Behavioral science最新文献

During the past two decades a new perspective known as nonlinear dynamics has caught the imagination of researchers in a number of disciplines of the physical sciences. Recently, some of the assumptions of this theory have begun to be applied to the social sciences, including economics, political science and public administration. We believe that the way the current presidential nomination system aggregates individual preferences into a social choice exhibits behavior consistent with nonlinear dynamics. We argue that the nomination system is characterized by two nonlinear processes: sensitive dependence and nonmonotonic behavior.

In this paper, we present a nonlinear dynamical perspective for understanding presidential nomination processes. In particular, we address the question of whether very modest changes, in parameters can produce major changes in the outcome of the campaign. We suggest that resource acquisition, resource allocations, vote outcomes, and media verdicts interact with each other in a complex and dynamic fashion that has dramatic effects upon the allocation of delegates, and hence, the final nomination outcome.

This paper relates the primitives of Robert J. Langs' psychology to those of physics. The off-boundary properties of all known natural processes are decided by their boundary behavior. Langs' formulations add the process of psychotherapy and general interpersonal exchange, that is two or more party dialogues, to this. His theory distinguishes the boundary, as does physics, into a frame and two-sided action site, referred to as a gate here. His ideas develop by moving from data on the boundary as a gate to the nature of the frame. His line of approach contrasts with Freud's direction toward the process interior and to Jung's across it. Placing his boundary ideas into where he enters psychology repeats a line of thought in the history of physics on the relation of a system to its environment. This paper notes that much of Freud's theory is grounded in the first law of thermodynamics and Jung's the second. Langs' theory subsumes both laws with a holistic boundary model.

Observed differences between living systems at the biological and social system levels may be attributable in part to differing characteristics of their templates. Biological templates are alpha-coded in genetic material. Social systems, on the other hand, employ beta- and gamma-coded instructions called memes that may constitute the bulk of their templates. A meme-based template, called a charter, is more mutable than a genetic template. Other interesting differences involve modes of reproduction of the system and replication of its template. This paper explores the similarities and differences between genetic and memic templates, and attempts to link them to convergent and divergent characteristics of biological and social systems.

Living systems theories have been used to model human, organization, and communication processes. This paper attempts to describe these models and to highlight the isomorphisms among the models. Particular emphasis is given to self-regulating properties of humans as a subsystem of social systems. Attention is given to the advantages of generalizing across levels and phenomena and integrating the middle-range theories that dominate the field of organizational behavior. Three broad recommendations for future research are discussed.