Paper Example on Adjusted Families: Understanding External and Internal Influences

Nursing: Families that have been adjusted are waked of influences that emanate from outside their family. The influences entail emotional processes (Palmer, 2017). These adjusted families are also aware of those inspirations emanating from within the family.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Health: Adjusted families relate emotional problems to the greater system. They also view these problems to contain some elements in the individual member.

Environment: Adjusted families are able to adapt to variations in the environment. These families have a balance between their disconnectedness and togetherness.

Family Theory by Bowen

Person: In his theory, Bowen believes that throughout his or her lifespan, a person undergoes developmental stages.

Nursing: When nurses adequately understand a person's stages of development, they can give a better nursing diagnosis. The diagnosis would incline with the psychosocial development of the individual patient (Stevens & Price, 2015). The psychosocial developments of people are based on the stages of development of the individual.

Health: A better diagnosis results in a positive resolution. The constructive resolutions influence the reactions of an individual to situations of stress throughout the stages of development.

Environment: The way an individual interacts socially throughout his or her life determines the shaping of his or her developmental stages.

The meta-paradigm holds similarities in the theories. They both illustrate the significance of personal development in stages of life. Environment affects the development of life in both of the theories (Farrington, 2017). The meta-paradigm also, in both of the theories, illustrates the importance of understanding the underlying issues a person is facing, as it would result in the provision of adequate care.

Description of Key Concepts

Well-researched concepts support the two theories.

Family Theory

Triangles: It employs a system represented by a three-person relationship. This relationship is the developmental block of a broad emotional system. As tension increases, the pattern in the triangle changes (Palmer, 2017). The tensions contribute substantially to the promotion of clinical problems.

Family emotional concept: When family tensions prolong, they create avenues for the development of clinical symptoms and problems. There are four basic patterns associated with the family's emotional concept (Van Wormer, 2017). They are emotional distance, one or more children impairment, one spouse dysfunction, and marital conflict.

Concept of Differentiation of self: Different people vary in their predisposition to a "group think," actions, and feelings. The individuals also possess different amounts of pressure that they exert to align themselves to conformity. When a person's self is less developed, others will feel more impact on his or her functioning, and at the same time, the individual also uses more energy to control how others are functioning. An individual with a well-differentiated self is aware of how he or she depends on others and can assume a calm posture on the face of conflict or rejection.

Process of family projection: There are three steps associated with this concept. Firstly, the parent views a child with fear that there is something wrong with him or her. Secondly, the interpretation of the parent confirms the fears. Lastly, the parent offers treatment if genuinely, the child was suffering (Palmer, 2017).

Multigenerational transmission: Parents combine in raising their offspring. As the child responds to parents' actions, moods, and attitudes, they acquire differentiation of self traits that conform to the levels of their parents'.

Emotional cutoff: People tend to cut off ties with their families sometime in their life. This, however, results in them making stronger ties elsewhere (Palmer, 2017). For example, when a man reduces ties with his family of origin, he concentrates more on his spouse and children.

Sibling position: The position of a person's siblings also fades as he or she connects with another person of the opposite sex.

Societal emotional: Societies experience periods of progression and regression contributed by factors such as population explosion and diminishing natural resources.

Psychosocial Development Concepts

Stage 1

It is the stage of an infant between 0 and 1 year. Erikson's theory describes this theory as the most fundamental in life (Van Wormer, 2017). The development of the child depends on the quality of care that he or she receives from the caregivers. The infant develops trust or mistrust with the world. This stage determines hope.

Stage 2

It is the stage between 1 and 3 years. It is characterized by shame and doubt vs. Autonomy. The child develops personal control. Toilet training is associated with this stage (Farrington, 2017). The stage builds the ability of a child to act willingly based on reason and limits.

Stage 3

It is the stage between ages 3 to 6years, characterized by initiative vs. guilt. The child develops responsibility and independence. This stage often leads to purpose.

Stage 4

Children between 6 and 12 years fall into this category. After this stage, the child comes out either industrious or inferior. The child needs encouragement (Stevens & Price, 2015). This stage instills competence.

Stage 5

Composed of teenagers between 12 and 19 years of age. The teenager is either able to create an identity or come out confused. This leads to the development of a sense of self and fidelity.

Stage 6

It is the stage of development of between 20 and 25 years. People of this age explore personal relationships (Palmer, 2017). It leads to love.

Stage 7

People between 26 and 64 years fall into this category. It is characterized by generativity vs. stagnation. One focuses on career, building of lives, and family. At this stage, people develop care.

Stage 8

Composed of people of advanced ages, over 65, and in their death years. The people reflect on the life they have been living (Farrington, 2017). The feeling of a successful life brings integrity while failure brings regret of a wasted life and despair. This leads to wisdom.

Relevance, Similarity, and Contribution to the Current field of Nursing

Illustration example

"A parent with Alzheimer's has two children. The youngest lives a couple of hours away while the older only a few minutes away from their home. The older frequently visits home to take care of their parent. When the younger comes and finds the older sibling giving care. The younger is not willing to help the older sister, only offering advice of taking their parent to a care facility. This makes the older sister upset and is not willing to help with the advice of her sibling. The older sister eventually loses her job and comes home to provide their parents with full-time care (Palmer, 2017)."

The Family theory, which is concerned with human behavior, describes a family as an emotion unit of complex interactions. A family's members have an emotional connection, according to the variables of the degree of integration of self, and anxiety degree (Farrington, 2017). Relating to the example above, and using the triangle concept and anxiety in interpretation, the older sister is suffering from the strain from the caregiver role.

According to the theory of Psychosocial Development, a person meets and masters new challenges in each stage of his or her life. Each stage's challenges are supposed to be overcome before the next stage, lest they reappear in future (Stevens & Price, 2015). The parent with Alzheimer's is at the last stage of life, which is characterized by integrity and despair. The parent is suffering memory loss that is caused by Alzheimer's, according to Erikson, which is a characteristic of Stage 8.

The relationships confirm that the two theories are relevant in the current field of nursing, and also leaves space for future advancements. The theories point out the challenges that will likely affect people in different scopes (Van Wormer, 2017). These challenges, for example, the parent who suffers memory loss in the later stages of her life, are not adequately addressed. It is, therefore, necessary for research on ways to overcome the challenges.

The two theories are also similar in that they are concerned with the sociological challenges facing society. The fact that we can use a single scenario for both of the theories means that they are in a big way interconnected (Palmer, 2017). The significant difference between them, however, is that the Family Theory is mainly concerned with human behavior while the Psychosocial Development theory is concerned mainly with the developments in the stages of life.

Conclusion

Both Bower's and Erikson's theories play a significant role in the field of nursing. The two theories are characterized by simple concepts that are easy to follow and apply. The theories also set the stage for research and future advancements for further applicability in the provision of nursing and care. Although the theories differ in their approach, they have some similar features of the application of sociology to solve problems in other fields such as nursing.

References

Farrington, D. P. (2017). Integrated Ego Psychology. Routledge. Retrieved from: https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2017-0-51376-X&isbn=9781351512206&format=googlePreviewPdf

Palmer, E. N. (2017). Using distance regulation for the study of sibling relationship quality, romantic relationships, and interpersonal and intrapersonal factors (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University). Retrieved from: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1500469586490535&disposition=inline

Stevens, A., & Price, J. (2015). Evolutionary psychiatry: A new beginning. Routledge. Retrieved from: http://toddkshackelford.com/downloads/Shackelford-Haselton-PLS-1997.pdf

Van Wormer, K. (2017). Human behavior and the social environment, micro-level...