The Family Semantics Grid III. Interactive semantic polarities in couples and families

Inspired by Ugazio’s (1998, 2013) family semantic polarities model, the FSG III allows a semantic analysis of therapeutic sessions and other video-recorded conversations, such as films. It focuses on the lived story enacted by couples or other family members interacting with each other and with the therapist. This coding system identifies the interactive semantic polarities (ISPs) — that is, the semantic oppositions inferred by how the family members position themselves in the here and now — and classifies them according to the grids of the semantics of freedom, goodness, power, and belonging. The grids show the ISPs which mainly characterize the four semantics, and provide an operational definition, along with cues and nonverbal indicators, for each of these ISPs. The FSG III is a reliable research instrument which can be used by both clinical researchers and psychotherapists.