The Problem of the Task. Pseudo-Interactivity as an Experimental Paradigm of Phenomenological Psychology

Abstract

Real-life problems are almost always socially complex, even when we are by ourselves. Psychological problem-solving research must therefore integrate complexity as a domain of investigation. However, the simulation of complex interactions represents a major challenge to designing experiments dealing with the nature of social interaction: Simulated social interaction, even when enacted by confederates, is not identical to the actual social interaction. Subjects will tend to enact simulated interaction in distinct ways. To understand these differences, the different situation enactments ought to be analyzed psychologically. Essentially, an instruction to perform in an experimental setting cannot guarantee that the experimental subject will take a certain attitude toward the situation. Early psychology of thought considered the social nature of the experimental situation when discussing the notion of the task. Modern experimental psychology can draw on these reflections in order to grasp better the essential characteristics of social complexity and to establish pseudo-interactivity as a phenomenologically enriched experimental paradigm. Its methodological power is illustrated by an exploratory experimentation on problem-solving.