Family Is A Family System

Family is supposed to listen to you when you're in need. Family is supposed to have your back. Family is supposed to be loyal. Family is supposed to be dependable. Family is supposed to accept you at your worst and best moments. Family is supposed to make you laugh and smile. Family is the number one unconditional love that everyone has. Whether it be the unconditional love from immediate family members or close friends, everyone has that one person they go to in times of need. It’s funny how those closest to you can hurt you the most.

The Family Systems Theory is based on the work of Dr.Murray Bowen as well as other theorists (Chen,2004). Dr. Bowen was a psychiatrist from Georgetown University, it was his research and experience that led to a great understanding of the family and its role. According to Bowen every family member has a fixed role that they play (Bradshaw,1995). These roles are consistently maintained within families, so that the system may strive for

According to Minuchin (1985), six basic principles outline the Family Systems theory. Each principle describes the function in which a family and its subsystems operate and the inextricable relationships within the system. The first principle of Minuchin’s (1985) theory implies that each member develops and is enveloped within the family unit, while the second principle states that there is a continuous loop in which each member feeds the behaviours of another. Thirdly, family systems have homeostatic elements which restore the family back to its equilibrium when disarrayed (Minuchin, 1985).

Family plays a crucial role in an individual's life. They affect your decisions and the way you live. Your family can either bring you down or lift you up and push you to do your hardest.

Systems theory is a lens with which to view human behavior in relation to interactions with different systems, such as family, school, work, and community (Rogers, 2016). Assessing how families function through a systems theory lens allows social workers to examine and understand the different systems that affect the family and the individual. It is a necessary tool in identifying how a family functions in relation to the systems in which it exists as well as identifying what influences are affecting the family. Recognizing these many influences will allow the social worker to understand strengths, weaknesses, and issues of the individual members of the family, as well as the family system as a whole (Thomlison, 2010).

When I consider family systems, I am reminded of a metaphor I heard while in undergraduate school about a mobile. A mobile is used to soothe an infant, normally placed above a crib or basinet. Each of its parts are in balance, when working correctly, however if one section becomes off balance the objects become out of sync. This is true with families. If each member of the family unit is doing their part, there is complete balance or homeostasis (Henson). This balance is viewed as a healthy family system. However, if one part of the unit becomes off balance, it disrupts the whole unit causing an unhealthy response with possible long term consequences. As families grow, each member plays an equally important role in the family unit. Children learn quickly the importance of relationships and adapt quickly to their environment. No one can deny the family unit is the most complex system in existence.

What is family? Better yet, how does it affect society? Think about if you asked a random group of people what "family" means to them. It is likely that their responses would all differentiate somehow. The concept of what a family is has evolved into various forms, and is continuing to change each day. The nuclear family, which Essentials of Sociology claims to consist "of an adult or adult couple and their dependent children," is no longer the norm of our country. Rather, the growing acceptance of diverse couples with blends of race, gender, and age, have contributed to the blurry foundation of what "family" really is. Some people may associate family with single motherhood, single fatherhood, or maybe no mother or father. They may have

A family can shape one’s identity. A family can guide you through life. They can be supportive and helpful. This is important

Family, is where you celebrate accomplishments together. It’s the place where you can support each other during the good and bad times and cling to in times of deep sadness. Family can provide the emotional fuel to keep going when the going gets tough. But there must be something going on outside of the family, some career, for there to be a need for this support .

One way to analyze this Family is with the Family system theory. This theory states that the family functions as a system Within this system are rules, power structures and different patterns of communication. In this theory the family is seen as a whole rather than as its individual parts. We also assume that the family functions off of circular causality and redundancy principle plays a role in the family rules. The concepts that I am going to use to describe this family will include; family cohesion, communication pattern, roles of a few of the members, the family rules and circular causality.

Family comes in all shapes and sizes; color, similarities and differences, but at the heart of it all, family is the solidified foundation to one belonging and feeling loved.

The word family can be defined in many ways. When I think of the word family, I think of two or more individuals who are sometimes related by blood or through a strong bond of unconditional love, as well as, a shared experience, values, responsibilities, the law, even related through a community. Different families view themselves in different ways. They have different roles, have certain boundaries or rules, communicate and solve problems in a different way, and can adjust to change differently. I will discuss my own family and how I view my family through the lens of the General Systems theory and apply each central property as it contains to my family and how we communicate. There are six significant properties within the General systems theory, wholeness, interdependence, boundaries and openness, hierarchies and subsystems, calibration and feedback, and lastly there is equifinality.

Murray Bowen's family system theory was one of the first comprehensive theories of family system functioning. It was developed in 1974 and it believed the family can be defined as a set of interacting individuals who are related by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption and who interdependently perform relevant functions through roles. Relevant functions of the family include values and practices placed on health system theory is used to explain patterns of living among the individuals who make up the family systems (Edelmen, 2006).

In today’s world, families are dynamic and interdependent systems. The developmental processes of the children in the family are deeply affected by how the family system operates. However, a family’s structure does not determine whether it is a healthy family system or not. Today, families consist of single parents, stepparents, divorced parents, remarried parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. They are all able to contribute to a healthy functioning family system by meeting each family member’s needs and encouraging positive communication (Jamiolkowski, 2008). Unhealthy family systems have negative and possibly

A family can be defined in many ways, but the common denominator in all is the love and fulfillment one gets by being surrounded by family members. Families can sometimes be at odds with each other, but the strain of this type of relationship usually creates an upsetting feeling to the people involved. People want others to rely on, talk to, do things with, share, love, embrace, and be part of. No matter what the family dynamic is the qualities the word family has will remain the same, as time goes by, and life evolves once again for every person living their