Class 2 - Systems Theory

Question 1

What is a systems approach?

Answer 1

• the view that personal and external factors form a dynamic integrated system

Question 2

What is holism? (2)

Answer 2

• the “whole” is primary and often greater than the sum of its parts
• a person develops in relation to changes in any part of the whole dynamic system (personal and external)

Question 3

What is wellness?

Answer 3

• the result of adaptive adjustment

Question 4

What is the bioecological systems theory?

Answer 4

• explains development in terms of the relationships between people and their environment over the passage of time

Question 5

What is the systems theory?

Answer 5

• classifies all the individual and contextual variables that affect development and specifies how they interact

Question 6

What model does the systems theory use?

Answer 6

• A model of concentric circles to describe interrelationships

Question 7

In Bronfenbrenner’s Systems theory, What are the 5 circles?, starting from outermost?

Answer 7

1. Macrosystem
2. Exosystem
3. Mesosystem
4. Microsystem
5. individual context

Question 8

What is the macrosystem? (2)

Answer 8

• cultural context
• contains the values and beliefs of the culture in which a child is growing up
  ie. someone immigrated

Question 9

What is the exosystem? (2)

Answer 9

• socioeconomic context
• includes the institutions of the culture that affect a child’s development indirectly

Question 10

What is the microsystem? (2)

Answer 10

• immediate context
• includes those variables to which people are exposed directly, such as their families, schools, religious institutions, and neighbourhoods

Question 11

What is the mesosystem?

Answer 11

• contains the interconnections between the components in the microsystem
• how much interaction b/w teacher and parent etc.

Question 12

What is the individual context?

Answer 12

• child’s genetic makeup and developmental stage

Question 13

Bronfenbrenner’s systems theory diagram

Answer 13

Question 14

In all, what did all the theorists have in common?

Answer 14

• a need exists to see things outside of our normative ways
  ie. diff. cultures (western theoretical perspective)
  ie. the theorists were old white men

Question 15

what potential harm can it have if we only work/care/nurse within a western context of knowing? (3)

Answer 15

• excluding other cultures
• ask patients what they want their care to look like
• if we do not, we cause hard and trauma if culturally discouraged, and they don’t want to access healthcare again