Robin R Vallacher

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at Florida Atlantic University

Murayama and Jach rightfully aim to conceptualize motivation as an emergent property of a dynamic system of interacting elements. However, they do not embrace the ontological and paradigmatic constraints of the dynamic systems approach. They therefore miss the very process of emergence and how it can be formally modeled and tested by specific types...

Manuscript accepted for publication at Behavioral and Brain Sciences, as a commentary on: Murayama, K. & Jach, H. (in press). A critique of motivation constructs to explain higher-order behavior: We should unpack the black box. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000025 Murayama and Jach rightfully aim to conceptualiz...

In the past decade, various recommendations have been published to enhance the methodological rigor and publication standards in psychological science. However, adhering to these recommendations may have limited impact on the reproducibility of causal effects as long as psychological phenomena continue to be viewed as decomposable into separate and...

In the past decade, various recommendations have been published to enhance the methodological rigor and publication standards in psychological science. However, adhering to these recommendations may have limited impact on the reproducibility of causal effects, as long as psychological phenomena continue to be viewed as decomposable into separate an...

No construct is more central to personality than the person’s self‐concept. Higher‐order domains of self‐assessment, including self‐perceived skills, traits, and values, are expressed in action and provide frames of reference for deciding whether to accept or reject personally relevant social feedback. To perform these functions in a consistent man...

The religion and health relationship is theorized to emerge, in part, due to religion equipping people with a uniquely potent source of meaning that can be used to aid cognitive appraisal following stressful life events. Cognitively, this process is thought to involve the reintegration of fragmented, situation-oriented thoughts into more coherent,...

Prior research has revealed relationships between characteristic action identification level, moral responsibility, and beliefs about justice. Plaks & Robinson (2015), for example, explored how action identification, and free will beliefs influenced perceptions of moral responsibility based on proximal vs. distal intention, using trait measures and...

Populist movements are said to arise when “ordinary” people feel that the elites in a society derive the majority of economic benefits from the status quo and hold values that are at odds with conventional ways of thinking and acting. Populism, however, is not an inevitable response to income inequality, demographic divides, divergent lifestyles, o...

Contemporary psychology emphasizes that personality is both coherent and yet pliable in response to external events and internal processes, but there is little consensus regarding how these two fundamental features of personality are related. We suggest that the methods and tools inspired by nonlinear dynamical systems offer new means of understand...

The relation between mental and behavior process has provided an enduring focus in psychology since the field’s genesis, with an impressive number of theories advanced to explain and predict this relationship. To a large extent, these theories part ways in the primacy they attach to the operation of mind versus the conduct of action. Some emphasize...

Social Entrepreneurs (SE) solve pressing and insurmountable social problems, making an immense, yet durable and irreversible social impact. They do these remarkable things with minimal investments, having as assets their passion, commitment, big yet realistic visons for change, creativity, and entrepreneurial skills.

The emergence of conscious experience from distributed neural activity is possibly the most dramatic example of how coordination of elements leads to function. We can depict mental processing as a continuous process of organizing items into functional units. If we accept the assumption that the brain is the source of cognition, consciousness and th...

Social interaction and social relations have each provided a central focus in social psychology since the field’s inception. Social interaction can take many forms, from parallel play to coordinated action and from nonverbal displays to the exchange of abstract ideas in words. Social relations, too, vary along several dimensions, including antagoni...

The traditional psychotherapeutic approaches (i.e., psychoanalytic or neo-behavioral) focus on individuals who develop specific symptoms. We present here a different approach, based on the Family System Theory, which considers the process of synchronization and the way synchronizing elements generate dysfunctional or functional units.

Human behavior can take very diverse forms. In the course of a few hours, you may be preparing breakfast, having an empathic conversation with your partner, dealing with an obnoxious salesperson on the phone, working on a scientific manuscript, engaging in a group discussion with colleagues, and replacing a flickering light in a conference room. Ea...

Humans are a social species and spent most of their time interacting with many people and forming relationships with a significantly smaller subset of these people. While the previous chapter focused on dyadic interactions and the formation of dyadic relationships, it is clearly the case that much of social life takes place in the context of more t...

Social change, when neither imposed from the outside nor the result of major upheavals, seems an intriguing phenomenon, especially when it stems from endogenous social processes coordinated in time. It often happens that the activated societal dynamics are temporary and short-lived—bursting forth and, in fairly short order, fading away. These short...

Conscious thoughts are obviously the result of the brain’s functioning. Less obvious is how the ongoing synchronization of multiple neural assemblies gives rise to a single and relatively stable higher-order thought.

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,...

This article compares the information processing and dynamical systems perspectives on problem solving. Key theoretical constructs of the information-processing perspective include “searching” a “problem space” by using “heuristics” that produce “incremental” changes such as reaching a “subgoal” to solve a puzzle. Key theoretical constructs of the...

This chapter discusses empirical research designed to validate the primary components of Regulatory Theory of Social Influence (RTSI): trust, the link between trust and coherence, and the importance of the issue. The results of several experiments support the principles of RTSI and shed light on how model’s primary variables interact to shape proce...

This chapter takes the theory to the group level, using computer simulations to analyze social influence as socially distributed information processing. In so doing, this line of research identifies conditions under which the delegation of processing to others can lead to errors, resulting in opinions and decisions that are counter-productive and s...

Social influence is arguably the most fundament and pervasive social process. The majority of research on this topic adopts the perspective of the source of influence, investigating how the he or she can overcome the resistance or passivity of the target of influence. In this view, social influence is tantamount to control and often involves strate...

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. Thi...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose that a more optimal regulatory focus in conflict reflects a mix of promotion and prevention considerations because conflict often elicits needs for promoting well-being as well as needs for preventing threats to security and interests. Two studies using distinct methodologies tested the hypothesis tha...

Although rapid social change reflects each society's unique combination of myriad social, historical, political, and economic factors, we argue that the defining features of such change can be understood with recourse to the dynamic processes inherent in complex systems. Accordingly, we present a formal model that describes, in minimalist terms, th...

Objective: We hypothesized that self-knowledge and goal-perseverance are mutually reinforcing because of the roles of self-knowledge in directing goal pursuit, and of goal pursuit in structuring the self-concept. Method: To test this hypothesis, we used a daily diary design with 97 college-aged participants for 40 days to assess whether daily se...

The topical landscape of psychology is highly compartmentalized, with distinct phenomena explained and investigated with recourse to theories and methods that have little in common. Our aim in this article is to identify a basic set of principles that underlie otherwise diverse aspects of human experience at all levels of psychological reality, fro...

The experience and benefits of mindfulness are framed in terms of action identification principles (Vallacher and Wegner in Handbook of Theories in Social Psychology. Sage, London, pp. 327–348, 2012). This theory holds that mental life is characterized by the emergence of progressively higher-level (superordinate, abstract) perspectives on one’s ex...

Change in self-esteem is commonly viewed as random variation or a response to external influence. The present research investigated whether changes in self-esteem are produced instead by the structure of the self-system and thus reflect intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic dynamics. In this view, temporal variability in self-esteem reflects the landsc...

Change in self-esteem is commonly viewed as random variation or a response to external influence. The present research investigated whether changes in self-esteem are produced instead by the structure of the self-system and thus reflect intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic dynamics. In this view, temporal variability in self-esteem reflects the landsc...

An integrative model of approach and avoidance goals in achievement contexts is proposed based on the concepts and principles of nonlinear dynamical systems. These goals are conceptualized as self-organizing systems in which information relevant to competence expectancies and perceptions of benefit and threat for the self is integrated with respect...

This research addressed three questions concerning facial mimicry: (1) Does the relationship between mimicry and liking characterize all facial expressions or is it limited to specific expressions? (2) Is the relationship between facial mimicry and liking symmetrical for the mimicker and the mimickee? (3) Does conscious mimicry have consequences fo...

Psychological processes unfold on various timescales in accord with internally generated patterns. The intrinsic dynamism of psychological process is difficult to investigate using traditional methods emphasizing cause-effect relations, however, and thus is rarely incorporated into social psychological theory. Methods associated with nonlinear dyna...

To maintain stability yet retain the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, social systems must strike a balance between the maintenance of a shared reality and the survival of minority opinion. A computational model is presented that investigates the interplay of two basic, oppositional social processes—conformity and anticonformity—in pr...

Thoughts are typically dismissed as sources of distraction that hinder a mindful awareness of ongoing experience. Although this may be said of some thoughts, we focus on the undervalued role that regulatory thoughts play in the development and maintenance of mindful action. To do so, we explore the function of thoughts from the perspective of actio...

The potential for violence is ubiquitous in human affairs, but the diversity of violence is difficult to understand in terms of an integrated theoretical framework. Evolutionary psychology provides such a framework, and it has had considerable success in identifying the distal causes of human violence. In recent years, another integrative framework...

The structural account of self-esteem and self-evaluation maintains that they are distinct constructs. Trait self-esteem is stable and is expressed over macro timescales, whereas state self-evaluation is unstable and experienced on micro timescales. We compared predictions based on the structural account with those derived from a dynamical systems...

This chapter investigates the role of interpersonal coordination in promoting positive affect in social interaction. We propose that coordination in the successful pursuit of a goal increases positive affect which in turn strengthens those social ties for maintaining relationships that are characteristic of effective coordination. In two experiment...

Any action can be identified in myriad ways, from a sequence of movements to the expression of goals, values, and self-concepts. Despite the uncertainty of action, people routinely identify their actions at a level that both enables effective performance and provides a foundation for higher-level meaning. Action identification theory holds that thi...

BOOK JACKET: 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 feature...

Does agreement or disagreement alone strongly influence people’s thoughts and emotions, or does cognitive and affective reaction relate more to shifts in agreement and disagreement? The present study investigated how attitudes and emotions respond to the evolution of different patterns of agreement and disagreement in an interaction. Combining conv...

Although uncommon, when the perfect storm of intractable conflict hits, it can undermine the security and well-being of families, communities, and societies everywhere. When viewed through the lens of dynamical systems, both the low frequency and highly destructive consequences of this perplexing phenomenon become understandable. In general terms,...

The preceding chapters have established the rationale for reframing the essential features of conflict in terms of the principles, metaphors, and methods of dynamical systems. As emphasized in Chap. 2, however, this reframing would be impossible without the accumulated insights and evidence provided by the study of peace and conflict and by the pri...

This is a book about conflict. But it is also a book about essential features of human nature that are expressed in every type of human interaction. In an even broader sense, this is a book about the basic processes that link conflict to a vast array of phenomena in the physical world. These seem like incompatible agendas. Conflict is not the only...

Conflict is a defining feature of human relations. It would be naïve, if not irresponsible, to think that antagonistic interactions among individuals, groups, and nations can ever be eliminated or marginalized, no matter how much we learn about the root causes of such interactions. A realistic goal is to understand the fundamental dynamics that pro...

Kurt Lewin (1948) famously observed, “there is nothing so practical as a good theory.” This simple statement captures a truism regarding the interplay of understanding, prediction, and control that characterizes every area of science. Predicting how a phenomenon will be manifest under different conditions, let alone controlling the process, is inti...

In Chap. 1 we stated that the focus of this book is on conflict. However, all along we have had a hidden agenda (or latent attractor): as ultimately we seek a better understanding and articulation of peace. Of course, peace is more than the absence of destructive conflict. Attempts to suppress conflict can, in fact, have the ironic effect of promot...

The dynamical systems approach to conflict is relatively new, but it has deep roots in other orientations and research agendas. Particularly noteworthy are three very distinct areas of inquiry with equally distinct historical pedigrees: peace and conflict studies, social psychology, and complexity science. As the John Whiting quote implies, each of...

Despite the assumption of linear causality embedded in the last 400 years of science, it is almost impossible to predict specific outcomes in any nonlinear social system; their dynamics are too complex. Post-hoc determinations of causality can be made, but these are extremely difficult to ascertain a priori (Jones & Hughes, 2003). However, general...

In this chapter we outline the background to dynamical social psychology as it stood before the research described in later chapters of this book. This background will help readers who are not familiar with either social psychology or complexity science to follow those chapters more easily. It will focus on two domains within dynamical social psych...

Conflict is generally a constructive process, but in a small proportion of cases it can degenerate into a self-sustaining pattern of negative interpersonal and intergroup relations that seem impervious to change. We conceptualize these seemingly intractable conflicts within a dynamical systems perspective. Intractable conflict develops when a socia...

Consciousness is a defining feature of human experience, yet it’s nature and functions remain poorly understood. We provide a framework for reframing issues concerning consciousness that borrows from recent advances in complexity science and nonlinear dynamical systems. In this view, conscious awareness emerges from the self-organization of lower-l...

The complex, dynamic nature of the interplay between conflict and peace requires a set of interpretative and analytic tools that are designed to capture complex dynamic processes. Indeed, the efficacy of attempts to establish sustainable peace is contingent on the employment of such tools. In this chapter, we first discuss the basic distinctions id...

The field of conflict resolution is fractured. Despite many decades of fine research, we still lack a basic unifying framework that integrates the many theories of conflict dynamics. Thus, the findings from research on conflict are often piecemeal, decontextualized, contradictory, or focused on negative outcomes, which contributes to a persistent r...