P. Suedfeld et al., THE EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE ON INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY, Journal of applied social psychology, 24(5), 1994, pp. 443-452
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.