Integrative complexity is a research

psychometric Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally covers specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and rela ...

that refers to the degree to which thinking and reasoning involve the recognition and integration of multiple perspectives and possibilities and their interrelated contingencies. Integrative complexity is a measure of the

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

style used by individuals or groups in processing information,

problem-solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

, and

decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either ra ...

. Complexity looks at the structure of one's thoughts, while ignoring the contents. It is scorable from almost any verbal materials:

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

materials, such as

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s, articles, letters, and transcript; as well as

audio-visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service pro ...

material. The measure of integrative complexity has two components: differentiation and integration. Differentiation refers to the

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

of different

dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coo ...

s when considering an issue. Integration refers to the recognition of

cognitive Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

connections among differentiated dimensions or perspectives. In a 1988 study it was demonstrated that changes in integrative complexity could be potentially used in international

violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...

prediction A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dictum'', "something said") or forecast is a statement about a future event or about future data. Predictions are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge of forecasters. There ...

. These findings were seen again in a 1995 article by Karen Guttieri, Michael Wallace, and Peter Suedfeld looking at the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

Components

Evaluative differentiation

Evaluative differentiation involves the acknowledgement that reasonable people can view any given event differently and that making a decision involves balancing any legitimate competing interests. In contrast, thinking in an evaluatively un-differentiated manner involves thinking rigidly and refusing to compromise or consider any alternative.

Conceptual integration

Conceptual integration uses reasoning that builds upon earlier evaluative differentiations. It is commonly used to help give context to previous evaluative differentiations. For example, it could take the form of explaining why someone may view an event in a different way or in what ways a compromise could be made between conflicting values.

Examples

Conflict resolution

Integratively complex thinkers are better able to reach mutually advantageous solutions in mixed-motive games than integratively simple thinkers. Declines in integrative complexity in diplomacy during times of crises is also a lead indicator of war, while increases in integrative complexity is a lead indicator of reaching compromise agreements that avert war.

Cognitive bias

Thinking in an integratively complex way can reduce or even eliminate various judgmental biases. Such biases include

belief perseverance Belief perseverance (also known as conceptual conservatism) is maintenance of a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it. Since rationality involves conceptual flexibility, belief perseverance is consistent with the view that hum ...

, the over-attribution effect, and

overconfidence The overconfidence effect is a well-established bias in which a person's subjective ''confidence'' in their judgments is reliably greater than the objective ''accuracy'' of those judgments, especially when confidence is relatively high. Overconfide ...

Downsides

Integrative complexity can also have drawbacks. Thinking in an integratively complex way, for example, makes one more prone to suffering from the dilution effect. Integratively complex thinkers are also more prone to defer to others or put off making a decision when faced with difficult cost–benefit decisions. Additionally, while integratively complex thinkers are more likely to reach a mutually advantageous compromise when dealing with reasonable opponents, unreasonable opponents are much more likely to be able to exploit them.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Experimental psychology