Bowen's Family Systems Theory Part 1

Question 1

How is Bowen’s Family Systems Theory defined?

Answer 1

Pathology is defined as low differentiation manifested by fusion, cut-off or triangulation.

Question 2

According to Bowen, human relationships we are driven by two counterbalancing life forces, what are they?

Answer 2

Individuality and togetherness.
Nichols p. 76
Class 5 study notes p. 4

Question 3

Who is the main developer of Family Systems Theory?

Answer 3

Murry Bowen

Question 4

Who are some of the prominent names associated Bowen’s Family Systems Theory?

Answer 4

Philip Guerin, Thomas Fogart, Betty Carter, Monica McGoldrick, Michael Keer and Ewin Friedman
Class 5 study notes p. 1

Question 5

Bowen’s work with schizophrenic patients and their mother shifted in his thinking, from what to what?

Answer 5

From an intrapersonal, individual treatment perspective to an interpersonal and sytemic.
Class 5 study notes p. 2

Question 6

Describe a symbiotic relationship as it relates to a patient and their mother.

Answer 6

One between individuals where very close interdependencies exit and there may be over-closeness.
Class 5 study notes p. 2

Question 7

What did Bowen discover about the emotional intensity of the parent/child relationship?

Answer 7

They were even more powerful than he expected and the intensity characterized relationships throughout the family.
Class 5 study notes p. 2

Question 8

Bowen posits that emotional disturbed individuals arise from what?

Answer 8

Relational binds with others.

Class 5 study notes p. 3

Question 9

What are Bowen’s 8 interlocking concepts?

Answer 9

Differentiation, Emotional cut- off, Nuclear family emotional process, Triangulation, Family projection process, Multigenerational transmission process, Sibling position and Societal emotional process.
Class 5 study notes p. 3-4

Question 10

What term describes the capacity to think and reflect, to not respond automatically to emotional pressures, internal and external - the ability to be flexible and act wisely, even in the face of anxiety.

Answer 10

Differentiation of self
Nichols p. 76
Class 5 study notes p. 4

Question 11

Describe a person with a “solid self”

Answer 11

The person operates on the basis of clearly defined beliefs, convictions, opinions, and core values.
Nichols p. 78
Class 5 study notes p. 4

Question 12

Describe a person with a pseudo-self.

Answer 12

This person is emotionally fused with the family emotional system.
Nichols p. 78
Class 5 study notes p. 4

Question 13

What are the characteristics of an undifferentiated person?

Answer 13

They are stuck together with others in the family emotional system and unresolved emotional attachments effect (a) their lives and (b) their relationships.
Nichols p. 78 (for more details)
Class 5 study notes p. 5

Question 14

What is the upsides of a triangle?

Answer 14

• They help maintain an optimum level of closeness and distance between members while permitting the greatest freedom from anxiety. It is the smallest stable relationship system and more stable and flexible than a twosome.
  Class 5 study notes p. 8

Question 15

What is the downside of a triangle?

Answer 15

They don’t always help a threesome reach such favorable conclusions and may further increase tension and create more complexity/triangles.
Class 5 study notes p. 8-9

Question 16

Define fusion.

Answer 16

Fusion is an excess of emotional reactivity in families. Created by too much togetherness.
Nichols p. 79
http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/bowen.html

Question 17

What does “Nuclear Family Emotional Process” refer to?

Answer 17

Emotional patterns that operate in families over time in recurrent patterns.
Class 5 study notes p. 10

Question 18

What probable emotional patterns do nuclear families with a greater degree of fusion use to address anxiety and instability?

Answer 18

Distancing, Cut-offs and Forming interlocking triangles.

Class 5 study notes p. 11

Question 19

What does Bowen call the process by which parents transmit their lack of differentiation to their children?

Answer 19

Family Projection Process

Class 5 study notes p. 12

Question 20

How is a Cut-Off defined?

Answer 20

Distancing from the family in an Effort to avoid and deny unresolved conflicts which mask unexamined fusion.
- Cut Class 5 study notes p. 14

Question 21

What are 2 strategies that a child involved in the family projection process my use to extricate themselves from the family emotional system (“Flight from unresolved emotional ties”)?

Answer 21

• Cut themselves off by moving away
• Cut themselves off emotionally by the use of psychological barriers
  Class 5 study notes p. 14
  Nichols P. 80

Question 22

What did Bowen believe about Sibling Position and their personality development?

Answer 22

Children develop personality characteristics, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors based on their position in the family.
Class 5 study notes p. 15

Question 23

A child’s position in the family that enables a therapist to do what two things?

Answer 23

Predict the part a given child will play in the family’s emotional process
Predict which family patterns will be carried on to the next generation.
Class 5 study notes p. 15

Question 24

What was Murray Bowen’s preference?

Answer 24

He preferred the term theory over therapy.

Class study notes p. 1

Question 25

Bowen was a proponent of thoughts and logic. He felt Differentiation of self was about what?

Answer 25

Individuals who transcend or control their own emotions while embedded within the family system’s emotional forces.
Class study notes p. 4

Question 26

Couples of consult a third party to help them deal with dyadic stress/anxiety. What is the purpose of this Therapeutic Triangle?

Answer 26

1. It proves to dilute the anxiety/stress
2. It is a more stable and flexible configuration than the twosome
3. It has a greater tolerance for dealing with stress
   Class study notes p. 7

Question 27

Bowen considers what to be the basic building block in a family’s emotional system?

Answer 27

The Triangle

Class study notes p. 8

Question 28

Simply but Bowen’s definition of the Societal Emotional Process.

Answer 28

His principles related to the family to hypothesize that these can be extended to seen in the larger populations.
Class notes p. 15
Nichols p. 80