Research at the Georgetown Family Center

George C. Williams, Ph.D. defined scientific inquiry as “any combination of theoretical thinking, intuition, and empiricism that suits the investigator.”

Linus Pauling spoke of theoretical research as “thinking about the problem until you think of something new that is pertinent to it.…Someone once said, it may have been Szent-Gyorgyi or Einstein, that ‘progress consists in looking at something that everybody else has looked at and seeing something that no one else ever saw.’”

These definitions reflect a broader view of research than the traditional empirical study. Research begins with a question or hypothesis. The researcher then develops a methodology and protocol, and systematically collects data and analyses it. In this way, disciplined clinical research or library research on the work of others qualifies as research.

Research is key to the academic vitality of the Family Center. Murray Bowen developed Bowen theory through formal and informal clinical research. Important principles guiding the original research remain crucial for Bowen theory research today:

Bowen observed that there is a difference between what people say they do and what they actually do. Since he aimed toward a science of human behavior he wanted to know what people really do. In his original study at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), eleven families lived on the research unit up to three years. Seven additional families were seen as outpatients. The participating families were observed 24 hours a day and their entire behavior recorded. NIMH Study

New observations were possible using this approach. An example is the relationship between emotional process in research families and their use of medical resources on the unit.* This focus on what people actually do continues to inform research guided by Bowen theory today. It is unlikely that people will accurately report their behavior in a paper and pencil test. Especially suspect are paper and pencil questionnaires attempting to assess level of differentiation of self.

Family systems researchers work to collect data on actual behavior rather than relying on subjective reports.

For example, the Family History Database Project approaches the challenge of measuring differentiation by using factual historical data on functioning over a lifetime to approximate level of differentiation of self.

The unit of study is the family system. Once the research view shifts from the individual to the family, the scene looks entirely different and research doesn’t employ cause-effect linear models. This makes research from a systems perspective somewhat complex. If a person does clinical outcome research and only measures the presence or absence of a symptom in one family member, the systems view has been lost. For example, current research on the emotional impact of retirement on functioning only uses measures of the functioning of retirees after retirement as outcome measures and doesn’t include measures of functioning of the spouse and children. Multiple variables affect the system. Research guided by systems thinking holds multiple variables and their interactions with each other simultaneously.

*Dysinger, Robert H. And Murray Bowen. 1978. “Problems of Medical Practice Presented by Families With a Schizophrenic Member” in Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson.

Current Research Projects

Relationship of Bowen Theory and Evolutionary Theory
Michael E. Kerr, MD “Bowen Theory and Evolutionary Theory,” Family Systems, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1998, pp. 119-177. mekerr@thebowencenter.org