General Systems Theory

Components

System components are the internal entities that are located within a system's boundaries and which are interrelated. The system components are generally assumed to be of the same basic nature, but there may be occasional exceptions to this rule. For example, in social systems, the human individual is often (but not always) chosen as the basic system component. Other hierarchical social levels, such as the group, organization, or society, could be chosen alternatively as system components. System components are often referred to alternatively as system units, with the words often being used interchangeably.

Concrete and Abstracted Systems

Systems in which the internal units are empirical objects, such as living organisms or mechanical entities, are often referred to as concrete systems. One of the most fundamental concrete social systems is the family. The components or units of the family system are the individual family members, who are related to each other in a specific way. Other examples of concrete living systems would be an ant colony or a pod of pilot whales. Concrete systems may be referred to by a variety of names, such as physical systems, empirical systems, “real” systems, biological systems, social systems, or veridical systems.

Not all systems are concrete systems. The components of some systems may be concepts, theoretical terms, variables, or abstract symbols. Such systems are called abstracted systems. Other names for them are abstract systems, theoretical systems, conceptual systems, or symbol systems. As with concrete systems, abstracted systems are comprised of a set of interrelated components. However, abstracted systems differ from concrete systems in at least two ways. In abstracted systems, the components are nonempirical entities such as concepts or variables. Secondly, in an abstracted system, the boundary may not be visible or empirically determinable. While concrete systems are generally situated in physical space-time, abstracted systems may be situated in analytically constructed space, such as “social space” or “psychological space.” Some examples of components for abstracted systems are the social role, the unit act, or the concept.

While abstracted systems and concrete systems exist in different spaces, they are not necessarily completely unrelated. For example, the definitions of the abstracted system and the concrete system can be used to illustrate the relationships between a social position (such as a status or role) and an incumbent. A concrete statement would state that “George W. Bush is the president of the United States.” Here the emphasis is not on the office or role of president but is on the concrete individual (George W. Bush). The parallel abstracted statement would state, “The presidency is occupied by George W. Bush.” Now the emphasis is on the abstracted role (the presidency) and not on the concrete individual who is temporarily occupying it (George W. Bush). Indeed, the abstracted social structure, such as the system of unwritten roles in a bureaucracy, while existing in “social space,” may have more longevity than the concrete individuals who may occupy the respective positions only a short time. Thus, the abstracted social system (of roles) may be semipermanent and long lasting, while the concrete social system (of specific individuals) is limited by the life span of the particular incumbent.

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