F/P of Family Systems (Final Exam)

Family/Systemic Therapy

Therapeutic approach that recognizes that individuals are embedded in a network of relationships that effect behaviors

Types of dominant external forces

macro (institutions) and micro (one-on-one)

Concern for the —— —— prompted an interest in personality in the 1920/30s

family wellbeing

Family was seen as the —— to the patient in the 1920s / 30s

adversary

In the 1950’s clinicians were forced to look deeper into the family dynamic for two reasons. Name the first.

As patients got better, someone in the family would get worse.

In the 1950’s clinicians were forced to look deeper into the family dynamic for two reasons. Name the second.

Patients would get better in the hospital but revert to dysfunction when they returned home

Which decade saw the field of family therapy gain legitimacy

1960s

Which decade saw the field begin to flourish?

1970s

Which model of therapy was prominent in the 1960s?

Communications model

Which model was prominent in the 1970s?

Structural model

Which movements/forms of therapy majorly impacted family/systemic therapy

Child guidance movement, social work, group dynamics

What was social work’s greatest contribution to the field?

PIE (person in environment)

The Palo Alto Group consisted of four people…

Gregory Bateson, Don Jackson, Jay Haley, John Weakland

What was the name of the article produced by the Palo Alto Group?

Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia

What did the Palo Alto Group propose about dysfunction in a family?

That a symptomatic family member must remain symptomatic in order to preserve family homeostasis

Define the Communications Model

the study of relationships in terms of verbal and nonverbal relationships

What is a double bind?

Being given two or more conflicting messages, where one invalidates the other

FIRST thing needed to create a double bind

two or more people in an important relationship

SECOND thing needed to create a double bind

repeated experience

THIRD thing needed to create a double bind

negative injunction

FOURTH thing needed to create a double bind

secondary injunction at an abstract level that conflicts with the first negative injunction

FIFTH thing needed to create a double bind

third negative injunction that demands a response and prevents escape

Name the three major strategic models of the 1980s

Haley and Madanes, MRI Group, Milan Group

Which clinician was idolized by those in the field in the 1980s?

Milton Erickson

Name four MODERNIST movement models

Bowenian, experimental, psychoanalytic, behavioral

Name three post-modern models discussed in class

solution-oriented, solution-focused, narrative

Name the important figures in the child guidance movement

Levy, Fromm-Reichmann, Bowlby, Ackerman

Name the key social workers who were early family therapist

Virginia Satir, Lynn Hoffman, Insoo Kim Berg, Steve de Shazer

Which model was created by de Shazer and Berg?

solution-focused therapy

Instead of solving problems, family therapy helps the family understand what —— the problem

promotes

Primary target for intervention in family / systemic therapy

family, not the individual

family / systemic therapy states that —— & —— promote personality

context and relationships

Founder of Cybernetics

Norbert Weiner

What was the original use of cybernetics?

aircraft artillery

Who related Norbert Wiener’s idea of cybernetics to family therapy?

Gregory Bateson

When cybernetics is applied to families, you acknowledge that families —— ——.

resist change

The observer is no longer —— in Cybernetics of Cybernetics

objective

Cybernetics of Cybernetics emphasizes the —— —— of the observer and the observed.

mutual connectedness

simplicity leads to expediency

Black Box Metaphor

input (Black Box Metaphor)

communication

output (Black Box Metaphor)

behavior

What is one challenge of systems theory?

seeing past the personalities/behaviors that shape a personality

A shift to Systems Theory was made because it is difficult to see —— and —— in a group setting.

themes and patterns

Does Systems Theory implicate an open or closed system?

Closed

Who originated General Systems Theory

Ludwig von Bertalanffy

GST states that every system is a —— ——

subsystem of a larger system

Does GST implicate an open or a closed system?

Open

Healthy families have a balance between —— and ——

connection and individuation

flexibility prevents ——

dysfunction

FIRST of four primary questions of family therapy?

How do individuals develop symptoms within the system?

SECOND of four primary questions of family therapy?

How do families balance emotional bonding and individual autonomy?

THIRD of four primary questions of family therapy?

How does family conflict become unmanageable?

FOURTH of four primary questions of family therapy?

How are dysfunctional patterns changed?

X’s operating on Y’s (—— tradition)

Lockean

empirical and quantitative (—— tradition)

Lockean

knowledge pursued by observation and experimentation (_____ tradition)

Lockean

Measurable and objective results (—— tradition)

Lockean

individuals reacting to reality rather than creating it (—— tradition)

Lockean

reducing sequences of reality into the smallest possible components

reductionism

belief that the mind and reality exist independently of one another

mind/body dualism

science that has not been impacted by the personal beliefs/biases of scientists

value-free science

Individual Psychology is associated with —— tradition

Lockean

Systems Theory is associated with —— tradition

Kantian

In systems theory, —— is seen as inevitable

subjectivity

an understanding that the observer and the observed affect one another is an aspect of the —— ——

wholistic approach

focus on what is happening rather than why it is happening (—— tradition)

Kantian

Equation of reciprocal causality

A → B → c

Focus on processes and context that give meaning to events instead of only the individual or an isolated event

Wholistic approach

Idea that reality is external but is constructed by us / we play an active role in how we expernce things

embracing that each theory gives meaning to the other and has utility relative to given context

theoretical relativity

systems theory is said to be a theory of theories, or a ——

metatheory

tells you what to do in order to make changes

pragmatic theory

early thinkers/founders can also be called —— ——

seminal thinkers

Who founded Family Systems Theory?

Murray Bowen

Which two counterbalancing forces drive human relationships (according to Bowen)?

individuality and togetherness

What type of license did Bowen hold before going into family therapy?

psychiatry

Bowenians are more concerned with —— as opposed to most models that are driven by action and technique

theory

What did Bowen do differently at the NIMH with families of schizophrenic patients?

Hospitalized the entire family instead of just the patient

Student of Bowen that is the director at Georgetown Family Center, authored Family Evaluation

Micheal Kerr

Student of Bowen whose application of Bowen’s theories has produced some of the most sophisticated books in family therapy?

Philip Guerin

Emotional reactivity within a family

fusion

Term used by Bowen for an excess of emotional reactivity within a family

Undifferentiated family ego mass

This term can be manifested in several ways, such as seeking distance by moving away, avoiding intimacy, or insulating through a third party

Emotional cutoff

Therapeutic questions that attempts to get the family to think about reactions

Process questions

Smallest stable unit

triangle

The process in which the child that is most involved with the emotional process within the family tends to have a low level of differentiation.

Multigenerational transmission process

Schematic/family diagram showing family members and their relationships

genogram

The capacity to think and reflect in order to not automatically respond to emotional pressures

Differentiation of self

—— leads people to be more easily moved to emotionality

low differentiation

High or Low Differentiation?

People who have the tendency to either agree with or argue with everything you say.

Low Differentiation

Virtually all relationships are shadowed by —— ——

Third parties

True or False:

When family members are differentiated, anxiety is higher but partners tend to be in good emotional states

False

True or False

People from undifferentiated homes tend to improve their differentiation of self as they pick new partners, move away from their family of origin, and start a new family

False

How people tend to handle their anxiety in their family of origin tends to —— ——

carry over into new relationships

Bowenian therapists help family members get past —— so they can explore their roles in —— ——

blaming, family problems

Why did Bowen believe in the power of an individual to change their family?

Exhaustive work on his own differentiation

What drives triangles

anxiety

Anxiety does what when a third person is involved in a relationship?

Spreads among the people, therefore lowering in the individual

The use of —— positions can keep a group from becoming a triangle

independent

Triangulation ——, but freezes —— in place

lets off steam, conflict