Integral Review


Posts Tagged ‘reciprocity’

A Developmental Behavioral Analysis of Dual Motives’ Role in Political Economies of Corruption

Sara Nora Ross

Abstract: This paper is a developmental meta-analysis of behaviors that contribute to political economies of corruption, deploying bioneurological dual motive and behavioral development theories. Together, these systems of analysis enable a developmental perspective to illustrate and analyze a progression of dual motives’ variations as humans and their conditions change. The progression of examples indicates that there are multiple evolutions of political economies that vary in their complexity, with different behavioral features at each level. Dual motive theory helps in identifying and understanding the complex linkages and layers of socio-political and economic behaviors as they become more complex. Increasingly complex horizontal and vertical stacks of social networks, like lattice-works of dual motives, enable individuals and groups to develop and maintain sturdy yet adaptable social systems of patronage, brokerage, and clientelism. These so-often informally structured relationships underlie corruption-like transactions long before, and long after, they are regarded as the enduring institution of corruption.

Three hypotheses under gird the development of that thesis. The first is that dual motive theory facilitates meta-analyses of social networks’ often hidden layers of complexity. A second hypothesis is that analyses using dual motive theory can explicate more complexity when the theory is integrated with developmental behavioral theory. The third hypothesis is that analyses made possible by that integration offer substantive contributions to understanding socio-political-economic behaviors, including multiple political economies of corruption. Three strategies are employed to develop the paper’s thesis. First, the concepts of social ties, networks, reciprocity and dual motive theory are introduced to set the context. second, a behavioral task measurement theory is introduced: the model of hierarchical complexity. Scoped for this paper to introduce only the most common adult-level tasks, that model’s orders of increasing complexity describe developmental differences in the performance of individuals’ and social systems’ behaviors. Third, a series of international examples shows the hierarchically different ways the behavioral tensions of dual motives manifest in human exchanges. The hierarchical complexity of the examples’ settings is correlated with the hierarchical complexity of adults’ behaviors in those settings.

The results of the analysis indicate that (a) individual and system behaviors are continuously shaped and constrained by complex interrelations that can be explained in terms of the hierarchical complexity of dual motives; (b) there are predictably difficult transitions and breaches when systems of different hierarchical complexity disrupt pre-existing systems for managing behavioral tensions. The application of dual motive theory indicates its analytical usefulness for interpreting social, political, and economic phenomena. Political economies of corruption can be more thoroughly understood as enduring institutions through a developmental behavioral application of dual motive theory.


Toward An Integral Process Theory Of Human Dynamics: Dancing The Universal Tango

Sara Ross

Abstract: This article is an outline toward developing a fuller process theory of human dynamics aimed at practical applications by a diverse audience. The theory represents a transdisciplinary synthesis of a universal pattern and integrates humans’ projection dynamics with complex systems dynamics. Five premises, presented in lay language with examples, capture basic elements involved in the meta process of human development and change: reciprocity, projection, development’s structural limits, oscillations, and structural coupling. Based on a fractal dialectical pattern that shows up wherever complex systems are involved, the theory’s applications are scalable. It could be useful for personal development, public policy design, issue analysis, and systemic action on intransigent issues. It may be a complementary adjunct to developmental stage theories because it deals in an accessible way with the processes involved in stage transitions. Throughout the article, its practical relevance at some individual, social, and political scales is illustrated or mentioned. Readers interested in individual and social change may gain a sense of the human dynamics involved in it, and thus the potential usefulness of a process theory that describes what goes on in human change and development.


Current Issue

Recent Issues