There are eight interlocking concepts in Dr



Final Paper

Dr. Bowen’s theory

I have learned in this class about Dr. Bowen’s theory. There are eight from Dr. Bowen’s theory. The first concept is Triangles. Triangles have two sides in it. The first side is conflict and the other side is harmony. It is the smallest and the basic units of relationship system. This is between two people which will have closeness and distance. When they both have distressed and feeling intense. They will seek a third person to talk to and to triangulate their relationship. And after they talked to the third person they will feel more relief from the problems. The second concept is differentiation of self. It means that individuals depend on the acceptance and approval from other people around them. They do things to get approval from their family and friends. A person who has this concept has the ability to separate thoughts and feelings from other people. It is the process of freeing thoughts and feelings from the family’s processes to define the person and who he/she is. The person who is differentiation of self means that he/she is being able to have different opinions than the family members, but he/she is able to stay emotionally connected to the family members. The person knows his/her role in the family and able to express it. The third concept is nuclear family emotional system. It has four patterns of relationship for each family member. The relationship patterns define the problems. It defines where problems may develop in a family. The first one is marital conflict. The second one is dysfunction in one spouse. The third one is impairment of one or more children. The fourth one is emotional distance. The forth concept is family projection process. This is a transmission of emotional, which transfer from a parent to a child. A parent who has emotional problems will likely transfer the same problems to a child in the family. He/she will be likely transfers the same problems to his/her child. The fifth concept is multigenerational transmission process. This concept is about the transmission of differences in the family. It can be small or big differentiation between parents and the children. The sixth concept is sibling position. This is also important concept. It’s about the position of each sibling in the family. Every sibling position can develop different behavior and personality. The eldest will likely act differently from the youngest in the family; the oldest in the family will likely take more responsibility in the family. And the youngest is more likely act more irresponsible and immature. It is a stressed sibling order. Bowen believes that each child had a place in the family from the oldest to the youngest. The seventh concept is emotional cutoff. This is the emotional cut off from the family. It is the act of reducing contact with the family members. It is also cutting off emotional contact with the family members. It can be a way managing unresolved problems that occurs in the family. The problems never resolved and it builds up the emotional cut off in the family. The eighth concept is societal emotional process. This is concerns more with society. It is the processes of social expectations. This can be expectations about class groups, racial, gender, and family background. This is more likely the family projection process scaled up to the society level. The family that deal or has a history of persecution, prejudice most likely will pass on to the children and the next generation. But in the other hand the coping practices may lead to more or less adaptive emotional health of each family member.

I would like to thank you Dr. Horne for your time and teaching me a lot in this class. I have learned a lot more about marital and family systems.

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