with the leading causes of disagreements in blended families, I will start with a reflection from the researcher’s perspective elaborating on my own responses to the material and how these responses influenced the interview process. At this point it is important to highlight that I was interested in, and concentrating on, listening to the participants’ narratives, mainly because I am also a stepparent and I tried to find points of contact between my situation and that of my participants. By listening to my interviewees, I realised that we shared common ideas, feelings and emotions regarding the fact that we perceive our families as different from the traditional nuclear family of two parents and their children. I found it particularly interesting when, for example, Sandra, in line 70 of the transcript, mentioned the word ‘consent’ with a particular emphasis. I felt consent is a significant part of our step-parenting experience, as we have to negotiate a lot of things on a daily basis. Finally, as I planned my topics beforehand, I can say that we addressed all the issues I had in mind to shed light on the causes that may lead