Outline:

l. Family Systems Theory definition

II. The eight concepts
ll. Types of families
lll. Conclusion

OBJECTIVES:
l. To be able to understand more the Family Systems Theory

ll. To apply the things, you have learned from the discussion

Family Systems Theory

 Developed by Murray Bowen
- Bowen believed that the functioning of family systems affected the
medical, psychiatric, and social wellness of all individuals.
 The basic idea of Family Systems Theory is the family acts as a unit (or system)
that influences the individual members of that family. Bowen believed
that families should be studied as systems, not as loose, unrelated interactions
between individuals.
 Based on Bowen’s theory and his study of the family, roles within the
emotional system, patterns develop within the emotional system, and
each member’s behaviour impacts the other members. Depending on the specific
human relationship systems and how the emotional systems operate, the
Bowen family systems theory suggests these behavioural patterns can
lead to either balance or dysfunction of the system or both.
 According to Dr. Bowen’s theory and study of the family, even for
disconnected members of the family, Bowen family systems theory suggests that
one’s family unit or family centre overall still has a profound impact on their
emotions and actions. Though the degree of interdependence can vary
between different families depending on how their family emotion system
operates or their unique family center or human relationship systems, all
families have some level of interdependence among the members in one’s
family.
Eight Concepts
Bowen’s family systems theory has eight underlying concepts.
1. Differentiation of the self
People with low self-differentiation have trouble distinguishing themselves from the
rest of the family unit. They are dependent on others for approval, acceptance and
decision-making. The healthier alternative is to recognize that, though you are part of a
family unit, you are your own person. Healthy people learn to differentiate
themselves from the family system.
2. Triangles
When two people are involved in a conflict, they might pull another person into the
conflict. Sometimes this happens when they ask someone to take their side. For
example, if Jessica asks her mother to take Jessica’s side in a disagreement with her
father. Other times, it can be more implicit. For example, if Jessica dedicates time and
energy to her mother in order to avoid spending time with her father, she is drawing her
mother into the conflict implicitly.
3. Nuclear family emotional system
This is a series of four basic problems that sometimes spring up in family units.
They are marital problems, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of one or more
children and emotional distance. Note that, though this is called nuclear
family emotional system, it can show up in all types of families, even non-traditional
ones.
Marital conflict – As family tension increases and the spouses get more
anxious, each spouse externalizes his or her anxiety into the marital
relationship. Each focus on what is wrong with the other, each tries to control the other,
and each resists the other’s efforts at control.
Dysfunction in one spouse – One spouse pressures the other to think and act in
certain ways and the other yields to the pressure. Both spouses
accommodate to preserve harmony, but one does more of it. The interactions
comfortable for both people up to a point, but if family tension rises
further her, the subordinate spouse may yield so much self-control that his or her
anxiety increases significantly. The anxiety fuels, if other necessary factors are present,
the development of a psychiatric, medical, or social dysfunction.
Impairment of one or more children – The spouses focus their anxieties on one or more
of their children. They worry excessively and usually have an idealized or negative view
of him. The more the parents focus on the child the more the child focuses on them. He
is more reactive than his siblings to the attitudes, needs, and expectations of the
parents. The process undercuts the child’s differentiation from the family and makes him
vulnerable to act out or internalize family tensions. The child’s anxiety can
impair his school performance, social relationships, and even his health.
Emotional distance – This pattern is consistently associated with the others.
People distance from each other to reduce the relationship intensity, but risk becoming
too isolated.
4. Family projection process
Parents who have fears or emotional problems can pass those on to their children
through a process of projection. In this process, a parent is scared that
there’s something wrong with the child and then sees evidence to support their theory in
even innocuous actions of the child and finally treats the child as if
there’s something actually wrong.
Imagine that Jessica’s mom has issues with body image. When she looks at herself,
she sees a woman who is fat, even though she’s a healthy weight. She projects this fear
onto Jessica. She studies Jessica to see if Jessica is fat. When Jessica
hits puberty and begins to develop breasts and hips, her mom believes that her fears
are being confirmed and that Jessica will end up fat. As a result, she
restricts Jessica’s diet and ends up passing on her body image issues to Jessica.
5. Multigenerational transmission process
In the multigenerational transmission process, children of two parents develop their
sense of self and/or their emotional problems as a result of their parents.
The children then find mates who share their issues and then their children develop
issues even more severely. IN the example above, Jessica will find a mate that has
similar body image issues as she does. Jessica’s children would then develop body
image issues that are more severe than Jessica’s. Their children will have even more
severe body image issues, and so on.
6. Emotional cut-off
This occurs when someone avoids issues, they have with their family by
cutting them off, either emotionally or physically. A child can move away from their
parents as a way of cutting off emotional baggage. On the other hand, they could stay in
close contact with their family but just avoid talking about anything
emotional. Though things seem to be better as a result of emotional cutoff, the truth is
that the problems are still there, just below the surface.
7. Sibling position
Bowen drew on research by Walter Toman about how birth order and siblings affect
people’s personality and relationships. Both Bowen and Toman looked at how birth
order and gender of siblings create complementary personality types. For example, the
older sister of a brother and the younger brother of a sister would make a good match
because their birth order and sibling genders are complementary of each other.
8. Societal emotional process
All of the previous seven concepts can be applied to society as a whole, not just
blood-related families. Bowen believed that these concepts not only
explained family dynamics but also explained the progressive and regressive
patterns of society and the way people interact with their communities.
TYPES OF FAMILIES
Nuclear family: This is also known as the conjugal family or family of procreation.
Nuclear families are comprised of married partners and their offspring. This
is common in industrial societies, but it is not the most common type of family in the
world, although the practice is spreading through modern development.
Some anthropologists identify a second type of nuclear family, the non-conjugal family.
In this type of nuclear family, there is one parent with dependent children.
Additionally, there is the polygamous family, which is comprised of multiple spouse sand
dependent children.
Extended family: The extended family is the most common type of family in the world.
Extended families include at least three generations: grandparents, married offspring,
and grandchildren.
Joint family: Joint families are composed of sets of siblings, theirs spouses, andtheir
dependent children.
Blended family: Blended families are becoming more common, especially in
industrial societies like the United States. A blended family is formed when divorced
widowed parents who have children marry.
Family by Choice: A relatively newly recognized type of family, again especially in
industrial countries like the United States, is the family by choice. The term was
popularized by the LGBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community to
describe a family not recognized by the legal system. Family by choice
can include adopted children, live-in partners, kin of each member of the household,
and close friends. Increasingly family by choice is being practiced by
unmarried people and families who move away from the consanguine family.
Family Structures
Traditional Family
The traditional family consists of a married couple raising their biological children. This
family type is seen as typical in most western countries. It is also promoted by the
Christian religion. Marketers often develop advertisements for this kind of
family, because it is seen as the basic family structure.
Blended family
Blended family also referred to as stepfamily, describes “a family that
includes children of a previous marriage of one spouse or both”
Single-parent
One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence
of single-parent families. Single parent is a term that is mostly used to suggest than one
parent has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children.
While somewhat more common prior to the twentieth century due to the more frequent
deaths of spouses, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the
nuclear family became the societal norm in most Western nations. But what was the
prevailing norm for much of the twentieth century is no longer the actual norm, nor is it
perceived as such.
Same-sex Relationship and Marriage
While homosexuality has existed for thousands of years among human
beings, formal marriages between homosexual partners is a relatively recent
phenomenon.
A same-sex relationship is a relationship between two persons of the same sex. The
recognition of same-sex marriages goes along with a debate about civil
rights, political, social, moral, and religious issues.
Cohabitation
Cohabitation is an intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which
exists without the benefit of legal, cultural, or religious sanction. It can be seen as an
alternative form of marriage, in that, in practice, it is similar to marriage, But it does not
receive the same formal recognition by religions, governments, or cultures.
Cohabiting couples may choose to live together in an effort to spend more time together
or to save money on living costs. Many couples view cohabitation as a “trial run” for
marriage. Variables such as educational attainment, social class, race, and age at first
cohabitation and length of cohabitation can be used as independent variables to predict
marriage and/or relationship stability.

CONCLUSION :
Overall, family systems theory understands human behavior through a complex web of
emotional processes in one’s family, work, and social systems. It describes how the
emotional interdependence among family/society members impacts individuals’
character and life choices.