In this chapter writer describe two theory.
Family-systems theory: the focus is on the family as a bio-social system. Jack O & Judith K. Balswick study a family both individual and as a system. They considered that family may have different roles and expanding, it can be just husband-wife or husband, wife, and children or it could be bigger as grandparents and other. And the family will established a boundary. Once a boundary has been establishes, objects within the system are identified as units of the system. And up to the family include children or not it will be have subsystems. The parental subsystem, composed of the father and mother and the sibling subsystem, composed of child or children. And the difference between a more complex system and a simple system can best be seen in the different ways of controlling, balancing, or changing behavior through a feedback process. Multiple levels of feedback are embedded in a complex system, such as a family and build on one another. There are four major levels of feedback :
Simple feedback: is identical with a cause-and- effect model.
Cybernetic control: The best example is the self-monitoring action of a thermostat. The mechanism which built –in to control itself. It can work with having some rules that each member obey for the good of the whole.
Morphogenesis: Flexibility in structure as well as relational connection between family members, is needed to operate on the morphogenetic level. Members of these families alert and responsive to one another in the realm of individual differentiation and in keeping family togetherness a priority.
In morphogenesis, new ways of responding are generated, but in reorientation, the goals themselves are changed.
Reorientation: involves a dramatic change in family life in which the entire system converts to new ways of thinking and behaving.
Family –development theory: which views the family as developing over time through natural life-cycle stages. The family is an evolving system that includes new members entering and releasing them when they leave. Must be able to cope with the changing needs of its members and respond to them while feeling empowered.
To understand how to build strong families, we must begin with a definition of what it taked to be an effective family.
Important criterion for judging family life:
Cohesion: refers to the degree of emotional closeness existing in family.
Adopt-ability
Communication
Role structure
