**Understanding Complex Systems** # In Sync: The Emergence of Function in Minds, Groups and Societies *By Andrzej K. Nowak, Robin R. Vallacher, Ryszard Praszkier, Agnieszka Rychwalska and Michal Zochowski.* --------- # Springer Complexity Springer Complexity is an interdisciplinary program publishing the best research and academic-level teaching on both fundamental and applied aspects of complex systems-cutting across all traditional disciplines of the natural and life sciences, engineering, economics, medicine, neuroscience, social and computer science. Complex Systems are systems that comprise many interacting parts with the ability to generate a new quality of macroscopic collective behaviour the manifestations of which are the spontaneous formation of distinctive temporal, spatial or functional structures. Models of such systems can be successfully mapped onto quite diverse "real-life" situations like the climate, the coherent emission of light from lasers, chemical reaction-diffusion systems, biological cellular networks, the dynamics of stock markets and of the Internet, earthquake statistics and prediction, freeway traffic, the human brain, or the formation of opinions in social systems, to name just some of the popular applications. Although their scope and methodologies overlap somewhat, one can distinguish the following main concepts and tools: organisation, nonlinear dynamics, synergetics, turbulence, dynamical systems, catastrophes, instabilities, stochastic processes, chaos, graphs and networks, cellular automata, adaptive systems, genetic algorithms and computational intelligence. The three major book publication platforms of the Springer Complexity program are the monograph series "Understanding Complex Systems" focusing on the various applications of complexity, the "Springer Series in Synergetics", which is devoted to the quantitative theoretical and methodological foundations, and the "Springer Briefs in Complexity" which are concise and topical working reports, case studies, surveys, essays and lecture notes of relevance to the field. In addition to the books in these two core series, the program also incorporates individual titles ranging from textbooks to major reference works. **Series Editors** - Henry D. I. Abarbanel, Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. - Dan Braha, New England Complex Systems Institute, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA. - Péter Erdi, Center for Complex Systems Studies, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, USA; Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary. - Karl J. Friston, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK Hermann Haken, Center of Synergetics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany Viktor Jirsa, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. - Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Kunihiko Kaneko, Research Center for Complex Systems Biology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Scott Kelso, Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA Markus Kirkilionis, Mathematics Institute and Centre for Complex Systems, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. - Jürgen Kurths, Nonlinear Dynamics Group, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Ronaldo Menezes, Department of Computer Science, University of Exeter, UK Andrzej Nowak, Department of Psychology, Warsaw University, Warszawa, Poland Hassan Qudrat-Ullah, School of Administrative Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada Linda Reichl, Center for Complex Quantum Systems, University of Texas, Austin, USA. - Peter Schuster, Theoretical Chemistry and Structural Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Frank Schweitzer, System Design. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Didier Somette, Entrepreneurial Risk, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. - Stefan Thurner, Section for Science of Complex Systems, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. # Understanding Complex Systems **Founding Editor: S. Kelso** Future scientific and technological developments in many fields will necessarily depend upon coming to grips with complex systems. Such systems are complex in both their composition-typically many different kinds of components interacting simultaneously and nonlinearly with each other and their environments on multiple levels-and in the rich diversity of behavior of which they are capable. The Springer Series in Understanding Complex Systems series (UCS) promotes new strategies and paradigms for understanding and realizing applications of complex systems research in a wide variety of fields and endeavors. UCS is explicitly transdisciplinary. It has three main goals: First, to elaborate the concepts, methods and tools of complex systems at all levels of description and in all scientific fields, especially newly emerging areas within the life, social, behavioral, economic, neuro- and cognitive sciences (and derivatives thereof); second, to encourage novel applications of these ideas in various fields of engineering and computation such as robotics, nano-technology and informatics; third, to provide a single forum within which commonalities and differences in the workings of complex systems may be discerned, hence leading to deeper insight and understanding. UCS will publish monographs, lecture notes and selected edited contributions aimed at communicating new findings to a large multidisciplinary audience. More information about this series at - http://www.springer.com/series/5394. # Preface Psychology is a fascinating discipline because of the diversity and richness of its subject matter- how people function at multiple levels of analysis, ranging from the brain to society. Psychology is also a frustrating discipline, and for the same reason. The diversity and richness of human experience poses a formidable challenge for identifying common principles with which a comprehensive theory can be generated. Yet the quest for unification is basic to science, one that has met with varying degrees of success in other disciplines. Psychologists are aware of this obstacle to achieving status as a mature discipline, and over the years, several "big ideas" have been forwarded. None, however, have inspired widespread acceptance for long, let alone generated an agreed-upon paradigm with which to generate testable hypotheses concerning processes that underlie all manner of psychological functioning. It is important to recognise a problem, as psychologists have done, but the real challenge is finding a solution, which psychologists have not done. This book aims to identify a set of simple processes, all stemming from a common principle, that are manifest at all levels of human experience, from the inner workings of the brain to the collective workings of groups and society. These unifying processes, moreover, are testable and thus subject to verification and falsification a feature that has been lacking in other attempts at unification, but one that is critical to fulfilling the promissory note of theoretical synthesis. This is a tall order that understandably smacks of pretension, if not arrogance. However, the thesis we present has the backing of principles that have been identified, tested, and found widespread acceptance in the natural sciences in recent decades. These sciences span a wide range of phenomena, from subatomic physics to ecology, so the problem they experience is not unlike that associated with theory construction in psychology. It is thus encouraging that scientists in these diverse fields have established cross-disciplinary commonalities by framing each phenomenon as a complex system that operates in accordance with principles of nonlinear dynamical systems. The success of the complex systems approach in the so-called hard sciences has inspired the current generation of psychologists to adapt this approach to the diverse subject matter of human experience. To date, the adaptation of complexity science and dynamical systems to human experience has largely occurred within different levels of analysis. Neuroscience, perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and sociology have each benefited from framing their respective phenomena in terms of complexity and dynamism, but to date these disciplines have not been cross-checked for their common wellspring in invariant principles. We feel the time has come for such an undertaking. We build upon the work that has been conducted to date in an attempt to make explicit the deep connection among the diverse manifestations of human experience. So although our aim may seem pretentious, even arrogant, we are simply continuing work on the promissory note that has been generated by others in recent years. It is easy to appreciate the complexity and dynamism in different domains of human experience. What is less clear is how such complexity is harnessed to accomplish functions. Our basic premise is that the complexity of brains, minds, and groups is simplified in some fashion to stabilize on a pattern that allows brains to generate perceptions and regulate actions, minds to form judgments and make decisions, and groups to solve problems and engage in common action. The simplification of complexity required in each case is possible because of the tendency for subsets of elements at each level of functioning to coordinate in service of performing a function. So regardless of a system's initial complexity, the process of coordination enables the system to function in an orderly and purposeful manner. Coordination, of course, is a broad term, encompassing everything from the activation of muscle fibres in a specific temporal configuration to the complex role structure of a modern society. In the perspective we advance, coordination is often understood in a far narrower sense as synchronization the temporal dependency of the states of subsets of elements in a system. We propose that a system's function is possible because of intermittent synchronization, in which sets of elements are assembled and disassembled over time as demanded by the function at issue. In this view, each domain of human experience represents the intermittent synchronisation of different subsets of elements in service of performing a task. The nature of the elements clearly differs across phenomena -- neurons that synchronise to promote brain function are distinct from individuals that synchronise to promote social behaviour but the manner in which the elements in each case synchronise has much in common. Demonstrating this commonality and its scalability in service of the broad range of human function is the central aim of this book. The book consists of two parts. Part One, consisting of six chapters, focuses on theory and research regarding the role of intermittent synchronisation in the emergence of function. It does so by focusing on expanding levels of experience, from brain function to higher-order mental properties to goal-directed action to social interaction to group and societal dynamics. Having established how synchronisation plays out for each level of analysis, the book shifts focus in Part Two to show the utility of this perspective for understanding and resolving real-world issues. To some extent, the four chapters comprising Part Two consider how the synchronisation bases of function can be implemented to deal with intrapersonal and interpersonal problems. But progress has already been made in this regard, so these chapters also illustrate how the synchronisation perspective has been implemented in a variety of contexts. We should note that the chapters in Part I represent expansions of ideas developed in a previous publication (Nowak, Vallacher, Rychwalska, & Zochowski, 2017). Chapter 1, "The how, what, and why of functional synchronisation," discusses the concept of synchronisation, various forms of synchronisation, and provides an overview of intermittent synchronisation and its role in promoting function. Chapter 2, "Synchronisation in the emergence of basic mental functions," considers brain function from the synchronisation perspective. It emphasises how neural structures achieve sufficient synchronisation to promote perceptual and cognitive states that are manifest in consciousness. Chapter 3, "Higher order mental functions." describes the scenario by which the stream of consciousness gives rise to higher-level thoughts and feelings, including social judgments, action plans, deci-sions, and self-concepts. Chapter 4, "Mental calibration: The synchronisation of mind and action," describes theory and research on the emergence and deconstruction of action in service of optimal performance. The interplay of emergence and deconstruction represent key features of the synchronisation scenario. Chapter 5, "Synchronisation in the emergence of social relations," shows how the formation of social bonds in dyadic relations can be framed in terms of the progressive synchronisation of individuals actions and internal states. Chapter 6, "Synchronisation in groups and societies," frames group and societal dynamics in terms of the intermittent synchronisation of individuals to accomplish collective tasks, whether in service of a pragmatic goal or in service of enhancing social relations or forging a shared identity. Part Two builds on the ideas documented in the first six chapters to show their relevance in the real world. Chapter 7, "What makes profound, peaceful social transitions successful? The example of the underground Solidarity movement," argues that peaceful transitions in society are made possible by social networks in which social capital, trust, and entrepreneurship optimise synchronisation among members of a society. Chapter 8. "Social entrepreneurs and social synchronisation," concentrates on how unique individuals, even those lacking resources, can introduce constructive social changes on a societal level. The source of such uniqueness is their ability to employ synchronisation dynamics in the building of social capital. Chapter 9, "Family therapy: In and out of SYNC, frames destructive family dynamics in terms of patterns of dysfunctional synchronisation among family members. To deal effectively with these problems, it is necessary to disassemble the dysfunctional patterns, setting the stage for a reconfiguration that is more adaptive. Taken together, the chapters in this book pay homage to Kurt Lewin's insight that "nothing is so practical as a good theory." So rather limiting ourselves to providing a foundational science for psychology, we attempt to bridge the persistent gap between basic and applied science that has all too often characterised the field of psychology. In this sense, the book represents a means by which theory and application can be synchronised into a coherent and functional whole. The effort put forward in this book was made possible by a grant from the Polish National Center for Science, NCN2011/03/B/HS6/05084. - Warsaw, Poland Boca Raton, USA - Warsaw, Poland Warsaw, Poland Ann Arbor, USA - Andrzej K. Nowak - Robin R. Vallacher - Ryszard Praszkier - Agnieszka Rychwalska - Michal Zochowski **Acknowledgements:** *We acknowledge the support of the grant from Polish National Science Center NCN2011/03/B/HS6/05084.*