Title: Modeling psychological dynamics on different time scales

Co-authors: Oisin Ryan, Fabian Dablander

Abstract:

Many psychological phenomena are based on mechanics on different time scales. Some processes are a changing at a time scale of minutes (e.g., emotions), while others change at a time scale of weeks (e.g., depression symptoms) or even at longer time scales (e.g., coping styles, personality traits). In order to understand the coupling between such processes on different time scales, they have to be formalized in a single model. In this talk, we begin by connecting an intuitive understanding of time scales with the framework of differential equations. We then review the theory of different time scales in the dynamical systems literature, which is helpful for thinking about different time scales, constructing models on different time scales, and analyzing them qualitatively. We illustrate this theory with a simple toy model about psychopathology. Finally, we discuss how properly modeling the coupling of processes on different time scales allows us to construct better substantive theories and informs the designs of studies aiming to tap into such couplings.