Complex Societal Problems

In this chapter, Complex societal problems, some aspects of complex societal problems and some aspects of (human) problem handling in general are discussed. The emphasis in this chapter is more on the problem and the methodology of problem handling, than on the problem solver. In Cognitive Psychology the central attention of problem-solving research is often on the problem solver. The analysis of the problem handling process will be mainly treated from the viewpoint of cognitive psychology as far as this is relevant for building the Theory of the Methodology of Societal Complexity. The chapter starts with questioning “what is a problem,” describing different kinds of problems, and questioning “what is problem handling.” This is followed by a discussion of when is something a problem, for whom it is a problem, who should handle the problem, a discussion of interventions, and finally, when is a problem solved. Some aspects of problem solving research that are important for this debate will also be discussed. We prefer to use the words “problem handling” instead of “problem solving.” Only in case the literature itself uses the words “problem solving,” we copy this term in order to facilitate comparison in the literature. In a brief historical review, the work of a selection of researchers on the subject of problem solving in the field of cognitive psychology will be discussed. Selected are those researchers whose ideas had a major influence on the work of other researchers in the field. In this review the research of Selz (1922), who used the think-aloud method to discover how human beings think, and of De Groot (1965) on problem solving in the chess game, and some of the ideas of Newell and Simon (1972) will be discussed. Newell and Simon’s ideas have influenced many researchers. Their ideas have a central place in the theory of problem solving in Cognitive Psychology and in Artificial Intelligence, restricted to the Anglo-American literature. The discussion closes with research on undefined problems: the research of Crombag (Crombag et al. 1977; Crombag 1984) on how judges and physicians handle problems and the research of Wierda (1991) about developing interdisciplinary information systems. Based on these discussions the first research expectation can be answered. The first expectation, expectation a is: the character of complex societal problems is an important reason for the difficulty of handling these problems. The research questions derived from this expectation are: a1 is handling complex societal problems so difficult because of the special character of these problems? a2 in what way do complex societal problems differ from the problems that are studied in the field of Cognitive Psychology? a3 what are the similarities relevant for handling complex societal problems between the problems that are studied in the field of Cognitive Psychology and problems in the field of the Theory of the Methodology of Societal Complexity?