PYC 4808 PYC Assignment 2

What is first order Cybernetics/FOC? p. 1 2. What is Second order Cybernetics/SOC? P. 1 3. 1. Compare how reality is seen by FOC and SOC? p. 1-2 4. 2. Compare how health and pathology are addressed by FOC and SOC? p. 2-3 5. 3. Compare what the role and function of the therapist is in FOC and SOC? Include in your answer how a therapist will approach therapy. P. 3-4 6. 4. Compare first order change and second order change according to the Strategic Approaches p. 4 7. 5. Which critical ethical concerns could be raised about both FOC and SOC? In your answer, try avoid telling us what a therapist “should do” and “should not do”, and instead provide a critical discussion as to ethical concerns. p. 5 8. 6. In keeping with a both-and, rather than an either-or position, formulate ideas around how the first- and second-order cybernetic approaches can be integrated in a useful and complementary way. p. 6 9. Reference List In this paper first order and second order cybernetics will be critically discussed and compared with regards to their views on reality, underlying theories of health and pathology, the approaches they have with regards to the therapeutic context, role of the therapist and ethical concerns regarding the approaches as well as useful integration. What is first order Cybernetics/FOC? At the first level of cybernetics we place ourselves outside the system as observers of what is going on inside the system. We do not see ourselves as part of the system and we aren’t concerned with why the system does what it does. The focus is on describing what the system does. “We ask questions such as who are the members of the system? What are the characteristic patterns of interaction in the system? What rules and roles form part the boundaries of the system and distinguish it as separate from the other systems?” (Becvar & Becvar, 2014). The focus is also on the present and not the past or the future. “We attempt to define the degree of openness and closedness of these boundaries, thus how freely information is able to be transmitted into and out of the system. We consider the balance between stability and change. Although we acknowledge historical content, our focus is on the present, the hereand-now rather than the past. We are also concerned with the tendency of the system to move either toward or away from order. All questions are asked from the framework that understands reality as operating according to the principles of recussiveness and feedback/self-correction, the two basic elements of a cybernetic system” (Becvar & Becvar, 2014).