Assignment 5 Feedback Read the following case study, and answer questions 1-3 below. Case Study: Portia is a 26-year-old medical student, who is currently completing her internship at Baragwaneth Hospital. Since she started her long work hours, she has developed insomnia. The lack of sleep has started impacting on her performance at work, and her supervisor referred her to a psychologist to assist with possible stress, and the triggers for the insomnia. Tobias, the psychologist, suggested that she try listening to soothing music, take a hot bath before going to bed, and limit screen time 1 hour before bed. After 2 weeks, Portia’s insomnia did not get any better. Tobias then suggested that when she cannot sleep, instead of trying to fall asleep, Portia should get up and clean the house. Question 1: The suggestion from the psychologist to ‘listen to soothing music, take a hot bath before going to bed, and limit screen time 1 hour before bed’ can best be described as: Perturbation First order change Second order change Maintaining the status quo The correct answer is alternative 2, first order change. Explanation: The psychologist’s initial intervention was based on a logical solution to the problem which did not challenge the rules of the system. First order change is consistent with the rules of the system, and does not alter the underlying organisation of the system. Therefore, the solution of listening to soothing music and taking a hot bath before bed, is an attempt to address Portia’s symptoms instead of addressing the systemic organisation that gives rise to her symptoms. lOMoARcPSD|12263423 Downloaded by Anna Maina (annamurugijoe@gmail.com) Question 2: The suggestion from the psychologist to ‘instead of trying to fall asleep, Portia should get up and clean the house’ can best be described as: First order change Second order change Reductionistic Modernist The correct answer is alternative 2, Second order change. Explanation: The psychologist’s suggestion to get up and clean the house is counterintuitive and illogical, as it requires her to do more work when she is unable to sleep, instead of trying to sleep. By doing this, Portia no longer tries to fall asleep, but instead does more work, which is presumably the real systemic problem. When this is done knowingly, i.e. Portia intentionally tries to stay awake to do more work, it shifts the control that the symptom has over Portia into her own hands. The symptom is no longer something that controls Portia, but Portia controls the symptom by purposefully trying to stay awake through doing more work. Furthermore, this intervention will also make the symptom become untenable in the long term, and the system will be challenged to reorganise in the way that Portia relates to her work schedule. This intervention is known as prescribing the symptom. Question 3: The suggestions provided by Tobias, the psychologist, to ‘listen soothing music, take a hot bath before going to bed, and limit screen time 1 hour before bed’ and ‘Instead of trying to sleep, Portia should get up and clean the house’ can both be described as: Both suggestions can be described as first order cybernetic concepts, as they both refer to change Both suggestions can be described as first order cybernetic concepts, as they both refer to perturbation Both suggestions can be described as second order cybernetic concepts, as they both refer to perturbation None of the above lOMoARcPSD|12263423 Downloaded by Anna Maina (annamurugijoe@gmail.com) The correct answer is alternative 1. Explanation: Alternative 1 is correct, because both interventions of the psychologist tries to change the system. Although first order change and second order change differ in how change is brought about, they are both concerned with altering the system’s functioning from a pathological state to a more desired healthy state. This is in line with first order cybernetic approach, which assumes that the psychologist is an expert that observes, diagnoses and intervenes in a system to bring about change, to reduce pathology and to enhance systemic health. This differs from a second order cybernetics approach, which rejects the notions of health and pathology as defined from an external position and assumes that instead of changing a system, the psychologist can at most perturb the members of a system to think of themselves and their problems in a different way. Such a reframe in thinking is then assumed to be the catalyst for systemic reorganisation from a second order cybernetic perspective. First order change and second order change are fundamentally different concepts to first order cybernetics, and second order cybernetics. Remember not to confuse these concepts.