Some of the most important appraisals occur when the environment is threatening. As Richard Lazarus noted many years ago (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984), threat appraisal is complex and involves a multistage process. It is based on a dynamic, feedback-laden process, much as the T.O.T.E. system relies on an ongoing testing of reality. Both Lazarus and the authors of T.O.T.E. are in the business of identifying the processes of anticipation and adjustment. 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 interested in our welfare. Is it bad (rather than good)? 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 special distance)? Our Amygdala is triggered, leading to an immediate change in our somatic template. This soon leads to a change in our psychosocial template as we better understand (correctly or incorrectly) the nature and scope of the threat. As Robert Sapolsky (2004) notes, we then engage fight, flight, or (more often) freeze in response to the real or imagined threat.
While the Amygdala-based appraisal will trigger survival behavior, the deviance-based appraisal is likely to trigger further exploration and even a growing appreciation of that which is different. For instance, the unexpected soaring upward of a pitch in a musical composition may portray love and aspiration. Just as the plunging downward of a pitch might powerfully portray despair. Similarly, we are drawn to a painting that in some way “deviates” from what we would usually expect, much as a compelling photograph offers an unaccustomed viewpoint. Even humor often requires that we be caught off-guard by the final turn of the story.
I propose that we can expand on this understanding by introducing the dynamic appraisals operating in both the world of Allostasis and Somatic templates and the world of Polystasis and Psychosocial templates. These templates and dynamic appraisals best describe the source of ongoing moment-by-moment adjustments in human behavior. For instance, the motivational hierarchy offered by the humanist, Abraham Maslow (2014), provides us with a way to understand the general appraisal made by human beings. We carefully attend appraisals based on the relationship between one of our needs and the changing ability of the environment to potentially meet this need.
Henry Murray (1938/2007), another major humanistic psychologist, emphasizes this interplay between internal needs and the external “presses.” At the lowest motivational level, our environment is either supporting or threatening our basic survival. At Maslow’s highest motivational level, our environment is either aligned or not aligned with our self-actualization aspirations. At the immediate (proximal) level, our appraisals are dictated neither by the long-term (distal) search for fulfillment of a Maslow need, nor by the simplistic stimulus-response process offered by early behavioral psychologists (such as Clark Hull and B. F. Skinner). The model of immediate, proximal appraisal that I have proposed fits closely with that offered by Miller, Galanter, and Pribram. We are constantly altering our Appraisal (Test) of the current state based on information derived from our somatic and psychosocial templates.
Adjustment and Action
We Adjust if the current baseline of desired functioning is no longer appropriate. As Sterling proposes, we identify a new level of functioning. An alternative (“allo”) stasis is based on predictions regarding the probability of success in achieving this baseline (stasis). Miller, Galanter, and Pribram propose that we are Operating (O) (Adjusting) when we establish a new stasis.
We Act on behalf of the new baseline of desired functioning. In keeping with Miller, Galanter, and Pribram, we again Test (appraise) to see if the adjusted level is still appropriate given ongoing environmental changes, internal physiological changes, and our experience of acting on behalf of the new stasis. T.O.T.E. and dynamic feedback systems are alive and well in the Polystatic world.
