Healy Chapter 7: Three waves of system theories

• System theories provide ways of understanding problems and issues; however, it is widely agreed that systems frameworks do not provide intervention methods
• While system theories have helped to guide and explain social work, the core concepts within these theories were not developed in, or intended for social work practice
• Hankins, a sociologist in the Smith School of Social Work, first introduced the term "systems theory" to social work


  1930
• Even before the "systems theory" was proposed, social workers in the emerging profession adopted a "person in environment" perspective
• Richmond argued that social workers must balance personal and social change orientations as she asserted that social reform and social case work must of necessity progress together
• During the middle part of the century, a psychological focus dominated the formal base of social work
• It was not until the 1960s that a dual focus on person and environment returned to prominence in the formal base of social work
• General systems theory


  The initial proponents of systems theory emphasized its potential to provide scientific credibility to the profession and to develop an integrated social theoretical foundation that would capture the central elements of social work practice in all its varied forms
• General systems theory


  Derived from the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a biologist, and from sociological attempts to apply biological systems theories to the social world
• Von Bertalanffy's argument


  Systems approaches were more appropriate than "causal" models for dealing with complex interactions in all types of systems: biological, mechanical, and social
• Von Bertalanffy's proposition


  An individual's mental health can only be understood in relation to whether the individual has an integrated framework consistent within the given cultural framework
• Psychological pathology


  Considered to be socially and culturally produced rather than primarily arising from the individual psyche
• Homeostasis


  The tendency of a biological organism to seek and keep some kind of operating balance in its integral process, or at least to seek and keep processes within certain limits
• Social workers' interpretation of homeostasis

  The maintenance of a steady state is essential for growth of the human organism
• Critics argue that GST's reliance on abstract concepts and the mechanistic nonhuman nature of much of its language alienated most practicing social workers
• Ecosystem perspective


  Ecology is a useful metaphor for encouraging social workers to focus on transactions within and across systems and to seek sustainable, not only short-term change
• Ecosystem approach


  Proponents use the distinctive term "person:environment" to repair the conceptually fractured relationship between person and environment
• Ecosystem perspective


  Problems arise because of a poor fit between a person's environment and their needs, capacities, rights, and aspirations
• Purpose of ecosystem intervention

  To improve transactions by promoting adaptation between the person and their environment
• Initial phase


  The primary purpose is for the social worker and service user to establish an active partnership based on mutuality and reciprocity
• Ongoing phase


  The primary purpose is to promote adaptation in the "person:environment" relationship so as to maximize the service user's well-being
• Ecological assessment

  The service provider and service user work together to gather data about, and analyze the impact of, multiple systems on the service user's situation
• Ecomap


  A graphic system for viewing the relevant connected case elements together, within a boundary that clarifies for the practitioner the case system as the focus of work
• Practice purpose


  To enhance and strengthen service users' adaptive capacities and problem-solving abilities and, concurrently, to promote environmental adaptedness
• Social worker's role

  To promote change at the micro, meso, and macro levels
• Ending phase

  A well planned termination of intervention is integral to the overall structure of the systems approach
• Complex systems theories

  Provide a way of articulating the intuitive knowledge possessed by most social work practitioners about the non-linearity and unpredictability of change processes
• Complex system

  One in which the behavior of the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts
• Defining characteristic of a complex system

  Some of its global behaviors, which are the result of interactions between a large number of relatively simple parts, cannot be predicted simply from the rules of those underlying interactions
• Non-linearity

  A change in one variable or set of variables will be associated with disproportionate changes in another variable or set of variables
• Complexity theorists' view on change

  Change is a usual feature of complex social systems, amplified by repeatedly self-reinforcing feedback
• Butterfly effect


  Small changes at initial phases in the system's development can lead to substantial and complex changes in the behavior of the system
• Deterministic chaos


  The behavior of complex systems shows a deeper level of patterned order than is suggested by the linear cause and effect models that are familiar to social scientists
• Phase change


  The moment at which the system switches from one pattern of complexity to another
• Strength of system theories

  They provide a framework for understanding and responding to people in their environments, discouraging the pathology action of either the individual or their environment
• Strength of system theories

  They can provide a unifying conceptual foundation for social work as a profession focused on understanding and responding to people in their environment
• Weakness of system theories

  Lack of clarity about core system concepts, such as what constitutes a system, what are the boundaries of a system, and what are the attributes of a system
• Weakness of system theories

  Inconsistencies between social work values and system theories, as a focus on function and exchange within systems can leave out questions of structural injustice and abuse of power
• Weakness of system theories

  The language used to describe key concepts, whether this is the language of biology or complex mathematics, is likely to alienate practitioners who already cover considerable conceptual terrain in their work
• Weakness of system theories

  They provide little guidance on how to move from a holistic analysis to systematic intervention