Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 7: Focus Session: Self-Regulating and Learning Systems: from Neural to Social Networks

SOE 7.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 19. März 2025, 09:30–10:00, H45

When networks can think: The meaning of self-regulation in the presence of humans — •Alina Herderich — IDea_Lab, University of Graz, Austria

Feedback, global states, adaptation - given their many parallels modeling societies as self-regulating physical systems is tempting. How do the dynamics of a system change in which each of the agents has attitudes, desires, intellect? This talk explores communalities and differences between self-regulation in psychology and physics. First, I will define and illustrate the meaning of self-regulation in psychology. Second, I will explain how regulation can differ when humans regulate themselves versus others. Third, I will showcase challenges that arise when modeling groups of humans as self-regulating systems. For example, how do humans monitor the state of their group? What are the quantities that are regulated in groups of humans? And how do we differentiate between desired and undesired states especially if the targets are not morally neutral? Finally, I will close the talk with highlighting what psychology can learn from physics and vice versa in the context of self-regulating systems.

Keywords: psychology; self-regulation; groups; social networks