Systems Theories Flashcards
Origins of Family Systems Therapy
Family Therapy evolved from individual psychotherapy and was heavily
influenced by broader-ranging fields such as anthropology and
sociology. Freud, Adler, and Sullivan recognized how formative and crucial the relationship between an individual and their family was to
psychological health and development.
freud
a. Personality is developed in stages (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency,
Genital).
b. Primary caregivers and other family members during early life
have a profound impact on personality development.
c. Freud was frustrated when families exerted power over a
patient by taking them out of therapy just as significant progress
was occurring.
ackerman
a. Freud influenced Nathan Ackerman, who eventually developed
the Ackerman School of Family Therapists.
b. In 1938, Ackerman wrote as paper entitled, “The Family as a
Social and Emotional Unit,” which conceptualized the family as
an interconnected unit that responded to both internal and
external pressures.
c. He conceptualized the family as seeking dynamic
homeostasis, which allows for change in the system.
i. Pathology occurs when the homeostasis is thwarted
or unbalanced. Pathology will appear within the
behavior of an individual in the family. This concept
is also known the “identified patient” – which refers
to when the results of a family’s collective pathology
is scapegoated to a single individual.
adler
a. Adler started working with families in the 20’s, most of which
were struggling to recover from the impact and aftermath of
World Wat I.
b. He focused on the social roles that an individual occupied.
c. Personality development depended upon experiences and
feelings about one’s social roles and relationships among those
roles.
harry stack sullivan (interpersonal theory)
a. Sullivan was greatly influenced by Adler.
b. He emphasized the role of interpersonal relationships in the
development of personality.
c. He believed that mental illness came from distorted
interpersonal relationships. This often manifested as the
individual vs. the environment (including social, emotional,
intimate, educational, and professional relationships) that
comprises the client’s outer world.
d. Two main human drives: (1) physical satisfaction, and (2)
security in social relationships.
e. Sullivan focused on mother-child relationships. This concept
heavily influenced early family therapists who further developed
the family system concept.
homeostasis
The Bateson Group also proposed the idea of
homeostasis which implies the family system will move toward
equilibrium by developing rules governing who says what to whom
and when and in what context. This maintains the status quo and
resists change. When the identified patient gets better the family
will try to get him/her sick again or someone else will get sick to
maintain the status quo.
Approaches
FAMILY THERAPY surfaced as a viable field in 1957 after
presentations to professional societies. Theories have been
developing ever since, and currently there are four approaches:
a. PSYCHODYNAMIC (insight, motivation, unconscious
conflict, attachments)
b. EXPERIENTIAL/HUMANISTIC (self-growth, selfdetermination)
c. SYSTEMIC (transactional patterns, alliances, boundaries)
d. COGNITIVE /BEHAVIORAL (learning and action therapies)
new paradigm
A revised school of thought, including attitudes,
philosophy, point of view, methodology, by which problems are
solved.
epistemology
The gaining of knowledge and drawing
conclusions about the world. In family systems it refers to rules
used to make sense of experience and interpret incoming
information. These are often not consciously acknowledged or
stated.
cybernetics
The regulation of systems by feedback to maintain
some stability, which demands change. This is independent of the
observer.
second order cybernetics
The therapist is not an independent
observer. The therapist is an influence within the system and is
also influenced by the system.
organizational structure
A system composed of a set of
interdependent parts. A change in one part of the system will
effect change in other parts of the system.
family system
A dynamic order of individuals (along with their
intellectual, emotional, and behavioral processes) standing in
mutual interaction.
a. It would have self-regulating capacities (moral, political,
social, religious, economic, and idiosyncratic values and/or
constraints).
b. it would be intrinsically active, meaning it would not have to
look outside of the family system to understand a sudden
shift in family dynamics.
family subsystems
- The family system consists of special functional units called
subsystems. - A subsystem is a piece of the larger structure and also a complete
structure unto itself.
wholeness
a. Refers to the relationship between the overall system and its
parts.
b. The system is an integrated, coherent entity that is more than
the mere sum of independent elements.
c. A change in one part of the system will cause a change in many
parts (subsystems) of the larger system and in the larger
system itself.
d. The system cannot be fully comprehended or represented by
summing its subsystems.
