Transcript Family Systems Theory - Understanding Marriage, Family

Chapter 2:
Theory and Research
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Theories and our Understanding
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Psychoanalytic Theory - Freud
Psychosocial Theory – Erikson
Object Relations Theory
Behavioral Theory - Skinner
Social Learning Theory - Bandura
Cognitive Theory - Beck
Humanistic Theory – Rogers
Biological Theory
Family Systems Theory
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• General Systems Theory• elements or parts of system are
_____________ and
• strive to maintain _______
• GST - broad, applies to all types of
systems - the body, home heating and
cooling, schools and businesses
• Needed a systems approach related to the
family.
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Characteristics – Family System
• Focus is on ______ not individual
members
• Family is made up of ____________ parts
that interact in ___________________
ways
• Something must regulate and govern how
the system functions
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• What produces this regular, enduring and persistent
pattern? It is . . .
• _____ that govern interactions and regulate
repetitive behavior
• Rules - where are they?
• Often, rules are outside the family’s _________.
• You must have individuals to have a family but the
individuals themselves do not create the
___________
• No system until …
• This pattern is created by _____.
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Wholeness
• Family - more than the ___ of the
individual parts,
more than a collection of _________
• As family members interact
they create a __________ that is far more
than just the combined sum of each
individual member.
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• The Smith family
a complex group organized around a set of _____,
acting and reacting to each other in many ways as
they function as family
• To understand this family, one must _______ the
dynamic relationships
that exist among family members as they
_______.
• How does one get to know the Smith family?
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• Wholeness focus: change in one part of the system
influences __________________________
• The system is constantly changing, acting and
reacting to _____ of various kinds
• There is interdependence
• Example…
• Satir’s mobile model
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Homeostasis and Feedback
• The family systemcomplex patterns of interactions
governed by rules
• This pattern makes the family comfortable and
__________. Behaviors are _________.
• Deviations from this pattern (rules) are reacted
to so that
the customary _______ is maintained.
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• The process of monitoring stability and balance
is done through ________
• A system which does this monitoring so that
balance is maintained is called a ______ ______.
homeostatic system
• Examples:
- the body
- the home heating system
- the family.
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• The family - not static system
• Some feedback pushes for change; other forces seek the
previous balance
• How well the system adjusts is important to the health of
the system
• Positive feedback (amplifying feedback) pushes for
______
• Negative feedback (attenuating feedback)
______________________.
• Input/Output: System monitors _____ to see if it is in
accepted range
• Behavior is ______ for the individual, yet it is input for the
system.
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• If a member’s behavior ________ falls outside the
accepted range,
this information is fed back into the system ______
and this results in responses
that attempt to bring the system back into _______.
• Subsystems in families –
- the spousal subsystem
- the parental subsystem
- the sibling subsystem
• Other subsystems
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Boundaries
• Boundary - line of demarcation between two
systems, subsystems, or entities
• Example: city limits
• Boundaries in families are more_____________.
May be physical or psychological
• Boundaries protect – ________________________
___________________
• Examples in families.
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• The ease with which a system allows
information to flow in and out
relates to boundary ___________
• Permeability may change over time
• Much information flow - __________
• Little information flow - ___________
• Families fall on a continuum
Closed -------------------- Open
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Causality: Two Types
• Linear Causality: A  B  C
• The cause of behavior can be determined if
• we can just find the chain of events leading up to
the behavior
• A person takes a drug. Drug causes physiological
changes. Changes lead to dizziness
• How do we explain dizziness?
• It is caused by the drug which produces
physiological changes.
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Circular Causality
• Family systems theory - where you have many parts which
interact with each other in an organized but complex way,
linear causality is _________
• The Circularity Causality Model
In families forces influence each other in a ___________ or
_____________ way
• A change in one person influences every family member
• This change is feedback into the system and influences every
other part of the system.
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• So it goes in a never ending cycle
• Searching for one true cause is pointless;
answers are not found in the individual
parts,
but in the ______ itself
• X does not cause Y;Y does not cause X
• Rather X and Y interacting together _____
each other.
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• Searching for a starting point is fruitless
• When parents ask children, “Who started it,” each child
blames the other.
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• Who started it depends on…
• where in the chain of the feedback loop the search
begins
• FST does not look for “the cause” but turns the attention
to _______
attempting to discover the pattern of interactions taking
place which influence the whole system
• Behaviors are the result of constant and complex
interactions within the system.
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• Environmental forces outside the system may
______ the system,
but these forces do not determine what a system
does
• Example: A ball and what happens when someone
kicks things that are in the shape of a ball
• A soccer ball ____, a bubble ball______, and a
cannonball ____________.
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• Response is determined by the specific structure of
each object
• The environment does not determine how the
system responds,
but provides the context for allowing the system to
respond in a way which its ________ determines
• Just as the structure of objects differ, the structure of
families also differ
• Example: family therapist.
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• In Family Systems Therapy
knowing what causes C or predicting what
effect A will have, becomes futile
• Focus instead is on process – how family
members interact
• Focus is on ____ rather than why
• Focus on _______ rather than past.
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• Family system theorists ask how questions:
How do family members communicate as
they interact with each other?
• This is in contrast to ____ questions:
Why do family members say what they say?
Why do they do what they do?
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Equifinality / Equipotentiality
• These concepts relate to prediction and causality
• Equifinality - many activating events can be associated
with the same result/outcome
Equipotentiality - the same activating event can be associated
with many different results/outcomes.
Event A
Outcome A
Event B
Same Outcome
(equifinality)
Event
A
Outcome B
Outcome C
(equipotentiality)
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• Equifinality: A parent’s overprotective behavior or a parent’s over
permissive behavior could result in a child’s rebellious behavior.
Overprotective
behavior
Over permissive
behavior
Rebellious behavior
• Equipotentiality: A spanking may lead to more misbehavior, less
misbehavior, or no change in behavior.
More misbehavior
Spanking
No change
Less misbehavior
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• Research: Helping us understand
• Science – based on empirical data-information
that is systematically _________, ________, and
________
• Goals of researcher
• To accurately ________
• To accurately _______
• To accurately _______
• Description
• The survey: importance of random sample
• Naturalistic observation - Gottman
• The case study
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• Prediction
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Correlation Studies
Ascertaining the relationship between 2 variables
Findings reported using ___________________
A number from ____________
Researcher interested in ______________ and power how close to +1.00 or –1.00
Let’s look at direction
Let’s look at power
Examples
Caution – correlation does not prove ________.
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• Explanation
• The Experiment
• Highly controlled situation in which experimenter
__________ a variable, ________ a variable, and
_______ for extraneous variables.
• Manipulates a variable – independent variable
• Observes a variable – dependent variable
• Control extraneous variables – usually through
random assignment
• Example.
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