Activity Tasks: THEORETICAL WORKS

Non-Nursing & Nursing Theories Relevant to Nursing Practice

Theorist Full Name Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Theory General System Theory

● General System Theory that was proposed in 1940s is an
interdisciplinary methodology that describes systems with interacting
components, and it is applicable to biology, cybernetics, and other
fields.
● Von Bertalanffy was rebelling against reductionism while also striving
to resurrect scientific unity. He stressed that real systems are open to
and interact with their environments, and that through emergence,
they can acquire qualitatively new qualities, resulting in continuous
evolution.
● Systems theory focuses on the organization of pieces and the
relationships that link them together to form a whole (holism) rather
than reducing an entity. This structure establishes a system that is
independent of the concrete substance of the elements.

Biography of the Theorist
● Ludwig von Bertalanffy is an Austrian biologist and is best known as
the founder of the General System Theory (GST) who was born on
September 19, 1901 at Atzgersdorf Vienna, Austria.
● In the 1940s, he proposed the General Systems Theory and it was an
interdisciplinary methodology that describes systems with interacting
components, and it is applicable to biology, cybernetics, and other
fields.
● The theory focuses on the organization of pieces and the relationships
that link them together to form a whole (holism) rather than reducing
an entity
● The famous biologist Paul Krammer was his mentor. In 1918, he
began his academic studies in philosophy and art history, first at the
University of Innsbruck and subsequently at the University of Vienna.
● He worked as a professor in Vienna, London, Canada, and the USA.
● He died on June 12, 1972 due to a sudden heart attack in New York,
USA
How Does this theory
affect the following?
Person

Health
Environment

Nursing
Your thoughts on this
Theory and How this
might affect your nursing
profession:

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