The 16th Annual Conference of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences is shaping up to be a truly outstanding venue for learning, networking, and scientific advancement. So mark your calendars now – August 4-6, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland. The call for presentations will be open until April 22, but don’t delay. For conference information, please visit our website:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/conf2006/ or go directly to the on-line registration page:
http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/form.html A highlight of this year’s program will be a featured presentation by Robin R. Vallacher (abstract below).
Finding Order in the Flow of Human Experience:
The Re-Emergence of Dynamical Social Psychology
Robin R. Vallacher
Florida Atlantic University
Abstract
Human experience qualifies as a complex system, in that any aspect of intrapersonal or interpersonal functioning can be analyzed with respect to myriad factors. Because these factors rarely operate as main effects but rather interact with one another over time to promote an ever-changing trajectory of experience, personal and interpersonal processes are open to investigation as nonlinear dynamical systems. The earliest formulations of social psychology were remarkably prescient in this regard. Such pioneers as William James, C. H. Cooley, George Herbert Mead, Kurt Lewin, and Solomon Asch all emphasized the multiplicity of interacting forces operating in individual minds and in social groups, the potential for sustained patterns of change resulting from such complexity, and the tendency for individuals and groups to strive for mental and interpersonal coherence. Despite this explicit focus on dynamics at the field’s inception, social psychology for much of the 20th century typically employed paradigms better suited to capture the static aspects of experience. This state of affairs has changed in recent years with novel adaptations of nonlinear dynamical systems to a host of personal and social processes at different levels of social reality. Though still in its infancy, dynamical social psychology shows signs of emerging as a major paradigm, with the promise of establishing coherence for a field that is currently highly fragmented.
David Pincus, Ph.D., Secretary
Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences
Register online: www.societyforchaostheory.org/form.html
Contact fellow members: sctpls@listproc.umbc.edu
Send mail to: SCTPLS, PO Box 484, Pewaukee, WI 53072, USA
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