Structural and functional information—an evolutionary approach to pragmatic information

The paper starts with a critics of the potential information which is related to the statistical entropy. In order to include the syntactic and semantic aspects of information, we propose a distinction between structural and functional information, instead. Structural information represents the structural determination of a system state, it measures the content of information, as given by the material structure. Functional information, on the other hand, represents the operational closure of the system, it could be e.g. an algorithm which activates and interprets the existing structural information.

From an evolutionary point of view, pragmatic information is generated by an interplay of structural and functional information. This leads to a new insight into the concept of pragmatic information, which is not an invariant of evolution, but must be steadily re‐generated.

The active role of information in a self‐organization process is demonstrated in a model of artificial agents. It is shown by means of computer simulations that the feedback of already existing information on the generation of new information performs analogies to the creation of a collective memory.     

Different forms of causation in dynamical systems: Determinism,pattern generation,and information

The standpoint that three fundamentally inequivalent classes of system behavior exist, which deserve separate tools for their characterization, is developed. These classes are: determinism, pattern generation, and information. A simple explanation for the origin of these classes is given. The three classes are shown to correspond to the different possible ways in which the properties of the components of a system unfold in the course of the system's processes. Determinism will be defined as a form of causation in which the properties causing the behavior are factually the same as the ones which for the observer specify the current conditions of the system. As a consequence, deterministic systems can be characterized by state equations that describe how the observable properties change. Pattern generation is characterized here as a form of causation in which the observable properties and the behavior‐generating properties correspond to each other as one to the many. Consequently, we experience in terms of the observable properties a branching behavior which is characterized by a pattern of selections at the branching points, a pattern that stands in close correspondence with the visually perceivable patterns and forms, generated by the system's dynamics. Information will be understood as a name for a process and an instance of causation where properties that cause behavior differ from those which we directly observe. The behavior of the system appears to be a consequence of the content of information hidden in the components. This information is, in turn, epistemologically equivalent to the very causal process in which it is unfolded.     

Book review

Touching: The Human Significance of Skin Ashley Montagu Third Edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. 494 pages. $18.95 hardback.

Females of the Species: Sex and Survival in the Animal Kingdom Betty Ann Kevles Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. 270 pages. $20.00 hardback.     

Simulating Benevolence: Obstructing Systemic Problem Solving

Traditional methods of evaluating and solving world problems are insufficient to deal with today's issues, which are complex and interconnected, and therefore cannot be understood, or solved, in isolation. The author's study aimed to better understand behaviors that impact systemic problems in the capacity-building community. The resultant theory of simulating benevolence conceptualizes a collection of behaviors where change agents undertake activities that are not in the best interest of community members. Instead, activities satisfy the need for activity, involvement, and excitement. This theory has real-world implications in the pursuit of systemic social change. In any social context, a change agent cannot merely go through the motions of change, seemingly behaving active and engaged, at the expense of those that he or she claims to help.     

Types of Institutions as Patterns of Regulated Behaviour

Nowadays, neo-institutionalistic approaches are prominent in economics, political science, the science of public administration and sociology. There is a general complaint about the vagueness of the concept of institutions and the apparent disparity of phenomena falling under it. This article shows how institutional legal theory provides a typology of institutions as sets of rules and corresponding patterns of regulated behaviour that can help to avert much confusion. The typologys usefulness is tested by applying it to an array of private governance structures distinguished by transaction cost economics.The author would like to thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.See for an extensive account of these two developments K. van Kersbergen and F. van Waarden, Shifts in Governance: Problems of Legitimacy and Accountability. Paper on the theme Shifts in Governance as part of the Strategic Plan 2002--2005 of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (The Hague: NWO, 2001).     

Attachment-dissociation network: some thoughts about a modern complex theory

The paper revises the complex theory in the light of modern infant research, neurosciences and object relation theory. The author takes up Jean Knox's idea to understand complexes as analogies to the internal working models of attachment theory. The author proposes to understand complexes as dissociated sub-networks out of the network structure of the psyche; these sub-networks contain the internal working models, the characteristic affects and unconscious expectation phantasies. With this network model one can try to understand severe defensive organizations in some patients as a pathological organization of different complexes. This is illustrated by a clinical example.     

Changes at work and employee reactions: organizational elements, job insecurity, and short-term stress as predictors for employee health and safety

The objective was to identify focus areas for possible reduction of job insecurity and its outcomes. A model was specified and tested as a prediction model for health and safety. First, a parsimonious model was specified. The model consisted of perceived job insecurity (as a stressor), organizational factors (information quality, leadership style, work task administration), and short-term stress reactions (job dissatisfaction, reduced work motivation). Second, the model was tested as a prediction model in three separate path analyses, in order to examine the model's contribution in explaining (1) physical health complaints, (2) mental health complaints, and (3) risk taking behavior. A quota sample of Norwegian employees ( N = 1,002) was obtained by means of a self-completion questionnaire survey. The results of the structural equation modeling (path analyses) supported the hypothesized model. Mental health complaints and employee risk taking behavior were significantly predicted (not physical health complaints).     

The Inducement of Meaningful Work: A Response to Anderson and Weijer

James A. Anderson and Charles Weijer take the wage payment model proposed by Neil Dickert and Christine Grady and extend the analogy of research participation to unskilled wage labor to include just working conditions. Although noble in its intentions, this moral extension generates unsavory outcomes. Most notably, Anderson and Weijer distinguish between two types of research subjects: occasional and professional. The latter, in this case, receives benefits beyond the moral minima in the form of “the right to meaningful work.” The problem is that meaningful work can itself be a form of inducement, and consequently, may in fact increase the incidence of inducement contrary to the intentions of the wage payment model.     

The challenge of characterizing operations in the mechanisms underlying behavior

Neuroscience and cognitive science seek to explain behavioral regularities in terms of underlying mechanisms. An important element of a mechanistic explanation is a characterization of the operations of the parts of the mechanism. The challenge in characterizing such operations is illustrated by an example from the history of physiological chemistry in which some investigators tried to characterize the internal operations in the same terms as the overall physiological system while others appealed to elemental chemistry. In order for biochemistry to become successful, researchers had to identify a new level of operations involving operations over molecular groups. Existing attempts at mechanistic explanation of behavior are in a situation comparable to earlier approaches to physiological chemistry, drawing their inspiration either from overall psychology activities or from low-level neural processes. Successful mechanistic explanations of behavior require the discovery of the appropriate component operations. Such discovery is a daunting challenge but one on which success will be beneficial to both behavioral scientists and cognitive and neuroscientists.     

Is sense of coherence a mediator or moderator of relationships between violence at work and stress reactions?

The relationships between exposure to violence at work, sense of coherence, and stress reactions were analysed in a large sample of the Danish workforce. The results showed that employees subjected to violence have a weaker sense of coherence than the rest of the respondents. Sense of coherence acted as a mediator and not as a moderator of relationships between exposure to violence and psychological, psychosomatic and cognitive stress reactions. The stability of the sense of coherence construct is discussed. With respect to the relation between sense of coherence and violence, preventative measures at the individual and organizational level are suggested.