Human Growth and Behavior
Many regards the family to be the simple unit of a father mother and kids. Family is the basic unit of sociality and members have different roles to play in the family system for cohesion (Schwartz, 1995). None of the family members can effectively live in the family system without the other. The family systems theory actually suggests that every member plays a role in the family. In our case, James is actually the father and the sole breadwinner for the family. Mary on her part is the homemaker and mother to the kids.
She is the general caregiver and offers guidance to the kids. On their part, the kids complete the equation of the family and make the house a home. Their role is to go to school and go by the rules determined by their parents. The theory suggests that the family develops its own unique way of going by that may seem peculiar to a different family and adaptation to change is quite difficult (Carlson et, al., 1997). In the case of the McPherson family, they have come to live with the fact that the father is an emotionally absent father who only provides financial support for the family and his only other interest are in trains thus people referring to him as the trainman. In addition, Mary appears as a homemaker who is the emotional caregiver and takes care of everything else apart from finances.
In the circular casualty theory, the family members’ decisions, choices and actions are actually influenced by the other family members, therefore, forming a chain meaning one cannot live without the other (Papero, 1990). In our case, this is actually true. First, James decision to live in an isolated area far from neighbours is down to his family as from when he was young. They lived in such an environment and being the only kid became an introvert thus his tendency to want to live alone. Mary on her part was from a big family thus related quite well thus her feeling of wanting to be around neighbours. James was from a family where both parents had more interests in furthering their careers and may be the cause of him being also emotionally unavailable to his kids. The naughtiness of Robert, the adopted kid, could be because of the lack of love being shown in the family by his father and could be a way of trying to seek the father’s attention. His prior good behaviour was because of good relations with the mother who showed him the correct way. Irene on her part is a quiet girl and is now losing weight due to the numerous quarrels she hears from her parents. She has become distant, and this can be because of the unavailability of her father.
In conclusion, it is quite evident that from the McPherson family, each family members behaviour is because of the other family members and that the family system is actually incomplete without all family members.
References
CARLSON, J., SPERRY, L., & LEWIS, J. A. (1997). Family therapy: ensuring treatment efficacy. Pacific Grove, CA, Brooks/Cole Pub.
SCHWARTZ, R. C. (1995). Internal family systems therapy. New York, Guilford Press.
PAPERO, D. V. (1990). Bowen family systems theory. Boston, Allyn and Bacon.
