Cognitive Complexity: Differentiation and Integration in Counseling Practice and Training

Abstract

This article presents an in‐depth exploration of cognitive complexity. The authors propose that the domains of differentiation and integration signify unique cognitive processes that develop along distinct trajectories. Although differentiated complexity arises from clinical experience and certain training methods, the development of integrative complexity requires enhanced abductive reasoning skills and the use of phenomenological methods. Implications for growing integrative complexity through training, supervision, and clinical practice are provided.

Promoting Cognitive Complexity in Counselor Education: Constructivist and Phenomenological Practices

“…Differentiation and integration are distinct, yet interdependent, aspects of cognitive complexity (Suedfeld, Tetlock, & Streufert, ). The two modes of mental model development are complementary; however, differentiation represents the expansion of mental models to accommodate new data, whereas integration denotes the contraction of mental models to identify latent patterns within a surplus of differentiated data (Gentner & Stevens, ; Wilkinson & Dewell, ).…”

“…Consequently, the question is, what does it mean to develop well‐articulated, as opposed to poorly articulated, mental models? According to Wilkinson and Dewell (), well‐articulated mental models “reflect foundational elements of experience rather than abstract renderings of experience,” whereas poorly articulated models are “abstract placeholders … without any practical relevance beyond their conceptual relationship to other abstractions” (p. 320). In other words, varying degrees of articulation signify the relative depth of understanding attributed to constructs and concepts that inform mental model development.…”

“…The use of creative and reflective classroom tasks to “emphasize multiple perspectives, embrace differences, and encourage plurality” (Shaw et al, , p. 272) is a pillar of constructivist teaching (Kinsella, ; Schmidt & Adkins, ; Yilmaz, ) as well as counselor development (Gladding, ; Griffith & Frieden, ). Such constructivist methods destabilize the coherence of dualistic mental models by introducing new ideas, perspectives, and contextual frames of reference that allow for the assimilation of previously omitted concepts into more complex mental models (Wilkinson & Dewell, ). Multiplistic thinking thus grows as simple or naive mental models expand, or acquire differentiated complexity, to include a broader array of interrelated factors.…”

“…It has thus been suggested that phenomenological methods can uniquely build integrative complexity by means of exposure to specificity , or the “process of examining the experiential phenomena referenced by abstract interpretations” (Wilkinson & Dewell, , p. 321). By means of phenomenological training methods that enable exposure to specificity, students can be taught how to examine and refine their understanding of psychological constructs in a way that supports the developmental transition from multiplistic to relativistic thinking.…”

“…The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how phenomenological teaching methods may be particularly well suited to foster relativistic thinking (Wilkinson & Dewell, ) and to review three new pedagogical activities designed to accomplish this task. To begin, we explore how the cognitive complexity subdomains of differentiation and integration relate to constructivist and phenomenological pedagogies, respectively.…”