IS IT PSYCHOLOGY ABOUT LINEAR OR DYNAMIC SYSTEMS?

Abstract

Advances in Physics and Mathematics have proven that our complex world does not obey anymore the standard linear modelling systems rules. This paradigm seems to take over much of the scientific research in all sciences. Psychologists, no matter what their orientation is, are striving to create global models that can explain and predict human behaviour and emotions. In this quest, there have been elaborated many meta-analyses that gather relevant findings in order to create a conceptual framework of understanding human behaviour and affect. This paper presents arguments for sustaining the curvilinear relationships hypothesis that occur between variables (job satisfaction, job performance, age) in an organizational context research. Conclusions set up a new conceptualization of the variable dynamic relationship inferences in Psychology.

Keywords

• Organizational psychology
• Dynamic systems
• Chaos theory
• Nonlinearity