Because the cognitive complexity levels of each of the parties and of the mediator can create either effective matches or unproductive clashes in conflict resolution, I recently have posted on my blogs several times about those levels. (See links below.)
Theories about what increases cognitive complexity are numerous. Most of the theorists seem to agree that developing higher complexity takes time; it also involves experiencing situations which enable a person to feel more and more comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. The benefits of complexity include the ability to take multiple perspectives, the already-mentioned comfort with ambiguity, skill in strong and complete analysis, and self-awareness. All of those benefits are helpful in conflict resolution; disparate levels of these traits in the people involved (including the mediator) can hamper or prevent resolution. Therefore it is important for mediators to understand these differences, assess them, and know what to do when they are driving behavior.
And now a surprise: Another method of promoting cognitive complexity may be reading fiction! If you want to learn more,
It turns out that informational texts don’t come close to containing the kind of metacognitive complexity so essential to fiction that we don’t even notice it. Consider these two inextricable fea- tures of fiction. It always functions on a higher level of metacognitive complexity than nonfiction, and it can achieve that higher level without explicit use of metacognitive vocabulary.
I prefer to describe this kind of complexity as “sociocognitive” rather than “metacognitive” because of its emphasis on the social aspect of cognition. Think of sociocognitive complexity as triply nested mental states—a mental state within a mental state within yet another mental state—as in, for instance, “I didn’t want (first mental state) him to know (second mental state) that I didn’t like (third mental state) his gift.” Social situations featuring third-level-nested mental states are the baseline for fiction. By fiction I mean prose fiction, drama, and narrative poetry. Memoirs concerned with imagination and consciousness rather than chronology, like Nabokov’s Speak, Memory, also belong in this category.
Once you start reading a work of fiction, you encounter third-level nesting very soon and after a while are immersed in it. Different authors achieve this by different stylistic means, focusing primarily on mental states either of characters or of narrators and implied readers. Some writers operate on the fourth level of sociocognitive complexity, and some reach even to the fifth and sixth.
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...If you want nonstop high-level sociocognitive complexity, simultaneous with nonstop active reorganization of perceptions and inferences, only fiction delivers. Teach less of it, and only students whose parents encourage them to read a lot of fiction on their own will still do well. The less fortunate others will end up with poor vocabularies and grades.
Click to read the rest. In addition to the above article (posted with permission of Dr. Zunshine), I recommend the author's book Getting Inside Your Head: What Cognitive Science Can Tell Us about Popular Culture.
What plans do you have to facilitate the growth of cognitive complexity in yourself and your clients? Although it may not be appropriate to assign novels to your mediation clients, maybe you could curl up with a good story this holiday season? What is your favorite fiction?
I only read fiction at night, before I go to bed, because I have this idea (and don't know from where the notion came) that only nonfiction should be read during my working hours. Maybe I will have to reevaluate that habit.
A few other posts about cognitive complexity:
- Rich questions, poor questions: Growing or plateauing?
- Degrees of wisdom: What if the mediator and the parties are not equally wise?
- Do clients need to fit into your bed? Here's a process to decrease the number of Procrustean professionals
- All mediation is brain-based: It's impossible to resolve conflict without a brain (And other Friday-the-13th reflection)
- What do you really, really know? Is intellectual humility important in conflict resolution?
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