Personality as a complex informationprocessing system

Abstract

One of the major challenges for psychology in the coming decades is to present integrative conceptualizations of various psychological processes (e.g., cognition, values, etc.). The purpose of this paper is to present a system-theoretic conception of the organized complexities of human personality. A complex hierarchical information processing system (CHIPS) is described as a nonrandom organization of subsystems and components among which there is: (a) goal direction; (b) regulation of uncertainty; (c) interdependence; (d) macrodeterminism; and (e) increasing hierarchicalization over the life span. While our focus is at the level of the organism, these characteristics attributed to a CHIPS are considered to be basic characteristics of living systems at all levels. Personality is conceptualized as an integrative composite of six interacting systems (sensory, motor, cognition, affect, style, and value), each of which has these characteristics. Various properties and principles relevant to this conception of integrative personality as a complex system are discussed and illustrated. It is pointed out that modern systems theory has given too little attention to the problem of developmental change, and a metamorphogenetic model of development is proposed and illustrated in the present paper.