The Dynamical Perspective in Personality and Social Psychology

Human experience reflects the interplay ofmultiple forces operating on various time scales to promote constantly evolving patterns of thought, emotion, and action. The complexity and dynamism ofpersonal and social phenomena have long been recognized, but capturing thesefeatures ofpsychologicalprocess represents a serious challengefor traditional research methods. In this article, we introduce basic concepts and methodsfrom the study ofnonlinear dynamical systems, andwe outline the relevance of these ideas and approachesfor investigating phenomena at different levels ofpsychological reality. We suggest that the dynamicalperspective is ideally suited to capture the emergence and maintenance ofglobalproperties in apsychological system, andfor investigating the time-dependent relation between external influences and a system's in-