FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY

By Jason S. Wrench

What is a System?

• Ludwig Von Bertalanffy (1968)

“Set[s] of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment”

Systems Theory Development

• Miller 1978– Called for a living systems theory

• Broderick & Smith (1979)– Published the first article applying systems

theory to family scholarship

Common Components of Family Systems

Theory

Non-Summativity

• The whole is Greater than the sum of its parts.

Genograms

Male Female

55 57

m. 79

82 9087

Genograms

Male Female

55 57

s. 92

82 9087

Genograms

Male Female

55 57

d. 97

82 9087

Genograms

Male Female

55-99 57

d. 97

82 9087

Circular Causality

• Family members are interrelated

• Not linear (A affects B)

• A & B affect each other

GALVIN AND BROMMEL (1996)

Parents ignoreDaughter

DaughterShoplifts

ParentsPay MoreAttention

DaughterBehaves MoreAcceptably

Equifinality

• Families may react similarly to the same experience or achieve outcomes by very different processes.

System types

• Sub system

• Supra system

Boundaries

• Open

• Closed

Family HomeostasisBradshaw (1988)

• Family Homeostasis (1957)

• Families try to cooperate within the family in order to keep the family at homeostasis.

Morphogenisis

• Ability to adapt and be flexible to stressors

Morphostasis

• Tendency for a system to stay at equilibrium

Applying Family Systems Theory to Family Stressors

Family Crisis

• Roberts (1991) 3 Types of Crises

1. Hazardous event

2. Threat to Life Goals

3. Inability to respond with adequate coping mechanisms

STRESSOR

SYSTEM

NEED TO CHANGE

Pittman’s (1987)Four Types of Stressors

• Bolt from the Blue

• Developmental

• Structural

• Caretaker

3 Approaches to Family System

Theory Research

Interactional View

• How families interact through message transactions

Structural View

• Focuses on dyadic social organization and role structure within the family system.

• How do families regulate boundaries.

Constructivist View

• How does the family construct its particular social reality

• Narratives and stores that families construct from their own experience

LIMITATIONS

1. Family Systems Theory has not resulted in a body of specific theoretical assertions or hypothesis which can be tested. (Broderick & Smith, 1979; Fitzpatrick and Noller, 1993).

2. Family Systems Theory may best be viewed as a metaphor for thinking about the family (Fitzpatrick and Noller, 1993).

Turner & West (1998)Limitations

• Too much focus on homeostasis at expense of change

• Too much focus on patterns at the expense of unpredictability

• Too much focus on the system at at the expense of the individuals

• A positivistic intellectual tradition that puts the researcher outside the system in search of the truth.

CASESTUDY

This Presentation was Created by Jason Wrench

OAD SPEAKERS, Inc.

Copyright 1999