Summary Notes PYC4808 Ecosystemic Psychology NOTES: Some Q and A's from Past Papers

Notes PYC4808 Ecosystemic Psychology NOTES: Some Q and A's from Past Papers ECOSYSTEMIC PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER ONE – TWO DIFFERENT WORLD VIEWS 1. Individual Psychology VS. Family Systems Theory INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY  Westernized roots  Western, Lockean, scientic traditon  Socialised in this way of thinking – consistent with our communites our culture  Lockean – Modernism = linear causality (A causes B)  Reality is out there, outside our minds and the truth is to be discovered  OBJECTIVE reality – break down into smaller components and uncover laws according to which the world operates  Pursue knowledge by means of OBSERVATION EXPERIMENTATION  These results = measurable objectve  The subject (observing) remain separate from object and be value free SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY  ‘’Counter-cultural’’ – contradicts traditonal ways of thinking  Directs atenton away from the individual and from problems viewed in isolaton and directs our focus to relatonships and relatonship issues between individuals  Kantan traditon  Observer = atenton  Subjectvity is inevitable = exitnng in the mind and not the external world of the client  Observer acts on, and partcipates in creatng his or her own reality  “Non-causal dialectcal process of mutual infuence in which both have infuence”  A and B exist  Reciprocity = give-and-take actons INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY SYSTEM FAMILY THERAPY Asks, Why?? Asks, What? Linear cause and efect Reciprocal Causality Subject / object dualism Dialectcal Either or dichotomies Holistc Value-free science Subjectie / Perceptual Deterministc / Reactie Freedom of choice / pro-actie Laws and law like external reality Paterns Historical Focus Here and now focus Indiiidualistc Relatonal Reductonistc Contextual Absolutstc Relatiistc 1 | P a g e S - The study-notes marketplace Downloaded by: nadiyahkarriem | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace 2. Defnitons Epistemology = A set of immanent rules used in thought by large groups of people to defne reality. How knowledge is created. Theory = A set of connected principles serving to explain a group of phenomena of interest to the researcher or serving as a statement of relatons believed to prevail in a body of observatons. Theories are informed and specifed by partcular epistemologies. Model = A projecton of the substance of a less understood or developed domain onto the structure of a more developed system. You take what you see and project it onto something else. Technique = A rehearsed or practced procedure or skill to achieve a partcular end/ outcome in accordance with a model used. Cybernetcs = The characteristcs of the systemic / cybernetc world is theoretcal relatvity. We cannot reject one theory and embrace another. Rather, cybernetcs we recognize that each theory gives meaning to the other and that each has utlity relatve to given context