title: Complexity management theory: motivation for ideological rigidity and social conflict.
abstract: We are doomed to formulate conceptual structures that are much simpler than the complex phenomena they are attempting to account for. These simple conceptual structures shield us, pragmatically, from real-world complexity, but also fail, frequently, as some aspect of what we did not take into consideration makes itself manifest. The failure of our concepts dysregulates our emotions and generates anxiety, necessarily, as the unconstrained world is challenging and dangerous. Such dysregulation can turn us into rigid, totalitarian dogmatists, as we strive to maintain the structure of our no longer valid beliefs. Alternatively, we can face the underlying complexity of experience, voluntarily, gather new information, and recast and reconfigure the structures that underly our habitable worlds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. jpeterson@psych.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Jordan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Flanders
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003405:Creativity; D003469:Culture; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D009042:Motivation; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D009769:Object Attachment; D011056:Political Systems; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012919:Social Behavior