Pictures | Connecting Arrows | The system boundary | Feedback Loops

Feedback Loops

If you look at ‘Physical Health’, you’ll see the arrow showing that it impacts on ‘Mental Health’. Looking at ‘Mental Health’ you’ll see an arrow pointing to ‘Work’ – showing that a population or community’s mental health impacts on their experience of work. Then, looking at ‘Work’ you’ll see an arrow going back to ‘Physical Health’ – showing the link that exists between working conditions and our physical health. So there is a loop of arrows connecting ‘Physical Health’, ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Work’. This is called a ‘feedback loop’. A feedback loop is where different elements within a system affect each-other in ways that then ‘feed back’ to affect themselves, for example between ‘Physical Health’, ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Work’ in the diagram.

This means that a change in one part of the loop will have an impact all the way through the rest of the loop until it comes back to the beginning. So, in this example a change in working conditions might have a good effect on physical health. This would then have a good effect on mental health, which in turn might improve the quality of the work experience. In the end, this might then help to increase physical health even more, which would then go on to be reinforced through the loop, creating a ‘virtuous circle’. Unfortunately, negative changes can also be reinforced in the same way, which can trap people in ‘vicious circles’ that can really harm their wellbeing. Feedback loops don’t always work that way, however. Sometimes, a change for the better in one part of a loop can cause a change for the worse in another part, cancelling out the benefits that we might have seen.