Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences

by Robertson; Robin

• ISBN13: 9780805817362
• ISBN10: 0805817360
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-07-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This book represents the best of the first three years of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology conferences. While chaos theory has been a topic of considerable interest in the physical and biological sciences, its applications in psychology and related fields have been obscured until recently by its complexity. Nevertheless, a small but rapidly growing community of psychologists, neurobiologists, sociologists, mathematicians, and philosophers have been coming together to discuss its implications and explore its research possibilities. Chaos theory has been termed the first authentic paradigm shift since the advent of quantum physics. Whether this is true or not, it unquestionably bears profound implications for many fields of thought. These include the cognitive analysis of the mind, the nature of personality, the dynamics of psychotherapy and counseling, understanding brain events and behavioral records, the dynamics of social organization, and the psychology of prediction. To each of these topics, chaos theory brings the perspective of dynamic self-organizing processes of exquisite complexity. Behavior, the nervous system, and social processes exhibit many of the classical characteristics of chaotic systems -- they are deterministic and globally predictable and yet do not submit to precise predictability. This volume is the first to explore ideas from chaos theory in a broad, psychological perspective. Its introduction, by the prominent neuroscientist Walter Freeman, sets the tone for diverse discussions of the role of chaos theory in behavioral research, the study of personality, psychotherapy and counseling, mathematical cognitive psychology, social organization, systems philosophy, and the understanding of the brain.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
References	p. xi
Introduction to Chaos Theory	p. 1
Chaos Theory and the Relationship between Psychology and Science	p. 3
Chaos, Evolution, and Deep Ecology	p. 17
The Tower of Babel in Nonlinear Dynamics: toward the Clarification of Terms	p. 39
Research Methods and Chaos Theory	p. 49
The Nostril Cycle: a Study in the Methodology of Chaos Science	p. 51
Constraint, Complexity, and Chaos: a Methodological Follow-Up on the Nostril Cycle	p. 61
Anger, Fear, Depression, and Crime: Physiological and Psychological Studies Using the Process Method	p. 65
Is There Evidence for Chaos in the Human Central Nervous System?	p. 89
Cognition and Chaos Theory	p. 101
Naturally Occurring Computational Systems	p. 103
Belief Systems as Attractors	p. 123
A Cognitive Law of Motion	p. 135
Dynamics, Bifurcation, Self-Organization, Chaos, Mind, Conflict, Insensitivity to Initial Conditions, Time, Unification, Diversity, Free Will, and Social Responsibility	p. 155
Education, Social Science and Chaos Theory	p. 175
Chaos, Creativity, and Innovation: toward a Dynamical Model of Problem Solving	p. 179
Fractals and Path-Dependent Processes: a Theoretical Approach for Characterizing Emergency Medical Responses to Major Disasters	p. 199
Chaos Theory and Social Dynamics: Foundations of Postmodern Social Science	p. 217
Psychotherapy and Chaos Theory	p. 235
Unbalancing Psychoanalytic Theory: Moving beyond the Equilibrium Model of Freud's Thought	p. 239
Chaotic Phenomena in Psychophysiological Self-Regulation	p. 253
Strange Attractors in Patterns of Family Interaction	p. 267
The Fractal Geometry of Human Nature	p. 275
The Princess and the Swineherd: Applications of Chaos Theory to Psychodynamics	p. 285
Regression as Chaotic Uncertainty and Transformation	p. 295
Philosophy and Chaos Theory	p. 305
Chaos, Psychology, and Spirituality	p. 309
Cross-Cultural Chaos	p. 319
Emergence in Neurological Positivism and the Algorithm of Number in Analytical Psychology	p. 331
References	p. 342
How Predictable Is the Future? the Conflict between Traditional Chaos Theory and the Psychology of Prediction, and the Challenge for Chaos Psychology	p. 345
Chaos: the Geometrization of Thought	p. 359
Biographies of Authors	p. 373
Author Index	p. 379
Subject Index	p. 389
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.