Dynamical systems theory as a metaphor in psychology: is it useful or not? Dynamical systems theory as it is used in the context of developmental psychology, and by some psychoanalysts as in this article or in this video by the first speaker can be described as an attempt to introduce mathematical concepts in the study of psychological phenomena. Unlike other applications of dynamical systems theory, the above seem to use terms like "attractor" in an abstract or metaphorical sense, that is, outside of a formal mathematical context.


Is this kind of application useful or just a bunch of preety words, stripped of their real meaning ?
Do we have a better understanding of psychological phenomena through such a framework?
Like all models and modeling frameworks, the utility of the approach is often tied to how much it increases our understanding of the phenomena of interest. As summarized nicely by Smith &amp; Thelen (2003), there are developmental questions that are better conceptualized through the framework of DST than through alternative modeling frameworks due to the richly interactive and multi-causal structure of the phenomena.

You'll also find that applications of DST in Developmental Psychology are not just appealing to the metaphorical use of DST. There are rigorous mathematical uses of the tools of DST to explain developmental phenomena. One of the most cited examples is Thelen et al. (2001), who modeled the A-not-B error. There is a lot of similarly inspired modeling work being done throughout the field.