1. Snags based on family attributive patterns: The Greek experience
Adamopoulou
Psychiatrist-CAT Psychotherapist
September 2011

2. Von Bertalanffy (1968)
Systems theory originated in the work of Von Bertalanffy(1968) as a conceptual framework of understanding the nature of relationships within complex living systems.

3. L. Von Bertalanffy
Biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST)
He proposed that the laws of thermodynamics applied to closed systems but not necessarily to “open systems” such as living things.
His mathematical model of an organism’s growth over time, published in 1934 ,is still in use today.
His contributions went beyond biology and extended, among other fields, in psychiatry ,in psychology etc

4. Family systems
Of course when this theory applied to study of the family, systemic thinking focuses on all family members, on the reinforcement and feedback loops that connect them and the context in which they operate.

5. In our study
We used all the understanding from the family system approach ,in individual frame of CAT ,through the expression of snags.

6. F. Heider (1958)
Attribution Theory developed from the work of F. Heider (1958), on the basic principle that individuals act as “lay psychologists” seeking the causes of events in their social environment, in an attempt to make sense of their world.

7. Who is Heider?
Fritz Heider ( ), was an Austrian psychologist, whose work was related to the Gestalt School.
In 1958 he published “The psychology of Interpersonal Relations” which systematized and expanded upon his creation of Balance Theory and Attribution Theory.
This book essentially founded the modern field of social cognition.

8. Heider
He called attributions the explanations people make in order to understand the causes of behavior. How people come to explain (make attributions about) the behavior of others and themselves.
Eventually these inferences become beliefs or expectations that allow the person to predict and understand the events that they observe and experience.

9. Types of attributions
The two main types of attributions are internal and external attributions
-When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the individual's personality, attitudes, character or disposition.
-When an external attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the situation in which the behavior was seen (because of the surrounding environment or the social situation)

10. attributions
We could say that the perception of the individual engaging in a behavior is personal in internal attribution and situational in external attribution.

11. Internal attributions
There is a tendency for people to believe that internal attributions are stable personality characteristics of the actor.
So the illumination of them could lead the actor to change them and gain more freedom

12. External attributions
Different cultures have different attribution tendencies.
Collectivist cultures tend to use situational (external) attributions while individualist cultures tend to use dispositional (internal) attributions.
While there are some overlap, culture has a large affect on attribution heuristics.

13. In our study
We examined the belief systems of our patients concerning the family relational patterns and their families of origin, in order to understand how they conceptualized, identified and quantified the ways in which individuals make sense of what change means to them.

14. The family interview Included as areas
A) Family constitution and distribution of parental roles
B) Relationships between family members along the dimensions of closeness, communication, emotional expression, acceptance/rejection, warmth, discipline and conflict
C) Current relationships with family and current family

15. 11 statements
In the above background we constructed eleven (11) statements of internal as well as external attributional patterns very common in Greek families, concerning family systems beliefs and difficulties in change

22. The eleven (11) family attributions++ +
You find difficulties to change because
1.If I change I will betray my family principles
2.To change means that I will criticize or reject my family values and constitutions. I won’t be stable and solid concerning this.
3.If I change I will abandon my family
4.I can’t change because I don’t deserve the advantages of change
5.To change means that I will be involved in the break-up of my family

23. The eleven (11) family attributions
6.To change means that I will forgive them.
7.If I change I will stop being useful to my family.
8.If I change I will stop giving useful roles to others (to care for me, to teach me, to be better than me etc)
9.To change means that I will be alone, I won’t belong anywhere, as if I am losing my identity.
10.I mustn’t change, because the others will be angry with me and I will suffer from the consequences of it.
11.To change means that I will be ungrateful, dangerous, scapegoat. ++ +

24. results
We have examined this in a sample of 40 patients with MS .

25. Results Change means Men(=11) % Women(=29) % Total (=40) % Betray
Reject
Abandon
Don’t deserve
,5%
,4%
,3%
,1%
,9%
,5% %
,5% % %
Break of family
Forgiveness
Not useful to others
Others not useful to me
,1%
,2%
,7%
,3% %
,5%
Alone
Angry with me
Ungrateful, dangerous, scapegoat
,5%
,1%
,6% %
,5%

26. Comments
We found that there is a strong correlation between wish for change and feelings of betrayal, guilt, unworthiness, hostility, and fear to be alone.
We wish to underline the usefulness and the potential purpose of using attribution theory and family systems theory into the frame of CAT, in the chapter of snags, for identifying a family attributional pattern in Greek patients , related to the process of change in CAT.

27. Qvo Vadis?
Our experience generally (not only in patients with MS) is that using these family attributive patterns helps CAT to be shorter (8 sessions) with a great security and effectiveness.
We hope that we could have the opportunity to compare our cultural attributional tendencies

28. Ευχαριστώ
Thank you