How to Stop Yelling at People and Start Fixing the Process
Welcome to “The Psychology of Systems.”
It sounds like a dense, impenetrable textbook, right? Like something you’d find in the dark, dusty corner of a library.
But stick with me. By the end of this, you’ll start seeing the world differently. You’ll understand why your favorite app can be so addictive, why some of university’s registration process is a soul-crushing nightmare, and why some families just seem to function while others are a constant drama.
We’re going to lift the hood on human behavior and look at the engine.
That engine? It’s the System.
Part 1: The Big Idea – What Even IS a “System”?
Forget computers for a second. In psychology, a system is a set of things—people, rules, tools, spaces, and habits—that are interconnected and work together to produce a result.
Think of it like a university:
· The People: Students, professors, admin staff, janitors.
· The Rules: The curriculum, the grading scale, the late-work policy, the honor code.
· The Tools: The online learning portal, the lecture hall, the library.
· The Habits: The unspoken rule that you don’t interrupt the professor, the tradition of pulling an all-nighter before finals.
A system isn’t just one of these things. It’s the relationship between them. Change one part, and you change the whole system.
The Core Principle of System Psychology:
When you have a problem, the person inside the system is rarely the root cause. The system itself is almost always the cause.
This is the biggest “aha!” moment. If a student fails a class, our first instinct is to blame the student: “They were lazy.” However, system psychology says: Wait a minute. Let’s look at the system.
· Was the textbook written at a level beyond the course?
· Was the lecture hall freezing cold and distracting?
· Was the online portal so confusing they couldn’t submit their homework?
· Did they have to work 30 hours a week to pay for tuition because financial aid is broken?
The student’s “laziness” might actually be a perfectly logical response to a broken system. This is called Fundamental Attribution Error—our tendency to blame a person’s character for a problem caused by their situation.
Part 2: The Guts of the System – Deep Dive into the Components
Let’s get more detailed. In your first year, you’ll learn to deconstruct any system by looking at these key parts. We’ll use a classic example: A Fast-Food Restaurant.
1. Inputs and Outputs
Every system takes something in (inputs) and spits something out (outputs).
· Inputs: Raw ingredients (buns, patties, lettuce), a hungry customer, an employee with no experience, a cash register.
· Outputs: A completed burger, a full (or angry) customer, a profit (or loss), an exhausted worker.
The goal of a system is to consistently turn inputs into the desired outputs. Psychology looks at how the human inputs (mood, stress, motivation) affect the outputs.
2. The Structure
This is the skeleton of the system. It’s the physical and organizational layout.
· Physical Space: In a fast-food joint, the kitchen is laid out in an assembly line. The cash register is right at the front. This structure forces a certain kind of behavior. You can’t grill the burger after you hand it to the customer. The space dictates the workflow. If the structure is bad (milkshake machine in the back corner), the system fails.
· Roles: The cashier’s role is to be friendly and take money fast. The grill cook’s role is to be efficient and consistent. The manager’s role is to watch over both. Psychology asks: Do these roles conflict? What if the cashier sees the grill cook struggling and wants to help, but can’t leave the register? That’s a structural problem.
3. The Process
This is the nervous system. It’s the rules, procedures, and “standard operating procedures” (SOPs).
· Formal Process: “1. Greet customer. 2. Take order. 3. Take payment. 4. Assemble order. 5. Hand it over.”
· Informal Process: “If a customer is being rude, just smile and nod, and make sure their fries are extra fresh (i.e., slow).” Or, “If the manager isn’t looking, we can use our phones.”
This is where a lot of psychology lives. Cognitive Psychology studies the mental load of following a process. If the process is too complicated (too many buttons to press on the register), the cashier will make mistakes. Social Psychology studies the informal rules. The “culture” of the restaurant is the collection of these informal processes.
4. Feedback Loops
This is the brain of the system. It’s how the system learns and adapts (or fails to). A feedback loop is information about the output that is “fed back” into the system as an input.
· Positive Feedback Loop (The Snowball Effect): This amplifies change. It can be good or bad.
· Good: A student gets an A on a quiz. They feel good, so they study more for the next one, and get another A. Success breeds more success.
· Bad: A cashier gets yelled at by a customer. They get flustered and mess up the next order, causing another customer to yell. Stress breeds more stress. The system spirals.
· Negative Feedback Loop (The Thermostat): This corrects deviation and maintains stability. It’s goal-seeking behavior.
· Example: The goal is to have no more than 3 people in line. If a 4th person joins the line (detect deviation), the manager calls an extra cashier to the front (take corrective action). The line goes back down to 2 people (return to goal). This is a healthy, self-regulating system.
A system without good negative feedback loops is chaotic. A system without positive feedback loops is stagnant and never innovates.
Part 3: The Mind in the Machine – The Psychology Part
So, where does the “psychology” come in? It’s in understanding how the human mind interacts with the structure, process, and feedback.
A. Cognitive Load and “Satisficing”
Our brains have limited processing power. When a system is too complex, we experience cognitive overload. To cope, we don’t look for the perfect solution; we look for one that’s good enough. This is called “satisficing” (a mix of satisfy and suffice).
Real-world example: You’re trying to pick health insurance (a notoriously bad system). You don’t read the 50-page document comparing every plan. You satisfice: You pick the one with the lowest monthly payment because it’s easy. The system’s complexity forced you to make a bad decision.
B. Motivation and the System
Why do people do what they do within a system? Psychologists look at two types of motivation:
· Intrinsic: You do it because it’s inherently enjoyable or meaningful. A professor who loves their subject.
· Extrinsic: You do it because of an external reward or punishment. A cashier who works hard to avoid getting fired.
Systems are often built entirely on extrinsic motivation (bonuses, grades, punishments). But research (like Self-Determination Theory) shows that when you kill intrinsic motivation by over-controlling people with a rigid system, they become less creative, less engaged, and more likely to “game the system” (do the bare minimum to get the reward).
C. Learned Helplessness
This is one of the most powerful concepts in system psychology. If a system gives people negative feedback no matter what they do, they will eventually stop trying—even when the system later gives them a chance to succeed.
Real-world example: The university bureaucracy. You need a form signed. You go to Office A, they send you to Office B. Office B says you need a different form from Office A. You go back to Office A, they’re closed. You do this three times. By the fourth time, even if the process is suddenly fixed, you might not even bother trying. The system has “taught” you to be helpless.
Part 4: Systems Thinking – How to Think Like a Psychologist
You’re now ready for the final level: applying this knowledge. This is called Systems Thinking. It’s a way of analyzing problems that avoids simple, blame-based answers.
The Iceberg Model (A Mental Tool for Systems Thinking)
Imagine an iceberg.
1. The Event (The Tip): What just happened? “The restaurant got a bad review on Yelp.” This is what we usually react to. We want to fire someone.
2. The Pattern (Below the Surface): What has been happening over time? “Actually, we’ve been getting complaints about slow service every Friday night for the past two months.” This shows it’s not a one-off event, it’s a trend.
3. The Structure (Deeper Down): What is causing the pattern? “We only schedule one grill cook on Friday nights, and the layout of the kitchen makes him have to walk 20 feet to get buns.” The rules and physical space are creating the pattern of slowness.
4. The Mental Model (The Deepest Level): What are the beliefs, values, and assumptions that created this structure? “Management assumes that Friday nights aren’t busy, so they don’t want to pay for an extra cook. Their mental model is ‘labor cost is the only cost that matters,’ ignoring the cost of lost customers and bad reputation.”
Those who understand systems don’t just see the event (the bad review). They dive down to the mental models. They ask, “Why do the people in charge believe this is the right way to do things?” Changing that belief is the only way to truly change the system.
So, Why This Matters?
The Psychology of Systems is a superpower. It stops you from blaming individuals and starts you on the path to fixing the underlying causes of problems.
· It turns “My roommate is so messy” into “Our system for cleaning the room has no clear roles or schedule.”
· It turns “This professor is a terrible teacher” into “The system of lectures and exams doesn’t provide any feedback loop for students to know if they’re learning until it’s too late.”
· It turns “I’m so lazy and unmotivated” into “What are the systemic barriers in my life that are draining my energy and teaching me to be helpless?”
It’s about realizing we are all, to some extent, actors on a stage built by systems. A good psychologist—and a good person—learns to recognize the shape of the stage, not just judge the performance of the actors on it. Welcome to a whole new way of seeing the world. Now go out there and fix something.
References:
- Bertalanffy, L. von. (1968). General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. George Braziller.
- Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.
- Reason, J. (1990). Human error. Cambridge University Press.
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.
- Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 173–220). Academic Press.
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Seligman, M. E. P., & Maier, S. F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(1), 1–9.
Disclaimer: This article presents a reflective opinion. The views expressed are subjective and intended to encourage critical thinking and discussion rather than assert objective facts or professional recommendations.