CALL FOR PAPERS
SEVENTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
THE SOCIETY FOR CHAOS THEORY IN PSYCHOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES
July 31- Aug 3, 1997. Marquette University,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Papers and programs are now requested pertaining to applications of chaos
theory, fractals, nonlinear dynamics and related principles applied to any of
the various psychological subdisciplines,neuroscience, biology, physiology
and other areas of medical research, economics, sociology, anthropology,
physics, political science, organizations and their management, other
business applications, education, art, philosophy, and literature. Please
indicate to which of the foregoing topics your paper applies.
Submissions may be single papers, symposia, roundtable or salon programs.
Subject matter may be theoretical, empirical or methodology oriented. Oral
presentations will be 30 minutes in duration.
Proposals should be submitted by APRIL 30, 1997 to:
William Sulis, M.D. Ph.D., By e-mail: sulisw@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca;
by FAX (to McMaster University): 905-521-7948;
by snail-mail: 255 Townline Rd. E., RR5, Cayuga, Ontario, Canada, N0A 1E0.
This year's conference will preceed the American Psychological
Association's annual conference in Chicago, later in August.
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS:
Julian Sprott, University of Wisconsin, Madison. WI
David Campbell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
SPECIAL EVENT
At the conclusion of the Thursday workshops, all conferees are invited to
join the folks who have attended the Organizational Workshop for a special
presentation of The Chaos Exercise. There everyone can experience the chaotic
flow of work in a simulated hierarchical organization, and collect data.
If all goes well enough, a data analysis and interpretative feedback will
appear in the next available SCTPLS Newsletter.
SCHEDULE
July 31 Basic and Organizational Workshops
Opening Night- Plenary Speaker
Aug 1 Conference Day 1
Banquet- Plenary Speaker
Aug 2 Conference Day 2
Plenary Speaker
Aug 3 A.M. Business Meeting and Final Conference Sessions
Start Clinical and Philosophy Workshops
P.M. Conclusioin of Clincal and Philosophical Workshops
WORKSHOPS
Separate registration is required for those wishing to attend the
associated workshops.
Half-day programs: Regular member $80. Student member $50.
Full-day programs: Regular member $150, Student member $75.
BASIC DYNAMICS WORKSHOP (Half day,) given by Keith Clayton, Ph.D., Vanderbilt
University; membership secretary, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology &
Life Sciences). This workshop will cover basic concepts of nonlinear dynamics,
including attractors, bifurcations, phase space, sensitivity to initial
conditions, complexity, fractals, and dimensionality. Implications of these
concepts for time series analysis and theory development in psychology and
the life sciences will also be addressed. (Note: Workshop is organized in
two main parts, separated by a lunch break).
WORKSHOP: NONLINEAR DYNAMICS FOR ORGANIZATIONS (half day) given by
Stephen J. Guastello, Ph.D., Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; Assoc.
Professor Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Human Factors Engineering;
past president, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences.
This workshop will explore the best-substantiated contributions of nonlinear
dynamics to the science and practice of management and organizational
behavior.
The medium will involve a mixture of lectures, discussion, and experiential
exercises. The overall goal is to develop a conceptual and intuitive
understanding of chaotic and other processes in organizations, and their
implications for the strategic control and development of the system. (Note:
Workshop is organized in two main parts, separated by a lunch break).
Topics: 1. The dynamics that are of greatest use.
2. Individual performance and organizational effectiveness.
3. Motivational flow.
4. Self-organization and other processes of organizational change.
5. Creativity and problem solving.
6. Leadership in a dynamical environment.
7. Game theory and coordination.
CLINICAL WORKSHOP (Full day) given by Alan Stein, Ph.D. NECET, New York.
The Clinical Workshop will be divided into two parts, punctuated by a lunch
break. During the
morning, we will review several theoretical and practical matters that
become clinically relevant only
when we seek to understand mental processes as solely epiphenomenal to
nonlinearly founded
neurobiology. These include I. Prigogine's arguments against time
reversibility in open, living systems
which challenge regression and W. J. Freeman's opposition to stabile,
internal representations which
dispute both the reliability of memory and the appropriateness of
interpretations based upon intentions.
We will review and assess E. Thelen's and B. Beebe's efforts to formulate
infant development in terms
of nonlinear dynamics and its implications for treatment and will
investigate W. R. Bion's, D. W.
Winnicott's and R. Galatzer-Levy's attempts to work with epistemological
uncertainty in the face of
emerging conscious contents in clinical settings.
After lunch, the workshop will become a clinical case seminar wherein
participants can pursue
applying the morning's theoretical work to actual cases. Everyone is
encouraged to present cases
(dyadic, couple, family, group and/or organizational) in the afternoon session.
PHILOSOPHY WORKSHOP: Philosophy of Science Issues in Chaos and Complexity
Theories: Emergence, Causality, and Explanation. (Full day, given by):
Jeffrey Goldstein, Ph.D., Adelphi University, Garden City, NY; Past-
president of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences.
Description: This workshop will address various issues in the philosophy of
science and philosophy in general prompted by research into chaotic and
complex systems. We will be focussing primarily on how scientific theories of
chaotic and complex systems contain "pictures" of causality, order, change,
and complexity. Specifically, we will be exploring issues arising from
emergent, self-organizing phenomena. In that context we will inquire into
patterns, order, and structure, complexifying operations, the emergence of
new structures and patterns, and the issue of what is considered natural
versus what calls for explanation. Topics include:
I. Scientific Theories and Wittgensteinian "Pictures"
A. Wittgenstein's idea of the "pictures" that captivate and
mislead
B. Explicit and Implicit "Pictures" in Scientific Theories
II. History of the Idea of Causality
A. Ancient and Medieval Notions
B. Preformationism vs. Epigenesis
C. Modern Ideas
III. Emergentism
A. Historical Background
1. Philosophical Precedents
A. Spencer's Mechanistic Evolutionism
B. Bergson's Creative Evolution
2. Early British Emergentists: Mill and Lewes
3. Emergent Evolutionists: Samuel Alexander,
C. Lloyd Morgan, C.D. Broad
4. Allied Philosophical Systems: Whitehead's
Process Philosophy and Teilhard de Chardin's
Spiritualized Evolution
5. Soviet Debates: Early: Engels; Later: Oparin, et.al.
6. Later British Emergentists: Karl Popper
7. Contemporary: Mario Bunge and Roger Sperry
B. Santa Fe Institute Emergentism: Search for New Laws of
Emergence
1. Kauffman's Boolean Networks
2. Crutchfield's Intrinsic Emergence and Computation
3. Farmer's Autocatalytic Networks
IV. Causality and Emergence in the Logistic Equation
A. May's and Feigenbaum's Work on the Logistic Equation
B. Factors of Emergence in the Logistic Equation
1. Emergence of Attractors
2. Patterns and Pattern-Complexifying Operations
3. Criticalization of Parameter Values
4. Nonlinear Potentials and Actualization
5. Instability, Bifurcation, and The Role of Randomness
6. Containment
7. Redundancy in Emergent Structures
V. Issues in Emergence
A. Novelty
1. Pattern Complexification
2. Cantor's Slash
B. Emergent Properties
C. Levels
1. Levels of Reality and Levels of Sciences
2. Levels and Novelty
3. Reducibility and Deducibility
C. Predictability
1. Nonlinear Dynamics
2. Limits on Unpredictability
3. The Role of the Random
D. Epistemological and Ontological Issues
VI. Scientific Explanation and the Natural
A. Price's Ideas on Explanation and the Natural
B. Wittgenstein's "On Certainty"
C. The Search for a New Law of Self-organization
LOCATION, ACCOMMODATION, REGISTRATION
This year's conference will be held on the campus of Marquette University,
about an hour's drive north
of Chicago. Accommodation will be available in residence on campus.
BOOKINGS FOR
ACCOMMODATIONS AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION WILL FOLLOW AT A
LATER DATE. The following information may be useful for early planning.
Conference Registration Fees
Members US$ 110.00
Student members 85.00
Nonmembers 160.00
Please note: All presenters much register for the conference.
Accommodation
A 3 day package at Marquette University, single occupancy, $175. Extra day
$60. Double occupancy $100. Extra day $55. A 10% discount offered if you
find your own roommate. There is no meal plan this year. However the banquet
on Aug 1 is included with your registration, as is continental breakfast each
day of the conference.
REGISTRATION FORM TO FOLLOW IN NEXT UPDATE.