THE EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE ON INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY

Integrative complexity is a measure of information processing that is scored either from archival documents or from written material generat ed for experimental purposes. Low complexity is associated with a lack of attention to diverse dimensions of, or perspectives on, a topic. M oderate complexity is characterized by the differentiation of such dim ensions or perspectives. Finally, high complexity is shown by conceptu al integration of the differentiated components. A large number of sit uational variables have been identified as affecting the level of comp lexity at which decision makers operate; however, emotional factors ha ve been studied only indirectly (e.g., inferred from the individual's being in an apparently stressful situation). The current study present ed university students with fictional scenarios describing interperson al conflict that were designed to vary the psychological distance betw een the writer and the people involved in the problem. The complexity level of essays in which the students analyzed and described solutions for the conflict was positively related to both increasing psychologi cal distance and to self-rated emotional involvement, regardless of di stance. The distance results may have been due to an unconsidered vari able, social perspective. Complexity was significantly and positively correlated with the self-rated effort expended in writing the essay. T he findings partially confirm the cognitive manager model of complexit y: The complexity of decision strategies is affected by the balance be tween the importance of the problem and the resources (cognitive and o ther) that must be invested to operate at different levels of complexi ty. The data have implications for understanding the impact of emotion al involvement on cognitive complexity.