This article considers recent research from the cognitive sciences and developmental psychology and parallels with the characterization of complex ecologies as panarchy systems. Its aim is to assess the viability of the application of panarchy theory to the ecology of human thought. This research suggests that psychosystems, like ecosystems, might be more clearly understood by using panarchy systems principles. Five distinctive features of a panarchy research enquiry are considered to examine the viability of their application to the psychological dynamics operating in complex human social systems. The observation offered is that a detailed theory of psychological panarchy dynamics may provide useful explanations of the role of thought in the intersection between human psychology and socio‐ecological systems. The study concludes that a theory of psychological panarchy is viable, and necessary, if the roles of the observer and the observed are to be understood when enabling the viability, stability and resiliency of complex human societies. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.