The Development and Initial Validation of the Paradigm of Systems Thinking

Abstract

‘Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.” ’ ‐Peter Senge. The current research examined the psychological construct of systems thinking alongside other established psychological constructs of intelligence, personality, cognitive complexity and creativity to distinguish systems thinking as an independent psychological construct. Across two studies, results suggest that, while systems thinking may overlap with some of these constructs, notably intelligence and cognitive complexity, these constructs did not fully explain obtained variance in systems thinking scores and suggest that systems thinking may indeed be a distinct, perhaps foundational, psychological construct that may exist as an individual difference dimension. This exploratory study discusses the theoretical implications of systems thinking as well as further psychometric validation of the Systems Thinking Scale. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Systems thinking as a pathway to global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview

“…Rather, it is more likely that the tendency to see the world as interconnected activates an ecological worldview, which in turn promotes the acceptance of basic conclusions of climate science. These findings support theoretical perspectives and the basic conceptualization of systems thinking as a general cognitive paradigm of viewing phenomena as interconnected and dynamic, serving as a foundation to a proenvironmental orientation (2,3,8,9). Further, we find that the pathway from systems thinking to global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview applies to people across political ideologies and party affiliations.…”

“…Because the political differences we found were unexpected, future empirical work should assess whether these findings replicate in other contexts and with other methods. Rigorous empirical assessment of current interventions is also important, given that some scientific and educational settings include systems thinking as a core component to climate science and learning (1,2,(4)(5)(6)36). Scholars argue that "a systems thinking mindset is malleable and can be enhanced by a variety of kinds of interventions: both intensive educational training and more subtle framing manipulations" (ref.…”

“…US National Research Council (ref. 1, p. 13) S ystems thinking refers to a "cognitive paradigm that involves an implicit tendency to recognize various phenomena as a set of interconnected components that interact with one another to make a dynamic whole" (2). It involves the understanding that the social, economic, and natural worlds are part of an interconnected system that is constantly changing, and that humans, including oneself, are members of this dynamic system (3).…”

“…One recent study found that systems thinking was more strongly linked to an ecological worldview (i.e., the New Ecological Paradigm) (10) than were other measures of environmental attitudes; specifically, connectedness to nature and biospheric environmental concern (3). It is perhaps not surprising the two are strongly correlated: systems thinking is a cognitive paradigm of viewing the world as a set of interconnected parts and processes (2), and the New Ecological Paradigm refers to an ecological worldview or value system that humans are part of the natural world, with strong responsibilities to protect it for both humans and nonhuman species (10). Indeed, one of the central themes of the New Ecological Paradigm emphasizes the interrelation between humans and the environment; specifically, "beliefs about humanity's ability to upset the balance of nature" (ref.…”

Developing leaders to tackle wicked problems at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems

“…In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, future FEWS leaders must address problems that transcend a single discipline and have profound societal implications (Randle and Stroink, 2018). A foundational competency required to address these challenges is systems thinking (Bazilian et al, 2011;Garcia and You, 2016).…”