FW: Communication, Chaos, and Complexity, SCTPLS 2010

Does anyone want to tackle this?

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Society for chaos theory in psychology [mailto:CHAOPSYC@list.uvm.edu]
On Behalf Of Guastello, Stephen
Sent: Tuesday, 27 April 2010 6:21 p.m.
To: CHAOPSYC@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Communication, Chaos, and Complexity, SCTPLS 2010

The CALL FOR PAPERS is open until April 30:
www.societyforchaostheory.org/conf/2010/cfp.html
Meanwhile.

We are honored to announce another featured speaker
Phillip Salem, Texas State University

who will present
"Finding the Sweet Spot in Human Communication"

at the
20th Annual International Conference of the
Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
University of Texas, San Marcos, TX, July 22-24, 2010

The dynamic tension in all living systems is between similarity and
difference. There are many sets of polarized terms representing this
tension, but chaos and complexity scholars recognized this tension as
amounts of information. Information represents the amount of relative
variety - a mix of similarity and difference, and when the amounts were
high, but not too high, the system moved to transformation - to the edge of
chaos, to the complexity regime, to strange attractors, or to chaos,
depending on the model. The sweet spot is that range of relative variety,
just the proper mix of similarity and difference, leading to transformation.
Human communication is an emergent social process. It occurs when
individuals in a social relationship create messages cueing each other as
part of an ongoing episode. Human communication is an effort to make sense
of an episode created by the process itself. The process constitutes our
social and psychological life together.
This paper explores the dynamic tension in communication constituting three
phenomena: (a) self, (b) trust in immediate and extended relationships such
as social networks, and (c) organizations. In each case I will describe
current literature highlighting tensions between similarity and difference,
and I will explore the potential to move from one basin of attraction to
another. The primary constraints on modeling communication transformations
are discovering the appropriate parameters and bracketing sequences to
define initial conditions, constraints common to modeling all nonlinear
processes.

Dr. Salem is a Professor of Organizational Communication, at Texas State
since 1974 (B.S. Ed., Northern State University, M.A. University of Denver,
Ph.D., University of Denver.) Dr. Salem has just completed The Complexity of
Human Communication (2009), a book describing the process and evolving
nature of communication. He recently edited Organizational Communication and
Change, a collection of papers from scholars attending conferences he
directed in 1976 and in 1996. Dr. Salem has received awards for his work
about communication and technology and is known for his work in educational
administration, including Organizational Communication in Higher Education,
published by AAHE. He directed a project funded by the Department of
Education to develop a theory of organizational factors influencing the
incorporation of new units into an organization. His consultant work focuses
on organizational communication development and routinely assists clients in
assessing and planning organizational communication.
****************************************************************
  THE SOCIETY FOR CHAOS THEORY IN PSYCHOLOGY AND LIFE SCIENCES
             http://www.societyforchaostheory.org
         CHAOPSYC LIST SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE/OPTIONS
     http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=chaopsyc&A=1