A complex systems perspective on chronic aggression and self-injury: case study of a woman with mild intellectual disability and borderline personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Challenging behaviors like aggression and self-injury are dangerous for clients and staff in residential care. These behaviors are not well understood and therefore often labeled as "complex". Yet it remains vague what this supposed complexity entails at the individual level. This case-study used a three-step mixed-methods analytical strategy, inspired by complex systems theory. First, we construed a holistic summary of relevant factors in her daily life. Second, we described her challenging behavioral trajectory by identifying stable phases. Third, instability and extraordinary events in her environment were evaluated as potential change-inducing mechanisms between different phases. CASE PRESENTATION: A woman, living at a residential facility, diagnosed with mild intellectual disability and borderline personality disorder, who shows a chronic pattern of aggressive and self-injurious incidents. She used ecological momentary assessments to self-rate challenging behaviors daily for 560 days. CONCLUSIONS: A qualitative summary of caretaker records revealed many internal and environmental factors relevant to her daily life. Her clinician narrowed these down to 11 staff hypothesized risk- and protective factors, such as reliving trauma, experiencing pain, receiving medical care or compliments. Coercive measures increased the chance of challenging behavior the day after and psychological therapy sessions decreased the chance of self-injury the day after. The majority of contemporaneous and lagged associations between these 11 factors and self-reported challenging behaviors were non-significant, indicating that challenging behaviors are not governed by mono-causal if-then relations, speaking to its complex nature. Despite this complexity there were patterns in the temporal ordering of incidents. Aggression and self-injury occurred on respectively 13% and 50% of the 560 days. On this timeline 11 distinct stable phases were identified that alternated between four unique states: high levels of aggression and self-injury, average aggression and self-injury, low aggression and self-injury, and low aggression with high self-injury. Eight out of ten transitions between phases were triggered by extraordinary events in her environment, or preceded by increased fluctuations in her self-ratings, or a combination of these two. Desirable patterns emerged more often and were less easily malleable, indicating that when she experiences bad times, keeping in mind that better times lie ahead is hopeful and realistic.

Understanding the complexity of individual developmental pathways: A primer on metaphors, models, and methods to study resilience in development.

The modern study of resilience in development is conceptually based on a complex adaptive system ontology in which many (intersystem) factors are involved in the emergence of resilient developmental pathways. However, the methods and models developed to study complex dynamical systems have not been widely adopted, and it has recently been noted this may constitute a problem moving the field forward. In the present paper, I argue that an ontological commitment to complex adaptive systems is not only possible, but highly recommended for the study of resilience in development. Such a commitment, however, also comes with a commitment to a different causal ontology and different research methods. In the first part of the paper, I discuss the extent to which current research on resilience in development conceptually adheres to the complex systems perspective. In the second part, I introduce conceptual tools that may help researchers conceptualize causality in complex systems. The third part discusses idiographic methods that could be used in a research program that embraces the interaction dominant causal ontology and idiosyncratic nature of the dynamics of complex systems. The conclusion is that a strong ontological commitment is warranted, but will require a radical departure from nomothetic science.

From Metaphor to Computation: Constructing the Potential Landscape for Multivariate Psychological Formal Models.

For psychological formal models, the stability of different phases is an important property for understanding individual differences and change processes. Many researchers use landscapes as a metaphor to illustrate the concept of stability, but so far there is no method to quantify the stability of a system's phases. We here propose a method to construct the potential landscape for multivariate psychological models. This method is based on the generalized potential function defined by Wang et al. (2008) and Monte Carlo simulation. Based on potential landscapes we define three different types of stability for psychological phases: absolute stability, relative stability, and geometric stability. The panic disorder model by Robinaugh et al. (2019) is used as an example, to demonstrate how the method can be used to quantify the stability of states and phases, illustrate the influence of model parameters, and guide model modifications. An R package, simlandr, was developed to provide an implementation of the method.

Complexity in psychological self-ratings: implications for research and practice.

BACKGROUND: Psychopathology research is changing focus from group-based "disease models" to a personalized approach inspired by complex systems theories. This approach, which has already produced novel and valuable insights into the complex nature of psychopathology, often relies on repeated self-ratings of individual patients. So far, it has been unknown whether such self-ratings, the presumed observables of the individual patient as a complex system, actually display complex dynamics. We examine this basic assumption of a complex systems approach to psychopathology by testing repeated self-ratings for three markers of complexity: memory, the presence of (time-varying) short- and long-range temporal correlations; regime shifts, transitions between different dynamic regimes; and sensitive dependence on initial conditions, also known as the "butterfly effect," the divergence of initially similar trajectories. METHODS: We analyzed repeated self-ratings (1476 time points) from a single patient for the three markers of complexity using Bartels rank test, (partial) autocorrelation functions, time-varying autoregression, a non-stationarity test, change point analysis, and the Sugihara-May algorithm. RESULTS: Self-ratings concerning psychological states (e.g., the item "I feel down") exhibited all complexity markers: time-varying short- and long-term memory, multiple regime shifts, and sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Unexpectedly, self-ratings concerning physical sensations (e.g., the item "I am hungry") exhibited less complex dynamics and their behavior was more similar to random variables. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological self-ratings display complex dynamics. The presence of complexity in repeated self-ratings means that we have to acknowledge that (1) repeated self-ratings yield a complex pattern of data and not a set of (nearly) independent data points, (2) humans are "moving targets" whose self-ratings display non-stationary change processes including regime shifts, and (3) long-term prediction of individual trajectories may be fundamentally impossible. These findings point to a limitation of popular statistical time series models whose assumptions are violated by the presence of these complexity markers. We conclude that a complex systems approach to mental health should appreciate complexity as a fundamental aspect of psychopathology research by adopting the models and methods of complexity science. Promising first steps in this direction, such as research on real-time process monitoring, short-term prediction, and just-in-time interventions, are discussed.

Destabilization in self-ratings of the psychotherapeutic process is associated with better treatment outcome in patients with mood disorders.

Objective: While destabilization periods characterized by high variability and turbulence in a patient's psychological state might seem obstructive for psychotherapy, a complex systems approach to psychopathology predicts that these periods are actually beneficial as they indicate possibilities for reorganization within the patient. The present study tested the hypothesis that destabilization is related to better treatment outcome.Method: 328 patients who received psychotherapy for mood disorders completed daily self-ratings about their psychotherapeutic process. A continuous measure of destabilization was defined as the relative strength of the highest peak in dynamic complexity, a measure for variability and turbulence, in the self-ratings of individual patients.Results: Destabilization was found to be related to better treatment outcome. When improvers and non-improvers were analyzed separately, destabilization was found to be related to better treatment outcome in improvers but not in non-improvers.Conclusions: Destabilization in daily self-ratings of the psychotherapeutic process is associated with better treatment outcome. The identification of destabilization periods in process-monitoring data is clinically relevant. During destabilization, patients are believed to be increasingly sensitive to the effects of therapy. Clinicians could tailor their interventions to these sensitive periods.

Toddlers' gaze following through attention modulation: intention is in the eye of the beholder.

We investigated 20-month-olds' (N=56) gaze following by presenting toddlers with a female model that displayed either ostensive or no ostensive cues before shifting her gaze laterally toward an object. The results indicated that toddlers reliably followed the model's gaze redirection after mutual eye contact was established but did so equally reliably after the model's eyes had been made salient nonostensively. Moreover, both conditions elicited gaze following more prominently than when children's attention was initially directed away from the eyes either by specifically accentuating the mouth or by covering the entire face before the model redirected her eyes laterally. These findings suggest that gaze following by toddlers is more likely to be driven by general attention mechanisms than by their appreciation of somebody else's communicative intent through perceiving eye contact.

Unlocking nonlinear dynamics and multistability from intensive longitudinal data: A novel method.

The availability of smart devices has made it possible to collect intensive longitudinal data (ILD) from individuals, providing a unique opportunity to study the complex dynamics of psychological systems. Existing time-series methods often have limitations, such as assuming linear interactions or having restricted forms, leading to difficulties in capturing the complex nature of these systems. To address this issue, we introduce fitlandr, a method with implementation as an R package that integrates nonparametric estimation of the drift-diffusion function and stability landscape. The drift-diffusion function is estimated using the multivariate kernel estimator (MVKE; Bandi & Moloche, 2018), and the stability landscape is estimated through Monte-Carlo estimation of the steady-state distribution (Cui et al., 2021; Cui, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, et al., 2023). Using a simulated emotional system, we demonstrate that fitlandr can effectively recover bistable dynamics from data, even in the presence of moderate noise, and that it primarily relies on dynamic information from the system instead of distributional information. We then apply the method to two empirical single-participant experience sampling method data sets and compared the results with the simulation data sets. Whereas both data sets show a bimodal distribution, fitlandr only revealed bistability in one of them, indicating that bimodality in ILD does not necessarily imply the existence of bistability in the underlying system. These results demonstrate the potential of fitlandr as a tool for uncovering the rich, nonlinear dynamics of psychological systems from ILD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The geometry of synchronization: quantifying the coupling direction of physiological signals of stress between individuals using inter-system recurrence networks.

In the study of synchronization dynamics between interacting systems, several techniques are available to estimate coupling strength and coupling direction. Currently, there is no general 'best' method that will perform well in most contexts. Inter-system recurrence networks (IRN) combine auto-recurrence and cross-recurrence matrices to create a graph that represents interacting networks. The method is appealing because it is based on cross-recurrence quantification analysis, a well-developed method for studying synchronization between 2 systems, which can be expanded in the IRN framework to include N > 2 interacting networks. In this study we examine whether IRN can be used to analyze coupling dynamics between physiological variables (acceleration, blood volume pressure, electrodermal activity, heart rate and skin temperature) observed in a client in residential care with severe to profound intellectual disabilities (SPID) and their professional caregiver. Based on the cross-clustering coefficients of the IRN conclusions about the coupling direction (client or caregiver drives the interaction) can be drawn, however, deciding between bi-directional coupling or no coupling remains a challenge. Constructing the full IRN, based on the multivariate time series of five coupled processes, reveals the existence of potential feedback loops. Further study is needed to be able to determine dynamics of coupling between the different layers.

A time-series perspective on executive functioning: The benefits of a dynamic approach to random number generation.

OBJECTIVES: Executive functioning (EF) is a key topic in neuropsychology. A multitude of underlying processes and constructs have been suggested to explain EF, which are measured by at least as many different neuropsychological tests. However, these tests often refer to summary statistics to quantify the construct under study, failing to capture the dynamic nature of EF. An alternative to these summary statistics is a time-series approach that quantifies all the available temporal information. METHODS: We used recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to quantify the characteristics of any temporal pattern in random number generation data and we compared RQA to the traditional and static analysis of random number sequences. RESULTS: The traditional measures yield inconsistent results with increasing sequences length, both for computer-generated and human-generated sequences, whereas the RQA measures do not. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that a time-series approach does a better job at modelling what is happening on different time-scales, and, therefore, is better at explaining how EF is changing in the course of the random number generation task. We argue that it is likely that these findings also apply to other neuropsychological EF tests, and that a time-series approach is an important addition to the study of EF.

Complexity theory of psychopathology.

There is a renewed interest for complex adaptive system approaches that can account for the inherently complex and dynamic nature of psychopathology. Yet a theory of psychopathology grounded in the principles of complex adaptive systems is lacking. Here, we present such a theory based on the notion of dynamic patterns: patterns that are formed over time. We propose that psychopathology can be understood as a dynamic pattern that emerges from self-organized interactions between interdependent biopsychosocial processes in a complex adaptive system comprising a person in their environment. Psychopathology is emergent in the sense that it refers to the person-environment system as a whole and cannot be reduced to specific system parts. Psychopathology as a dynamic pattern is also self-organized, meaning that it arises solely from the interdependencies in the system: the interactions between countless biopsychosocial variables. All possible manifestations of psychopathology will correspond to a wide variety of dynamic patterns. Yet we propose that the development of these patterns over time can be described by general principles of pattern formation in complex adaptive systems. A discussion of implications for classification, intervention, and public health concludes the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The best of both worlds? General principles of psychopathology in personalized assessment.

A complex systems approach to psychopathology proposes that general principles lie in the dynamic patterns of psychopathology, which are not restricted to specific psychological processes like symptoms or affect. Hence, it must be possible to find general change profiles in time series data of fully personalized questionnaires. In the current study, we examined general change profiles in personalized self-ratings and related these to four measures of treatment outcome (International Symptom Rating, 21-item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, daily symptom severity, and self-reflective capacity). We analyzed data of 404 patients with mood and/or anxiety disorders who completed daily self-ratings on personalized questionnaires during psychotherapy. For each patient, a principal component analysis was applied to the multivariate time series in order to retrieve an univariate person-specific time series. Then, using classification and regression methods, we examined these time series for the presence of general change profiles. The change profile classification yielded the following distribution of patients: no-shift (n = 55; 14%), gradual-change (n = 52; 13%), one-shift (n = 233; 58%), reversed-shift (n = 39; 10%) and multiple-shifts (n = 25; 6%). The multiple-shift group had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on all outcome measures. The one-shift and gradual-change groups had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on two and three outcome measures, respectively. Overall, this study illustrates that person-specific (idiographic) and general (nomothetic) aspects of psychopathology can be integrated in a complex systems approach to psychopathology, which may combine "the best of both worlds." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A characteristic destabilization profile in parent-child interactions associated with treatment efficacy for aggressive children.

This study examined profiles of change in repeated mother-child interactions over the course of a 12 week treatment period for childhood aggression. The aim of this study was to investigate whether it was possible to detect the characteristic profile of change, typical for phase transitions, over the course of treatment, and whether this profile was associated with positive treatment outcomes. Entropy values were computed for six repeated real-time observations of each mother-child dyad, using a novel application of recurrence quantification analysis for categorical time series. Subsequent latent class growth curve analysis on the sequences of entropy values revealed two distinct classes of dyads, with one class showing a clear peak in entropy over the six measurement points. The latent class membership variables showed a significant systematic relationship with observed dyad improvement (as rated by clinicians). The class with the peak in entropy over the sessions consisted largely of treatment improvers. Further analysis revealed that improvers and non-improvers could not be distinguished based on content-specific changes (e.g. more positivity or less negativity during the interaction). The present study revealed a treatment-related destabilization pattern in real-time behaviors that was related to better treatment outcomes, and underlines the value of dynamic nonlinear time-series analysis (especially RQA) in the study of dyadic interactions in clinical contexts.

Early Warning Signals in Phase Space: Geometric Resilience Loss Indicators From Multiplex Cumulative Recurrence Networks.

The detection of Early Warning Signals (EWS) of imminent phase transitions, such as sudden changes in symptom severity could be an important innovation in the treatment or prevention of disease or psychopathology. Recurrence-based analyses are known for their ability to detect differences in behavioral modes and order transitions in extremely noisy data. As a proof of principle, the present paper provides an example of a recurrence network based analysis strategy which can be implemented in a clinical setting in which data from an individual is continuously monitored for the purpose of making decisions about diagnosis and intervention. Specifically, it is demonstrated that measures based on the geometry of the phase space can serve as Early Warning Signals of imminent phase transitions. A publicly available multivariate time series is analyzed using so-called cumulative Recurrence Networks (cRN), which are recurrence networks with edges weighted by recurrence time and directed towards previously observed data points. The results are compared to previous analyses of the same data set, benefits, limitations and future directions of the analysis approach are discussed.

Identifying Determinants of Dyslexia: An Ultimate Attempt Using Machine Learning.

Research based on traditional linear techniques has yet not been able to clearly identify the role of cognitive skills in reading problems, presumably because the process of reading and the factors that are associated with reading reside within a system of multiple interacting and moderating factors that cannot be captured within traditional statistical models. If cognitive skills are indeed indicative of reading problems, the relatively new nonlinear techniques of machine learning should make better predictions. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether cognitive factors play any role in reading skill, questioning (1) the extent to what cognitive skills are indicative of present reading level, and (2) the extent to what cognitive skills are indicative of future reading progress. In three studies with varying groups of participants (average school-aged and poor readers), the results of four supervised machine learning techniques were compared to the traditional General Linear Models technique. Results of all models appeared to be comparable, producing poor to acceptable results, which are however inadequate for making a thorough prediction of reading development. Assumably, cognitive skills are not predictive of reading problems, although they do correlate with one another. This insight has consequences for scientific theories of reading development, as well as for the prevention and remediation of reading difficulties.

From work stress to disease: A computational model.

In modern society, work stress is highly prevalent. Problematically, work stress can cause disease. To help understand the causal relationship between work stress and disease, we present a computational model of this relationship. That is, drawing from allostatic load theory, we captured the link between work stress and disease in a set of mathematical formulas. With simulation studies, we then examined our model's ability to reproduce key findings from previous empirical research. Specifically, results from Study 1 suggested that our model could accurately reproduce established findings on daily fluctuations in cortisol levels (both on the group level and the individual level). Results from Study 2 suggested that our model could accurately reproduce established findings on the relationship between work stress and cardiovascular disease. Finally, results from Study 3 yielded new predictions about the relationship between workweek configurations (i.e., how working hours are distributed over days) and the subsequent development of disease. Together, our studies suggest a new, computational approach to studying the causal link between work stress and disease. We suggest that this approach is fruitful, as it aids the development of falsifiable theory, and as it opens up new ways of generating predictions about why and when work stress is (un)healthy.

Children's perception of facial expressions.

This study investigated the developing ability of children to identify emotional facial expressions in terms of the contexts in which they generally occur. We presented Dutch 6- to 9-year-old primary school children (N = 164, 98 girls) prototypical contexts for different emotion categories and asked them whether different kinds of facial expressions belonged to those contexts or not, using a 2-alternative forced-choice task. Correct and incorrect responses were quantified into a single index using signal detection theory, representing children's sensitivity to perceive each facial expression as categorically different from each of the others in terms of their prototypical contexts. Results show age-related improvements in identifying facial expressions as belonging to their prototypical contexts. In addition, we found that older children not only made less misidentifications but also misidentified less kinds of facial expressions to the prototypical contexts. Furthermore, the kinds of misidentifications children made suggest that they do not identify facial expressions based on their conceptual emotional valence. Results were discussed from a perceptual learning account. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

RandseqR: An R Package for Describing Performance on the Random Number Generation Task.

The Random Number Generation (RNG) task has a long history in neuropsychology as an assessment procedure for executive functioning. In recent years, understanding of human (executive) behavior has gradually changed from reflecting a static to a dynamic process and this shift in thinking about behavior gives a new angle to interpret test results. However, this shift also asks for different methods to process random number sequences. The RNG task is suited for applying non-linear methods needed to uncover the underlying dynamics of random number generation. In the current article we present RandseqR: an R-package that combines the calculation of classic randomization measures and Recurrence Quantification Analysis. RandseqR is an easy to use, flexible and fast way to process random number sequences and readies the RNG task for current scientific and clinical use.

Studying Behaviour Change Mechanisms under Complexity.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of behaviour change interventions is vital for accumulating valid scientific evidence, and useful to informing practice and policy-making across multiple domains. Traditional approaches to such evaluations have applied study designs and statistical models, which implicitly assume that change is linear, constant and caused by independent influences on behaviour (such as behaviour change techniques). This article illustrates limitations of these standard tools, and considers the benefits of adopting a complex adaptive systems approach to behaviour change research. It (1) outlines the complexity of behaviours and behaviour change interventions; (2) introduces readers to some key features of complex systems and how these relate to human behaviour change; and (3) provides suggestions for how researchers can better account for implications of complexity in analysing change mechanisms. We focus on three common features of complex systems (i.e., interconnectedness, non-ergodicity and non-linearity), and introduce Recurrence Analysis, a method for non-linear time series analysis which is able to quantify complex dynamics. The supplemental website provides exemplifying code and data for practical analysis applications. The complex adaptive systems approach can complement traditional investigations by opening up novel avenues for understanding and theorising about the dynamics of behaviour change.

1/f scaling in movement time changes with practice in precision aiming.

When people perform repeated goal-directed movements, consecutive movement durations inevitably vary over trials, in poor as well as in skilled performances. The well-established paradigm of precision-aiming is taken as a methodological framework here. Evidence is provided that movement variability in closed tasks is not a random phenomenon, but rather shows a coherent temporal structure, referred to as 1/f scaling. The scaling relation appears more clearly as participants become trained in a highly constrained motor task. Also Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) and Sample Entropy (SampEn) as analytic tools show that variation of movement times becomes less random and more patterned with motor learning. This suggests that motor learning can be regarded as an emergent, dynamical fusing of collaborating subsystems into a lower-dimensional organization. These results support the idea that 1/f scaling is ubiquitous throughout the cognitive system, and suggest that it plays a fundamental role in the coordination of cognitive as well as motor function.

Does popularity determine who leads in a dyadic cooperative task? Subtle differences between children with and without developmental disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Popular indivuals are usually academically high achiveving and also often leaders. Children with developmental disabilities are usually not popular among their peers. In dyadic cooperative tasks, the popular member is often the leader, as shown by self-reports and observational research. It is unknown whether this macro-level behaviour is reflected in micro-level synchronisation patterns of the movements of dyads who are engaged in a cooperative task. AIMS: The goal of the present study was to investigate whether popularity differentially affected the leading-following behaviour of dyads consisting of children with and without developmental disabilities. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Children with (n = 106) and without (n = 183) developmental disabilities performed a tangram puzzle task individually and cooperatively. While performing the task, they stood on a Nintendo Wii Balance Board that registered their postural sway. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Although we found some similarities between dyads with and without a developmental disability based on both popularity and task performance, the most striking difference occurred in low performing dyads. In those, dyads with a developmental disability had no clear leader or follower. CONCLUSION: Especially in dyads with developmental disabilities it is important that there are clear roles, since the worst performance was observed when roles were absent.