From a polystatic perspective, the error-detection signals provide a somatic level (and Emotional) corrective to the cognitively based appraisal. Aligning with what I suggested in the first essay, Rock and Page identify the critical role played by the amygdala. I have expanded on what they have to say by noting that the amygdala may rely on three criteria originally proposed by Charles Osgood (1957), these being the valence (intentions) of the person or event creating change in the environment, as well as the person’s or event’s strength and level of activity. I also mentioned that assessments made by the amygdala can be both positive and negative. Detected changes may lead one to conclude that good, strong, and active things are happening in one’s environment. They need not be bad, strong, and active threats.
While Rock and Page are focusing on the “animal” side of our assessments and anticipations, there is also the side offered by us as homo sapiens. At the psychosocial level, we adjust our planned actions based on predictions and anticipations regarding the probable success of these actions. The Cognitive Element of the polystatic process is engaged (operating primarily in the prefrontal cortex). I had this to say in the first essay regarding the operation of Emotional and Cognitive Elements in two different systems—one that is closed and one that is open:
While a homeostatic perspective on human operations is based on an assumption that these operations are being conducted in a closed system, the polystatic perspective is founded on the quite different assumption that human operations are being conducted in an open system. When operating in a closed system, one can anticipate that all of the relevant variables are locked in place. These variables include such important matters [Osgood’s criteria], as the intentions, strength, and activity level of specific living entities the strength and consistency of nonliving but dynamic entities (such as weather and temperature), and the presence of permanent objects (such as chairs and buildings). We know what the variables are and can usually make an accurate assumption about the magnitude of each variable and its relationship to the other relevant variables. By contrast, an open system is one in which new variables enter the picture and change their magnitude and relationship to other variables. When operating in an open system, one will frequently experience a shift in their somatic template. Baselines often must be readjusted and anticipations modified.
An openness of space and needed adjustment of our psychosocial template is particularly likely, given the frequent appearance of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, turbulence, and contradictions (VUCA-Plus) in mid-21st-century society (Bergquist, 2025).
Polystatic Action
We act on behalf of the new baseline of desired outcomes as well as our new predictions regarding the relative effectiveness of potential actions to be taken. Our anticipations produce our new actions:
In essence, Polystasis represents a dynamic, highly interactive interweaving of appraisal, adjustment, and action. Clear and accurate feedback is needed to determine appropriate levels of adjustment. Open channels for the flow of information between these three phases are critical.
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