Family Systems Theory - What Is It?

          In class this week, there was a focus on the types of family systems. One that I thought that was really interesting was the Family Systems Theory. This theory assumes that each member of the family has a role to play in order to keep things going or to make changes within the family. In this way, it is like an ecosystem because each member has a critical role to play, just like in nature.  Even though everyone does have a role, it may not seem like it. There are times when some people may feel like they do not have a role or a part to play; however, it is important to remember that no matter how little a role might seem it is still essential to the family as a whole. Each role is cherished and is needed in different ways and at different times.

          Each part helps in some way and there may be times when roles are changed in order to better fit the needs of the family or maybe just because someone within the family changes. When things like this happen, the family will adjust and adapt in order to keep the system going. Changes like this may need to happen when someone gets sick or when children move away. When these changes happen in one part of the system the whole family is more likely to change—members may take on different roles to make up for what was lost. When roles are changed or lost, things might start to go wrong, or they are just different, and until then you might not recognize that what was changed or lost had a part to play in your family.

          These roles have many effects on the family and can be affected by many things as well. A huge impact on the roles that people play in their families is the feedback that they are given from those around them and in their lives. Feedback is given by those people in order to get someone back to where they were, or should be, when their behavior strays or changes from what it was. Feedback from something leads to feedback from something else, which creates feedback loops. These loops are created because everything that someone does gets some kind of feedback in some way, shape, or form. Everyone views the feedback they are given in a different way and what people do with that feedback affects not just them but all those around them. This is because the things that they do in their lives tend to have an effect on all of those around them whether they realize it or not. Feedback is something that has a daily effect on what people do and don’t do.

There is positive and negative feedback, but they are not what they seem. Positive feedback is feedback that causes a change or leads to new behavior, while negative feedback is when there is no change and everything stays the same. The feedback is different for everyone. By this I mean that someone might think that they are giving positive feedback, but it might actually work negatively to the person that it was intended for.

In most cases, feedback is non-verbal, but that does not mean that it is only non-verbal. Some common forms of feedback include: yelling, laughing, a smile, a look, the silent treatment, eye contact (or lack thereof), a hug, etc. It also might mean more, or have a greater effect, for someone if it comes from someone they know particularly well or if they are important in their life—including parents, siblings, friends, teachers, fellow students, and the list goes on.