Preliminary studies showed that families, when given tasks that dealt with gathering, interpreting and communicating information, differed from one another in ways that could be interpreted as an extension of George Kelly's concept of personal construct, thus becoming shared constructs.
Reiss states that shared construing always happens, and follows very specific interaction patterns that the family has carefully but subconsciously created throughout its life.
It is preserved, even over long periods of time, by means of two kinds of processes: ceremonials (which are highly emotional, symbolic, episodic rituals performed by the family as a whole), and pattern regulators (which, on the other hand, are non-symbolic, delegatable, continuous routines).
The process that goes through the crisis, undermines the old paradigm and shapes a new one, which in turn will allow the family a new set of shared constructs, is circular.
Shared constructs, in fact, will shape interaction patterns with each family's social environment, thus creating the basis for new links with specific environments, which will again modify the shared constructs the family has built.