More than a family tree though, a family genogram also gives you a much deeper understanding of the relationships between members.Īn emotional genogram can be used by psychologists to understand the emotional flows between members.

Genograms can be used in a variety of contexts but they usually contain at least 3 generations, known as a three generational genogram.įamily genograms (also known as kinship diagrams) show at least three generations of a family and are useful for researchers to trace a person’s parentage and ancestry. Genograms can also include information such as alcoholism, depression, diseases and living situations which may have shaped or affected their behavior. Genograms usually contain basic information such as the name, gender and age of members but also include additional data such as occupation, major life events, chronic illness, nature of their relationship with other family members and more. Genograms may also be used by nurses to provide a holistic background of a patient in order to care for them most effectively. This also applies to entire cultures and cultural genograms can help understand behaviors across cultures too. This is inline with the Bowen family systems theory which views human behavior as an emotional unit and that these behaviors can be understood by examining the background of the actors involved. Genograms are important because they give a much richer picture of the relationships between people in a family and are most frequently used in social work and psychology to help in family therapy.Ī genogram is typically used by a social therapist or psychologist to assess a person’s background and explore the relationship between family members to help explain behavioral patterns in children and adults. Genograms were then developed by clinical psychologists Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson in 1985 and were soon adopted by experts in fields ranging from medicine and psychology to social work and genetic research. Genograms were first invented by Murray Bowen in the 1970s in his work on family system models.

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