OPUS Methodology - a social psychological approach

The individual is the primary building block in all human activity. It is only the functioning of individual minds which make the human collectively possible. We may, therefore, start with the notion that the self is the organising function within the individual and the function by means of which one human being can relate to another. Without human minds, neither language, nor culture nor rules could exist. No matter what the circumstances, we as individuals play the central role in making sense of our experiences. However, the substance of the object relations argument in psychoanalysis is that the dominating feature of human psychology is an impulse to form relationships – a social orientation. Human activity is not an isolated activity, we are all group animals and we are all part of a group from earliest infancy. Starting in infancy, the most outstanding and the most continuous of human psychic needs is that for emotional response from other individuals. These feelings stay with us throughout our lives and it is this need for a favourable response, which provides individuals with their main stimulus to socially acceptable behaviour. People abide by the mores of their societies quite as much because they desire approval as because they fear punishment.

Since most human needs are supplied by other persons, adaptation to the world is with the world of other men and women and not with the world of nature. The members of a society test reality by comparing their own perceptions and evaluations with those of other persons who experience the same or similar events. The ‘truth’ of reality concepts is finally tested in the bubbling cauldron of consensus, not in the isolation of lonely contemplation. Man is a social animal who knows that his existence is absolutely tied to the group. Thus reality testing - the need for continuity, consistency, and confirmation - leads to consensual validation.

For all of us, the basis for our perceptive process is the pool of internalised knowledge and feelings which in turn provides the basis for our self-concepts which are the individual’s views of him or herself. They begin in childhood and expand through object relations first with the mother and then with other significant family members. The object relations with the parents provide a continual psycho-social basis for learning what is pleasurable and what is distressing. Thus the way that we, as individuals, will respond to any situation will depend greatly on the given situation as we have learned to perceive it. We therefore need to adopt a social psychological (socio-psycho) approach.The concept of ‘psycho-social’ draws attention to the fact that we are dealing with two distinct levels at the same time.

Most of us appear to live unreflecting lives and to be content with simple answers to the questions surrounding experience. For the most part we are concerned with rational or surface learning, what we might refer to as ‘learning about’ or cognitive learning. . In the main this is learning about the ‘social’ or external factors: these are the data as they are presented to us, what we might refer to as taking things at their face value. These may include: products and services, technologies, societal or organisational structures, rules and procedures that are the stuff of people’s everyday life and work, and other external realities around them. These operate according to principles that may be technical, economic, sociological, legal, or environmental in nature.

However, when we reflect carefully on our lives, we will realise that while less obvious there is another sort of learning: that which we may refer to as ‘learning from experience’. This is learning about the ‘psycho’ or internal factors: these are the data that is included in our pool of internalised knowledge and feelings. From earliest days the infant takes in, or introjects, ‘objects’ such as the mother, values, conscience and feelings which become internalised ‘objects’, that are available to the infant. These may include: beliefs and values, hopes, anxieties, and defence mechanisms, ideas and ways of thinking of these same people that both determine how they perceive the external realities and shape their actions towards them. These are phenomena of subjective experience located within the minds of people, and they operate according to the principles of psychology.

These two levels, the external and internal worlds of members of societies are in continual interaction: what goes on in the minds of members of societies is partly reactive to what happens around them, but is also very much proactive. The ideas and ways of thinking influence the way they act upon their surroundings to bring about change in them. By experiential learning we mean: an ability to constantly be aware of both the external level and the internal level and to work at understanding what meaning behaviour at the external level has for what is occurring at the internal level. The resulting understanding provides a deeper awareness of the dynamics that are occurring at any given time.

The OPUS stance is to work on the boundary of what is inside and what is outside: A position which allows for reflection. What we mean by the ‘reflective citizen’ is this: as individuals, we may consider what is inside and what is outside ourselves. Our reaction to external events is in part determined by our internal world - the psychic prism through which I observe external events. But we are at the same time influenced by that external world. To be a reflective individual means having an awareness and understanding of both internal and external levels. That is, an ability to consider the impact of both levels. To go beyond the obvious external level, what we might refer to as taking things at their face value, and to reflect on the part that the internal level is having on any circumstances.

This is the understanding that OPUS seeks to make available to members of society. The ability of OPUS personnel to work with this interplay of internal and external data is due to our own capacity for reflection and understanding of the way our emotions affect our decision making. This is mainly developed from experiential learning, especially group relations learning; the intensive study of groups, as groups, as the study happens. And this is the approach that OPUS takes, in varying degrees, at their public events which include: Listening Posts, Scientific Meetings, Debates, Workshops, Reports, Research, Consultancy, the International Conference, and through the OPUS International Journal ‘Organisational and Social Dynamics’.