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Fractal Self-Structure and Psychological Resilience
David Pincus1, Oto Cadsky2, Vincent Berardi1
1Chapman University, Orange, CA.
Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences
|December 18, 2018
Summary
This study suggests the self has a fractal structure, measurable by response times to questions. Rigidity in this fractal self-structure correlates with broader psychopathology, offering a new complexity-science approach to self-resilience.
Area of Science:
- Complexity Science
- Social Psychology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Contradictory findings exist in social psychology regarding self-complexity and psychopathology.
- Existing research lacks theoretical and methodological grounding in complexity theory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and test a fractal, interconnected structure of the self.
- To operationalize self-complexity using inverse-power law (IPL) distributions of response times.
- To investigate the correlation between fractal self-structure and psychopathology.
Main Methods:
- Utilized MMPI-2 item response sets (N=300) from forensic administrations.
- Operationalized self-complexity as the inverse of the shape parameter (?) of reaction time distributions to MMPI-2 items.
- Analyzed response time distributions for fit with IPLs and correlated (?) with MMPI-2 pathology scales.
Main Results:
- Response time distributions demonstrated strong fits with IPLs (mean R2 = .94).
- Significant correlations (18 of 45) were found between (?) and MMPI-2 pathology scales.
- Principal components analysis confirmed that latent components of psychopathology correlated significantly with (?).
Conclusions:
- Fractal self-structure, operationalized via response time distributions, shows promise for measuring self-complexity.
- Rigidity in fractal self-structure is associated with broadband psychopathology.
- This study offers a complexity-science framework for understanding the self as a self-organizing system.
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