Peta, McCullagh (2025) Meaning-making as a dialectical systems process: A scoping review. Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
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Abstract
Meaning-making is widely recognised across psychology, systems theory, relational neuroscience, and complexity science as central to human adaptation, yet current conceptualisations remain fragmented across levels of mind, relationship, self, and system. This scoping review synthesised how meaning-making is conceptualised from a systems perspective and examined the structural patterns through which meaning emerges, stabilises, destabilises, and reorganises. Following JBI methodology (Peters et al., 2020) and PRISMA ScR (Tricco et al., 2018) guidelines, searches across PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and ProQuest identified 2,019 records, with 33 meeting eligibility criteria. Data extraction focused on relational mechanisms, differentiation–integration processes, multi-level emergence, and dialectical oppositions, producing a 10-category dialectical matrix. Across the literature, meaning-making consistently emerged as a dynamic, interdependent process organised around a bi-polar relational structure anchored in a static orienting pole of meaning. Five recurrent dialectical patterns, differentiation–integration, independence interdependence, implicit–explicit, chaos–order, and stability–change were identified across the literature. Although articulated using different conceptual vocabularies, these oppositions consistently reflected the same underlying relational structure: a static, independent orienting pole (Group A) and a dynamic, interdependent meaning-making pole (Group A–B). Across domains, these paired constructs were regulated through mechanisms such as co-regulation, feedback loops, and synchrony, indicating that they represent structurally equivalent expressions of a common systemic dynamic rather than discrete or unrelated processes.
Together, these findings provide the empirical foundation for the development of a proposed Relational Coherence Model (RCM). The RCM is conceptualised as a preliminary theoretical framework in which meaning-making emerges through the regulated interplay of stability and transformation across relational systems, expressed through the relational architecture of the Self.
The review offers conceptual clarity relevant to counselling, systems psychology, interdisciplinary research, and consciousness studies, demonstrating that coherence and novel forms of meaning emerge not through the removal of tension, but through its iterative and productive regulation.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address. |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | McQuillan, Paul |
| Qualification: | Master of Counselling |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Jul 2026 23:50 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Jul 2026 23:50 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | systems psychology; counselling |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/53212 |
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