Notes: Ecosystemic Psychology

ECOSYSTEMIC PSYCHOLOGY
BECVAR & BECVAR
CHAPTER 1 SUMMARIES
· TWO DIFFERENT WORLDVIEWS - INDIVIDUAL vs SYSTEMIC THERAPY
INDIVIDUAL
Most people have been socialized into a world whose basic epistemologies (the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge". It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which any given subject or entity can be known) which are firmly rooted in Western, Lockean, scientific tradition.
1. What is the Lockean worldview?
1. Natural Law - state of control over yourself and your actions
2. Everyone is equal - you may harm another, violate their rights, liberty, health and goods
3. Civil government is the remedy to problems in society
4. Men have the right to punish those who destroy their properties and rights
5. Need for standard set of laws and judges that are impartial to all parties involved
6. When people in a group adhere to these things, we live in a civil society
7. To live in a civil society is to agree that the elected leaders make the rules for you
8. This takes you OUT of the state of nature
9. Tyranny occurs when power is exercised for private, not public, good; power is exercised outside the bounds of law and fails to preserve the property of citizens
10. John Locke believed people had a natural right to overthrow their leaders, should those leaders betray them.

By socialization we mean the processes which one learns of appropriate behaviour and ways of thinking. Informal socialization occurs within the family and formal socialization occurs in schools. In both situations we are taught rules which will enable us to become productive members of society. Because we have been brought up in a Westernized culture, you are immersed in modernism and the ideals of John Locke. The linear/cause effect thinking is appropriate here and any problem is solveable if we can find an answer to the question WHY. EVENT A CAUSES B (A -->B). A is responsible for B, or blame A for causing B. Or A did something to B which caused C (A-->B-->C). From this point of view, reality is considered seperate from us, to exist outside our minds; we recognise order rather than create it We reduce sequences of reality into their smallest possible components(reductionism), then uncover law according to which the world operates. It is deterministic and operates accoring to lawlike principles. We react to reality, rather than create it Scientific methodology must be empirical and measureable. Knowledge must be pursued by means of observation and experimentation; black or white..right or wrong... When beliefs were translated from the physical sciences into beahvioural sciences, they were interpreted into theories about behaviours determined either by internal events and/or external environmental sequences to which people react. Mind and reality exist independantly of eachother. ie. I, as mind, can view reality/object from a distance without imposing my values or beliefs on reality/object Direct attention toward previous events that led to current problems, in order to understand human behaviour and find a solution to the problem. Reduce behaviour to lowest common denominator then focus on either the individual and their specific behaviour or on the internal events of the human mind. The individual, rather than the community, has always been main focus in Western culture. This is why psychodynamic theory was so well received (emphasis on individual, consistency with Lockean scientific tradition).

We look at the following assumptions about reality
1. Asks, why?
2. Linear cause/effect
3. Subject/object dualism
4. Either/or dichotomies (a division or contrast between two things that are opposed or entirely different)
5. Value free science
6. Deterministic/reactive
7. Laws and lawlike reality
8. Historical focus
9. Individualistic
10. Reductionistic
11. Absolutistic

SYSTEMIC We use the word counter-cultural to characterize systems theory and cybernetics. Attention directed away from the individual and individual problems viewed in isolation and toward relationships and relationship issues between individuals. The one who is observing perceives, acts on and participates in creating his or her own reality. We are concurrently subjects and objects; we are all involved in one another's destinies. Reality is not external to us but is constructed by us as we bring our own personal perceptions to bear on it and thus give it meaning and order to it. The interdependance of observer and observed is an important aspect of a holistic perspective that takes into account the context of their interaction. Such interaction is seen as a noncausal, dialectical process of mutual exchange in which both parties have influence. Emphasis on what is happening, rather than why is it happening!! The assumptions about reality include:
1. Asks, Why?
2. Reciprocal causality
3. Dialectical
4. Holistic
5. Subjective/perceptual
6. Freedom of choice/proactive
7. Patterns
8. Here-and-now focus
9. Relational
10. Contextual
11. Relativistic There is no linear causality in cybernetics, rather the emphasis is on reciprocity, recursion, and shared responsibility. A and B exist in the context of a relationship in which each influences the other and both are equally cause and effect of eachother's behaviour: A B. Over time, A and B establish patterns characteristic of their particular relationship. Ask what is going on, not why something happened