Process theory

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Process theory is a commonly used form of scientific research study in which events or occurrences are said to be the result of certain input states leading to a certain outcome (output) state, following a set process.

Process theory holds that if an outcome is to be duplicated, so too must the process which originally created it, and that there are certain constant necessary conditions for the outcome to be reached. When the phrase is used in connection with human motivation, process theory attempts to explain the mechanism by which human needs changes. Some of the theories that falls in this category are Expectancy theory, Equity theory, and Goal setting.

In management research, process theory provides and explanation of 'how' something happens and a variance theory explains the 'why'.

Some theorists claim that all natural processes have complex phases in which the output state of the process is not determined by the input states of the processes. The condition is defined by Robert Rosen as being "complex".

General Explanation

Western science emerged out of philosophy. It is a tragedy that ancient and enlightenment era western philosophy completely overlooked the power of process in producing effects. For instance, Plato imagined "forms" and the atomists imagined "atoms" (in their original Greek sense) as fully explaining reality in its 'current state.' The problem with such accounts of 'current state' reality is that we are left with our theoretical entities to account for.

In the 19th century, science began to part with this old 'entity-centric' view in favor of processes. One of the earliest is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. It was followed by the 'Big Bang' theory and plate tectonics. In these theories, complex 'current states' can be explained in terms of processes that occurred over time -- generally evolving from simpler more primordeal states. The good thing about these theories is that they did not wind up in an infinite regress of increasing complexity, but to the contrary promised a 'simple' original cause or event.

Only very recently has this thinking begun to enter philosophy. Rather than accounting for experience through hypothetical entities and forces (such as matter and energy) philosophers are beginning to postulate an evolution of expeience itself -- resulting in fewer 'working parts' and surprising degrees of explanatory power. What was taken to be the result of matter and energy (the effect as presented in human experience) is then simply reassigned as a piece in a perceptual process. This is still a new and radical view and is not as of yet the general consensus, but it does appear to be persisting as an alternative worldview. See perceptual dynamics.

Historical Fallacy

Central to process theory is the rigorous avoidance of the "historical fallacy." Psychological Fallacy: “A set of considerations which hold good only because a completed process is read into the content of the process which conditions this completed result." (John Dewey in The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology, 1896) More simply stated, we are committing the psychological fallacy when we read into a process that which comes about only as a result of that process. Also called “the historical fallacy.”

To give an example of this that is easier to understand, imagine you have come from another planet and are examining a loaf of bread to discover how it was made. Thinking exclusively in terms of parts and ingredients you might proceed to analyze (break into parts) the various ingredients in the bread. You would, for instance find wheat, but also air. You might conclude then that part of the process of making bread includes mixing in some air. This is wrong. A baker does not mix air into his bread. Rather he adds yeast and a chemical process (when heated for a duration) causes air to rise in the bread. By not understanding the "historical fallacy" you have 'read into the process something that comes about only as a result of that process.' You imagined air as part of the cause, when in fact air is merely a result of the process. In essence, you confused effect for cause. You read the effect into the cause. That is the historical fallacy.

Applications

Process theory is no longer simply a way to account for physical process. Increasingly it is being applied to metaphysics and psychology as well. See perceptual dynamics and gestalt psychology. See also Meher Baba who offers a complex process theory in his book, "God Speaks."