ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the degree to which the behavioral regularities that characterize human social behavior and cognition are the result of interaction-dominant dynamics and, as such, naturally emerge from the reciprocally nested, multi-timescale interactions that exist between mind, body, and environment. It explains what is meant by interaction-dominant dynamics and how stable patterns of behavior emerge in interaction-dominant dynamical systems (IDDS). Then, the chapter describes a defining feature of IDDS, slow-to-fast timescale enslavement, which can be leveraged to identify theoretical arguments and test hypotheses about the emergence and self-organization of social behavior. It reviews relevant and noteworthy examples from the psychological sciences that demonstrate the value of this approach, as well as providing a brief discussion of some of the methodological tools that can be employed to study and understand interaction-dominant, dynamical social systems. The chapter also describes the term "soft-molded" refers to stable yet temporary behavioral patterns or functional organization.
