Family Systems Issue 4.2
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Table of Contents: 4.2
FROM THE EDITOR
Michael E. Kerr, MD
ARTICLES: Journal articles reflect natural systems thinking or are relevant to it. These may include concept papers as well as research studies.
BIOLOGY AND RELATIONSHIPS: ADAPTATION IN NATURE
David Crews, PhD
A useful concept in evolutionary biology is that traits that are common are ancient and fundamental, whereas less common traits are more recently evolved. The fact that (1) behavioral facilitation of reproduction occurs in all kinds of organisms, ranging from blue-green algae to mammals, and (2) the diversity of organisms exhibiting behavioral facilitation is greater than the diversity of organisms exhibiting sexual reproduction (meiosis), suggests that behavioral facilitation is more fundamental, or more ancient, than is sexual reproduction. Since behavioral facilitation is an interactive process, this means that relationships and reactivity to these relationships is absolutely fundamental to biological systems.
FAMILY PROCESS AND VARIABILITY IN HUMAN AGING
Laura R. Brooks, MSW
Conventional human aging research has established that everyone ages and that the process is unique for every individual. An exploration of the individual on social and psychological levels, however, has not yielded clear explanations for variability in individual adjustment in the later years. Family systems theory views the individual in the context of instinctual processes in the relationship system that govern social, physiological, and psychological functioning. This perspective contributes to understanding the differences among individuals as they adjust to the challenges of growing old.
BOWEN THEORY AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Michael E. Kerr, MD
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection explains how highly integrated social systems evolve. Bowen’s family systems theory describes how relationship systems function. This article reviews the contributions of Darwin and others to the theory of natural selection, describes basic concepts in Bowen theory, applies Bowen theory to naked mole-rat colonies, and discusses ideas in Bowen theory that might expand evolutionary theory’s understanding of living systems. These ideas include multigenerational emotional programming, emotional regression, and an individuality-togetherness balance in relationship systems. The article does not attempt to integrate the two theories or to explain one theory in the context of the other, but to delineate their different perspectives on the same life processes.
BRIEF REPORTS: Brief reports present important ideas in development and promising research in its early stages.
INSTINCTS OF REPRODUCTION
Barbara J. Meagher, BSN
This brief report presents the author’s belief that the comfortable, good feeling experienced by a couple, that they come to call love, is really the relationship climate necessary for reproduction. The type of “climate” needed will vary. The reproductive instincts will drive and guide the maintenance of that climate while remaining largely out of the individual’s awareness and control.
STEPHEN EMLEN; THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE FAMILY
Daniel V. Papero, PhD
Stephen T. Emlen, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Behavioral Ecology in the Division of Biological Sciences at Cornell University, sets out in a series of articles to develop a conceptual framework rooted in Darwinian thinking that might contribute to a better understanding of human behavior.