Feedback Loops
Feedback is the response received from a person regarding a situation or act. Sometimes
it is positive and others it is negative, depending on the reaction it causes on the receiver and
how (s)he chooses to respond. When a person reacts the same way multiple times and begins to
form a pattern, it is then considered a feedback loop. They are necessary to establish consistency
and also allow the other person to know what to expect. According to our textbook, it is the way
“a family system corrects itself or tries to regain homeostasis” (Smith, 2012 p. 149). In other
words, it “provides people with information about their actions in real time [providing] them a
chance to change those actions” (Goetz, 2011). The two forms of feedback loops are positive and
negative.
A positive feedback loop is one which amplifies a specific behavior whether it changes
