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Western Pennsylvania Family Center


WPFC - Bowen Family Systems Theory:
Bowen Family Systems TheoryFamily systems theory affirms that the individual can change behavior if aware of the impact current and historical family behavior has on the definition of his or her choices. The word "family" is key and its definition is expansive. "Family" may be viewed as the immediate family with whom the individual lives, the extended family of relatives and friends, and the community at large. The Western Pennsylvania Family Center has been established to encourage further investigation and application of this theory by those serving families in educational, medical, clinical, religious, business, and social service organizations and institutions.

Although many have worked on the development of family theory and its application to the emotional health of the individual, Dr. Murray Bowen of Georgetown University is the true pioneer of family systems theory. His work is the basis upon which the Western Pennsylvania Family Center was founded, and the Center emphasizes continuing research and growth in family theory.

Family Systems Theory:
  • is a way of understanding present situations in terms of past relationships or family histories.
  • understands the family as a single emotional unit made up of interlocking relationships existing over many generations.
  • suggests that individual behavior throughout life is more closely related to the functioning in one’s original family than most people realize.
  • attempts to move beyond cause-and-effect thinking to a more comprehensive understanding of the multiple factors which interact across time to produce problems or symptoms.
  • recognizes an interplay between biological, genetic, psychological, and sociological factors in determining individual behavior.
  • identifies some of the ways that human functioning is similar to the functioning of all other forms of life, and postulates that certain principles governing behavior are common to all life forms.
  • views most of human life as being guided by emotional forces which to a varying degree can be regulated by an individuals ability to think. (Emotional here includes a smorgasbord of automatic responses such as those driven by instinct, genetics, biology, and hormones as well as automatic feeling or sensory responses.)
  • postulates that the degree to which individuals may be able to exercise some choice regarding how much they respond to their automatic emotional input can be predicted by understanding the functioning of the family unit.
  • indicates that people are able to modify their responses to the automatic emotional input by undertaking a study of their own patterns of behavior and their link to patterns of behavior in their multigenerational family.
  • is also known as Bowen Theory and Bowen Natural Systems Theory to distinguish it from General Systems Theory and others.


Western Pennsylvania Family Center
733 North Highland Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
 P-412.362.2295 | F-412.363.2489
INFO@WPFC.NET


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