A Grounded Approach to the Study of Complex Systems

The complex and dynamic nature of systems pose a particular challenge to researchers and require the use of a research methodology designed to deal with such systems. The properties of fit, relevance, understandability, generality, control, workability, generalizability, and modifiability make Glaserian grounded theory and grounded action particularly well suited for studying systems. These methods are innovative, systemic, and sophisticated enough to reveal the underlying complexities of systems and plan actions that address their complex, dynamic nature while remaining grounded in what is occurring within the systems as they change over time.     

Natural Selection: A Case for the Counterfactual Approach

This paper investigates the conception of causation required in order to make sense of natural selection as a causal explanation of changes in traits or allele frequencies. It claims that under a counterfactual account of causation, natural selection is constituted by the causal relevance of traits and alleles to the variation in traits and alleles frequencies. The “statisticalist” view of selection (Walsh, Matthen, Ariew, Lewens) has shown that natural selection is not a cause superadded to the causal interactions between individual organisms. It also claimed that the only causation at work is those aggregated individual interactions, natural selection being only predictive and explanatory, but it is implicitly committed to a process-view of causation. I formulate a counterfactual construal of the causal statements underlying selectionist explanations, and show that they hold because of the reference they make to ecological reliable factors. Considering case studies, I argue that this counterfactual view of causal relevance proper to natural selection captures more salient features of evolutionary explanations than the statisticalist view, and especially makes sense of the difference between selection and drift. I eventually establish equivalence between causal relevance of traits and natural selection itself as a cause.     

Evaluating Reasoning in Natural Arguments: A Procedural Approach

Argumentation - In this paper, we formulate a procedure for assessing reasoning as it is expressed in natural arguments. The procedure is a specification of one of the three aspects of...     

Toward a Systematic Approach to the Study of Complex Human Functioning

The Psychological Record -     

A Natural Approach in Mental Health Practice: Occupational Adaptation Revealed

A single case study of the stories told by one occupational therapist about her clients in mental health settings is presented in this article. Qualitative analysis revealed key concepts of the role of the occupational therapist as defined by occupational adaptation theory, along with unique perspectives of occupational therapy in mental health settings. The outcome of this study is a demonstration of the unique insight occupational therapy brings to addressing client recovery in mental health settings, specifically from an occupational adaptation perspective. This insight should enlighten others as to the necessity of skilled occupational therapy in mental health settings.     

A Video Life-world Approach to Consultation Practice: The Relevance of a Socio-Phenomenological Approach

This article discusses the [development and] use of a video life-world schema to explore alternative orientations to the shared health consultation. It is anticipated that this schema can be used by practitioners and consumers alike to understand the dynamics of videoed health consultations, the role of the participants within it and the potential to consciously alter the outcome by altering behaviour during the process of interaction. The study examines health consultation participation and develops an interpretative method of analysis that includes image elicitation (via videos), phenomenology (to identify the components of the analytic framework), narrative (to depict the stories of interactions) and a reflexive mode (to develop shared meaning through a conceptual framework for analysis). The analytic framework is derived from a life-world conception of human mutual shared interaction which is presented here as a novel approach to understanding patient-centred care. The video materials used in this study were derived from consultations in a Walk-in Centre (WiC) in East London. The conceptual framework produced through the process of video analysis is comprised of different combinations of movement, knowledge and emotional conversations that are used to classify objective or engaged WiC health care interactions. The videoed interactions organise along an active or passive, facilitative or directive typical situation continuum illustrating different kinds of textual approaches to practice that are in tension or harmony. The schema demonstrates how practitioners and consumers interact to produce these outcomes and indicates the potential for both consumers and practitioners to be educated to develop practice dynamics that support patient-centred care and impact on health outcomes.     

One-Handed Juggling: A Dynamical Approach to a Rhythmic Movement Task

The skill of rhythmically juggling a ball on a racket was investigated from the viewpoint of nonlinear dynamics. The difference equations that model the dynamical system were analyzed by means of local and nonlocal stability analyses. These analyses showed that the task dynamics offer an economical juggling pattern that is stable even for open-loop actuator motion. For this pattern, two types of predictions were extracted: (a) Stable periodic bouncing is sufficiently characterized by a negative acceleration of the racket at the moment of impact with the ball, and (b) a nonlinear scaling relation maps different juggling trajectories onto one topologically equivalent dynamical system. The relevance of these results for the human control of action was evaluated in an experiment in which subjects (N = 6) performed a comparable task of juggling a ball on a paddle. Task manipulations involved different juggling heights and gravity conditions of the ball. The following predictions were confirmed: (a) For stable rhythmic performance, the paddle's acceleration at impact is negative and fluctuations of the impact acceleration follow predictions from global stability analysis; and (b) for each subject, the realizations of juggling for the different experimental conditions are related by the scaling relation. These results permit one to conclude that humans reliably exploit the stable solutions inherent to the dynamics of the given task and do not overrule these dynamics by other control mechanisms. The dynamical scaling serves as an efficient principle for generating different movement realizations from only a few parameter changes and is discussed as a dynamical formalization of the principle of motor equivalence.     

Self-directedness: A Process Approach to Cognition

Standard approaches to cognition emphasise structures (representations and rules) much more than processes, in part because this appears to be necessary to capture the normative features of cognition. However the resultant models are inflexible and face the problem of computational intractability. I argue that the ability of real world cognition to cope with complexity results from deep and subtle coupling between cognitive and non-cognitive processes. In order to capture this, theories of cognition must shift from a structural rule-defined conception of cognition to a thoroughgoing embedded process approach.     

A Capability Approach to Justice as a Virtue

In The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen argues for an approach to justice that is comparative and realization-based rather than transcendental and institutional. While Sen’s arguments for such an approach may not be as convincing as he thought, there are additional arguments for it, and one is that it provides a unique and valuable platform on which an account of justice as a virtue of social and political actors (including institutions and social movements) can be built. Hence new dimensions of comparison are opened up: some actors are better disposed and more successful than others at leading social change in the direction of greater justice. The main objective of this article is to use the capability approach to construct such an account. Six dimensions of acting justly are identified: (1) reducing capability shortfalls; (2) expanding capabilities for all; (3) saving the worst-off as a first step towards their full participation in economy and society, (4) which is also to be promoted by a system of entitlements protecting all from social exclusion; while (5) supporting the empowerment of those whose capabilities are to expand; and (6) respecting ethical values and legitimate procedures. I conclude by sketching some underlying moral psychology.     

Calling a Thing What It Is: A Lutheran Approach to Whiteness

The July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in killing of African American teenager Trayvon Martin and the aftermath demonstrated that America is not yet cured from “the cancer of whiteness” that infects the heart of American Christianity. This article interrogates “whiteness” as a pressing American and religious issue. It looks to Martin Luther's theology of the cross as a way to both expose the sinfulness of whiteness and to offer a framework for dislodging it.     

Supervision Is a Relationship Too: A Contemporary Approach to Psychoanalytic Supervision

This paper discusses clinical cases presented by Comins and Eliot within a paradigm of psychoanalytic supervisory work based on relational theory. Here, in making the medium of supervision more symmetrical with the message of contemporary psychoanalytic ideas about structure of mind health, pathology, and treatment, the relationship between the supervisor and supervisee is considered to contain crucial supervisory data to be delineated and discussed by both members of the dyad. The supervisory relationship is described using three dimensions: power and authority, the data held to be relevant for supervisory conversations, and the mode of the supervisor's participation in the supervisory process.     

The Self As a Complex Adaptive System Part III: A Revised View of Development

The goal of this project has been to explore the characteristics of the self as a complex adaptive system. It began with the effort to provide a foundation for a developmental theory based on principles from self psychology that also permitted the incorporation of some of the recent findings from neuroscience. Part I (Palombo, 2013a Palombo, J. (2013a). The self as a complex adaptive system part I: Complexity, metapsychology, and developmental theories. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 20(1), 1–25.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) outlined some features of nonlinear dynamic systems theory and complexity science that provided the basis for a critique of traditional psychodynamic developmental theories. This critique was followed in Part II (Palombo, 2013b Palombo, J. (2013b). The self as a complex adaptive system part II: Levels of analysis and the position of the observer. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 20(2), 1–19.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) with the proposal of a levels-of-analysis perspective as a methodology to organize the data on development, the three levels of analysis being the neuropsychological, the introspective, and the interpersonal. This article, Part III, outlines the trends that contributed to the revised view of development and proposes a set of processes that are consistent with a nonlinear dynamic perspective that govern human beings' mental activities during development. These processes are the progression from lower to higher levels of complexity, the movement from lesser to greater differentiation, and advancement from lesser to greater individuation.     

Determining Public Policy and Resource Allocation Priorities for Mitigating Natural Hazards: A Capabilities-based Approach

This paper proposes a Capabilities-based Approach to guide hazard mitigation efforts. First, a discussion is provided of the criteria that should be met by an adequate framework for formulating public policy and allocating resources. This paper shows why a common decision-aiding tool, Cost-benefit Analysis, fails to fulfill such criteria. A Capabilities-based Approach to hazard mitigation is then presented, drawing on the framework originally developed in the context of development economics and policy. The focus of a Capabilities-based Approach is protecting and promoting the well-being of individuals. Capabilities are dimensions of well-being and specified in terms of functionings. Functionings capture the various things of value an individual does or becomes in his or her life, including being alive, being healthy, and being sheltered. Capabilities refer to the real achievability of specific functionings. In the context of hazard mitigation, from a Capabilities-based Approach, decision- and policy-makers should consider the acceptability and tolerability of risks along with the affectability of hazards when determining policy formulation and resource allocation. Finally, the paper shows how the proposed approach satisfies the required criteria, and overcomes the limitations of Cost-benefit Analysis, while maintaining its strengths.