Life-course dynamics: A research program in progress from the Netherlands.

In the Dutch research program “Life-Course Dynamics” three projects in progress are presented which study the self-organization of behavior over the course of life at different levels of theorizing on the basis of a longitudinal data set, generated by means of the Lifeline Interview Method (LIM). The first project describes different aspects of the dynamic structure and content of individual lives. It was found among other things that the structure of life is dominated by the Principle of the Constant Life Perspective, i.e., the sum of past and future autobiographical events, is constant over the lifespan, while their relation changes systematically with age. Content analysis and compression of the LIM data set of life events resulted in the composition of six modal “self-portraits” with regard to both past and future of young, middle-aged, and older men and women, respectively. The second project, based on the principles of gerodynamics and branching theory, studies how people manage their lives, and how they cope with transformations and react to affective-positive and negative life events. To this end, the content of the LIM narratives needs to be examined in terms of experienced past and expected future, age, gender, transformations, events, and affect, and in relation to measures of personality, coping, and locus of control. The third project studies autobiographical memory as a dynamic system of both retrospective and prospective memory, subject to continuous changes across the lifespan. It was found among other things that processes of development and aging account for the autobiographical memory “bump,” and that these processes might also account for the differential course of other neurobehavioral functions

The challenge of the past for the future of the social sciences

Abstract Purpose – To demonstrate that the past of the social sciences contains all the elements of sociocybernetics and that those elements combined with the logic of modern interdisciplinary simulation research will meet challenges modern society poses to those sciences. Design/methodology/approach – A historical analysis, leading to an outline of advanced logic of social science research, shows the way to modern (computer) simulation research. Findings – When the theoretical principles of sociocybernetics are put into practice by doing (empirically based) simulation research, it can handle in a scientifically valid way a number of research questions modern complex society poses, such as how processes of self-organization in individuals, groups and institutes can be described and understood; self-organization of autobiographic memory of individuals can be simulated in a computer; these individual memories are related to collective memories of generations; these different generations of social researchers can work together and balance in a creative synergy between the wisdom of the past and surprising hypotheses of the future. Research limitations/implications – Social sciences researchers have to work with advanced logic of research such as is propagated in simulation research and by sociocybernetics. Practical implications – Different generations of sociocyberneticians here to work together in (empirically based) simulation research to demonstrate the usefulness of sociocybernetical theory and logic. Originality/value – Sociocybernetics is not an exotic field but a normal legitimate constituent of the social sciences. Keywords Scientificmanagement, Systems theory, Cybernetics, Feedback, Self assessment, Simulatio