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The Family System Theories
Introduction
According to Bowen, a family is a system in which each member has a role to play and rules to
respect
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Children on their part assist the parents in different roles and tasks as may be assigned
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In this respect, parents are supposed to be close, warm and supportive to each other, and
loving, patient, sensitive and responsive to their children
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Similarly, children should respond positively to their parents by being warm,
responsive and obedient
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Within the boundaries of the family system, patterns develop as certain family member's behaviour
is influenced by, and influences other family member's behaviours in predictable ways
...
When they are close and supportive to
their wives, the mothers tends to interact more patiently, warmly and sensitively with their babies,
than those who experience marital tensions
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Again, fathers tend to be
involved in their children’s life if their wives demonstrate a belief that a father should play an
important role in a child’s life, and when the two parents freely talk about their children
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Infants can also
influence adults’ responses
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Maintaining the same pattern of behaviours within a system may lead to a balance in the family
system, but also to dysfunction
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The change in roles may maintain the stability in the family for some time, but it
may also push the wife to a stressful position
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The Eight Concepts Operating in the Family System
In order to understand Dr
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The eight concepts consist of:
 Differentiation of Self
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Nuclear Family Emotional System
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Multigenerational Transmission Process
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Sibling Position, and
Emotional Process in Society
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It is the process of
freeing oneself from one’s family's processes to define the self
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A person with a well-differentiated "self":
 Recognizes his realistic dependence on others despite being an independent person
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 Acts on the basis of thought rather than emotions
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 Is consistent in what he decides, what he says and what he does
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 Makes thoughtful choices, and does not just respond to relationship pressures
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 Can support another's view without following blindly or reject the view without
personalising the issue
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 Have difficulty thinking logically and basing their responses on that
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 Look to family to define how they think about issues, feel about people, and interpret their
experiences
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The less developed a person's "self," the more impact others have on his functioning and the more
he tries to control, actively or passively, the functioning of others
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Disagreement threatens a bully as much as it threatens a coward
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A rebel however pretends to be a "self" by
routinely opposing the positions of others
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Foe example, a child
whose parents use authoritarian parenting style is likely to become poorly differentiated
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Individual’s temperaments may be either
pro- conformity or anti- conformity
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Individuals who live in
communities that emphasise communalism as opposed to individualism are more likely to
feel and think as is expected in the group
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We should also realize that every human society has
its well-differentiated people, poorly differentiated people, and people at many gradations between
these extremes
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Again, since everyone is subject to
problems in his work and personal life, less differentiated people and families are more vulnerable
to periods of heightened chronic anxiety and therefore have a greater share of society's problems
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A triangle is a three-person relationship
system
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When in conflict, distressed or feeling intense emotions, a dyad is likely to seek a
third person to triangulate (eg a couple that has had an argument)
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If the tension is too high for one triangle to contain, it spreads to a series of
"interlocking" triangles
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People
who are differentiated cope well with life and relationship stress, and thus are less likely to
triangulate others or be triangulated
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Instead, a differentiated person would try to help the friend by assisting him or her
focus more clearly on the problem or offering alternative ways of addressing it
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Anxiety generated by anticipating or being
the odd one out is a potent force in triangles
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In calm periods, two people are comfortably close "insiders" and the third person is an
uncomfortable "outsider
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If mild to moderate tension develops between the insiders, the most
uncomfortable one will move closer to the outsider
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The new outsider will make predictable
moves to restore closeness with one of the insiders
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The conflict is not inherent in the relationship in which it exists but reflects the overall functioning
of the triangle
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If severe conflict erupts
between the insiders, one insider opts for the outside position by getting the current outsider
fighting with the other insider
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When the tension and conflict
subside, the outsider will try to regain an inside position
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Getting pushed from
an inside to an outside position can trigger a depression or perhaps even a physical illness
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For example, two parents intensely focusing on what is wrong with a child can
trigger serious rebellion in the child
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People's attitudes and beliefs about relationships play
a role in the patterns, but the forces primarily driving them are part of the emotional system
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The
four basic relationship patterns are:
Marital conflict- As family tension increases and the spouses get more anxious, each spouse
externalizes his or her anxiety into the marital relationship thus:
 Each focuses on what is wrong with the other
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 Each resists the other's efforts at control
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Both spouses accommodate to preserve harmony, but one does
more of it
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The anxiety fuels, if other necessary factors are present, the development of a
psychiatric, medical, or social dysfunction
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They worry excessively and usually have an idealized or negative view of the child
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He is more reactive than
his siblings to the attitudes, needs, and expectations of the parents
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The child's anxiety can impair his school performance, social relationships, and even his
health
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People distance from
each other to reduce the intensity of the relationship, but risk becoming too isolated
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The level of tension depends on:
 The stress a family encounters
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 A family's connection with extended family
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Tension increases the activity of one or more of the four relationship patterns
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The higher the tension, the more the chances
are that symptoms will be severe, and that several people will be symptomatic
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The more anxiety one person or one relationship absorbs, the less other people must absorb
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People do
not want to hurt each other, but when anxiety chronically dictates behaviour, someone usually
suffers for it
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The projection process can impair the functioning of one or more children and increase
their vulnerability to clinical symptoms
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The inherited problems that most affect
their lives are relationship sensitivities such as:
 Heightened needs for attention and approval
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 The tendency to blame oneself or others
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 Acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than tolerating anxiety and
acting thoughtfully
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The sensitivities increase a person's vulnerability to symptoms by fostering behaviours
that escalate chronic anxiety in a relationship system
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(2) The parent interprets the child's behaviour as confirming the fear
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These steps of scanning, diagnosing, and treating begin early in the child's life and continue
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One reason the projection process is a self-fulfilling

prophecy is that parents try to "fix" the problem they have diagnosed in the child; for example,
parents perceive their child to have low self-esteem, they repeatedly try to affirm the child, and the
child's self-esteem grows dependent on their affirmation
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The siblings less involved in the family projection process have a more mature and reality-based
relationship with their parents that fosters the siblings developing into less needy, less reactive,
and more goal-directed people
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The mother is usually the primary caretaker and more prone than the father
to excessive emotional involvement with one or more of the children
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Both parents are unsure of themselves in relationship to the child, but
commonly one parent acts sure of himself or herself and the other parent goes along
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In the previous two categories the couple relationship is the focus of anxiety without it significantly
impacting on the functioning of the next generation
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The child with the least emotional separation from his/her parents is
said to be the most vulnerable to developing symptoms
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A detouring triangle is thus set in motion, as attention and protectiveness
are shifted to the child
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An example would be when an illness in a child distracts one parent from the pursuit of closeness
in the marriage
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As in all of Bowen's
constructs, 'intergenerational projection' is said to occur in all families in varying degrees
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The impact of crises and their timing also influences the
vulnerability of certain children
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The Multigenerational Transmission Process
This process entails the way family emotional processes are transferred and maintained over the
generations
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As the family continues this pattern over generations, they
also refer back to previous generations ("He's just like his Uncle so and so - he was always
irresponsible too" or "She's just like your cousin Rafiki - she was divorced four times
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The information
creating these differences is transmitted across generations through relationships
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Relationally and genetically transmitted information interact to shape an individual's
"self
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This is
because parents actively shape the development of their offspring, who innately in turn respond to
their parents' moods, attitudes, and actions during their long dependency period
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Thus, at least one member of
a sibling group develops a little more "self" and another member develops a little less "self" than
the parents
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Therefore, if one sibling's level of "self"
is higher and another sibling's level of "self" is lower than the parents, one sibling's marriage is
more differentiated and the other sibling's marriage is less differentiated than the parents' marriage
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As these processes
repeat over multiple generations, the differences between family lines grow increasingly marked
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This impact of differentiation on overall
life functioning explains the marked variation that typically exists in the lives of the members of a
multigenerational family
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Thus, the multigenerational transmission process not
only programs the levels of "self" people develop, but it also programs how people interact with
others
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For example, if a family
programs someone to attach intensely to others and to function in a helpless and indecisive way,
he will likely select a mate who not only attaches to him with equal intensity, but one who directs
others and make decisions for them
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Emotional contact can be reduced by people moving away from their families
and rarely going home, or it can be reduced by people staying in physical contact with their families
but avoiding sensitive issues
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People reduce the tensions of family interactions by cutting off, but risk making their new
relationships too important
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This makes him vulnerable
to pressuring them to be certain ways for him or accommodating too much to their expectations of
him out of fear of jeopardizing the relationship
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People who are cut off may try to stabilize their intimate relationships by creating substitute
"families" with social and work relationships
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An unresolved
attachment can take many forms
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An unresolved attachment relates to the immaturity of both the parents and the adult child,
but people typically blame themselves or others for the problems
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It may take the form of surface harmony with powerful
emotional undercurrents or it may deteriorate into shouting matches and hysterics
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It may be easier for the parents if an
adult child keeps his distance
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The siblings of a highly cut-off member often get furious at him when
he is home and blame him for upsetting the parents
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Sibling Position
Bowen’s theory incorporates the research of psychologist Walter Toman as a foundation for its
concept of sibling position
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However, he found Toman's work so thorough and consistent
with his ideas that he incorporated it into his theory
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For example, oldest
children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers
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For example, a boss who is an oldest child may work unusually well with a first
assistant who is a youngest child
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Toman's research showed that spouses' sibling positions affect the chance of their divorcing
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The sibling or rank positions are complementary in the first case and each spouse is familiar with
living with someone of the opposite sex
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An older brother
of a brother and an older sister of a sister are prone to battle over who is in charge; two youngest
children are prone to struggle over who gets to lean on whom
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The
concept of differentiation can explain some of the differences
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Consequently, his younger
brother may become a "functional oldest," filling a void in the family system
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A youngest child who is anxiously focused on may become an unusually helpless and
demanding person
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Middle children exhibit the functional characteristics of two sibling positions
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The sibling positions of a person's parents
are also important to consider
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Societal Emotional Process
Each concept in Bowen’s theory applies to non-family groups, such as work and social
organizations
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Cultural forces are important in how a society functions but are insufficient for explaining
the ebb and flow in how well societies adapt to the challenges that face them
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The parents in such families give the message, "We love you no matter
what you do
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The child rebels against
the parents and is adept at sensing the uncertainty of their positions
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He is indifferent to their punishments
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Bowen discovered that during the 1960s the courts became more like the parents of delinquents
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They tried
to understand him and often reduced the consequences of his actions in the hope of effecting a
change in his behaviour
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This recognition of a
change in one societal institution led Bowen to notice that similar changes were occurring in other
institutions, such as in schools and governments
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In a regression, people act to relieve
the anxiety of the moment rather than act on principle and a long-term view
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It worsened to some extent during the 1950s and

rapidly intensified during the 1960s
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Human societies undergo periods of regression and progression in their history
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Bowen predicted that the current regression
would, like a family in a regression, continue until the repercussions stemming from taking the
easy way out on tough issues exceeded the pain associated with acting on a long-term view
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References
Adams, B
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, & Mburugu, E
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http://www
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com/upm-data/4948
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N
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(1994)
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Journal of
Comparative Family Studies, 25(2), 159–16
Becker, R
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(1984)
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Washington, D
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: National Institute of Education
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S
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Early childhood programs in other nations: Goals and outcomes
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Bowen, M
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Family Therapy in Clinical Practice
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Clignet, R
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Many wives, many powers
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E
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and Davies, P
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Children and Marital Conflict
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Easterlin, Richard A
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“Modernization and fertility: A critical Essay”; In Determinants of
Fertility in Developing Countries
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Ferraro, G
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(1973)
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Urban
Anthropology, 2, 214–231
Gupta, A
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(2006)
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Current Anthropology
Hetherington, E
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(ed
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Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
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& Super, C
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(2002)
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In M
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Bornstein (Ed
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2: Biology and ecology of parenting (pp
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Hughes, F
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and Nopple, L
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(1990)
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New York:
Macmillan Publishing Company
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, Roberts, J
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New York: W
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Norton
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L
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E
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Cultural values and parenting education
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E
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Kagan (Eds
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37-55)
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Kagitcibasi, C
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, & Bekman, S
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Long term effects of early intervention: Turkish
low-income mothers and children
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Olds, D
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, Sadler, L
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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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