Guastello, Stephen J.

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Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquettePsychology Faculty Research and Publications Psychology, Department of1-1-1998Book Review: A review of Chaos, catastrophe, andHuman Affairs: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics toWork, Organizations, and Social evolution by StephenJ. GuastelloStephen J. GuastelloMarquette University, stephen.guastello@marquette.eduPublished version. Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1998): 147-151. DOI. ©1998 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the CreativeCommons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Vol. 2, pp. 147-151Reprints available directly from the publisherPhotocopying permitted by license only(C) 1998 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V.Published by license underthe Gordon and Breach SciencePublishers imprint.Printed in India.Book ReviewA Review of Chaos, Catastrophe, and Human Affairs: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics to Work,Organizations, and Social Evolution by Stephen J. Guastello (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,1995, ISBN 0-8058-1634-8, pp. x + 439, author and subject indexes, $89.95).The Guastello-Abraham Correspondence.Dear Steve,What a pleasure to finally get a chance to look overyour marvelous book. Despite your claim that itstopics "apart from the core mathematical theories,are centered around my own work on catastropheand chaos theory applications to human problemsin industry since 1980", it would seem to me to beuseful to a much broader basin of interests inpsychological and social sciences. Did you expectit to have a more general audience, or be principallyof interest to those in organizational psychology?Were you concerned with issues of audiencespecificity?While I amjust beginning my reading, I must sayI love your balance of formal concepts with infor-mal discourse, and your interrogative style with itspleasant sense ofhumor. You gently but firmly statethat your subject is mathematical, but digestible.Most readers should be comfortable with yourproviding a serious treatment that should nonethe-less be tractable to serious professional psycholo-gists and students.In your opening chapter, enchantingly entitled"An Invitation to Chaos", I thought you did sev-eral things superbly, stating the nature of non-linearity, basic tenets of nonlinear dynamical147systems (NDS) theory, the nature of general sys-tems theory, the nature ofmodeling and testing, thefield of industrial psychology, and the range ofareas in organizational psychology to which NDSapplies.Among the things I liked most was your treat-ment of predictability and dimensionality, andyour inclusion of bifurcation, stability, and self-organization among the most important founda-tion ideas. The one idea that I thought could havereceived more emphasis in this opening chapter isthat a system is comprised of interacting compo-nents whose patterns of interaction over time iswhat we study (Goerner, 1994; Masters, 1991).This metaprocess is so obvious that we often forgetto highlight it. Obviously not only does NDSrevolve around this concept, but it is also thefoundation of the relevance of NDS for I/O. Thisinteractive causality, as you later nicely develop, isreflected in systems of differential equations. I likeyour rapid shift from nonlinearity as curved lines toits real meaning in dynamics as these differentialequations, that is, the nonlinearity as dealing withtemporal features of the system.Beautiful job!Fred148 BOOK REVIEWDear Fred,About the audience, I imagined that people from arange of social sciences would be interested,although I/O psychologists would be near thecenter of the interest group because so many of theapplications pertained to topics in the I/O and ergo-nomics area. I also wanted to push the boundariesof I/O psychology; for that matter several disci-plinary boundaries could be melted or reshaped.About "interacting components" I did list it aspoint #6 on p. 3. The nature of causality as aninteraction between an autonomous nonlinearprocess and control variables unfolds as the bookprogresses. I wanted to keep the primary focus onthe substance of the applications. For someonewho hadn’t thought of the nature of causality issuebefore, the type of interaction that is really takingplace should become apparent by the time the endof the book is reached. At least I would hope so.Have a great weekend on the river.SteveDear Steve,I can see your point. The sophistication you bringto I/O (Industrial/Organizational) is not only thatof dynamics, but of the liberalization of basicconcepts in psychology that dynamics motivates,and your synthesis of general psychology, dynam-ics, and I/O. Your coverage of basic dynamics(Chapter 2), modeling and testing nonlinearity (thevery sane synthesis of traditional and nonlinearstatistics of Chapter 3), and the synthesis of broadpsychological concepts (Chapter 4 on decision-making and cognitive process; and of motivationand conflict (Chapter 5) are general even thoughChapter 5 starts developing the I/O applications.These make your book important even for those ofus who are not principally I/O. Your book shouldsucceed in sophisticating the I/O audience. But Ithink it should be on the bookshelf of every seriousstudent of psychology and social science as well.More things that I especially loved. I liked yourdiscussions of stability, bifurcation, and dimen-sionality. Also, when you mentioned "sensitivity toinitial conditions" in chaotic attractors, you pointout that some of us find the emphasis overdone;some of us like to use the complimentary phrase"insensitivity to initial conditions" (Abarbanelet al., 1993), although most people use "attractorinvariants" to point to the stable properties ofchaotic attractors (Ott et al., 1994). Some authorslike to emphasize that there is not just oneLyapunov exponent, but a spectrum for eachattractor; chaos is the result of convergent anddivergent forces, so taking ranges and ratios ofLyapunov exponents becomes important in char-acterizing a chaotic attractor.A personal anecdote involves my initial assump-tions about the meaning of the ’insensitivity’ phrasebefore I learned what it really meant. I had assumedit meant trajectories that led to different attractors,but Paul Rapp set me straight that its usualmeaning was about divergence within chaoticattractors. However, I discovered that my owninterpretation, while uninformed, was exoneratedthrough its inclusion by Ruelle (footnote 5, Chapter8, 1991). The concept of separate basins is also sug-gested by the alternative phrase, "butterfly effect".Your own work in catastrophe theory on derivingnonlinear difference equations from data is espe-cially important, as is your emphasis on classes andmultiplicity of models. I also liked your discussionofthe difficulties oftraditional statistics (regression,reliability, and validity) in the face of the non-linearity and nonstationarity of the real (nonlinear)world. I liked your acceptance of traditional sta-tistics despite their limitations, because we too, inthe nonlinear world, have to deal with appraisingthe different sources of influence within a system,much like traditional components of variance andother multivariate techniques, including assessingthe degree of influence from high-dimensionalunidentifiable sources (error/noise).Your next three chapters (6, Stress and HumanPerformance; 7, Accidents and Risk Analysis;8, Stress-Related Illness) of course justify yourclaim to an I/O audience, but at the same time shouldhave appeal to other areas of human activity. RiskBOOK REVIEW 149and accidents are a part of everyday life, stress andillness are obviously also of interest to everyone.There is much to be learned even here by thegeneral reader.The next chapter (9), The Evolution of HumanSystems, while oriented to organizational issues ofgame theory, spatio-temporal dynamics (urbandevelopment), population dynamics and workforceproductivity, and chaoeconomics, also opens nicelywith general concepts of evolution, ecology, andsocial Darwinism. I like the emphasis on coopera-tivity especially, a favorite subject ofmany (Combs,1992; Choi, 1997).As for the river, while only a few chaos-orientedfriends joined in this exploration of the MissisquoiNational Wildlife Refuge, in addition to proving asatisfying experience of quiet enjoyment of thebeauty of nature, it provided an unsettling exampleof Lotka-olterra dynamics. There proved to bean alarming biodisplacement of Great Blue Heronsin their rookery by Cormorants. The change overthe past two years is dramatic, and I wonder if thepopulation dynamic is influenced by human med-dling or by natural bird interactions. Choi’s forth-coming article in your journal should be appliedalong with your Chapter 9.FredDear Fred,You do reflect back what I was trying accomplishin CCHA; I’m glad I wasn’t the only one whothought he saw what he thought he saw.The Vermont river delta and lake sound beauti-ful. Remember (how could one possibly forget?),that the crest of every wave breaks at a 120 degreeangle.SteveDear Steve,There were no waves on that beautiful morning,except for those made by my kayak during anoccasional sprint near the end of the 6 hour paddle.Since you imply going into the final quarter of thebook, Chapters 10-12, will be like cresting a wave,I am indeed fastening the seat belt in my kayak andmeasuring the 120 degree angle to test your wave-bifurcation theory.Chapter 10 on Innovation, Creativity, and Com-plexity is a favorite subject of mine as you know,although I have not been particularly concernedwith creativity in the business setting, but more inpersonal domains. Yours emphasizes the evalua-tion of creativity, which is an important topic whentrying to objectify creativity, which is necessary inresearch and evaluating business success; I remainin the more comfortable and less rigorous world ofmetaphor. But, like you, I too start my chapterwith definitions. You like Simonton’s for its NDSnature: "Creative solutions ’reduce mental entropy,by joining configurations together into morecomprehensive hierarchical formation,’ and thehuman intellect is programmed to self-organize itscognitions and emotions accordingly."Your coverage of traditional viewpoints in crea-tivity, i.e., Guilford’s divergent and convergentcognition are especially relevant as those areexactly the ingredients of a chaotic attractor, whichmetaphorically at least, seems to characterize a lotof the creative processes implied by other tradi-tional approaches as well (personality features,motivation and style, group dynamics in brain-storming, organizational theory, and an especiallyinteresting aspect, social and cultural aspects ofcreativity). The application of elementary catas-trophe theory, enhanced by your own considerablework in that area, points heavily toward theimportance of the concept of bifurcation in crea-tivity (witness my own definition: "Creativity isself-organizational bifurcation to novel attractorsof being.")Using elementary catastrophes to model suchcomplex problems means essentially reducing thestate space to one dimension, while leaving theparameter space to be multidimensional, and thatis fine to approach and depict the problems, but Ilook forward to the expansion of the state space(cognitive/behavioral/motivational) to more easily150 BOOK REVIEWinclude chaotic attractors. Your own descrip-tions of the mushroom catastrophe suggest suchmultidimensionality, but of course it would becomplicated. Perhaps a depiction of the basicmodel as an elementary catastrophe, and thensub-portions of the parameter space with multi-dimensionality of the psychological state spaceexpanded would be of value. I look forward to suchresearch. You set the stage nicely. I also liked yourdiscussion of creative problem solving in groupsbecause your stress on chaos causing creativity is afavorite idea not only of Gardner (1993), but againof mine. I further go on to say that there areoptimal levels ofmid-dimensional chaos that set thestage for creative bifurcations, although. Gardnerand I are talking of the individual rather than thegroup situation. I also found myself wondering ifthe analysis of the electronic bulletin board systemdata involved any of the threads on the Chaopsyclistserver of the Society for Nonlinear Dynamicsin Psychology and the Life Science in which Iparticipated. This is an exciting and well-donechapter!Organizational Development, Chapter 11, con-cerns bifurcations in organizations. It is an area ofintense transformation by NDS as you note. Notbeing familiar with this area, I will not attempt todetail it as much, but will summarize for potentialreaders, and you can comment on any importantfeatures I miss. You discuss the traditional ap-proaches, especially those motivated by Lewin(1951), which as a field theorist, are rathersystem-oriented by nature already (bifurcations:unfreezing, change, and refreezing). Again I wantto stress the importance of your book to all readersin psychological and social theory. Not only areorganizational changes characteristic of all socialprocesses, but the action research inaugurated byLewin previews the later developments going ontoday in making more realistic the interactionbetween research and society, breaking downtraditional concepts of isolated research. WitnessMurphy and Abraham’s chapter (1995) on feministpsychology on the relationship between NDS andfeminist psychology. In the liberalizing of Lewin’sconcepts with the unfolding of modern NDS, youand Michaels do a great service in pointing out thatchaotic attractors before and after bifurcationsrepresent stability. Thus organizations go throughbifurcation sequences of stability, instability, andstability, and that furthermore, this is a self-organizational process.The discussion of "Can organizational culture bechanged?" is especially critical and interesting. Thisand the discussion of evolutionary versus revolu-tionary change again remind us of the generaliz-ability of NDS beyond the world of organizationaldevelopment. The specific examples of research on"Chaos in the production lines" and "Creativeproblem solving in an interdisciplinary team"provide beacons of clarity in research for othersto follow as our field becomes increasingly researchoriented. We all owe you a debt of gratitude forcollecting so much information in one volume.Chaos, Revolution, and War, Chapter 12, arethe ultimate concern of psycho-social scientists,and the ultimate expansion of the importantconsideration of dynamical theorists. There is evena society dedicated to this attempt, GERG, formedby Laszlo (1993). It has interested me because as alover of the nonlinear approach-avoidance model,I like to think that model should be used in thisarena. One great importance of your chapter is inreviewing the many different approaches beingmade in NDS to this problem. So far, these manyefforts have been largely isolated from each other,despite the emphasis on the metalanguage of NDSas a force to increase communication among socialscientists (Gilgen, 1995; Tryon, 1995).It is interesting to observe that of the many whoused the term chaos in international affairs beforeit had any technical mathematical meaning,Woodcock (1974) later became a major mathema-tical theorist of the Zeeman catastrophe school. Irecently met him at a WESS gathering in the DCarea where he is now living, and discovered theseearlier interests of his as well. Your perspective onrevolutions, war, internal national security, andpolitical cooperation and the specific models ofthem were helpful to me, as were your extensions toBOOK REVIEW 151world economics and ecology (Meadows et al.,1972, a NDS effort and another product ofLaszlo’s unbounding energy in directing NDS totackle world-wide critical issues with his Club ofRome). Raising the issue of the onset of worldgovernment is a great concluding issue, and it raisesthe question of individual liberties, cultural diver-sity, conformity and diversity, and concludes veryaptly with a discussion of an end to war:"And where there is chaos, there is hope."And at the end of your summary in the epilogue:"Perhaps the theories, models, and experimentsthat have been drawn together here will joggle afew useful thoughts in that direction.""THE BEGINNING" (instead of "The End".)I like your dedication to the promise of socialchange for the improvement of humanity, and lookforward to the coming bifurcations that reveal thetrajectories of its unfolding.Nice job. You are both helping sophisticate thefield and motivating change in science and society.Chaoharmonically, FredDear Fred,At the point where you mention the derivation ofthe polynomial regression equations for the cata-strophe model, please add, that the chapter alsoincludes statistical models for capturing theLyapunov exponent and dimension, which is a testfor chaos. We can now separate the chaos from thenoise.SteveReferencesAbarbanel, H., Brown, R., Sidorowich, J. and Tsimring, L.Sh.(1993). The analysis of observed chaotic data in physicalsystems. Reviews ofModern Physics 65, 1331-1392.Choi, C.-H. (1997). Generalizations of the Lotka-Volterrapopulation ecology model: Theory, simulation, and applica-tions. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology and Life Sciences 1,263-273.Combs, A. (1992). Cooperation: Beyond the Age ofCompetition.Gordon & Breach, Philadelphia.Gardner, H. (1993). Creating Minds. Basic Books, New York.Gilgen, A.R. (1995). Preface. In Chaos Theory in Psychology(F.D. Abraham and A.R. Gilgen, Eds). Praeger/Greenwood,Westport, CT, pp. xv-xvii.Goerner, S. (1994). Chaos and the Evolving Ecological Universe.Gordon & Breach, New York.Laszlo, E. (1993). The Creative Cosmos: A Unified Science ofMatter, Life, and Mind. Floris, Edinburg, Floris.Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. Harper & Row,New York.Masters, T. (1991). Computable Complexity. Workshop at theFirst Conference of the Society for Chaos Theory inPsychology. August 15-16, San Francisco.Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens, W.W.(1972). The Limits to Growth. Universe, New York.Murphy, P. and Abraham, F.D. (1995). Feminist psychology:Prototype of the dynamical revolution in psychology. InChaos Theory in Psychology(F.D. AbrahamandA.R. Gilgen,Eds). Praeger/Greenwood, Westport, CT, pp. 295-304.Ott, E., Sauer, T. and Yorke, J.A. (1994). Coping with Chaos.Wiley, New York.Ruelle, D. (1991). Chance and Chaos. Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton.Tryon, W.W. (1995). Synthesizing psychological schismsthrough connectionism. In Chaos Theory in Psychology(F.D. Abraham and A.R. Gilgen, Eds). Praeger/Greenwood,Westport, CT, pp. 247-263.Woodcock, G. (1974). Anarchy or Chaos. Freedom, London.Frederick David AbrahamBlueberry Brain InstituteWaterbury Center VT 05677, USAStephen J. GuastelloDepartment of PsychologyP.O. Box 1881Marquette UniversityMilwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1881, USA

Book Review: \u3cem\u3eA review of Chaos, catastrophe, and Human Affairs: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics to Work, Organizations, and Social evolution\u3c/em\u3e by Stephen J. Guastello

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Book Review: \u3cem\u3eA review of Chaos, catastrophe, and Human Affairs: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics to Work, Organizations, and Social evolution\u3c/em\u3e by Stephen J. Guastello

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