What Is Systems Psychology? What Is It About?

What is systems psychology? System psychology addresses the phenomenon of relationships and communication within group activities. It analyzes the relationships and components that arise from this business.

This school of thought sees believe that individuals are related to each other in different collectives which they call “systems”.

Each group or collective can therefore be related to a different system. This applies regardless of whether it is about the family, work, any romantic group, etc.

This type of psychology is based on context and takes into account different areas where people move. It addresses the way in which each individual relates to his or her environment as a crucial factor in personal development.

Experts can therefore use systems psychology to solve problems in a large number of groups. It can be used for couples, work teams, families and individuals.

In the rest of this article, we will address how the schools of thought arose and what it really is about. In other words, we will talk about its principles.

The origin of systems psychology

Systems psychology is a school of psychology based on general psychological systems, as defined by Bertalanffy. This thinker began to develop these ideas during the second half of the 20th century.

In his theory, Bertalanffy addresses the importance of the interaction concept. He argues that a system entails dependence between the parties or that people participate in the relationship.

It is important to be aware that the “system concept” deviates from the general systems theory.

The origins of systems therapy were developed by anthropologist Gregory Bateson and his team. They worked in Palo Alto, California. Bateson worked with other researchers such as Jackson, Haley and Weakland.

They focused on analyzing the communication system of schizophrenic families.

Bateson’s research gave rise to the double bond theory. This theory contributed to the foundation of systems psychology and in this context one can see a double bond as a communicative dilemma.

The reason for this is that there are two or more messages that contradict each other.

It is clear that the phenomenon of human communication is one of the most important points in systems therapy. One should keep in mind that we have got the foundation for this school of thought from Paul Watzlawick.

He developed a theory concerning human communication in which he addressed problems related to practical aspects of communication.

Watzlawick’s theories included the effect that communication has on behavior.

The beginning of systems psychology

Below we address basic relevant aspects in systems psychology:

What is systems psychology? The system as a whole

In this school of psychology, the experts see the system as a whole. The reason for this is that the whole is larger than the sum of the different parts.

System psychology therefore emphasizes the properties of the whole that arise from the interaction between different system elements. What is important, therefore, is the relationships that arise from the interactions between different people.

The different systems (family, friends, partners, colleagues…) are related to each other within a contextual framework. Within this framework, people’s roles and behaviors are determined by the system’s tactical rules.

The interaction between the members also plays a role. Systems psychology analyzes and pays attention to these roles and behaviors.

Multicausal origin

Systems psychology sees things from a circular and multi-causal perspective. The field can therefore not establish linear markers where the events have only one cause.

Instead, there are various crucial causal factors. Every action and reaction changes constantly depending on the context.

For example, members of a family may react to the same event in different ways. This can modify the final situations, which turns out to be a combination of all the different reactions that have occurred.

Paul Watzlawick was a pioneer in finding this circular event causality to explain possible repetitive patterns in human interactions.

In other words, how they can affect the actions of others and how the actions of others can affect the individual.

What is systems psychology? Communication as a key factor

As we have mentioned before, Watzlawick was one of the great proponents of systems psychology. He became very well known in this field when he introduced his communication theory.

Experts see this as a key factor in the therapeutic process. For systems therapy, communication is an important subject that should be studied further.

Each system includes special rules that the system therapist must learn. Only then will you be able to work with them if they are not suitable.

What we communicate on determines, according to this school of thought, whether a problem persists or decreases in intensity.

Systems psychology gives us a different perspective on problems and difficulties. In this perspective, relationships are more important than individuals and this is also the focus of therapy.

Different studies have given rise to different branches within systems therapy.