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The study of how human psychology shapes and is shaped by the informal structures that organize daily life—families, communities, networks, institutions. Social systems are the invisible architecture of human interaction: the norms that tell us how to behave, the roles that tell us who we are, the networks that connect us to others. The psychology of social systems examines how these structures emerge from individual psychology (we create systems that reflect our needs) and then shape psychology in return (systems create people who fit them). It also examines how social systems can be both supportive (providing identity, belonging, meaning) and oppressive (enforcing conformity, limiting possibility). We are products of our social systems, even as we produce them.
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