Robin R. Vallacher

This book introduces the reader to the concept of functional synchronization and how it operates on very different levels in psychological and social systems – from the emergence of thought to the formation of social relations and the structure of societies. For years, psychologists have investigated phenomena such as self-concept, social judgment, social relations, group dynamics, and cooperation and conflict, but have discussed these phenomena seoarately. This book shows how synchronization provides a foundational approach to these otherwise distinct and diverse psychological processes. This work shows that there is a basic tendency with many processes to become coordinated and progressively integrated into increasingly larger units through well-defined processes. For these larger units, new and largely adaptive functions emerge. Although synchronization affords progressive integration of system elements to enable correspondingly higher-order functions, the trajectory of synchronization is often characterized by periods of assembly and disassembly of system elements. This occurs when a task is completed and synchronization is no longer essential so that the elements once again operate in an independent fashion. It is argued that the disassembly-resynchronization scenario occurs at all levels of psychological and social reality. The implications of this approach for important issues in interpersonal relations and societal processes are discussed.

This book introduces the reader to the concept of functional synchronization and how it operates on very different levels in psychological and social systems – from the emergence of thought to the formation of social relations and the structure of societies. For years, psychologists have investigated phenomena such as self-concept, social judgment, social relations, group dynamics, and cooperation and conflict, but have discussed these phenomena seoarately. This book shows how synchronization provides a foundational approach to these otherwise distinct and diverse psychological processes. This work shows that there is a basic tendency with many processes to become coordinated and progressively integrated into increasingly larger units through well-defined processes. For these larger units, new and largely adaptive functions emerge. Although synchronization affords progressive integration of system elements to enable correspondingly higher-order functions, the trajectory of synchronization is often characterized by periods of assembly and disassembly of system elements. This occurs when a task is completed and synchronization is no longer essential so that the elements once again operate in an independent fashion. It is argued that the disassembly-resynchronization scenario occurs at all levels of psychological and social reality. The implications of this approach for important issues in interpersonal relations and societal processes are discussed.

This concise monograph introduces and examines social influence from the perspective of the so-called target, rather than from the source, thus providing for the first time a bidirectional account of this pervasive social phenomenon, further bridging simple micro-level dyadic interaction rules with macro-level properties of the (social) system. This integrative approach allows for advanced models of influence to be developed in both the social and natural sciences (e.g. social animals). In particular, when used to investigate emergent properties of social change, this approach shows that social transitions occur as “bubbles of new” in the “sea of old.” While in the traditional view influence is synonymous with achieving power and control over others, the present approach to social influence puts the emphasis on the target’s motives and strategies. Here, the target may actively seek out influence to help forge opinions and achieve guidance regarding courses of action. In this process, the target observes others, models their thought and behavior, and asks for information and opinions. In this broadened perspective, the processes of social influence enables those being influenced (the targets) to use the knowledge and processing capacity of influence sources to maximize their access to information, minimize their processing effort, while optimizing their own functioning and that of the social system in which they evolve. This short text addresses above all scientists interested in social influence in the fields of psychology, sociology, economy, marketing, and biology. However, also researchers interested in modeling social processes, especially opinion dynamics and social change, such as computer scientists, physicists and applied mathematicians will benefit from the insights provided.

This topical textbook provides a thorough insight into the discipline of social psychology, presenting students with a rich and engaging account of the human social experience. Fully revised, the second edition includes a greater emphasis on cutting-edge topics within social psychology, including AI, virtual reality, social media, and political polarization. The textbook uses an accessible and readable style to show how the field’s dizzying and highly fragmented array of topics, models, theories, and paradigms can best be understood through a coherent conceptual narrative that builds on learning from previous chapters. The text also examines recent developments, such as how computer simulations and big data supplement the traditional methods of experiment and correlation. It contains a range of features, including key term glossaries and compact “summing up and looking ahead” overviews for ease of reading. Social Psychology: Exploring the Dynamics of Human Experience covers an enormous range of topics from self-concept to social change, making this comprehensive textbook essential reading for any student of social psychology.

This topical textbook provides a thorough insight into the discipline of social psychology, presenting students with a rich and engaging account of the human social experience. Fully revised, the second edition includes a greater emphasis on cutting-edge topics within social psychology, including AI, virtual reality, social media, and political polarization. The textbook uses an accessible and readable style to show how the field’s dizzying and highly fragmented array of topics, models, theories, and paradigms can best be understood through a coherent conceptual narrative that builds on learning from previous chapters. The text also examines recent developments, such as how computer simulations and big data supplement the traditional methods of experiment and correlation. It contains a range of features, including key term glossaries and compact “summing up and looking ahead” overviews for ease of reading. Social Psychology: Exploring the Dynamics of Human Experience covers an enormous range of topics from self-concept to social change, making this comprehensive textbook essential reading for any student of social psychology.

This textbook provides a thorough insight into the discipline of social psychology, creating an integrative and cumulative framework to present students with a rich and engaging account of the human social experience. From a person’s momentary impulses to a society’s values and norms, the diversity of social psychology makes for a fascinating discipline, but it also presents a formidable challenge for presentation in a manner that is coherent and cumulative rather than fragmented and disordered. Using an accessible and readable style, the author shows how the field’s dizzying and highly fragmented array of topics, models, theories, and paradigms can best be understood through a coherent conceptual narrative in which topics are presented in careful sequence, with each chapter building on what has already been learned while providing the groundwork for understanding what follows in the next chapter. The text also examines recent developments such as how computer simulations and big data supplement the traditional methods of experiment and correlation. Also containing a wide range of features, including key term glossaries and compact "summing up and looking ahead" overviews, and covering an enormous range of topics from self-concept to social change, this comprehensive textbook is essential reading for any student of social psychology.

Conflict is inherent in virtually every aspect of human relations, from sport to parliamentary democracy, from fashion in the arts to paradigmatic challenges in the sciences, and from economic activity to intimate relationships. Yet, it can become among the most serious social problems humans face when it loses its constructive features and becomes protracted over time with no obvious means of resolution. This book addresses the subject of intractable social conflict from a new vantage point. Here, these types of conflict represent self-organizing phenomena, emerging quite naturally from the ongoing dynamics in human interaction at any scale—from the interpersonal to the international. Using the universal language and computational framework of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in combination with recent insights from social psychology, intractable conflict is understood as a system locked in special attractor states that constrain the thoughts and actions of the parties to the conflict. The emergence and maintenance of attractors for conflict can be described by means of formal models that incorporate the results of computer simulations, experiments, field research, and archival analyses. Multi-disciplinary research reflecting these approaches provides encouraging support for the dynamical systems perspective. Importantly, this text presents new views on conflict resolution. In contrast to traditional approaches that tend to focus on basic, short-lived cause-effect relations, the dynamical perspective emphasizes the temporal patterns and potential for emergence in destructive relations. Attractor deconstruction entails restoring complexity to a conflict scenario by isolating elements or changing the feedback loops among them. The creation of a latent attractor trades on the tendency toward multi-stability in dynamical systems and entails the consolidation of incongruent (positive) elements into a coherent structure. In the bifurcation scenario, factors are identified that can change the number and types of attractors in a conflict scenario. The implementation of these strategies may hold the key to unlocking intractable conflict, creating the potential for constructive social relations.

Conflict is inherent in virtually every aspect of human relations, from sport to parliamentary democracy, from fashion in the arts to paradigmatic challenges in the sciences, and from economic activity to intimate relationships. Yet, it can become among the most serious social problems humans face when it loses its constructive features and becomes protracted over time with no obvious means of resolution. This book addresses the subject of intractable social conflict from a new vantage point. Here, these types of conflict represent self-organizing phenomena, emerging quite naturally from the ongoing dynamics in human interaction at any scale—from the interpersonal to the international. Using the universal language and computational framework of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in combination with recent insights from social psychology, intractable conflict is understood as a system locked in special attractor states that constrain the thoughts and actions of the parties to the conflict. The emergence and maintenance of attractors for conflict can be described by means of formal models that incorporate the results of computer simulations, experiments, field research, and archival analyses. Multi-disciplinary research reflecting these approaches provides encouraging support for the dynamical systems perspective. Importantly, this text presents new views on conflict resolution. In contrast to traditional approaches that tend to focus on basic, short-lived cause-effect relations, the dynamical perspective emphasizes the temporal patterns and potential for emergence in destructive relations. Attractor deconstruction entails restoring complexity to a conflict scenario by isolating elements or changing the feedback loops among them. The creation of a latent attractor trades on the tendency toward multi-stability in dynamical systems and entails the consolidation of incongruent (positive) elements into a coherent structure. In the bifurcation scenario, factors are identified that can change the number and types of attractors in a conflict scenario. The implementation of these strategies may hold the key to unlocking intractable conflict, creating the potential for constructive social relations.

Traditional approaches to social psychology have proven highly successful in identifying causal mechanisms underlying human thought and behavior. With the recent advent of the dynamical approach, it is now possible to assemble sets of such mechanisms into coherent systems. This book uses innovative concepts and tools to illuminate the processes by which individuals, groups, and societies evolve and change in a systemic, self-sustaining manner, at times seemingly independent of external influences. Readers learn how the dynamical approach facilitates novel predictions and insights into such social psychological phenomena as attitudes, social judgment, goal-directed behavior, attraction, and relationships. Featuring a wealth of charts and figures derived from original research and computer simulations, the volume is grounded in classic and contemporary theories of social psychology.

First published in 1985. A person may be caught in the midst of a patently ridiculous act, interrupted in a moment of apparent confusion, or even aroused from sleep, and yet respond to a query of What are you doing? with remarkable ease. The answer that is given is an identification of action. It is the central idea of this book that such action identifications perform pivotal functions in a broad range of psychological and social processes.