Family Therapy & Theories

Front 1

family systems theory

Back 1

- looks for causes of behavior in interactions among family, not just individual

- all parts of family are interrelated

Front 2

homeostatis

Back 2

when families strive for a sense of balance

Front 3

negative feedback loop

Back 3

- patterns of interaction that maintain stability/constancy while minimizing change

- help maintain homeostasis

Front 4

positive feedback loop

Back 4

patterns of interaction that facilitate change/movement towards growth or termination

Front 5

equifinality

Back 5

ability of family system to accomplish same goals through different routes

Front 6

strategic family therapy

Back 6

- social worker initiates what happens in therapy, designs specific approach for each person's presenting problem, and is responsible for directly influencing people

- active, brief, directive, task-centered

- change dysfunctional fam behavior by changing feedback cycle/loop that maintains the problem behavior

Front 7

structural family therapy

Back 7

- social worker engages family to restructure its boundaries and demands by enacting situations

Front 8

bowenian family therapy

Back 8

- improving intergenerational transmission process

- consists of the following 8 major theoretical constructs

Front 9

differentiation

Back 9

- core concept of bowenian family therapy

- the more differentiated, the more clt can be an individual while emotionally in touch with family

Front 10

emotional fusion

Back 10

- tendency for family members to share an emotional response due to poor interpersonal boundaries between them

Front 11

multigenerational transmission

Back 11

- stresses connection of current generation to past generation as natural process

- gives the present a context in history

Front 12

emotional triangle

Back 12

- when a 3rd party is brought into a two-person relationship to held reduce its anxiety

Front 13

nuclear family

Back 13

- most basic unit of society

- mother, father, and children

Front 14

societal regression

Back 14

- manifested by problems like depletion of natural resources

- Bowen's theory explains societal anxieties and social problems since society is like family