Personality systematics - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Personality systematics

Concepts Intrapsychic-biological system Interpersonal-dyadic system Dyad (sociology) A dyad in sociology is a noun used to describe a group of two people. "Dyadic" is an adjective used to describe this type of communication/interaction. A dyad is the smallest possible social group.... Relational-triadic matrix Triad (sociology) In sociology a triad is a group of three people. It is one of the simplest human groups that can be studied and is mostly looked at by microsociology... Sociocultural familial triangle Sociocultural system A sociocultural system is a "human population viewed in its ecological context and as one of the many subsystems of a larger ecological system".A sociocultural system may be described as having an infrastructure, a structure, and a superstructure... Originators Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe... Virginia Satir Virginia Satir Virginia Satir was an American author and psychotherapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy and her work with Systemic Constellations... Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he has commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy... Stephen A. Mitchell Proponents Jeffrey J. Magnavita Relevant works Psychodynamic Family Psychotherapy
Psychology portal

Personality systematics is a contribution to the psychology of personality and to psychotherapy summarized by Jeffrey J. Magnavita in 2006 and 2009. It is the study of the interrelationships among subsystems of personality as they are embedded in the entire ecological system. The model falls into the category of complex, biopsychosocial

Biopsychosocial model

The biopsychosocial model is a general model or approach that posits that biological, psychological , and social factors, all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or illness...

approaches to personality. The term personality systematics was originally coined by William Grant Dahlstrom in 1972.

Historical background

Systems psychology has emerged here as a new approach in which groups and individuals, are considered as systems in homeostasis

Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the property of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition of properties like temperature or pH...

. Within open systems they have an active method of remaining stable through the dynamic relationship between parts. A classic example of this homeostatic dynamic is the "problem behavior" of a bed wetting child having a stabilizing function of holding a troubled marriage together because the attention of the parents is drawn away from their conflict towards the "problem" child.

More recent developments in systems psychology have challenged this understanding of homeostasis as being too focused on causal understanding of systems. This change in thought from 1st order cybernetics

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...

to 2nd order cybernetics

Second-order cybernetics

Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, investigates the construction of models of cybernetic systems. It investigates cybernetics with awareness that the investigators are part of the system, and of the importance of self-referentiality, self-organizing, the...

involved a postmodern shift in understanding of reality as objective

Objectivity (philosophy)

Objectivity is a central philosophical concept which has been variously defined by sources. A proposition is generally considered to be objectively true when its truth conditions are met and are "mind-independent"—that is, not met by the judgment of a conscious entity or subject.- Objectivism...

to being socially and linguistically constructed

Constructivist epistemology

Constructivist epistemology is an epistemological perspective in philosophy about the nature of scientific knowledge. Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists and not discovered from the world. Constructivists claim that the concepts of science are mental...

.

Family systems therapy received an important boost in the mid-1950s through the work of anthroplogist Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...

and colleagues – Jay Haley

Jay Haley

Jay Douglas Haley was one of the founding figures of brief and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, and authors in these disciplines.-Life and works:Conceived in a log cabin on his family's...

, Donald D. Jackson, John Weakland

John Weakland

John H. Weakland was one of the founders of brief and family psychotherapy. At the time of his death, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, Co-Director of the famous Brief Therapy Center at MRI, and a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus in...

, William Fry

William Fry

William Fry may refer to:*William Henry Fry , American composer*William Fry , Australian politician of Higinbotham Province, Victoria...

, and later, Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir was an American author and psychotherapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy and her work with Systemic Constellations...

, Paul Watzlawick

Paul Watzlawick

Paul Watzlawick was an Austrian-American psychologist and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he has commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy...

and others – at Palo Alto in the US, who introduced ideas from cybernetics and general systems theory into social psychology and psychotherapy, focusing in particular on the role of communication. This approach eschewed the traditional focus on individual psychology and historical factors – that involve so-called linear causation and content – and emphasized instead feedback and homeostatic mechanisms and “rules” in here-and-now interactions – so-called circular causation and process – that were thought to maintain or exacerbate problems, whatever the original cause(s).

Relational psychoanalysis

Relational psychoanalysis

Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy...

began in the 1980s as an attempt to integrate interpersonal psychoanalysis

Interpersonal psychoanalysis

Interpersonal psychoanalysis is based on the theories of Harry Stack Sullivan , an American psychiatrist, who believed that the details of a patient's interpersonal interactions with others can provide insight into the causes and cures of mental disorder.-Selective inattention:Sullivan proposed...

's emphasis on the detailed exploration of interpersonal interactions with British object relations theory

Object relations theory

Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....

's sophisticated ideas about the psychological importance of internalized relationships with other people. Relationalists argue that personality

Personality psychology

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...

emerges out of the matrix of early formative relationships with parents and other figures. Philosophically, relational psychoanalysis is closely allied with social constructionism

Social constructionism

Social constructionism and social constructivism are sociological theories of knowledge that consider how social phenomena or objects of consciousness develop in social contexts. A social construction is a concept or practice that is the construct of a particular group...

Description

Personality systematics seeks to establish the underlying processes within the domains of the larger system. The domains range from what can be observed from the microlevel to the macrolevel domains.

Personality can be conceptualized as an emergent phenomena of the convergent forces and their expressions which can be compared to a holographic representation. Personality systematics is based on a holistic model of functioning which considers part-whole relationships as being essential to understanding complex self-organizing systems.

The model describes four levels of the personality system:

Level I, intrapsychic-biological, including cognitive and affective experiences;
Level II, interpersonal-dyadic (the two-person system), regulating the tension between intimacy and separateness, and including past, current, and expected relationships;
Level III, relational-triadic matrix, representing the relations among a primary dyad and a third person;
Level IV, sociocultural familial triangle, depicting the synergy between the individual personality system, the family system, and the cultural system, and shaping how genetic predispositions and vulnerabilities will be expressed.

Applications in treatment

This model has been used in treating complex clinical syndromes, personality dysfunction, and relational disturbances. To enhance efficacy and range, new methods are used, such as audiovisual recording and physiological measurements, galvanic skin response

Galvanic skin response

Skin conductance, also known as galvanic skin response , electrodermal response , psychogalvanic reflex , skin conductance response or skin conductance level , is a method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which varies with its moisture level...

, heart rate

Heart rate

Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time, typically expressed as beats per minute . Heart rate can vary as the body's need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide changes, such as during exercise or sleep....

variability, and other forms of bio

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is the process of becoming aware of various physiological functions using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will...

- and neuro-feedback

Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback , also called neurotherapy, neurobiofeedback or EEG biofeedback is a type of biofeedback that uses realtime displays of electroencephalography or functional magnetic resonance imaging to illustrate brain activity, often with a goal of controlling central nervous system activity...

Historical background

Description

Applications in treatment

See also