I think this chapter did a beautiful job at describing how complex a family system is. The theory started its evolution in 1926 when Ernest Burgess referred to the family as "a unity of interacting personalities" where everyone had their roles to play and how these roles could conflict. In 1938, Waller elaborated on Burgess' work by defining the family as a "closed system of social interaction." He looked at how children and their parents influence each other and how he witnessed patterns of behavior between the family members.
Systems theory was starting to be developed by biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1969. How families fit into the systems theory was not examined until family therapists wanted to know why they were seeing patterns of communication or behavior that were leading to dysfunction within families. What I really like about the family systems theory is how it's concepts and assumptions can so easily be used by therapists in practice with families and individuals.
Another area to take into account are the four basic systems that make up the ecological theory of human development. For instance in my family's situation, our microsystem would include our home, my son's day care, our church, and our play and library groups we attend. My son's behavior changes based on what environment we are in. The second level is the mesosystem, which would look at how the environments my son spends his time in are not independent. For instance, when he started day care he saw the other children using pull-ups rather than diapers, so he started refusing to wear diapers at home. His environment at day care affected our environment at home. The third area is how larger institutions or exosystems affect a child's home environment. Many childrens' homes are being affected by lay-offs, jobs cutting benefits and foreclosures due to the economic recession. Last is the macrosystem, which includes societal norms and laws, such as not speeding or driving under the influence of drugs. You have to take into account that the child's environment is always changing or it is a chronosystem.
Basic Assumptions:
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts: My family of origin includes me, my sister, and my married parents. My family of origin was its own natural social system. My family like every other had its own "rules, roles we each played , communication patterns and power structures" within our family. The experiences I had in my family continue to affect my personality both positively and negatively. When I married my spouse, I started my family of procreation.
The locus of pathology is not within the person but is a system dysfunction: If one member of the family is having problems rather than blaming the individual, the problems are seen as coming from a dysfunctional family system. This allows the therapist to focus on how to resolve the conflict rather than blame the individual family members. It helps the therapist stop dysfunctional behavior that may have been learned generations ago.
Circular causality guides behavior: The therapist's focus is not on what a conflict is about, but rather how members of a family are communicating regardless of what they are fighting about and how they can help them communicate more effectively.
Rules are discovered in retrospect: All families have patterns in their behavior and communication. These patterns become rules of interaction between family members. Some rules can be healthy, such as everyone eats dinner together. Some rules can be dysfunctional such as it is the oldest child's responsibility to get the youngest children ready for school if mom can't get out of bed in the morning. Therapists help families change their dysfunctional rules once they are identified.
Rules result from the redundancy principle: Family patterns of behavior and communication is created as soon as you start dating your future spouse. This is the redundancy principle, when patterns in behavior and communication become family rules. Humans do not like change, so it is very difficult for a therapist to intervene in changing family rules.
Feedback loops guide behavior: When individual family members try to change their dysfunctional communication and behavior or when a member is not fulfilling their defined role within the family system, other members will provide them with negative feedback to get them to behave. Positive feedback is when the person is encouraged either by a therapist due to positive change or when the family is encouraging the dysfunctional communication or behavior.
Pathological communication causes relationship problems: I personally do not know one couple, family or business that doesn't have problems with pathological communication to some extent. Maybe we should all take a class in elementary school on how to communicate, so we help foster healthy relationships within our families and communities. There are so many forms of pathological communication, such as denial of a problem, not being direct with your needs or wants, and my favorite, passive-aggressive communication (See link below for serenity online therapy- I thought they did a good job of describing four basic styles of communication). Another type of pathological communication is double bind. It occurs when someone gives you two contradictory messages. I know in my family of origin, I have noticed a discrepancy that what my family members say is not always consistent with how they act. An example, is when my sister was younger she would send me e-mails saying how much she missed me and how she can't wait to spend time with me. Then when she would have the opportunity to spend time with me she would be on the phone, on the computer or doing something else. She is nine years younger then me, so I would excuse her behavior as youthful silliness. Is this an example of double blind behavior?
All family members take on roles: This concept is part of the redundancy principle, which again states that all families have patterns of behavior and communication. There are so many different roles individual family members play and they can change over time. There are roles that are very common and therapists see them over and over again when working with families especially where addictions and/or mental illness are found. Some of those include, the addicted spouse as the dependent, the other spouse as the enabler, the oldest child as the hero who keeps everything going smoothly, the delinquent who is the problem child and distracts the family from the real problem, the invisible child who tries to keep a low profile, and the clown who uses humor to help the family cope.
Family types are based on the rigidity of family boundaries: Three family types have been defined. The first, is open families which we defined in class as having flexible boundaries. To me this is the healthiest and I strive to be this family type now with my spouse and child. The second type is random family, which we defined in call as having no boundaries/ no rules. The members are disengaged and doing their own thing. The final type is a closed family, where the members have very little outside contact.
They have found a link between self-esteem and how functional or dysfunctional your family of origin behaves or communicates . I have been working very hard to recognize and stop some of the dysfunctional ways of communicating that I learned or needed to develop in order to survive in my family of origin. It's not easy! I'm sure some of these behaviors and communication patterns go back many generations!
Ingoldsby, B. B., Smith, S. R., & Miller, J. E. (2004). Family systems theory. In B. B. Ingoldsby, S. R. Smith, & J. E. Miller, (eds). Exploring family theories, (pp. 167-174). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury. [Chapter 7]
http://serenityonlinetherapy.com/assertiveness.htm
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