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Evaluation is a Dynamic Process: Moving Beyond Dual System Models
Author(s) -
Van Bavel Jay J.,
Jenny Xiao Yi,
Cunningham William A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social and personality psychology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 1751-9004
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00438.x
Subject(s) - dual (grammatical number) , reflexivity , heuristic , unconscious mind , process (computing) , cognition , cognitive science , psychology , dual process theory (moral psychology) , computer science , associative property , dynamical systems theory , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , sociology , art , social science , physics , literature , mathematics , quantum mechanics , psychoanalysis , pure mathematics , operating system
Over the past few decades, dual attitude/process/system models have emerged as the dominant framework for understanding a wide range of psychological phenomena. Most of these models characterize the unconscious and conscious mind as being built from discrete processes or systems: one that is reflexive, automatic, fast, affective, associative, and primitive, and a second that is deliberative, controlled, slow, cognitive, propositional, and more uniquely human. Although these models serve as a useful heuristic for characterizing the human mind, recent developments in social and cognitive neuroscience suggest that the human evaluative system, like most of cognition, is widely distributed and highly dynamic. Integrating these advances with current attitude theories, we review how the recently proposed Iterative Reprocessing Model can account for apparent dual systems as well as discrepancies between traditional dual system models and recent research revealing the dynamic nature of evaluation. Furthermore, we describe important implications this dynamical system approach has for various social psychological domains.