Goldberg Chapter 8: Transgenerational Models

Question 1

What did Bowen hypothesize about sibling position?

Answer 1

A person’s functional position in the family system, not necessarily the actual order of birth, that shapes future expectations and behaviour (i.e., if the oldest children of two families married, they may be both overly competitive because they are used to being in charge).

Question 2

What did Bowen mean by societal regression?

Answer 2

Bowen argued that society, like the family, contains within it opposing forces toward undifferentiation and toward individuation (differentiation has decreased over the last several decades).

Question 3

Why do therapists that use Bowen’s family system therapy adopt a neutral and objective role and how do they do that?

Answer 3

To remain untriangled into the family - the therapist first attempts to assess the family’s emotional system, past and present, through a series of evaluation interviews and measurement techniques before intervening therapeutically.

Question 4

What is the ultimate agent of change in Bowen’s family system therapy?

Answer 4

It is the therapist’s presence—engaging without being reactive, stimulating without rescuing, teaching a way of thinking rather than using any specific behaviour or therapeutic intervention technique—that is the ultimate agent of change.

Question 5

Who does the family evaluation interview(s) include (Bowen)?

Answer 5

Family evaluation interviews are carried out with any combination of family members: a parent, husband and wife, the nuclear family, perhaps including extended family members.

Question 6

What does the family evaluation begin with (Bowen)?

Answer 6

Family evaluation interviews begin with a history of the presenting problem, focusing especially on the symptoms (physical, emotional, social) and their impact on the symptomatic person or relationship.

Question 7

(Evaluation component) - consistent with a transgenerational outlook, Bowenians are particularly interested in…

Answer 7

The historical pattern of family emotional functioning, the family’s anxiety levels at varying stages of its life, and the amount of stress experienced in the past compared with current functioning.

Question 8

(Bowen) The final part of the evaluation interview attempts to understand…

Answer 8

The nuclear family in the context of the maternal and paternal extended family systems. The therapist is interested in multigenerational patterns of fusion, the nature of the nuclear family’s relationship with the extended families, and the degree of emotional cutoff of each spouse.

Question 9

What is the therapists goal by attempting to understand the nuclear family in the context of the maternal and paternal extended family systems (Bowen)?

Answer 9

The therapist’s goal is to develop a road map of the family’s emotional system, since each nuclear family is believed to embody the emotional processes and patterns of preceding generations.

Question 10

To depict multigenerational patterns and influences, Bowen developed a graphical way of investigating the genesis of the presenting problem. What is this diagram called?

Answer 10

A genogram.

Question 11

What are the two basic goals of Bowen family systems therapy?

Answer 11

(a) management of anxiety and relief from symptoms and (b) an increase in each participant’s level of differentiation in order to improve adaptiveness (accomplish the former before the latter)

Question 12

Bowen was particularly concerned that his clients develop the ability to…

Answer 12

differentiate themselves from their families of origin

Question 13

What are I-statements (Bowen)?

Answer 13

learning to make “I-statements” (“I’m upset at what you’re doing now”) rather than accusations (“Why do you enjoy picking fights?”) is apt to lead to a more honest exchange than blaming the other person. When both partners take responsibility for their feelings and express them directly, the chances of resolving conflict are greatly improved.

Question 14

T or F: It is believed that if a therapist can maintain a detached-involved position, despite pressures to be triangulated into the conflict—Bowenians believe tension between the couple will subside, the fusion between them will slowly resolve, and other family members will feel the positive repercussions in their own lives, including the likelihood of achieving greater self-differentiation.

Answer 14

True.

Question 15

Do the individuals tend to talk to the therapist or directly to the other in the Bowenian therapeutic setting?

Answer 15

Each partner talks to the therapist rather than talking directly to the other. Confrontation between the partners is avoided to minimize emotional reactivity between them.

Question 16

In contextual therapy, what is believed to be needed to function effectively?

Answer 16

Family members must be held ethically accountable for their behaviour with one another and must learn to balance entitlement (what one is due or has come to merit) and indebtedness (what one owes to whom).

Question 17

What is relational ethics (contextual therapy)?

Answer 17

A core concept in contextual theory that focuses attention on the long-term, oscillating balance of fairness among members within a family, whereby the welfare interests of each participant are taken into account by the others.

Question 18

T or F: To contextual therapists, the patterns of relating within a family that are passed on from generation to generation are keys to understanding individual as well as family functioning.

Answer 18

True.

Question 19

What is invisible loyalty (contextual therapy)?

Answer 19

Children unconsciously take on responsibilities to aid their parents, often to their own detriment (e.g., become a failure to confirm parental forecasts).

Question 20

What is family ledger (contextual therapy)?

Answer 20

Boszormenyi-Nagy and Spark proposed a set of therapeutic techniques designed to uncover and resolve family “obligations” and “debts” incurred over time, using the metaphor of a family ledger on which these “accounts” are kept. This multigenerational accounting system tracks what has been given and who, psychologically speaking, still owes what to whom.

Question 21

What does the term family legacy in contextual therapy?

Answer 21

Expectations handed down from previous generations concerning what is expected, say, of men and women, and family loyalty, referring to allegiances in children based on parental fairness in order to emphasize that family members inevitably acquire a set of expectations and responsibilities toward each other.

Question 22

Regarding contextual therapy, it is assumed that dysfunctional behaviour in any individual cannot be fully understood without looking at…

Answer 22

The history of the problem, the family ledger, and examining unsettled or unredressed accounts.

Question 23

What is the fundamental goal of contextual therapy?

Answer 23

The improvement in the family members’ capacity for relatedness, rebalancing the give-and-take and emotional ledgers between family members.

Question 24

What is multidirected partiality in contextual therapy?

Answer 24

The therapeutic process in which the position of each person is considered in turn with fairness and impartiality. Once the claims are addressed, the therapist aids family members in taking reparative steps to regain a balance and restore fairness and trust in their relationships

Question 25

T or F: Contextual therapists focus on pathology.

Answer 25

False. Contextual therapists do not focus on pathology but rather attend to the family’s relational resources, that is, they help each family member explore the possibility of earning entitlements from others by appropriate giving to them.