SPRING CONFERENCE

The Impact of Relationships
on Individual Variation

The Fifth Interdisciplinary Dialogue

April 17-18, 2010

Speakers

Frances Champagne, PhD - Columbia University
Neurobiology of maternal care and epigenetic changes in rodent models

Patricia A. Comella, JD - The Bowen Center
Emotional process in society and the regression hypothesis

Margaret Donley, MSW
Variation in sibling relationships and the multigenerational transmission process

Lynn Fairbanks, PhD - University of California at Los Angeles
Genetic and maternal influences on family relationships in vervet monkeys

Mark Flinn, PhD - University of Missouri
Effects of childhood stress and family relationships on children's health

Jeffrey A. French, PhD - University of Nebraska
Physiological and behavioral mechanisms of cooperatively breeding mammals

Raghavendra Gadagkar - Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Organization and evolution of insect societies

Victoria Harrison, MA - Center for the Study of Natural Systems and the Family in Houston, Texas and The Bowen Center
Effects of family relationships on physiological reactivity and health

LeAnn Howard, MSW, MA - Kansas City Center for Organizational and Family Systems
Variation in emotional reactivity in harvester ants

Kathleen B. Kerr, MSN, MA - The Bowen Center
The effects of mother-offspring relationships on adult behavior

Michael E. Kerr, MD - Director, The Bowen Center
How the emotional system shapes the range of variation in human adaptation

Cynthia Larkby, PhD - University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Long-term effects of early adversity on development

Michael D. Lumpkin, PhD - Georgetown University School of Medicine
Stress physiology, psychoneuroimmunology and mind-body medicine

Robert J. Noone, PhD - Executive Director, Family Service Center in Wilmette, IL
Family multigenerational transmission process

Daniel V. Papero, PhD, MSW - The Bowen Center
Evolution of behavior and neuroscience

Mary Beth Saffo, PhD - Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, and Northeastern University
Evolution of behavior and neuroscience

Barbara Smuts, PhD - University of Michigan
Social behavior in chimpanzees, baboons, dolphins, and dogs

Esther Sternberg, MD - American University and National Institutes of Health
Human stress and health

Stephen J. Suomi, PhD - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Interaction between genetic and environmental factors in shaping development in rhesus monkeys

This is the fifth interdisciplinary conference focusing on better understanding individual variation. Participants in this conference come from psychology, anthropology, biology, endocrinology, neuroscience, epidemiology, family theory and research, and physiology. A number of them specialize in the study of man’s nearest neighbors on the phylogenetic tree, the primates. Others study rodents, dogs, insects, marine organisms and even humans!

In recent years the question of individual variation in species has begun to be addressed more systematically. It has taken some time to establish average ways that species behave. That knowledge needs to be in place before individual variation comes into view and begs for study. As individual variation is increasingly studied, the impact of relationships on functioning comes into focus. All members of a system influence one another. Relationships shape other relationships, especially through triangles.

Bowen theory’s concept of differentiation of self, is uniquely positioned to contribute to the discussion of how individuals, even from the same parents, turn out differently. Differentiation of self describes variation in lifelong functioning and accounts for it through differences in the individual’s degree of emotional separation from original caretakers. The less emotionally separate, the more an individual's functioning is vulnerable to the influence of the group. Bowen theorists bring an interest in connecting the variation they see within and between families to the natural sciences.

The time is ripe for another dialogue between Bowen theorists and natural scientists interested in understanding individual variation. At each of these conferences the presenters have pushed their research and thinking further, making this interdisciplinary conversation fresh and scintillating. There will be ample time for dialogue, questions, and comments. If the past is prologue, it will be a very stimulating two days.

About the Spring Conference:
Each spring the Center traditionally offers a conference devoted to a single topic which is explored in depth by a number of presenters. The subject of the meeting may be a concept of Bowen theory or an application of theory. DVD recordings of previous Spring Conferences are available for purchase on our website.