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Bowen's family system theory wiki
Bowen's family system theory wiki
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If I were to look at my family through the lenses of Bowen’s family system theory mentioned in The Genogram Journey: Reconnecting with your Family by Monica McGoldrick, most of the time we would not follow the listed “norms.” Mike is the oldest and Bowen suggests that he should be serious, the leader, and ambitious. Mike is none of these attributes. Mike is the smartest of the siblings. On the science portion of the ACT, he made a 32. The quality Mike is missing tends to fall towards self-motivation. He has worked in multiple fast food careers but ends up quitting when the job gets difficult. His mother, Christine, tends to bend to his every need while our father does not talk to him about adult responsibilities.
Family systems have been studied since psychologists began studying people and their behaviors. The family is a dynamic system—a self-organizing system that adapts itself to changes in its members and to changes in its environment (as cited in Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Allowing the focus of a family system to grow beyond the mother and child relationship did not happen overnight. For many years, there was no connection made between other members of the family and the developmental issues of the children involved.
Smith, S. R., & Hamon, R. R., (2012). Exploring family theories. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
In understanding others, one must first understand our own family background and how it affects our understanding of the world. Conversely, family systems draw on the view of the family as an emotional unit. Under system thinking, one evaluates the parts of the systems in relation to the whole meaning behavior becomes informed by and inseparable from the functioning of one’s family of origin. These ideas show that individuals have a hard time separating from the family and the network of relationships. With a deeper comprehension of the family of origin helps with the challenges and awareness of normalized human behaviors. When interviewing and analyzing the family of origin, allow one to look at their own family of origin
According to Richard Charles (2001) “the effectiveness of family systems theory rests not much on empirical research but on clinical reports of positive treatment outcomes, the personal benefits experienced by the families that underwent this kind of treatment, and the elegance of Bowen’s theory” (p. 279). Bowen’s family systems theory views the family as an emotional unit and is a theory of human behavior. Systems thinking is used to describe the complex interactions in the unit. However, the client’s ability to differentiate himself/herself from the family of origin is the basis for Bowen’s family systems theory. In addition, the primary focus for growth within the emotional system is differentiation of self.
Interview & Reflection I have interviewed my Father through email over a week period, he was very helpful to me and even knew the answers to the questions I had on my Mother side of the family. I felt he was the best to interview as he is one of the smartest people I know. Of course I talked to him in our native language (Arabic) even though his English was perfect, but I wanted him to feel more comfortable when answering, so I translated everything to English. Below is a list of the questions I asked him and his replies: (Answers are bolded). The first question I have is, why is it that I feel that our family is much bigger than the regular western family?
In class we watch a clip called “Journey of Man” and basically the all over view of this movie was about a man named Spencer Wells and his team of scientist researching for approximately 15 years of investigating to find out our family history. They believe that they have discover some life changing information. They had this discovery for a while now but that needed time to gather up all of the facts from their research. This information that they have could transform our view on the world. They have revealed some type of time machine that has allow them to see back in ancient history. For that past ten years this man and his team have been using this time machine to gather all types of different information about the past history. This information came for just once source, blood. Many people views it as and gift from the past, but to scientist it carries the past and has a unique story behind it. A time machine hidden within us.
Since the 20th century, researchers have sought out solutions to help assist families and the individual components that make up family systems overcome the challenges and schisms that can inhibit individuation and stability. Two theoretical perspectives, the family-systems theory and the family-development theory, were conceived to gain as Balswick & Balswick (2014) noted, gain “a wide-angle view of family life” (p. 22). Though these two theories have merit, one I found to be more advantageous in gaining a better understanding of the family as an actively metastasizing organism, which needs to be approached more adaptively.
When forming my family genogram consisting of four generations of an African American family, there were a few trends that were expressed and demonstrated in my genogram. There was the consistent health trend of cancer being significant in my family. There are several known cancers that has the “highest death rate and shortest survival” for African Americans that took the lives of those in my family (DeSantis et al., 2016, pg 290). As viewed in my genogram diagram, most of the older generation in my family lived a longer life span passed 70 years of age. As Richardus & Kinst (2001) stated, “Higher mortality rates have been observed in the Black population,” and that can be based on a several known causes of deaths (p. 1251). Many of my family
The thought of completing a genogram on my family was interesting because the majority of my family lives in Liberia. I have an aunt that lives here but we have an estranged relationship and we don’t communicate. The person I could have told me everything about my paternal family was my grandmother. However, my grandmother passed away in 2000 from high blood pressure. My grandparents had six children and the youngest daughter became my source for the information I needed. Doing this genogram has been very difficult for me because I learned that maternal grandparents are deceased and my aunts and uncle are also deceased. My mother is the only living family member that I know of. I never got the opportunity to have a relationship with my mother’s side of the family.
These four perspectives of assessment involve: communication, family structure, life cycle adjustments, and the impact of the social environment on the family. Family theorist have also further expended on the interaction of family and the social environment. Throughout this paper, I will apply the four perspectives of assessment to asses my family of origin; as well as, use various family systems theories to assess my experiences with family of origin in order to develop an awareness of how my experiences affected me, and to prevent them from interfering with my ability to provide my future clients with the best possible
After completing my family genogram, I was able to notice the history of a couple of patterns of fusion in particular. One of the relational patterns that stood out was emotional abuse which for the sake of this assignment I have only traced it back three generations, starting with my paternal grandfather Marciano, who endured the aftermath of the WWII and who conceived out of wedlock (COW) from Spanish and Mestizo parents and who married a woman Fidelina, of Chinese and Indian origin, born in El Salvador like him. Based on anecdotal accounts, Marciano was particularly emotionally abusive towards Rosa, my mother, who is also the first born of the couple and COW. Marciano had very high standards of beauty and intellect, which often triggered name calling, insults, and other forms of humiliation aimed towards my mother, causing her to feel belittled and resent his treatment towards her.
Researching my family genogram helped me explore the genealogy of my family and the traditions and medical and mental health patterns of behaviors that exist in my family.
Naturally, I am a tall male 6’ in height. One particular family member that I seem to share this with is my uncles. My brothers are also tall moderately as well as my father, grandfather, and great grandfather. Another character trait that is obvious in my family history is our eye color. A dominant eye color is most definitely present in my family genogram. Everyone in my immediate family eyes are hazel. My grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles mainly all have hazel eyes. This is definitely a characteristic/trait that exists, by nature, between most of my family members. One other characteristic in my genogram project, which seems to be a result of nature, is the fact that we have so many boys! As I mentioned earlier, the more families expand
I am a hardworking, highly sociable, ever determined, and high performer who is highly self-motivated in pursuing their career path. My personal qualities are shaped by every member of my family. For example, my father has proved to be a hard working person and a high performer after having successfully completed his undergraduate and post graduate programs and securing a highly paying job. He receives rewards and presents almost every time his bank holds an annual general meeting or an important event. My mother who is a nurse is equally successful and loves teamwork to ensure success at the hospital where she works. My brother, the only sibling I have, is a diligent practicing auditor after having completed an undergraduate degree at Monash University, Australia. I want to identify with my family to understand and appreciate the value of hard work, determination, teamwork, and self-motivation among other qualities.
I have learned a lot more about my family by completing this project. I knew my grandma divorced my mom’s biological dad right after my mom was born, but I did not know they were married for less than a year. I also learned that the only reason they got married in the first place was because in order for my grandma to finish high school while being pregnant she needed to be married. Overall, my family does not have many health concerns. My dad’s mom has high cholesterol and so does my dad. I need to be careful as I get older and keep track of my cholesterol levels. My mom had part of her thyroid removed because she had a benign tumor on the gland. Knowing alcoholism runs in my family I need to be careful and know the warning signs