Steve Boker
Psychology, ND
Consequences of continuity: The hunt for
intrinsic properties within parameters of dynamics in psychological
processes
A little over three hundred years ago Sir Isaac Newton wrote of a
simple set of relations that could be used to predict the motions of
objects relative to one another. The main advantage of this insight was
that the relationship between the movements of the planets and stars could
be predicted much more simply than with the accurate, but cumbersome
Ptolemaic calculations. But perhaps the most important consequence of the
acceptance of Newton's insight was that intrinsic properties such as mass
could be distinguished from measurements such as weight. The success of
Newtonian mechanics led directly to the widespread use of parameters such
as force, relative speed, and momentum as a way of understanding the
dynamics of moving objects. A similar revolution in thinking appears to
be underway in the behavioral sciences. It is likely that intensive
longitudinal measurement coupled with dynamical systems analyses will lead
to simplified but powerful models of the evolution of psychological
processes. In this case, it is reasonable to expect that a set of
intrinsic psychological properties may be able to be extracted from the
parameters of successful dynamical systems models. The purpose of this
paper is to issue an invitation to the hunt, to provide a tentative map as
to where the game might likely be found, and blow a call on the hunting
horn.