Análisis de solidez de la estructura financiera

Jaques cites a study done by Tolman195 on rats solving a maze running problem as an example of this problem. The data indicated that two groups of rats emerged from the sample population, one group “seem[ed] to be using a higher level of abstraction in solving the maze- running problem”. 196 The results of this study were interpreted in terms of only one parameter, i.e that there was a range of abilities, but did not explain the distinct discontinuity found in the quality of ability between the two groups.

Jaques relies heavily on the work of Paiget and other developmental psychologists197_{as the} departure point for this work, in whose work discontinuity often characterizes the rate of change in the properties and various characteristics found in human individuals at different stages of development.

This book is a confluence of similar phenomena observed by different researchers in different fileds of study. John Isaac had observed discontinuities in the levels of abstraction capabilities as seen in science and mathematics students and as a result he and Roland Gibson had collaborated on a model of levels of abstraction observed in these same geometry

193

(Jaques, The Form of Time, , 1982), p 50-51.

194

(Jaques, Elliott, Gibson, R O and Isaac, D J, 1978, p. 3).

195

(Tolman, 1951).

196

(Jaques, Elliott, Gibson, R O and Isaac, D J, 1978), p 4.

197

students. They intially identified six such levels but later reduced the number to five. This seemed to be remarkably similar to the phenomenon Jaques had observed in the structure of the discrete levels he had found in the managerial structures reported on page 27. Further experimental work was done by Gibson and Brian O'Connor, and these results have been generalized through an analysis of the structure of mathematical logic. They showed the following “two connected hypotheses about discontinuity in psychological development showing up in two different types of multi-modality.”198

The first was that “discontinuity in ability in problem-solving would manifest itself in the emergence with age of an increasing number of modes in the distribution of scores indicating level of performance - giving a series of discrete levels of ability, five in all,” and the second that “not only would there be a series of discontinuous levels, but that a different mode of work would emerge with each level.”199 This experimentals work and the discontinuity theory it produced was then converted into truth table logic, using the bi-polar relationships and contrasts structure as found in psychology. It is this work that forms the basis of one of Jaques later books, Human Capability,200 which he wrote with Kathryn Cason.

Once again starting with the relationship between a mother and a newborn baby as the initial state and in which the baby has had no prior experience of the world outside of the womb, it is assumed that a only state of “chaos, nothingness,”201 exists for the baby and that it does not yet experience a “self” nor any “objects” separate from itself, but only “immanent needs.”202 These immediate needs are the only elements of its felt reality, as no person is born with a “prefabricated reality”203 of the world it enters into. A this stage these are the only objects that form part of the child’s “umwelt”204 as brought forth by it’s survival driven impulse to meet its immediate needs. The felt need gives rise to a duality, that which is needed and the act of needing, the latter giving rise to the “self” as separated from the former. It is at this point that the very first act of “structural coupling”205 _{takes place, the coupling being based} 198 Ibid, p 7. 199 Ibid, p 7-8 200

(Jaques, Elliott, and Cason, Kathryn, 1994)

201

(Jaques, Elliott, Gibson, R O and Isaac, D J, 1978), p 102.

202

Ibid, p 101.

203

(Jaques, Elliott, Gibson, R O and Isaac, D J, 1978), p 100. Jaques’ departure point is similar to that found in Werner, H. (1967); 'The concept of development from a comparative and organismic point of view'. In Harris, D. B. (Ed.); The concept of development; Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

204

Umwelt

205

on the sensual connection between the baby and the mother as it acts on the breast with the resultant satisfaction, or not, of the felt needs. If the felt needs are satisfied, this satisfaction is “discriminated out of the initial chaos”, the identities “self and need” on the one hand and “breast and mother” on the other emerge as two poles with a relationship linking the two. In terms of mathematical logic, this state is represented as “true” relative to the needs being met. Should the need no longer be met, the discrimination fades and confusion/chaos with its accompanying anxiety returns and in terms of mathematical logic this state can be represented by “false” relative to the needs being met. The underlying relationship is then either discriminating or confusing, either “true” or “false.” This relationship is aptly described in mathematical logic’s most fundamental statement, i.e.

primitive form of statement P –“'statement” in the sense of an actual response - and its “negation” (NP). 'Negation' and 'affirmation' are associated with behavioural entities and are thus seen as unconventional language, language as direct action.206

It must be emphasized that the ontegeny or history of the various states over time have no bearing on the underlying logic.

It is key to understand what Jaques is saying here. He separates the conscious from subconscious on the basis of articulated language with regard to the former, and action or connation with regard to the latter. He sums it up in the following way:

Decisions are always goal-directed, since a choice can be made only in relation to an intended outcome. Moreover, deciding or choosing are always in the final analysis founded upon unconscious processes. The role of protomental unconscious factors in decision-making can be succinctly summed up in the fact that if you consciously know all the considerations that led to a particular choice then you did not make a decision: you were a computer.207

In terms of the baby’s coupling with its mother, there is no conscious considerations in either the action or the reaction of the baby as it as yet has no other memory of previous couplings, let alone language, but the logical foundation is already embedded.

It is here where Jaques and the other determinists differ fundamentally. Jaquian determinism holds that while the initial state of each baby born may be the same blank sheet as it were, the

206

(Jaques, Elliott, Gibson, R O and Isaac, D J, 1978), p 13.

207

capability is already embedded and it will begin to follow a predictable maturation path, whereas the psychological and behavioural determinists hold that the person’s capability is formed by the nature of the continuous structural coupling process as the person develops into maturity. Jaques however, believes he has a way in which he can describe an aspect of these unseen processes in a scientifically measurable manner.