Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Is systemic thinking really extraneous to common sense?

Ugazio , V., Fellin, L., Pennacchio, R., Negri, A. and Colciago, F. (2012) Is systemic thinking really extraneous to common sense? Journal of Family Therapy. 34(1), pp. 53-71. 1467-6427.

Item Type: Article
Abstract: Systemic therapists assume, but have not yet proved that ordinary people: (i) normally do not use triadic thinking and (ii) are able, thanks to therapists’ interviewing techniques, to construct triadic explanations. To test these assumptions this study analyses the explanations provided by 400 undergraduates of an unexpected piece of behaviour framed in four stimulus situations where the breadth of the observation field was manipulated. The results show that triadic explanations are unusual and increase with the widening of the field of observation from the monad to the triad. It is the ‘enigmatic’ triadic situation – adding a puzzling discrepancy between the actors’ forms of behaviour – that elicits more triadic explanations. This suggests that therapists should explore with clients the contradictions disclosed by the widening of the field of observation and support reframings actively co-constructed with them instead of ‘pre-packaged’ ones
Uncontrolled Keywords: Systemic thinking, triadic attribution, narrative therapy, social constructionism, triadic reframing
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC435 Psychiatry > RC475 Therapeutics. Psychotherapy
Creators: Ugazio , Valeria, Fellin, Lisa, Pennacchio, Roberto, Negri, Atta and Colciago, Francesca
Publisher: Wiley
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Group > Mental Health and Counselling Research Group
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Group > Social and Cultural Research in Psychology Group
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Research Centres > Centre for Psychology and Social Sciences
Date: February 2012
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 53-71
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Family Therapy
Volume: 34
Number: 1
Language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2011.00538.x
ISSN: 1467-6427
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
Related URLs:
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/5467

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