Computer Simulation of Freud's Counterwill Theory: II. Extension to Elementary Social Behavior

A model is presented describing a living system at the level of the individual personality, together with its interpersonal relationship context (organism, subsystems, & suprasystem). Quantitative, dynamic cross-level hypotheses are developed that extend psychological processes so as to model the most elementary processes in social systems. The beginning point is Cornelius Wegman's 1977 system dynamics model ("A Computer Simulation Model of Freud's Counterwill Theory," Behavioral Science, 1977, 22, 218-233), which is characterized by quantitative cross-level hypotheses concerning both physiological & psychological levels of functioning within the individual personality system. The extension process is accomplished by synthesizing concepts from many different theories in personality & social psychology into equations linking two multiple-loop feedback systems to form a suprasystem. Each individual model is found to have several distinct operational states, & the dyadic model has a number of interesting combinations of these states that correlate with clinical descriptions of steady-state behavior & subjective experience in human marital dyads. For example, under certain conditions an individual operating in an unstable mode can achieve personal system stability within a dyadic relationship. In some cases, two unstable individuals can form a stable system. The process of extending the original model supports the utility of a synthetic approach to the construction of quantitative theories concerning small social systems. This process also suggests new approaches to planning future empirical research on small social systems using methods more appropriate to the study of complex, dynamic systems. 5 Tables, 10 Figures, 78 References. AA