Using Systems Theory to Organize Confusion

This paper represents an initial step in applying to complex clinical situations the symbolic logic developed by G. Spencer Brown and elaborated by Francisco Varela. This way of modeling turns out to yield an interesting mixture of rigidity, ambiguity, and paradox, perhaps inevitable at our present level of understanding of systems containing feedback. Applying the Brown-Varela concepts seems a useful transitional step toward the future use of more sophisticated quantitative models such as those of Powers and Forrester.     

ATTRIBUTIONAL CONFIDENCE IN LOW- AND HIGH-CONTEXT CULTURES

Current measures of attribulional confidence were generated to account for uncertainty reduction in the United States but have been used in tests of the theory in other cultures. This procedure may yield inappropriate measurement in other cultures. Based on a review of uncertainty reduction in high-context cultures, items were generated to tap attribulional confidence in these cultures. The new items were integrated with Clatterbuck's (1979) CL7 scale and administered to samples in Japan and the United States. A confirmatory factor analysis of the resulting data revealed two unique factors ofattributional confidence. The amount of variances and covariances accounted for by the two-factor model was over 90% in both samples. Scores on both factors were influenced by culture and stage of relationship development. Correlations between other variables (e.g, shared networks, frequency of communication) and the two dimensions also differed across cultures. It was concluded that the eight-item scale provides a derived etic measure of attributional confidence that is applicable in both low- and high-context cultures.     

EFFECTS OF DOMINANCE TENDENCIES ON FLOOR HOLDING AND INTERRUPTION BEHAVIOR IN DYADIC INTERACTION1

Eighteen dyads (10 female and eight male), each composed so as to have one member who scored high and one who scored low on a test of personality dominance, were given a cooperative problem-solving discussion task lasting fifteen minutes. The persons with the more dominant personalities held the floor more and attempted more interruptions in proportion to their partners’ total amounts of speaking time than did those with less dominant personalities. There was also evidence that the high dominant subjects were more successful in completing their interruption attempts, although this result fell somewhat short of statistical significance. Despite the fact that the trend of the results appeared to be consistently stronger among males, there were no significant sex differences. Implications of the findings for the interpersonal communication theory of Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967) are discussed.