Interdisciplinary developments in hazardous environment research: a silent tribute to general systems theory?

Abstract

PURPOSE: This paper draws attention to a welcome trend in certain areas of applied and experimental research that appears to endorse a General Systems Theory for the acquisition of knowledge. METHOD: By way of illustration it makes an appraisal of key studies of human/environmental interaction that were either derived from actual operational groups in naturalistic settings or contrived in the laboratory or the field to simulate extreme conditions. RESULTS: It urges more anthropologists, physicians, physiologists, psychologists, and sociologists to follow suit and make their disciplinary boundaries permeable. Were they to do that, it is argued that their research methods would be more appropriate for studying the dynamic integration of their subject matter than those derived from the conventional use of scientific method. CONCLUSIONS: It asserts that the solutions to complex problems of human adaptation to the environment are not to be found within the domain of any single academic discipline.