Dr. Priscilla Blanton

Professor

My graduate training was in the field of counseling psychology with a strong cognate area in child and family studies. After taking my first class in family studies, I knew I had found my niche professionally! After thirty plus years of involvement in the field, I find it as interesting and stimulating as ever. Both intellectually and experientially, I believe that individuals can be understood most fully in the context of their families. My emphasis in terms of my scholarly work on families leans more toward the internal dynamics of family functioning, although I am very aware of the broader social context as it influences how families function. The theoretical perspective I have found most useful in understanding family functioning is Adlerian psychology. Through this lens, I have been particularly interested in how families experience stressful transitions and situations.  My earlier research was focused on work/family stressors. I was particularly interested in the ways in which gender could be used as an organizing construct for understanding how families balanced work/family demands. I have focused also on how the context of clergy families influenced the work-related stressors they experienced. Most of the research I conducted earlier in my career was based on a quantitative paradigm. Of great importance to me throughout my research endeavors has been the discovery of useful information about families that has clear implications for application.

More recently, I began to develop my skills as a qualitative researcher and to utilize the qualitative paradigm in my research efforts. I am currently conducting a phenomenological study of family caregiving to frail elders. The unit of analysis in this study is the family and multiple family members are being interviewed about their experiences with the caregiving process. Some of what I have learned is that the process of caring for frail elders is often a fulfilling and rewarding experience, although it is certainly demanding in many ways. Too often in scholarly work our emphasis has been on the problematic aspects of family experience which has given us an incomplete sense of the meaning of experiences to families.

 

     Gilliard, J. L., Blanton, P. W., & Bartley, S. J.  (2007). Gender and generation: The relative influence of intimacy and individuation with mother and with father for spousal intimacy and individuation among dual-earner husbands and wives.  Family Journal:  Counseling and therapy for couples and families, 4, 350-358.

 

     Blanton, P. W.  (2005). Alfred Adler.  In Encyclopedia of Human Development (Ed. Neil Salkind),  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

 

       Bartley, S.J., Blanton, P.W., & Gilliard, J. L. (2005). Mediating a healthy work-life balance: The role of the human resource development professional.  Proceedings of the 2005 Conference of the Association of Human Resource Development.  

 

       Bartley, S. Blanton, P. W., & Gilliard, J L.  (2005). Husbands and wives in dual-earner marriages:  Decision-making, gender role attitudes, division of household labor, and equity.  Marriage and Family Review,

4, 65-94.

Contact Information

1215 W. Cumberland Ave
421 Jessie Harris Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-1912

Email: pblanton@utk.edu

Contact the Department of Child and Family Studies

1215 W. Cumberland Avenue
115 Jessie Harris Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-1912

Phone: 865-974-5316
Fax: 865-974-2742