The family system theory relates to a family being an emotional faction that engages system thinking to provide solutions to issues often a complex co-existence, (Bowen). Families, therefore, are thought to significantly influence on its members’ thoughts and feelings that in turn impact on how they react to situations. Despite the connectivity, there is also interdependence of its family members’ thoughts to some degree. When a member acts in a particular manner, it is likely to reciprocate another feeling in other members of the family. The Jacksons family offers a perfect example of any family unit as viewed over the years.
The Jacksons family is a famous family in the history of families. The family we can say is a music-oriented family with very remarkable and notable music artistes hailing from this family. At the birth of Michael Jackson back in 1958, the family lived in Gary, Indiana. He was the fifth of nine children begotten to Joe and Katherine Jackson. Thanks to Joe Jackson their father, who was very much inclined in music bred his children to appreciate music. He, however, being a steel mill worker, never lived his dream of being a performing artiste. The passion he had was passed to his children and to the present day much accolade is paid to Jackson’s family.
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Later on, when Michael was only five, they formed a family band that performed at Midwest and caught the crowds with their younger brother, Michael, being a sensation. By 1970 the Jackson Five, as they used to call them, topped the charts selling over a million copies. Though, with growing fame and wealth, family feuds started to feature with the kids turning against their father who at the time was their manager. Also, Michael got a solo album deal that saw the beginning of problems in the Jackson Five.
In the context of the Jacksons family, system thinking is evident in the family and on the other extreme too exists diversity in family functioning. In a sour deal that saw the family lose millions of dollars through a failed real estate venture, blame was put on Joe, their father, and this led to a real feud between the father and the children. Also, in 1968 he signed a deal without proper examining of the clause of agreement between Motown Recording firm that also led to severe losses leading to him getting fired as the family manager.
The emotions evolve to bring about togetherness and cooperation among family members hence require to protect each other. Increased tension, however, can promote teamwork, and hence heightened levels of antagonism. The family also went through a rough time when Katherine their mother filed for a divorce later in 1973 but never materialized, and she changed her mind and suspended the process. The children shared their mother's sentiments as they affirmed torture from their father when they were young with La Toya claiming abuse to her and her siblings that went to the extent of their father brandishing guns just to get their attention. The sense of protection also was evident when Katherine and her two children, Randy and Janet stormed into Joe’s office and threatened his secretary who was allegedly in a secret relationship with their father.
Also when a family member feels isolated emotionally or in any way, may lead to certain acts that may be antagonistic in nature due to the vulnerability caused for example alcoholism, extra-marital affairs, depression and times sickness. We could try to explain some of the behaviours based on this systematic thinking. Michael Jackson, for instance, was arraigned in court for allegedly defining a thirteen-year-old boy. Also, all of the siblings had plastic surgery save for Jackie who happens to be the only Jackson who never had plastic surgery. Also, most of the siblings had issues in their marriages with most divorcing at least once. La Toya, on the other hand, retaliated from the family and went to the extent of posting nude photos on the Playboy magazine claiming she was defiled by her father.
Therefore according to psychologists, the family setting plays a massive role in problem-solving in situations faced on various walks of life. Family members, therefore, are not analyzed as single entities but as a whole or in small groups formed from alliances or even conflicts hence those of common interests collude to form a sub-unit. They, therefore, interact in predefined manners that are times over a period become rules. These rules are persistent behavioural patterns and can either be descriptive of prescriptive. Descriptive rules define interaction methods whereas prescriptive rules control what can or cannot be done among members of the family. The Jacksons, therefore, had their rules of engagement with the father being the overall head of the family. The mother, however, did not exercise her authority rather showed compassion to her children as any mother would do. The weaker faction if I may say reclined towards the mother as the father’s authority could not be rivalled. However, after the father proved incapable of handling managerial matters he had to be removed from his position as the family manager.
Overt roles in the family to some extent failed with the father who was to be the leader failed in his duties both as a father and as a manager. At the long run, children complained of oppression and molestation which in effect distorted the normal functioning of the family. By firing Joe, Michael took the pivot role in the family hence being the role model for others to follow. Although the father did an excellent job in ensuring the children grew in music. Also, a great effort by Michael leads to the better performance of his siblings who looked up to him. Janet and Le Toya being a great example of just what systemic thinking and functionality could just do in a family.
To avoid such occurrence in family thinking, conflict avoidance is a great tool to be implemented to bring about harmony in the family. Conflict avoidance derives little or no change in the family system thinking meaning the pre-existing factions are not tampered with leading to harmony. In case of conflict, on the other hand, would mean change in the comfort zone adapted to hence exposing the vulnerable family factions to an uncertain future. The Jacksons, therefore, could they have avoided conflict in the first place, it could have been very possible to stay clear of the public limelight full of controversies. Family system was thinking, therefore, focuses on the whole family as a problem or subsystems rather than the individuals in the family as for any cause there is an effect from other members of the family.
Reference
Fiese, B. (2017). Journal of Family Psychology . http://www.apa.org . Retrieved 6 February 2017, from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/fam/
Smith, T. (2017). Systems or How Families Work . Retrieved 6 February 2017, from http://www.drtomcares.com/systems-or-how-families-work.html
Stanton, M. & Goldenberg, H. (2016). Family Therapy: An Overview. (9th ed.). Boston: MA: Cengage Learning.
Stroh, D. (2017). Applied Systems Thinking / Journal . Appliedsystemsthinking.com . Retrieved 6 February 2017, from http://www.appliedsystemsthinking.com/journal.html
