Toward an Understanding of Efficiency and Inefficiency in Human Affairs: Discussion of Schönpflug's Theory

Abstract

The interesting, thoughtful, and sophisticated chapter that Schonpflug presents expands the scope of an old problem, that of how stress affects human functioning. Three concerns especially distinguish Schonpflug’s work. The first is efficiency in problem solving. The second is an effort to extend the focus from task performance in the narrow, laboratory sense to solving the problems of living, including winning friends, handling disappointments, and achieving long-term goals. Third, adopting a German action-theory view, Schonpflug’s emphasis is not strictly on behavior, but on subjective cognitive and goal directed activities that are not readily accessible to direct observation. The guiding premise of Schonpflug’s analysis is that individuals strive toward efficiency and economy, which is offered as a principle of biological evolution. The logical positivist movement of the early 1900s, which extended well into the 1950s and finds expression in what might be called neopositivism, has shied away from the kind of frank subjectivism that characterizes Schonpflug’s analysis and German action theory.