Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Dynamical Social Psychology: An Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Complex Human Dynamics

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

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 psychology: social influence on opinion formation and the concept of self. It will also consider three aspects of dynamical social psychology that set it apart from previous theories of social psychology: the effect of the degree of coherence between the elements of a system, which explains the different behaviors we see under different circumstances, how emotions regulate other psychological systems, and the drive to minimalism, by which behavior which appears to be complex may be understood from a model of the underlying elements interacting under simple rules.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abelson, R.P.: Social clusters and opinion clusters. In: Holland, P.W., Leinhardt, S. (eds.) Perspectives in Social Network Research, pp. 239–256. Academic, New York (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo, J.T., Gardner, W.L., Berntson, G.G.: Beyond bipolar conceptualizations and measures: the case of attitudes and evaluative space. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 1, 3–25 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C.S., Scheier, M.F.: Themes and issues in the self-regulation of behavior. In: Wyer Jr., R.S. (ed.) Advances in Social Cognition, vol. 12, pp. 1–105. Erlbaum, Mahwah (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikzentmihalyi, M.: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row, New York (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Darley, J.M., Latané, B.: Bystrander intervention in emergencies: diffusion of responsibility. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 8, 377–383 (1968)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Festinger, L.: A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Row, Peterson, Evanston (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  • Festinger, L., Schachter, S., Back, K.: Social Pressures in Informal Groups. Stanford University Press, Stanford (1950)

    Google Scholar 

  • Haken, H.: Synergetics. Springer, Berlin (1978)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Heider, F.: The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Wiley, New York (1958)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, E.T.: Making a good decision: value from “fit.”. Am. Psychol. 55, 1217–1230 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, J.H.: Emergence: From Chaos to Order. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopfield, J.J.: Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 79, 2554–2558 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, S.: Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Scribner, New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruglanski, A.W., Webster, D.M.: Motivated closing of the mind: “Seizing” and “freezing”. Psychol. Rev. 103, 263–283 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kunda, Z., Thagard, P.: Forming impressions from stereotypes, traits, and behaviors: a parallel-constraint-satisfaction theory. Psychol. Rev. 103, 284–308 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B.: The psychology of social impact. Am. Psychol. 36, 343–356 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B., Nowak, A.: Attitudes as catastrophes: from dimensions to categories with increasing involvement. In: Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A. (eds.) Dynamical Systems in Social Psychology, pp. 219–249. Academic, San Diego (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B., Nowak, A.: The causes of polarization and clustering in social groups. Prog. Commun. Sci. 13, 43–75 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B., Williams, K., Harkins, S.: Many hands make light the work: the causes and consequences of social loafing. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 37(6), 822–832 (1979)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B., Nowak, A., Liu, J.: Measuring emergent social phenomena: dynamism, polarization and clustering as order parameters of social systems. Behav. Sci. 39, 1–24 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latané, B., Liu, J., Nowak, A., Bonavento, M., Zheng, L.: Distance matters: physical distance and social impact. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 21, 795–805 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewenstein, M., Nowak, A.: Fully connected neural networks with self-control of noise levels. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 225–229 (1989a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewenstein, M., Nowak, A.: Recognition with self-control in neural networks. Phys. Rev. A 40, 4652–4664 (1989b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewenstein, M., Nowak, A., Latané, B.: Statistical mechanics of social impact. Phys. Rev. A 45, 703–716 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandler, G.: Mind and Emotion. Wiley, New York (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  • Moscovici, S., Lage, E., Naffrechoux, M.: Influence of a consistent minority on the responses of a majority in a color perception task. Sociometry 32, 365–380 (1969)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A.: Dynamical minimalism: Why less is more in psychology. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 8, 183–192 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Vallacher, R.R.: Dynamical Social Psychology. Guilford, New York (1998a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Vallacher, R.R.: Toward computational social psychology: cellular automata and neural network models of interpersonal dynamics. In: Read, S.J., Miller, L.C. (eds.) Connectionist Models of Social Reasoning and Social Behavior, pp. 277–311. Erlbaum, Mahwah (1998b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Szamrej, J., Latané, B.: From private attitude to public opinion: a dynamic theory of social impact. Psychol. Rev. 97, 362–376 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Lewenstein, M., Szamrej, J.: Bąble modelem przemian spolecznych (Bubbles – a model of social transition). Swiat Nauki (Scientific American Polish Edition) 12, 16–25 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Latané, B., Lewenstein, M.: Social dilemmas exist in space. In: Schulz, U., Albers, W., Mueller, U. (eds.) Social Dilemmas and Cooperation, pp. 114–131. Springer, Heidelberg (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Lewenstein, M., Frejlak, P.: Dynamics of public opinion and social change. In: Hegselman, R., Pietgen, H.O. (eds.) Modeling Social Dynamics: Order, Chaos, and Complexity, pp. 54–78. Helbin, Vienna (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Vallacher, R.R., Tesser, A., Borkowski, W.: Society of self: the emergence of collective properties in self-structure. Psychol. Rev. 107, 39–61 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, A., Strawinska, U., Johnson, S., Vallacher, R.R.: Zaburzenia samoregulacji przy niskim poczuciu własnej wartości i w depresji (Malfunctions of self-regulation in low self-esteem and in depression.) Kolokwia Psychol (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratto, F., John, O.P.: Automatic vigilance: the attention grabbing power of negative information. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 61, 380–391 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schuster, H.G.: Deterministic Chaos. Physik Verlag, Vienna (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • Showers, C.J.: Compartmentalization of positive and negative self-knowledge: keeping bad apples out of the bunch. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 62, 1036–1049 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H.A.: Motivational and emotional controls of cognition. Psychol. Rev. 74, 29–39 (1967)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, D., Holyoak, K.J.: Structural dynamics of cognition: from consistency theories to constraint satisfaction. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 6, 283–294 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skowronski, J.J., Carlston, D.E.: Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: a review of explanations. Psychol. Bull. 105, 131–142 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strogatz, S.: Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. Hyperion Books, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Thagard, P.: Explanatory coherence. Behav. Brain Sci. 12, 435–467 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thagard, P., Nerb, J.: Emotional gestalts: appraisal, change, and the dynamics of affect. Pers.Soc. Psychol. Rev. 6, 274–282 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A.: The chaos in social psychology. In: Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A. (eds.) Dynamical Systems in Social Psychology, pp. 1–16. Academic, San Diego (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A.: The emergence of dynamical social psychology. Psychol. Inq. 4, 73–99 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A.: The dynamics of self-regulation. In: Wyer Jr., R.S. (ed.) Advances in Social Cognition, vol. 12, pp. 241–259. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A.: Landscapes of self-reflection: mapping the peaks and valleys of personal assessment. In: Tesser, A., Felson, R., Suls, J. (eds.) Psychological Perspectives on Self and Identity, pp. 35–65. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Wegner, D.M.: A Theory of Action Identification. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Wegner, D.M.: What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior. Psychol. Rev. 94, 3–15 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Wegner, D.M.: Levels of personal agency: individual variation in action identification. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 57, 660–671 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Wegner, D.M., Somoza, M.P.: That’s easy for you to say: action identification and speech fluency. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 56, 199–208 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Nowak, A., Froehlich, M., Rockloff, M.: The dynamics of self-evaluation. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 6, 370–379 (2002a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallacher, R.R., Read, S.J., Nowak, A. (eds.): The dynamical perspective in social psychology. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 6(special issue), 264–273 (2002b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisbuch, G.: Complex Systems Dynamics. Addison-Wesley, Redwood City (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkielman, P., Cacioppo, J.T.: Mind at ease puts a smile on the face: psychophysiological evidence that processing facilitation leads to positive affect. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 81, 989–1000 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, 00183, Warsaw, Poland

    Andrzej Nowak

  2. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Glades Rd. 777, Boca Raton, FL, 33431, USA

    Robin Vallacher

  3. Department of Psychology, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Chodakowska 19/31, 03815, Warsaw, Poland

    Urszula Strawińska

  4. Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, 00183, Warsaw, Poland

    David S. Brée

Authors
  1. Andrzej Nowak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robin Vallacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Urszula Strawińska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. David S. Brée
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrzej Nowak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, Warsaw, 00183, Poland

    Andrzej Nowak

  2. Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Hum, Chodakowska Street 19/13, Warsaw, 03815, Poland

    Katarzyna Winkowska-Nowak

  3. Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, Warsaw, 00183, Poland

    David Brée

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nowak, A., Vallacher, R., Strawińska, U., Brée, D.S. (2013). Dynamical Social Psychology: An Introduction. In: Nowak, A., Winkowska-Nowak, K., Brée, D. (eds) Complex Human Dynamics. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31436-0_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31436-0_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31435-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31436-0

  • eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation