FAMILY SYSTEM

WHAT IS FAMILY
STSYEM ?
According to family systems theory, all families
are social systems, and it is this belief that
guides understanding and work with families.
Because family members are interdependent
(rely on one another), behaviors do not exist in
a vacuum.
 When family social workers work with
families, they must look beyond individual
behaviors and understand the family
context, which becomes the catalyst for the
creation and maintenance of ongoing
communication patterns, rules, family
relationships, and, ultimately, problems
within the family.
The key to working with families as
systems is to understand that family
interactions and relationships are
reciprocal, patterned, and repetitive.
Relationships are reciprocal in that family
members affect one another in a back- and-
forth fashion.
They are also patterned because over time,
responses to one another become solidified
and predictable.

Finally, behaviors are repetitive because

they occur over and over again in much
the same way
 KEY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
FAMILY SYSTEMS
1. A change in one family member
affects all of the family members.

2. The family as a whole is more

than the sum of its parts
 KEY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
FAMILY SYSTEMS
3. Families try to balance change
and stability.

4. Family members' behaviors are

best explained by circular causality.
 KEY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
FAMILY SYSTEMS
5. A family belongs to a larger social
system and encompasses many
subsystems.
6. A family operates according to
established rules.
 A CHANGE IN ONE FAMILY
MEMBER AFFECTS ALL OF THE
FAMILY MEMBERS
To understand families as social
systems, it is important to recognize
that a change in one family member
affects every other family member
(Bowen, 1971).
If one family member begins to behave
differently, other members may resist this
new behavior in an effort to keep the family
the same.
Some authors suggest, for example, that
after one family member's symptoms
improve, another individual in the family
may develop symptoms. They refer to the
original person with the symptoms as the
"symptom bearer."
FAMILIES TRY TO BALANCE
CHANGE AND STABILITY
To survive and fulfill their functions and
also to grow and develop, families need
stability, order, and consistency. The
struggle to stay the same and retain the
status quo is known as homeostasis,
wherein the family acts to achieve
balance in relationships (Satir, 1967; Satir
& Baldwin, 1983).
The concept of homeostasis was first identified
by Jackson (Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson,
1967), who discovered that families of
psychiatric patients dete- riorated after the
patient improved.
 FAMILY MEMBERS'
BEHAVIORS ARE BEST
EXPLAINED BY CIRCULAR
CAUSALITY
Communication patterns in a family
are therefore reciprocal and mutually
reinforcing. That is, each pattern of
communication, in the form of a
transactional sequence. Cycles back
and forth between the two people
involved.
Eventually the responses solidify into a
fairly predictable and patternea sequence
of exchanges between two people. Thus, an
early task of the family social worker is to
identify the repetitive patterns of
communication within the family. These
patterns are known as circular causality.
Beliefs about linear causality allow
other family members to disown or
detach from the role they play in the
development and continuation of the
temper tantrums.
Conversely, circular causality places
ongoing interaction patterns within a
context of patterned family
relationships. In working with a family,
the social worker should look for
circular patterns of interaction
between family members.
Circular causality, then, describes a
situation in which event B influences
event A, which in turn contributes to
event B, and so on.
Circular patterns are characteristic of
ongoing family relationships. Rather
than one event causing another, events
become entangled in a series of causal
chains.
 A FAMILY BELONGS TO A
LARGER SOCIAL SYSTEM AND
ENCOMPASSES MANY
SUBSYSTEMS
An important systems characteristic
concerns the relationship between systems,
subsystems, and larger-scale systems
(suprasystems). The family system forms
multilev- eled structures of systems within
systems. Each subsystem forms a whole and
at the same time is part of a larger whole
(Kozlowska & Hannev. 2002).
The family is a group of individuals
within a wider family system.
Family subsystems are often organized
around gender, age, and power, to name a
few. The marital subsystem (the parents) is
considered the "architect of the family"
because it is (or should be) the most influ-
ential subsystem within the family (Satir,
1967).
The family social worker will focus
on the family, its subsystems, and,
to some extent, the larger systems
to which the family belongs. We call
this the ecological perspective.
FAMILY BOUNDARIES
A boundary is a symbolic line demar-
cating who is included in the family or
subsystem and who is not, and who fits
within a particular system or subsystem
and who does not.
Boundaries should exist between
generations, as between the parent-
child subsystems, and a boundary
around parents allows them to have
a private life apart from their
children
Family rules define who is and who is not
included in a particular system or
subsystem, as well as how they are
included (Minuchin, 1974).
Boundaries also help to regulate
relationships.
When family members are cut off
from one another both emotionally
and in terms of involvement, they
are described as disengaged, or not
very involved with one another
(Kaplan, 1986; Minuchin, 1974).
 A FAMILY OPERATES
ACCORDING TO ESTABLISHED
RULES
Family rules determine what is allowed
and what is forbidden in the family.
Family rules are unwritten and are
established througn diverse
mechanisms related to gender, age,
culturally-linked expectations, personal
experience, and so on.
Satir (1971) suggests that in
order to function as an open
system, the family needs rules
to allow it to meet changes
head-on.
The family will inevitably encounter
three kinds of changes:
1. Changes within family members
that occur between birth and
maturity in the use of perception of
authority, independence,sexuality
and productivity.
2. Changes between family
members such as between a child
and parent or husband and wife.
3. Changes that are demanded by
the social environment such as a
new job, school, neighborhood, and
so on.
Two types of change can occur
within a family: first-order and
second-order change (Watzlawick,
Beavin, & Jackson, 1967.
1. First-order change occur
when the behavior of one
family member changes, but
rules governing the family stay
the same.
2. Second-order change, on the
other hand, is likely to generate
more enduring family changes.
Second-order change involves
permanent attitude shifts that
result in new behaviors.
FAMILY SUBSYSTEMS
1. Spousal and Parental Subsyste
The emotional health of children
in a family is affected by the
emotional relationship between
the parents.(Froma Walsh 1998).
Early family workers recognized the
centrality of parents in family
functioning and child behavior
(Minuchin, 1974; Satir, 1967; Satir &
Baldwin, 1983). The parents perform
critical roles that are integral to
family functioning.
Triangulation
Triangulation constitutes circular
patterns with a third person involved.
Triangles can appear when a dyadic
relationship is under stress and unstable
and a third party, often a child, is drawn
into the relationship to stabilize the
situation and diffuse the tension.
Nichols and Schwartz (2007)
suggest that triangulation
prevents personal and open
one-on-one relationships from
developing and evolving.
Workers also can be
triangulated into a family when
secrets are shared in the
absence of one family member
(Brendel & Nelson, 1999).
FAMILY SYSTEM
DISRUPTIONS
Death, divorce, separation,
mental iness, chronic mess, and
disaduity are but six exam- ples
of how a family's life course
might be disrupted.
Death is another family
disruption that leaves "a hole in
the fabric of family life and
disrupts established patterns of
interaction" (Walsh, 1998, p. 187).
Alcohol and other substance
abuse problems also cause
disruption in a family sys- tem. It is
a particularly challenging problem
to deal with because denial is a
major issue (Hudak, Krestan, &
Bepko, 1999, 2005).