Polystatic Appraisal
The Polystasis model incorporates three processes. First, there is Appraisal. As Peter Sterling has noted, there is an ongoing need to monitor the environment in which we operate to determine if a new baseline (desired outcomes) is required. We informally or formally predict the probability that our current desired baseline of functioning can be achieved. This is where anticipation first appears in the Polystatic process. Is our current baseline viable, given what we anticipate? Is our current baseline even desirable?
At this point, I introduce a concept offered by another neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio (2005). Damasio proposes that specific Somatic Markers are attached to specific images we generate. A certain somatic reaction is elicited when we are considering an idea or past experience. Our “Gut” clinches up when we think about an embarrassing experience from our past. Our heart accelerates when reflecting on the elaborate dinner we are planning for our loved one. Damasio also introduces the concept of Background Feelings. At any one point in time, we feel “a certain way” that is created by not only our emotions and clusters of somatic markers related to ideas and experiences that are swirling around our mind, but also by our physiological state (levels of energy and fatigue, lingering illnesses or injuries, stage of one’s biological cycle, etc.)
I propose that these various ingredients come together in what I call the Somatic Template. This template is more than a set of Damasio’s somatic markers. It is a general monitoring device that keeps us abreast of our overall physiological state. This template may play a central role in Sterling’s Allostatic process. Similarly, there might be a set of psychosocial templates that we frequently reference when making polystatic predictions and adjustments. Perhaps, this template plays a central role in Sterling’s Allostatic process. Similarly, there might be a set of psychosocial templates that we frequently reference when making polystatic predictions and adjustments. These templates offer a view of our psychological status and the status of our external world.
A psychosocial template might trigger our attention when something is threatening us. Elsewhere, I have suggested that we establish three threat categories in our Amygdala (Bergquist, 2011). I derived these categories from the semantic differential of Charles Osgood (1957). Is this threatening entity not aligned with our welfare (bad)? Is it strong (rather than weak and ineffective)? Is this threatening operating in an immediate active manner (rather than inactive or threatening at a temporal or spatial distance)? Our Amygdala is triggered, leading to an immediate change in our somatic template.
This Amygdala triggering soon leads to a change in our psychosocial template as we better understand (correctly or incorrectly) the nature and scope of the threat. Our anticipation is “charged” by this appraisal of threat. Alternatively, the psychosocial template is triggered when something slightly “different” occurs in our psyche or in the world we inhabit. The “new” template doesn’t match the template that existed a few minutes before, or with some relatively stable baseline template we have built during our lifetime. It is a “deviant” template that draws our attention and impacts our polystatic process.
While our somatic template concerns how our body is operating and “feeling”, the psychosocial template associated with Polystasis concerns how we are seeing and “feeling about” the world in which we are operating. The psychosocial template is a component of or at least is closely associated with something called a Schema (Piaget, 1923/2001). While the psychosocial template, like the somatic template, is constantly shifting, the schema remains stable and changes only slowly over time. The schema is founded on our sense of self and a set of assumptions we make about our relationships with other people and circumstances in our world. Our anticipations are strongly influenced by the schema we have formed early in life. Put simply, we are inclined to “see” our world through the lens of our schema—especially when we are viewing other people and their relationship with us (Young, Klosko, and Weishaar, 2006).
It is also important to note that we have only tacit (rather than explicit/conscious) knowledge of templates (Polanyi, 2009). We lack full awareness of either our somatic template or our psychosocial templates, even though they both strongly influence the decisions we make and actions we take. Schemas are equally inaccessible to immediate awareness. Another connection is important to mention. Our psychosocial templates and our psychological schema may be closely tied to the somatic template. We inevitably “feel” what we are seeing and what we anticipate.
Download Article
