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Terms like 'levels' and 'nested' are used to describe relationships between components of conceptual systems (theories, models etc.). However, they have not been fully explored. This paper investigates levels to better understand how theories are structured and so how we may develop more useful theories and models to better support more effective practice. We find a horizontal dimension (represented by causal connections between concepts at one ontological level) and a vertical dimension (represented by connections of emergence between concepts of differing ontological levels). This view of emergence offers a new way to structurally distinguish between conceptual components of a theory, thus supporting a new approach to building theories that better reflects our systemic world. A third, perspectival, approach may be applied to aid in the understanding of both dimensions. A typology is proposed as are conventions for diagramming theories and new criteria for improving the structure of theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal's special issue is presented in which the guest editors discuss the use of the system dynamics approach (SD).

An editorial is presented on fourth World Conference on Complex Systems (WCCS) on April 22–25 in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

An introduction to articles in the issue is presented on topics including the need for systems science to overcome its fragmented condition and to deepen its scientific foundations, phenomenological foundations of systems engineering and systems science, and principles from humanities that have relevance for thinking about systems.

System dynamics is generally selected as an analytical approach because it is believed to be particularly good with complex issues both in terms of the core model and the environment. The SD literature devotes considerable space to study and intervention processes, often suggesting general models, protocols or procedures that have worked in specific applications or a range of similar applications. This paper describes an ongoing project in which a complex system operates within a complex and fast-changing environment with major and overlapping organizational changes, a wide and diverse set of stakeholders and difficult national political agendas. The project concerns the nature of ‘quality and effective training’ for junior doctors in the UK against the backdrop of major changes in working hours and conditions driven by national safety concerns and the overarching requirements of the EU Working Time Directive. Early models are already yielding valuable insights for those at a large teaching hospital wrestling with the seemingly impossible task of maintaining levels and quality of both doctor training and service to patients. However, the study is also highlighting that in such high-complexity the study process itself can be problematic. This paper considers the issues raised and relates them to the literature on model-based interventions and concludes that flexible and adaptive processes are needed to effectively manage such ‘knotty’ projects. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports several related failures of modelling interventions. Atrivé, an organizational consulting company, set out to adapt a canonical housing association model named ITS to the specific circumstances of its clients. The ITS adaptation process, however, demonstrated rather annoying dynamics and finally had to be terminated due to negative business results. This paper provides a background on the relevance of failure case studies and ventures into the symptoms and warning signs. We reflect on a systems thinking intervention within Atrivé to learn from these experiences and improve business strategy. The problems encountered correspond to several archetypes. We end this paper by summarizing several known and one possibly new factor in explaining failure of modelling projects and pose several questions for further research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20th century saw at least five regions of the world that gave themselves over to unspeakably evil regimes, each resulting in totalitarian dictatorships responsible for horrific suffering and deaths of millions of people. As part of a group of authors involved in various ways in the study of civil society and the common good, this author was invited to address what systems thinking could contribute to understandings of the emergence of such extensive evil. This article develops a qualitative model crafted to capture the generic structure and dynamics of the emergence of extensive evil in a society. Focusing on crucial stocks and flows and feedback loops, the map reveals eight areas where a healthy society may be vulnerable to the spread of such evil, with corresponding areas of resistance pushing back on its apparent inevitability. The paper concludes with reflections on values in systems thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author announces his resignation as editor of the journal as of January 2021, and enumerates his accomplishments during his tenure.

This is the first of a series of papers on the stages of critical systems practice. Critical systems practice is a multimethodology that seeks to employ the ideas developed in critical systems thinking to intervene in and improve complex real‐world problem situations. It has four stages—Explore (the problem situation), Produce (an intervention strategy), Intervene (flexibly) and Check (on progress)—called to mind as EPIC. The aim is to set out where thinking has reached on the best way to carry out each of these stages and to invite comment on what more needs doing. The first stage, Explore, is concerned with how to start a multimethodological study. If this is done well, it can bring to the fore opportunities for a full and in‐depth systems intervention. If done badly, it can lead to practice that makes the problem situation worse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) has been used by researchers from a variety of disciplines to study a range of phenomena. At present, ABMS is vastly underutilized in organizational psychology, yet we believe it offers a range of potential benefits that are currently not well catered for by existing tools. In this paper, we introduce ABMS and explain how it differs from current approaches. We illustrate the potential advantages of the approach through a range of examples and through the identification of opportunities in the field of organizational psychology. We also highlight potential limitations of the ABMS approach, and discuss the circumstances under which it may make a worthwhile contribution. Practitioner Points This paper outlines ABMS and explains how it adds to the existing toolset of the organizational psychologist. Practitioners will find ABMS and this paper particularly useful: When they are working in high-risk environments, where getting it wrong is costly., Where there are practical or ethical difficulties in conducting real-world research., Where they want to develop and test more holistic interpretations of complex systems and problems., Where they wish to examine feedback loops and/or the impact of time on behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to my refutation of their 2008 paper, Kira and van Eijnatten defend their refusal to retract their paper with a claim to scientific validity. This note examines the scientific validity of their approach, chaordic systems thinking (CST), using only the most basic criteria: respect for evidence, observing and reporting accurately and precisely, having an approach that is coherent, internally consistent, capable of generating propositions testable in real organizations and generating useful results. CST fails on every criterion. Instead of working on the best available evidence to advance research on the cooperative sustainable organizations that are required to deal with the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, CST is attempting to solve a problem long since solved. It illustrates a serious malaise in social science. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the binary code for functional systems sustainable development, the sustainable skills for work in the digital age, and the business networks.

Although current systems‐based methods of organization development provide some benefit to improving the ability of organizations to reach their goals, consultants are continually seeking to improve the way they may be used to support internal and external clients. This paper reports on an emerging systems‐based analytical method, "Integrative Propositional Analysis," and its use for improving strategic plans leading to improvements in the capacity of an academic research institution. This preliminary report suggests a new structural perspective that may be useful for consultants and leaders interested in improving the usefulness of strategic plans for improving organizational effectiveness so that organizations may better fulfil their missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering activity possess robust methods for designing, realizing, and managing complex engineered systems. As engineered systems become more complex, engineering activity's complexity is growing along with it. Current engineering management tools and methods, although they serve well for many engineering activities, begin to fail when the complexity of the engineered systems exceeds a threshold. Part of the problem is that social, organizational, and psychological sciences have been integrated in limited capacity into engineering activity. Further, the methods and tools for managing engineering activities tend to be rigid and often do not adapt well to complex engineering environments. To address these limitations, the author proposes for the use of the purposeful human activity systems framework as a systems perspective on engineering activity. The framework provides a flexible approach to managing engineering activity by enabling the selection and application and effectiveness measurement of the best social, organizational, and psychological methods and tools according to the specific needs of the engineering organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that attachment theory, as developed by John Bowlby and refined and extended by a host of other psychological researchers, offers a potentially powerful theoretical framework for the psychology of religion. A wide range of research findings concerning such topics as images of God, conversion, and prayer can be conceptually integrated within this framework. An exploratory investigation was conducted of the relationship between individual differences in respondents' childhood attachments to their parents and their adult religious beliefs and involvement. A sample of 213 respondents to a newspaper survey on love completed a follow-up mail survey concerning theft religious beliefs and family backgrounds. Multiple regression analyses revealed that certain aspects of adult religiosity, particularly beliefs about God and having a personal relationship with God, can be predicted from the interaction of childhood attachment classification and parental religiousness. Respondents who classified their childhood relationships with their mothers as avoidant (one of two insecure patterns of attachment) were more religious as adults, according to several measures, than were those classifying their childhood relationships as secure or anxious/ambivalent, however, this pattern held only when the parents were reported as having been relatively nonreligious. Respondents in the avoidant category also reported significantly higher rates of sudden religious conversions during both adolescence and adulthood, irrespective of parental religiosity. These results suggest that God and religion may function in a compensatory role for people with a history of avoidant attachment; that is, God may serve as a substitute attachment figure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an attempt is made to apply the methodological principles of Simmel's formal sociology to fieldwork and, thus, to lay out systematically the methodological foundations of "analytical field research." The paper centers around three major methodological principles (a) shifting the emphasis from actual facts to the particular analytical perspectives from which they are viewed; (b) establishing concern with formal patterns which are abstracted from reality rather than with its concrete contents; (c) studying only selected aspects of concrete phenomena and making a commitment to particular analytical concerns and foci. Based on these methodological principles, certain guidelines for analytical field researchers are then recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author discusses his plans as new editor-in-chief of the journal as of January 2021, like striving to increase the citation rates of published papers and the use of emerging technologies in finding creative and innovative ways to communicate systems research.

In the article, the author presents a call for papers on system research and theory of systems and their applications like artificial intelligence to be published in a special issue of the journal.

The desire to ensure that the benefits of successful small‐scale social innovation are more widely available has led to a plethora of frameworks that seek to scale such innovations. We review 20 extant frameworks for scaling and distinguished four directions: up (producing changes in laws, policies, institutions or norms), down (resource allocation to support implementation), in (ensuring organizations have the capacity to deliver the type and number of good practices required) and out (geographically replicating or broadening the range or scope of good practices). In addition to these directions of scaling a generic pathway, or process, to achieve scaling is also discernible across many of the frameworks reviewed. This involves five phases: identifying, planning, implementing, learning and adapting. We stress the need for a more dynamic and systemic approach to scaling, as well as one which anticipates, addresses and assesses the extent to which scaling is inclusive of marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the natural and social world, some fairly advanced and apparently robust systems destroy themselves without discernible reason, function, or purpose. Whereas such and similar cases have been discussed within specific branches of scholarships, the attempts to propose and test a general theory of self‐destruction in complex systems remain, to our knowledge, a thing of the future. To move in this direction, we suggest that the conflicts between explicit stratification, thorough functional differentiation and tacit segmentation within complex systems, are likely to provoke their unintended self‐annihilation. Furthermore, we hypothesize that whenever such systems collapse, it is the circular co‐dependency of noisy signaling, redundancy, and semantic inflation that sets self‐destructive mechanisms in motion. We illustrate our preliminary findings with examples from social, natural, and artificial life; reexamine autoimmunity as a popular model of systemic self‐destruction; and indicate potential avenues of empirical research aimed at supporting, qualifying or disproving the underlying hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of the basic issues surrounding the development and implementation of specialized family fife education curricula are questioned in this paper. Distinction is made between skill building and integrative education. Some suggestions are made with regard to means of integrating the subject matter within the broader school curriculum, as well as for developing acceptance for such programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on several research papers. They are as follows: "Alternatives to Chronological Age in Determining Standards of Suitability for Public Safety Jobs, Volume 1: Technical Report" and "Ending Mandatory Requirement for Tenured Faculty: The Consequences for Higher Education." Alternatives to Chronological Age in Determining Standards of Suitability for Public Safety Jobs, Volume 1: Technical Report, the research conducted by Pennsylvania in answering the questions, was a major data collection effort. Extensive annotated bibliographies covering industrial and organization psychology, public safety, gerontology, physiology, medicine and relevant case law with more than 25,000 citations were produced and are also available as different volumes of report. These researchers received information such as basic demographic profiles, job analyses, task analyses, job descriptions, tests, validity evidence and physical fitness data from more than 400 police. In addition to data bases created from this information.

At least some of the more prominent proponents of laissezfaire advocate governmental intervention for the purpose of comprehensively and substantially redistributing income in order to achieve distributive justice. It is questionable, however, that a laissez-faire system would function in the way that is described by these same proponents if a leveling of income of the sort advocated were to be instituted. This is so because the postulates of human behavior on which the proper workings of the system are based would be rendered ineffectual as a consequence of such intervention. Indeed, if a system of laissez-faire is to work well, there is required a certain ethos which precludes significant intervention in the name of distributive justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humankind requires social responsibility (SR) via its global bodies United Nations (in UN Global Compact) and International Standards Organization (in ISO 26000), for humankind to avoid global crises and extinction caused by Social irresponsibility (SI), resulting from un‐systemic behavior, i.e., over‐specialization and poor holism that interdisciplinary creative cooperation should replace, which pioneers of Systems Theory (Bertalanffy) and Cybernetics (Wiener) required and practiced several decades ago. Ports, providing logistic services, present potential SR or SI. The now‐a‐days technology causes more ports' SI than SR by waste, air, water, and land pollution. SI is nearly unavoidable, if process is not handled with systemic behavior (SB), including a (requisitely) holistic approach of any process participants. Authors present a stepwise regression statistical modeling research on a port, applying systems approach in a mathematical way, to study a chance of port's SB leading to SR rather than SI damaging local people. SR and SB are difficult to measure; they prevent problems and costs. SI causes measurable problems and costs to indirectly express (lacking) SR and SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces several articles on systems research and behavioral science.

Field evidence suggests that people belonging to the same group often behave similarly, that is, behavior exhibits social interaction effects. We conduct a laboratory experiment that avoids the identification problem present in the field and allows us to study the behavioral logic of social interaction effects. Our novel design feature is that each subject is simultaneously a member of two randomly assigned and identical groups where only members ('neighbors') are different. We study behavior in a coordination game with multiple equilibria and a public goods game, which has only one equilibrium in material payoffs. We speak of social interactions if the same subject at the same time makes group-specific decisions that depend on their respective neighbors' decisions. We find that a majority of subjects exhibit social interaction effects both when the game has multiple equilibria in material payoffs and when it only has one equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines cultural practices that support informal learning as children observe and pitch in with everyday activities that are integrated into family and community life. We discuss the social and cultural grounding of this learning tradition, drawing on research carried out in different parts of the world during more than 60 years. Children learn by watching, listening, and attending, often with great concentration, by taking purposeful initiative, and by contributing and collaborating. We try to correct the frequent misconception that this way of learning is essentially a nonverbal process by showing that speech is commonly used, but judiciously, in support of efficient communication rather than for “lessons.” This learning tradition is not in opposition to school learning; children with schooling experience learn this way when they belong and experience community. [informal learning, cultural practices, socialization, observation, family and community learning] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The division of cognitive labor is fundamental to all cultures. Adults have a strong sense of how knowledge is clustered in the world around them and use that sense to access additional information, defer to relevant experts, and ground their own incomplete understandings. One prominent way of clustering knowledge is by disciplines similar to those that comprise the natural and social sciences. Seven studies explored an emerging sense of these discipline-based ways of clustering of knowledge. Even 5-year-olds could cluster knowledge in a manner roughly corresponding to the departments of natural and social sciences in a university, doing so without any explicit awareness of those academic disciplines. But this awareness is fragile early on and competes with other ways of clustering knowledge. Over the next few years, children come to see discipline-based clusters as having a privileged status, one that may be linked to increasingly sophisticated assumptions about essences for natural kinds. Possible mechanisms for this developmental shift are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins and development of the psychology of liberation are described, detailing the intellectual and political context in which the concept of liberation emerged in Latin American social sciences. Its constitution as a mode of doing psychology, and the founding ideas of Ignacio Martin Baró, its pioneer, are analyzed. Primary concepts such as problematization, de-ideologization, and de-alienation are discussed, and I explain how they are integrated into a central process characterized as conscientization. The role of relatedness as an epistemological base for knowledge construction and liberation is highlighted. The dynamics in which these processes interact in order to facilitate and catalyze the transformation of negative living conditions through participatory action and reflection, to empower people so they become conscious citizens, and to strengthening civil society and democracy is also discussed. I argue that the ethical, critical, and political character of the liberating actions respond for the participatory, reflexive, and transformative conception of this form of psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses issues related to systems research and behavioral science. It is necessary to identify symptoms and warning signs in order to reveal possible flaws. The actual interventions succeeded the development of a sound model. The failures that consist the warning signs include the aggregation issue, the time series issue and the competing model issue.

The article focuses on the use of psychology to save biological diversity and human well-being. Some of the tools psychologists can offer to conservation biology includes new communication approaches and deeper understanding of human emotions, identities, attitudes and values related to the natural world. Conservation psychology can play a role by providing easier access to psychologists interested in biodiversity conservation. It can also allow psychological theories, principles and methods to be more immediately useful.

Over the past decade there has been a growing concern over the gap between research and practice in family and other human sciences. Family scientists have been troubled that the scientific knowledge base is not frequently used by practitioners, whereas practitioners have complained that the research base is often not very useful for issues faced in practice. The present article examines some of the reasons for the gap between research and practice and offers some suggestions for bridging it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on cognitive science, to be found in the human behavior. The article highlight the challenges that cognitive science faces in today's world. It first emphasizes the need to better integrate basic research and applications for the mutual benefit of each. Application without basic research is ad hoc and hard to translate to new situations. It further reveals that basic research without application misses opportunities to become more sophisticated by considering the richness of the real world.

From a phenomenological perspective, form is intrinsically linked to attention. This article explores that relationship with a view to highlighting the potential importance of the experience of form to anthropology. It is suggested that in Melanesia the management of attention as a mechanism for the control of form and vice versa are key vehicles for the social definition and transformation of persons. It takes as a case study the life-cycle rituals of Lak in southern New Ireland, where the articulation and disarticulation of the form of persons and tubuan spirits are linked together and also, through a discourse of remembering and forgetting, with social attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop an instrument to characterize public sector managed behavioral health care arrangements to capture key differences between managed and "unmanaged" care and among managed care arrangements.Study Design: The instrument was developed by a multi-institutional group of collaborators with participation of an expert panel. Included are six domains predicted to have an impact on access, service utilization, costs, and quality. The domains are: characteristics of the managed care plan, enrolled population, benefit design, payment and risk arrangements, composition of provider networks, and accountability. Data are collected at three levels: managed care organization, subcontractor, and network of service providers.Data Collection Methods: Data are collected through contract abstraction and key informant interviews. A multilevel coding scheme is used to organize the data into a matrix along key domains, which is then reviewed and verified by the key informants.Principal Findings: This instrument can usefully differentiate between and among Medicaid fee-for-service programs and Medicaid managed care plans along key domains of interest. Beyond documenting basic features of the plans and providing contextual information, these data will support the refinement and testing of hypotheses about the impact of public sector managed care on access, quality, costs, and outcomes of care.Conclusions: If managed behavioral health care research is to advance beyond simple case study comparisons, a well-conceptualized set of instruments is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review encompasses work published in the 1980s that concerns the causes of divorce. Substantive findings are reviewed under three broad headings: macrostructure, demographics and the life course, and family process. Trends in methods, samples, and theory are also reviewed. This decade's research on divorce is characterized by bigger and better data sets, more sophisticated research techniques, and a growing body of conclusive empirical findings in the areas of demographic and life course factors. Relatively neglected areas include theory and family process. The review ends with recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On the basis of research into alternative women's roles in eight new religious movements, this study addresses conflicting views concerning the relationship between gender role ambiguities and women's participation in the sexual innovations developing in NRMs, summed up as the "empowerment" versus the "neopatriarchy" school of thought. A close study of the literature and histories of these groups suggests that they are more varied, flexible, and experimental in their patterns of sexuality than previous studies would indicate; and that, for the majority of members, involvement is a transitory phenomenon, providing them with opportunities for participating in laboratories of sexual experimentation. Adopting a "gendered" approach to the issue of "cult conversion," this study argues that contemporary women find protective, supportive microsocieties in NRMs, which enable them to try out a spectrum of clearly defined roles that prepare them to choose a more personally gratifying adult mode when they eventually defect. By temporarily inhabiting the stylized feminine roles in NRMs and submitting to their leaders' erotic/ascetic ordeals,. members appear to undergo a self-imposed psychological metamorphosis, or cocoon work," which in many ways resembles the ritual process found in feminine rites of passage in traditional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]