General systems theory in psychology. Principles of General Systems Theory

History of development

General theory systems was proposed by L. von Bertalanffy in the 30s of the XX century. The idea that there are common patterns in the interactions of a large but not infinite number of physical, biological, and social objects was first proposed by Bertalanffy in 1937 at a Philosophy Seminar at the University of Chicago. However, his first publications on this topic appeared only after the war. The main idea of ​​the General Systems Theory proposed by Bertalanffy is the recognition of the isomorphism of the laws governing the functioning of system objects.

In the 50-70s of the XX century, a number of new approaches to the construction of the General Systems Theory were proposed by such scientists as M. Mesarovich, L. Zade, R. Akoff, J. Clear, A. I. Uemov, Yu. A. Urmantsev , R. Kalman, S. Beer, E. Laszlo, G. P. Melnikov and others. common feature of these approaches was the development of the logical-conceptual and mathematical apparatus of system research. Systemic-thought-activity methodology, developed in the Moscow Methodological Circle by G.P. Shchedrovitsky, his students and employees, is further development and an extension of General Systems Theory.

Von Bertalanffy also introduced the concept and studied open systems - systems that are constantly exchanging matter and energy with external environment.

background

L. von Bertalanffy raised the concept of systems theory to the philosophy of G.V. Leibniz and Nicholas of Cusa. Bertalanffy's predecessor was, in particular, A. A. Bogdanov with his own tectology.

A. A. Bogdanov made an attempt to find and generalize organizational laws, the manifestations of which can be traced at the inorganic, organic, mental, social, cultural, and other levels. The origins of the ideas of Bogdanov himself also have a developed background, leading to the works of G. Spencer, K. Marx, etc. The ideas of L. von Bertalanffy in the vast majority of cases are additional in relation to the ideas of A. A. Bogdanov (for example, if Bogdanov describes "degression" as an effect, Bertalanffy explores "mechanization" as a process).

General systems theory and other systems sciences

Von Bertalanffy himself believed that the following scientific disciplines have (in part) common goals or methods with systems theory:

1. Cybernetics, based on the principle of feedback.
2. Information theory, introducing concept of information as a certain measurable quantity and developing the principles of information transfer.
3. Game theory, which analyzes, within the framework of a special mathematical apparatus, the rational competition of two or more opposing forces in order to achieve maximum gain and minimum loss.
4. Decision theory, which analyzes rational choices within human organizations.
5. Topology, including non-metric fields such as network theory and graph theory.
6. Factor analysis, that is, procedures for extracting factors in multivariable phenomena in sociology and other scientific fields.
7. General systems theory in the narrow sense, attempting to derive from general definitions of the concept of "system" a number of concepts characteristic of organized wholes, such as interaction, sum, mechanization, centralization, competition, finality, etc., and applying them to specific phenomena .

Applied Systems Science

A correlate of systems theory in applied science is also highlighted, which is sometimes called systems science, or systems science (Eng. Systems Science). This area is related to automation. In applied systems science, the following areas are distinguished:

1. Systems engineering (eng. Systems Engineering), that is, scientific planning, design, evaluation and construction of man-machine systems.
2. Operations research, i.e. scientific management existing systems of people, machines, materials, money, etc.
3. Engineering psychology (Eng. Human Engineering).
4. On the basis of Bertalanffy's systems, the Theory of Integral Individuality was founded (Wolf Solomonovich Merlin).

Notes

see also

• Metasystematics

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