Individual in relationship to complexity

Computer-aided Visualization of Psycho-social Structures (Part #7)

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Up to this point, it has been convenient to avoid reference to the individual, but clearly organizations and concepts are the productions of individuals, and problems are detected by individuals, and it is in terms of the individuals's powers of comprehension that complexity is defined. In addition, complexity experienced personally by individuals bears a close resemblance to that noted for organizations, concepts, and problems.

It is possible to speak of an increase in the number of roles (or equivalent psychological states) activated by or accessible to an individual. This growth is paralleled by a fragmentation and specialization of traditional roles. Accompanying these trends is an uncharted growth in the variety of possible roles and life-styles. These atomizing and complexifying trends are partially counter-balanced by efforts at formulating unifying philosophies or more integrated and mature life-styles.

The individual psycho-system may therefore be added to Figure 1 to give Figure 2. [10] The integrative and disintegrative interactions may also be added.

Figure 1: Indication of interrelationship between three types of psycho-social entity. Subject to 6 conditions of complexity in Table 1)

 

Figure 2: Indication of interrelationship between four types of psycho-social entity

 

Table 1/2: Organizational implications of complexity
Table 1: Interactions between conditions of psycho-socialcomplexity for different groups of entities (not completed)		Table 2: Limits in variation of measures of complexity for an entity in an ecological niche
	Organizations	Concepts	Problems	Roles	Maximum	Minimum
Number / Population	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Information overload	Insufficient stimuli
Variety / Diversity	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Complexity	Immaturity
Fragmentation within species	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Inability to coordinate action	Lack of specialized ability
Inter-connectedness	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Inability to act	Spastic action
Order/ Centralization	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Overthrown by revolt	Revolt
Competition	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Increase Decrease	Elimination	Elimination

The question of personal identity, perceived complexity, fragmentation of the personality, and the ability to create stable psycho-social relationships (essential to peace) are all intimately related. R. D. Laing suggests that a firm sense of one's own autonomous identity is required in order that one may be related as one human being to another -- otherwise any and every relationship threatens the individual with loss of identity. Furthermore, the changes in the relationship between the different aspects of a person's relationships to himself affect his inter-personal relationships . [12] Marcuse suggests that psychological problems therefore turn into political problems, private disorder reflects more directly the disorder of the whole, and the cure of personal disorder depends more directly than before on the cure of general disorder. [13] Lawrence S. Kubie argues that unless the individual can free himself from internal tyranny he will restrict the freedom of his society to change.[14] Donald Schon notes that change in organizations has its impact on the person, because beliefs, values and the sense of self have their being in social systems.[2] Measures of complexity for the person can be envisaged and added to Table 1.

Table 1 provides a crude overview of the complexity with which society and the individual are faced. Increases or decreases in any measure cause changes in other parts of the system. It is doubtful whether universal agreement could be obtained on the interrelationships, even if more cells were introduced into the Table.

Since it is man who is directly or indirectly the major cause of change in the psycho-social environment, his individual actions may be considered the origin of the dynamic of the system. Faced with the different features of complexity noted above, he responds in a manner to ensure himself an adequate behavioural niche.[15] Some idea of the limits by which he is bounded is given in Table 2. His relationship to these limits may be modified by changes in his environment to the other measures noted in Table 1.

In carving out and developing an adequate behavioural niche in response to a changing environment and his own developmental needs, it may be assumed that each person adapts the condition of his own psycho-social system. These responses may be creative responses which modify the measures of complexity in his environment due to the formation of new organizations or concepts. It is not known why a given individual finds a given niche satisfactory, whereas another is motivated to seek a "better" one and will refuse to adapt to the existing environment. The dynamics of change would seem to originate in the individual's rejection of the conditions represented by a particular combination of measures of complexity such as those mentioned above. Some combinations of such measures may represent states in which identity is threatened for the personality type in question. Complexity may constitute a direct threat to identity. ^[12]

It. is possible that there are different strategies by which an individual can reinforce his identity as he develops. But basically, unless the individual can be placed in a more commanding positionwith respect to the information to which he is continuously exposed, he mill adapt or redefine himself and his habitat in such a way as to eliminate consideration of all information outside certain tolerance limits -- for with a threat to the stability of his environment it no longer provides an anchor for personal identity and a system of values. [2] He will set up his own "doll's house" model of relevant actors in his psycho-social environment.

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