psychological explantiosn for anorexia nervosa: family systems theory Flashcards
family systems theory
Minuchin et al
4 main features of anorexic family
focuses on the relationship between daughter and mother
enmeshment
members of overly involved with each other
boundaries within family are fuzzy
poorly defined roles and lack of leadership
spend lots of time together not a lot of privacy
families become enmeshes because the self-identities of each member are all tied up with one another
and adolescent daughter in an anorexia family faces the challenge of asserting her independence and differentiating her identity from everyone else’s
especially her mothers
one way of asserting her independence is refusing to eat
overprotectiveness
family members nurture each other obsessively in a way that reinforces family loyalty and leaves no room for independence
cant devlop their own identity
rigidity
interactions are extremely inflexible
deny need for change and work hard to maintain the way things are
pronlems arise when something changes
family is too rigid to adapt anf thrown into a crisis
conflict avoidance
avoid conflict or suppress it
wont discuss obvious problems
autonomy anf control
Bruch
anorexia is caused by the adolescent daughters struggle to achieve autonomy and control she craves
mother is domineering anf intrusive and does not accept daughters need for independence
outcome is confusion which expresses itself in three major symptoms of AN
distorted body image , inability to identify internal body attes, overwhelming feeling of a loss of control
self-starvation is an attempt to control her self identity
strength
research support
Strauss and Ryan
compared women ages 16-31 diagnosed with AN with healthy conditions
found that people with AN demonstrated greater disturbances of autonomy than the controls
had a more controlling anf rigid style of regulating their own behaviour
differentiated less clearly between themselves and other family member (enmeshed)
perceived poorer communication with heir family
show the desire for auto y rigidity anf encmeshemtn may be risk factors for AN in women
strength
application
evidence that therapies based on FST had soem success in treating AN with
Behaviral family systems therapy attempts to disentangle family t relationships
encourage a perosn with AN to interact more with expel outside the family circle
reduce parental control over eating
Robin et al
tested the effectiveness of this therapy on a small sample of 11 young women with AN and their families
treatment lasted 16 months at the end of which six of the particants with AN were considered recovered
another 3 recovered after 1 year follow up period
suggest that fFSt concepts may have soem practical value
limitation
other factors
even of fam;y dsyfunction does contribute to anorexia
it’s unlikely the sole cause
many anorexia parmenides devlop anorexia in adulthood long after leaving fami;it’s
suggest other factors may be prominent such as biological
