Nonlinear Dynamics Psychology and Life Sciences最新文献

This article discusses the spreading model of addicted smoking involving five compartments, namely susceptible, addicted, temporary quitters, permanent quitters, and not interested in smoking. This model is expressed as a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Parental guidance and anti-nicotine therapy are considered in the model as strategies to control and prevent the spread of addicted smoking. Addicted and non-addicted fixed points of the model are analyzed using linearization, eigenvalues, the Routh-Hurwitz test, and the basic reproduction number. Sensitivity analysis of the model parameters to the basic reproduction number was carried out to determine the influence of the parameters, and it was found that the transmission rate has a significant contribution to the spread of addicted smoking. The model with control is then related to the problem of minimizing the number of individuals addicted to smoking. By using the Pontryagin minimum principle, an optimal path is obtained that minimizes the number of individuals addicted to smoking in a specific time interval. The simulation used several assumptions and model parameter values estimated from actual data. From the optimal path with and without controls, it was found that both controls significantly reduced the number of individuals addicted to smoking.

Using two different complex mathematical models, a number of fractal images with interesting aesthetic values were computer generated. Due to their similarity to real objects, they were given names. Both the state variables of individual models and the values of their Lyapunov exponents were used as a criterion for creating these images.

Psychotherapy is a dynamic, two-person process involving the complex interplay between a client and therapist. Recent perspectives conceptualize psychotherapy as a complex dynamic system, integrating biological, psychological, and social factors. Research suggests that the psychotherapeutic process can be unpredictable, fluctuating, and erratic. To capture this complexity, mathematical models have been developed. One such model, a two-dimensional representation of psychotherapy timing and emotional valence, focuses on the valence (positive or negative emotional tone) of both client and therapist. Incorporating delayed reactions from both parties, the model employs delayed differential equations. This modification enables the emergence of complex dynamics, potentially exhibiting chaotic behavior characterized by a positive Lyapunov exponent. The interplay between delayed reactions and therapist distress of the client-therapist alliance drives these chaotic dynamics. Our findings have significant implications for understanding the psychotherapy process, highlighting the importance of temporal factors and therapeutic relationships.

The articles in this special issue examine the contributions of Jeffrey A. Goldstein to the understanding of emergence as a formal group of processes. Applications include work teams, organizations, ecologies of organizations, and societies. Prominent methodologies include agent-based modeling, qualitative analysis of publicly available business and governmental reports, structured analyses of team discussions, and nonlinear statistical analysis of time series data.

Emergence as a phenomenon is embedded and expressed in the natural world, and in social systems. Introduced nearly 150 years ago in a philosophical context, it has since been applied in nearly every natural and social science. However all of these uses are not congruent, as the range of emergences in this Special Issue reflect as well; this has limited the accumulation of knowledge about emergence, as well as its development as a discipline. The present paper attempts to bring coherence to emergence, by identifying its core characteristics, its primary expressions, and key principles of emergence. Much of the effort is based on the work of Jeffrey Goldstein, who was one of the first to examine the conceptual, mathematical, and social implications of emergence. The article concludes by showing how a science of emergence can be usefully applied to leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Emergent phenomena exhibit interesting dynamics when considered individually. The present article examines two emergent processes that could be occurring simultaneously in an intense team interaction: the emergence of leaders and the emergence of autonomic synchrony within teams making dynamic decisions. In the framework of panarchy theory and related studies on complex systems, autonomic synchrony would be a fast dynamic that is shaped or controlled by leadership emergence, which is a slower dynamic. The present study outlines three distinct statistical distributions - the swallowtail catastrophe model for phase shifts, inverse power laws that indicate fractal processes, and lognormal distributions - that are known to characterize emergent processes of different types. The objective was to determine the extent to which the two emergent processes reflected the same dynamics. Research participants were 136 undergraduates who were organized into teams of three to five members playing the computer-game Counter-Strike while wearing GSR sensors to measure autonomic arousal levels in a steady stream. After approximately two hours of interaction, team members rated each other on leadership behaviors. Autonomic synchrony was analyzed as a driver-empath process that produced individual driver scores (the total influence of one person on the rest of the group) and empath scores (the total influence of the group on one person). Results showed that leadership emergence displayed the swallowtail configuration that was consistent with prior studies. Autonomic synchrony started as a simpler process and unfolded into a swallowtail catastrophe toward the end of the experimental session. Lognormal distributions were second-best representations of all variables. Inverse power laws were least descriptive of any of the research variables. The implications of the temporal dynamics of the co-emerging processes for training and team development are discussed.

We model an adaptive agent-based environment using selfish algorithm agents (SA-agents) that make decisions along three choice dimensions as they play the multi-round prisoner's dilemma game. The dynamics that emerge from mutual interactions among the SA-agents exhibit two collective-level properties that mirror living systems, thus making these models suitable for societal/biological simulation. The properties are: emergent intelligence and collective agency. The former means there is observable intelligent behavior as a unitary collective entity. The latter means the collective exhibits observable adaptability that enables it to reorganize its network structure to meet its objectives in response to a changing environment. In this study, we generate these capabilities in a single, simple case. We do this first by letting a temporal complex network among SA-agents emerge and second by changing conditions in the ecosystem to test adaptability. This latter phase is done by introducing an artificial virus that infects SA-agents during interactions and can remove (or 'kill') the SA-agents. We then study the dynamics of the contagion within the collective as the virus spreads through the population and impacts collective reward-seeking performance. Specifically, we compare two strategies to control the spread of the virus: exogenous top-down control and endogenous bottom-up self-isolation strategies.

This study takes a phenomenon-based framework and the self-transcending constructions approach to explain why wicked human services problems need to be addressed differently than wicked social-ecological problems. Based on the study's findings, a new approach for addressing wicked human services problems is proposed. In Australia, a Systemic Innovation Lab approach that incorporates a customized software tool has been used to address social-ecological wicked problems. Both, the lab approach and the software tool are based on a framework that is underpinned by dissipative structures and self-transcending constructions theories. This article uses a phenomenon-based approach, as well as insights from self-transcending constructions theory, to discuss why the Systemic Innovation Lab approach and its software tool have not been utilised to address wicked human services problems. This is because when addressing wicked human services problems, the containing, constraining and constructional operations of self-transcendent construction are different than those for wicked social-ecological problems. The results also suggest the need for new software tools to satisfy disability accessibility standards. In response to these identified needs, the article argues that a Systemic Landscape of Practice Lab approach which incorporates a spreadsheet tool that satisfies disability accessibility standards is needed to address wicked human services problems.

This article analyzes the research career of Jeffrey Goldstein from the perspective of nonlinear dynamical systems. Goldstein's focus was on the application of emergence in complex social systems. He applied emergence to issues in organizational development, leadership, social entrepreneurship, and innovation. The study uses qualitative methods to identify the stages and corresponding research themes within Goldstein's publications over time. These stages are qualitatively characterized as representing either convergent or divergent activities. Goldstein's research career dynamics suggest that the way he managed his career was different from other academics and helps explain his significant influence on other researchers. Goldstein's primary epistemology was dialectics, and he followed a philosophy of engaged scholarship. His 'self-transcending constructions,' which stood in contrast to the concept of self-organization, was the invention that continues to differentiate Goldstein's work from other complexity scientists. Goldstein's change in foci later in his career to the service of social change and his institution building to the benefit of others suggests Goldstein was a mensch.

Besides consultants and practitioners, some contributions in the organizational economics literature have advocated substituting internal firms' bureaucracies with markets to regulate internal transactions. However, usually the effects of competition on performance are considered in terms competition across firms or industries. By contrast, other contributions point out that competition is pervasive inside firms as well. In this paper, we assume that conflict is directly related to the level of competition and propose a model which analyze the dynamics of performance when the manager decides the level of competition observing the group performance. We study the stability of the equilibria and analyze the bifurcations. We show that the fixed point with null performance is a Milnor attractor, and this may suggests why any attempt to move from this unsatisfactory outcome is unsuccessful.