Patterns of Readiness For Adaptive Action

Abstract

The paper presents a fractal model of goal setting that is formally defined by a sequence of symbols in the goal-oriented prospects of a solution connected by the relationship of feasibility. The fractal model includes such elements as the “reserve of forces”, confidence in oneself as a subject of future decisions, the preliminary assessment of the availability of a solution, a sense of reality (sanity), hope for a solution, and support of the environment. They are interpreted as resources of a solution. The relationship of feasibility is defined as an equivalent of “material implication”. The listed elements that are connected by the relationship of feasibility, form goal-oriented tendencies (aspirations): the desire to solve the problem (“I want”), the assessment of the goal through mental action (“a mental trial of strength), volitional efforts (“I must), and aspirations (“I claim”). The concept of adaptability is specified on the basis of three equalities: ‘I want = I demand from myself’ (I need), ‘I demand from myself = the situation requires from me’, ‘I claim = I attain’. Three types of adaptive goal-setting environments are described: ordered (as in experiments on the levels of aspirations), ordinary (regular) and provocative. In an ordered environment, the subject has information about the difficulty of tasks; in an ordinary environment, claims and the necessary resources are arbitrarily correlated in a previously unpredictable way; in a provocative environment, there is an equality of the subject’s aspirations and “challenges” from the environment. Numerical solutions of equations describing the elements and fragments of goal-oriented perspectives of adaptive actions in the three environments are identified as patterns of adaptability. Based on the implementation of the method of personal possibleness (that includes the distinction between the three goal setting environments represented in original questionnaires on ‘a problem of the day’ and ‘a problem to one’s taste’), the hypothesis of the adaptability of the “majority” has been confirmed: in the sample, subjects, on average, apply adaptive strategies for goal setting