1 Systems Theory BRUCE

3 B assessment and the development of appropriate intervention strategies for a particular client require consideration of the individual in relation to a larger social context. To accomplish this, we use principles and concepts derived from systems theory. Systems theory is a way of elaborating increasingly complex systems across a continuum that encompasses the person-inenvironment (Anderson, Carter, & Lowe, 1999). Systems theory also enables us to understand the components and dynamics of client systems in order to interpret problems and develop balanced intervention strategies, with the goal of enhancing the “goodness of fit” between individuals and their environments. Systems theory does not specify particular theoretical frameworks for understanding problems, and it does not direct the social worker to specific intervention strategies. Rather, it serves as an organizing conceptual framework or metatheory for understanding (Meyer, 1983). As a profession, social work has struggled to identify an organizing framework for practice that captures the nature of what we do. Many have identified systems theory as that organizing framework (Goldstein, 1990; Hearn, 1958; Meyer, 1976, 1983; Siporin, 1980). However, because of the complex nature of the clinical enterprise, others have challenged the suitability of systems theory as an organizing framework for clinical practice (Fook, Ryan, & Hawkins, 1997; Wakefield, 1996a, 1996b). The term system emerged from Émile Durkheim’s early study of social systems (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2006), as well as from the work of Talcott Parsons. However, within social work, systems thinking has been more heavily influenced by the work of the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy and later adaptations by the social psychologist Uri Bronfenbrenner, who examined human biological systems within an ecological environment. With its roots in von Bertalanffy’s systems theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological environment, the ecosys tems perspective provides a framework that permits users to draw on theories from different disciplines in order to analyze the complex nature of human interactions within a social environment.