The Butterfly Effect

(http://www.stsci.edu/~lbradley/seminar/butterfly.html)

Weather prediction is an extremely difficult problem. Meteorologists can predict the weather
for short periods of time, a couple days at most, but beyond that predictions are generally poor.

Edward Lorenz was a mathematician and meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology who loved the study of weather. With the advent of computers, Lorenz saw the chance
to combine mathematics and meteorology. He set out to construct a mathematical model of the
weather, namely a set of differential equations that represented changes in temperature, pressure,
wind velocity, etc. In the end, Lorenz stripped the weather down to a crude model containing a set
of 12 differential equations.

On a particular day in the winter of 1961, Lorenz wanted to re-examine a sequence of data
coming from his model. Instead of restarting the entire run, he decided to save time and restart the
run from somewhere in the middle. Using data printouts, he entered the conditions at some point
near the middle of the previous run, and re-started the model calculation. What he found was very
unusual and unexpected. The data from the second run should have exactly matched the data from
the first run. While they matched at first, the runs eventually began to diverge dramatically — the
second run losing all resemblance to the first within a few "model" months.

At first Lorenz thought that a vacuum tube had gone bad in his computer, a Royal McBee — an
extremely slow and crude machine by today's standards. After discovering that there was no
malfunction, Lorenz finally found the source of the problem. To save space, his printouts only
showed three digits while the data in the computer's memory contained six digits. Lorenz had
entered the rounded-off data from the printouts assuming that the difference was inconsequential.
For example, even today temperature is not routinely measured within one part in a thousand.

This led Lorenz to realize that long-term weather forecasting was doomed. His simple model
exhibits the phenomenon known as "sensitive dependence on initial conditions." This is sometimes
referred to as the butterfly effect, e.g. a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can affect the
weather in Central Park. The question then arises — why does a set of completely deterministic
equations exhibit this behavior? After all, scientists are often taught that small initial perturbations
lead to small changes in behavior. This was clearly not the case in Lorenz's model of the weather.
The answer lies in the nature of the equations; they were nonlinear equations. While they are
difficult to solve, nonlinear systems are central to chaos theory and often exhibit fantastically
complex and chaotic behavior.

What Does the Butterfly Effect Offer You?

(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/whats-in-name/201505/what-does-the-butterfly-effec
t-offer-you)

Recently scientists discovered that trauma is passed on from one generation to the next not
only psychologically but also physiologically, an invaluable, but depressing, discovery, which means
trauma, is even more difficult to treat than we realized. This is the glass half empty.

What is the glass half full? The answer may lie in the butterfly effect, the discovery that initial
conditions can have disproportionately large effects over time—e.g. the beating of butterfly
wings. “A butterfly beating its wings in South America can affect the weather in Central Park.”
Imagine then, the effect of one act of kindness that allows for another and yet another, linking all of
us in ways we never imagined. If we could tabulate the ramifications, they would be as startling as
that of the butterfly effect. Even a small act of consideration may reverberate beyond anything we
might imagine. What do we take away from this? Perhaps that it is the small acts of of empathy that
spin the web that holds everything together—what we do everyday is more important than what
we do once in awhile.

Recently, meterologists made a startling discovery about monarch butterflies—a discovery for
which they have no explanation. Monarchs migrate in a gigantic cluster that forms the shape of a
butterfly. The implications of this discovery are startling. Could it be that, like small fish, the
monarchs gather together to form a large group that looks like a very large, inedible, butterfly? If
this is the case, like small fish, butterflies have a sense of their identity. What is the message for us?

If fish and butterflies unite for safety in numbers, surely humans have the same ability; but,
instead, we divide ourselves into myriad groups that take precedence over our humanity. We need
to relearn that to survive, we have to be united. With the butterfly effect, we can be.
 The Butterfly Effect: Everything You Need to Know About This Powerful Mental Model

READING TIME: 21 MINUTES

(https://fs.blog/2017/08/the-butterfly-effect/)

“You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something
throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.”

— Fichte, The Vocation of Man (1800)

***

In one of Stephen King’s greatest works, 11/22/63, a young man named Jake discovers a portal
in a diner’s pantry which leads back to 1958. After a few visits and some experiments, Jake deduces
that altering history is possible. However long he stays in the past, only two minutes go by in the
present. He decides to live in the past until 1963 so he can prevent the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy, believing that this change will greatly benefit humanity. After years of stalking Lee
Harvey Oswald, Jake manages to prevent him from shooting Kennedy.

Upon returning to the present, he expects to find the world improved as a result. Instead, the
opposite has happened. Earthquakes occur everywhere, his old home is in ruins, and nuclear war
has destroyed much of the world. (As King wrote in an article for Marvel Spotlight, “Not good to
fool with Father Time.”) Distraught, Jake returns to 1958 once again and resets history.

In addition to being a masterful work of speculative fiction, 11/22/63 is a classic example of

how everything in the world is connected together.

The butterfly effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex
system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.

Of course, a single act like the butterfly flapping its wings cannot cause a typhoon. Small events
can, however, serve as catalysts that act on starting conditions.

And as John Gribbin writes in his cult-classic work Deep Simplicity, “some systems … are very
sensitive to their starting conditions, so that a tiny difference in the initial ‘push’ you give them
causes a big difference in where they end up, and there is feedback, so that what a system does
affects its own behavior.”

In the foreword to The Butterfly Effect in Competitive Markets by Dr. Rajagopal, Tom Breuer
writes:
 Simple systems, with few variables, can nonetheless show unpredictable and sometimes chaotic
behavior…[Albert] Libchaber conducted a series of seminal experiments. He created a small system in
his lab to study convection (chaotic system behavior) in a cubic millimeter of helium. By gradually
warming this up from the bottom, he could create a state of controlled turbulence. Even this tightly
controlled environment displayed chaotic behavior: complex unpredictable disorder that is
paradoxically governed by “orderly” rules.

… [A] seemingly stable system (as in Libchaber’s 1 ccm cell of helium) can be exposed to very
small influences (like heating it up a mere 0.001 degree), and can transform from orderly convection
into wild chaos. Although [such systems are] governed by deterministic phenomena, we are
nonetheless unable to predict how [they] will behave over time.

What the Butterfly Effect Is Not

The point of the butterfly effect is not to get leverage. As General Stanley McChrystal writes
in Team of Teams:

In popular culture, the term “butterfly effect” is almost always misused. It has become
synonymous with “leverage”—the idea of a small thing that has a big impact, with the implication
that, like a lever, it can be manipulated to a desired end. This misses the point of Lorenz’s insight. The
reality is that small things in a complex system may have no effect or a massive one, and it is virtually
impossible to know which will turn out to be the case.

Benjamin Franklin offered a poetic perspective in his variation of a proverb that’s been around
since the 14th century in English and the 13th century in German, long before the identification of
the butterfly effect:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The lack of one horseshoe nail could be inconsequential, or it could indirectly cause the loss of
a war. There is no way to predict which outcome will occur. (If you want an excellent kids book to
start teaching this to your children, check out If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.)
 In this post, we will seek to unravel the butterfly effect from its many incorrect connotations,
and build an understanding of how it affects our individual lives and the world in general.

Edward Lorenz and the Discovery of the Butterfly Effect

“It used to be thought that the events that changed the world were things like big bombs, maniac
politicians, huge earthquakes, or vast population movements, but it has now been realized that this is
a very old-fashioned view held by people totally out of touch with modern thought. The things that
change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. A butterfly flaps its wings in the
Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.” — from Good Omens, by Terry
Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
***

Although the concept of the butterfly effect has long been debated, the identification of it as a
distinct effect is credited to Edward Lorenz (1917–2008). Lorenz was a meteorologist and
mathematician who successfully combined the two disciplines to create chaos theory. During the
1950s, Lorenz searched for a means of predicting the weather, as he found linear models to be
ineffective.

In an experiment to model a weather prediction, he entered the initial condition as 0.506,

instead of 0.506127. The result was surprising: a somewhat different prediction. From this, he
deduced that the weather must turn on a dime. A tiny change in the initial conditions had
enormous long-term implications. By 1963, he had formulated his ideas enough to publish an
award-winning paper entitled Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow. In it, Lorenz writes:

Subject to the conditions of uniqueness, continuity, and boundedness … a central trajectory, which
in a certain sense is free of transient properties, is unstable if it is nonperiodic. A noncentral
trajectory … is not uniformly stable if it is nonperiodic, and if it is stable at all, its very stability is one of
its transient properties, which tends to die out as time progresses. In view of the impossibility of
measuring initial conditions precisely, and thereby distinguishing between a central trajectory and a
nearby noncentral trajectory, all nonperiodic trajectories are effectively unstable from the point of
view of practical prediction.

In simpler language, he theorized that weather prediction models are inaccurate because
knowing the precise starting conditions is impossible, and a tiny change can throw off the results.
To make the concept understandable to non-scientific audiences, Lorenz began to use the butterfly
analogy.

In speeches and interviews, he explained that a butterfly has the potential to create tiny
changes which, while not creating a typhoon, could alter its trajectory. A flapping wing represents
the minuscule changes in atmospheric pressure, and these changes compound as a model
progresses. Given that small, nearly imperceptible changes can have massive implications in
complex systems, Lorenz concluded that attempts to predict the weather were impossible.

Elsewhere in the paper, he writes:

If, then, there is any error whatever in observing the present state—and in any real system such
errors seem inevitable—an acceptable prediction of an instantaneous state in the distant future may
well be impossible.

… In view of the inevitable inaccuracy and incompleteness of weather observations, precise

very-long-range forecasting would seem to be nonexistent.

Lorenz always stressed that there is no way of knowing what exactly tipped a system. The
butterfly is a symbolic representation of an unknowable quantity.

Furthermore, he aimed to contest the use of predictive models that assume a linear,
deterministic progression and ignore the potential for derailment. Even the smallest error in an
initial setup renders the model useless as inaccuracies compound over time. The exponential
growth of errors in a predictive model is known as deterministic chaos. It occurs in most systems,
regardless of their simplicity or complexity.

The butterfly effect is somewhat humbling—a model that exposes the flaws in other models. It
shows science to be less accurate than we assume, as we have no means of making accurate
predictions due to the exponential growth of errors.

Before the work of Lorenz, people assumed that an approximate idea of initial conditions would
lead to an approximate prediction of the outcome. In Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick
writes:

The models would churn through complicated, somewhat arbitrary webs of equations, meant to
turn measurements of initial conditions … into a simulation of future trends. The programmers hoped
the results were not too grossly distorted by the many unavoidable simplifying assumptions. If a
model did anything too bizarre … the programmers would revise the equations to bring the output
back in line with expectation… Models proved dismally blind to what the future would bring, but many
people who should have known better acted as though they believed the results.

One theoretician declared, “The basic idea of Western science is that you don’t have to take
into account the falling of a leaf on some planet in another galaxy when you’re trying to account for
the motion of a billiard ball on a pool table on earth.”
 Lorenz’s findings were revolutionary because they proved this assumption to be entirely false.
He found that without a perfect idea of initial conditions, predictions are useless—a shocking
revelation at the time.

During the early days of computers, many people believed they would enable us to understand
complex systems and make accurate predictions. People had been slaves to weather for millennia,
and now they wanted to take control. With one innocent mistake, Lorenz shook the forecasting
world, sending ripples which (appropriately) spread far beyond meteorology.

Historic Examples of the Butterfly Effect

“A very small cause which escapes our notice determines a considerable effect that we cannot fail
to see, and then we say the effect is due to chance. If we knew exactly the laws of nature and the
situation of the universe at the initial moment, we could predict exactly the situation of that same
universe at a succeeding moment. But even if it were the case that the natural laws had no longer any
secret for us, we could still only know the initial situation *approximately*. If that enabled us to predict
the succeeding situation with *the same approximation*, that is all we require, and we should say that
the phenomenon had been predicted, that it is governed by laws. But it is not always so; it may
happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena.
A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes
impossible, and we have the fortuitous phenomenon.” — Jules Henri Poincaré (1854–1912)

***

Many examples exist of instances where a tiny detail led to a dramatic change. In each case, the
world we live in could be different if the situation had been reversed. Here are some examples of
how the butterfly effect has shaped our lives.

- The bombing of Nagasaki. The US initially intended to bomb the Japanese city of Kuroko,
with the munitions factory as a target. On the day the US planned to attack, cloudy weather
conditions prevented the factory from being seen by military personnel as they flew overhead. The
airplane passed over the city three times before the pilots gave up. Locals huddled in shelters heard
the hum of the airplane preparing to drop the nuclear bomb and prepared for their destruction.
Except Kuroko was never bombed. Military personnel decided on Nagasaki as the target due to
improved visibility. The implications of that split-second decision were monumental. We cannot
even begin to comprehend how different history might have been if that day had not been cloudy.
Kuroko is sometimes referred to as the luckiest city in Japan, and those who lived there during the
war are still shaken by the near-miss.

- The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna rejecting Adolf Hitler’s application, twice. In the
early 1900s, a young Hitler applied for art school and was rejected, possibly by a Jewish professor.
By his own estimation and that of scholars, this rejection went on to shape his metamorphosis from
an aspiring bohemian artist into the human manifestation of evil. We can only speculate as to how
history would have been different. But it is safe to assume that a great deal of tragedy could have
been avoided if Hitler had applied himself to watercolors, not to genocide.

- The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. A little-known fact about the event
considered to be the catalyst for both world wars is that it almost didn’t happen. On the 28th of
June, 1914, a teenage Bosnian-Serb named Gavrilo Princip went to Sarajevo with two other
nationalists to assassinate the Archduke. The initial assassination attempt failed; a bomb or grenade
exploded beneath the car behind the Archduke’s and wounded its occupants. The route was
supposed to have been changed after that, but the Archduke’s driver didn’t get the message. Had
he actually taken the alternate route, Princip would not have been on the same street as the car and
would not have had the chance to shoot the Archduke and his wife that day. Were it not for a
failure of communication, both world wars might never have happened.

- The Chernobyl disaster. In 1986, a test at the Chernobyl nuclear plant went awry and
released 400 times the radiation produced by the bombing of Hiroshima. One hundred fifteen
thousand people were evacuated from the area, with many deaths and birth defects resulting from
the radiation. Even today, some areas remain too dangerous to visit. However, it could have been
much worse. After the initial explosion, three plant workers volunteered to turn off the underwater
valves to prevent a second explosion. It has long been believed that the trio died as a result,
although there is now some evidence this may not have been the case. Regardless, diving into a
dark basement flooded with radioactive water was a heroic act. Had they failed to turn off the valve,
half of Europe would have been destroyed and rendered uninhabitable for half a million years.
Russia, Ukraine, and Kiev also would have become unfit for human habitation. Whether they lived
or not, the three men—Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov—stilled the wings of a
deadly butterfly. Indeed, the entire Chernobyl disaster was the result of poor design and the
ineptitude of staff. The long-term result (in addition to the impact on residents of the area) was
widespread anxiety towards nuclear plants and bias against nuclear power, leading to a preference
for fossil fuels. Some people have speculated that Chernobyl is responsible for the acceleration of
global warming, as countries became unduly slow to adopt nuclear power.

- The Cuban Missile Crisis. We all may owe our lives to a single Russian Navy officer named
Vasili Arkhipov, who has been called “the man who saved the world.” During the Cuban Missile
Crisis, Arkhipov was stationed on a nuclear-armed submarine near Cuba. American aircraft and
ships began using depth charges to signal the submarine that it should surface so it could be
identified. With the submarine submerged too deep to monitor radio signals, the crew had no idea
what was going on in the world above. The captain, Savitsky, decided the signal meant that war had
broken out and he prepared to launch a nuclear torpedo. Everyone agreed with him—except
Arkhipov. Had the torpedo launched, nuclear clouds would have hit Moscow, London, East Anglia
and Germany, before wiping out half of the British population. The result could have been a
worldwide nuclear holocaust, as countries retaliated and the conflict spread. Yet within an
overheated underwater room, Arkhipov exercised his veto power and prevented a launch. Without
the courage of one man, our world could be unimaginably different.
 From these handful of examples, it is clear how fragile the world is, and how dire the effects of
tiny events can be on starting conditions.

We like to think we can predict the future and exercise a degree of control over powerful
systems such as the weather and the economy. Yet the butterfly effect shows that we cannot. The
systems around us are chaotic and entropic, prone to sudden change. For some kinds of systems,
we can try to create favorable starting conditions and be mindful of the kinds of catalysts that
might act on those conditions – but that’s as far as our power extends. If we think that we can
identify every catalyst and control or predict outcomes, we are only setting ourselves up for a fall.
FROM QUORA :

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-butterfly-effect-in-psychology

- Arvin Cruz, live in Satsuma, Kagoshima, Answered Jul 8, 2016

The theory that even the smallest step one takes in his/her life can change the course of said life
immensely. The name of this theory came to be when a Chaos Theory stated: "It has been said that

something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway
around the world."

Theoretically speaking every little thing you do and every little choice you make greatly affects your

life. Even the smallest stone, once thrown on a water can cause large ripples.
- Jerry Sorrell, former Sergeant, Administrative Specialist at U.S. Air Force (1966-1970), Answered

Feb 12, 2018

I believe it means that perception affects reality. Self fulfilling prophecy. The way you feel and think
affects your actions or lack of action. You are more likely for success by thinking you can rather than

thinking you can't. You think someone doesn't like you you will treat them accordingly which could
make them not like you. Been a long time since Psychology class.

- Lauren Spinelli, Answered Feb 12, 2018

Generally, the theory is that every action, even small/unimportant, has an effect on the world

around it. The example is named after the suggestion that the flap of a butterflies wings can change
the air current around it so slightly, but in such a specific way, that it causes a tornado somewhere

in the world. On a smaller scale lets say I spit out some water while waiting for the bus and don't
clean it up and then someone slips on it and hurts themselves. I only spit out a small mouthful of

water, but the result was a broken hip. A small action van create a bigger result. Think of movies
where people time travel where only one small action changes the entire timeline when they go

back.

- Siva Kumar, Works for Self Improvement, Answered Feb 17, 2018

This figures in Chaos Theory. The original quote was, “If a butterfly flutters in Beijing today, it will
cause a snow storm in New York tomorrow”.

Obviously, it was an exaggeration meant to highlight the complexity of the weather system. It is

true because weather is a non-linear system (NLS) with a large number of variables. Chaotic systems
are a special form of NLS where a small difference in the values of variables (of the system) at a

given state will cause the system to evolve in widely different ways.

Take a linear system like y = m(constant) * x(variable). This system is essentially predictable and a
small approximation in x will not make appreciable difference in y, the resultant state.

As it was originally discovered, a difference of the order of 3rd decimal point in the value of

variables makes the weather system predictions to diverge vastly.

One point that is frequently missed is, Chaos theory deals in probabilities (of end states) but not the
states themselves.

All natural phenomena follow NLS but practically no such system has a solution. Textbook

problems of NLS are approximations reduced to solvable linear equations.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-explain-the-Butterfly-Effect-How-can-it-be-proven

- Debprotim Roy, Physics Grad, Answered Nov 19, 2014

The Butterfly Effect is in essence the manifestation of one basic and defining aspect of Chaos
Theory: Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions (SDIC). Chaos theory is a part of the much

broader stream of study Non Linear Dynamics (NLD). NLD basically deals with systems that are
defined using equations that are non linear, which is extremely common in daily life. Its common

because the causality of almost any event around us is basically rooted at multiple sources.

SDIC in chaotic systems effectively tell you that if you change the initial conditions of a chaotic
system the results cannot be compared with the trajectory taken if you start at a point at a distance

even an iota away. This is because the trajectories are unique.

Now dwell on the fact that a chaotic trajectory cannot run across a point twice.

If you run through the same point again you have to take the same path as you did the last time

you were there, if not, then you have two paths, which is an ambiguity, hence it becomes periodic
hence non chaotic. Chaotic trajectories therefore keep running through newer lands :) . This is
definitely a bad conclusion to a rather esoteric explanation.

Coming back to SDIC if you change the initial conditions the results can be bizzarely different. The

movie Butterfly Effect shows our lives as chaotic trajectories, and it does a fairly good job at that, if I
may add.

The butterfly effect is basically the effect that the fluttering wings of a butterfly can cause a

hurricane somewhere else, in chains of events.

This is not unrealistic. Its just us that we associate the big event of the hurricane with the miniscule

flutter of wings. We can dig deeper and think of the drop of water that fell on the butterfly that
made it fly off. This can go on.

Today you may feel that if you dind't tell your dad that very day about you stealing a candy bar
when you were 8, (and eventually getting your ass manhandled by the sweet folks your parents

were, followed by the embarrassment of apologizing in front of the shop owner, and your tears
filling the oceans up, etc), you would still be fine, probably because you wouldn't do it again.

Probably. Probably today, you would have been in jail, or not been here to ask this question.

Understanding the Butterfly Effect

Nearly 45 years ago, during the 139th meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Edward Lorenz posed a question: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in
Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” The answer to that question probably differs from what you’ve
heard.

The concept referred to as the butterfly effect has been embraced by popular culture, where
the term is often used to emphasize the outsize significance of minute occurrences, as in the 1990
movie Havana, in which Robert Redford, playing the role of Jack Weil, a gambler with a knack for
math, proclaims to his costar, Lena Olin, that “a butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China
and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean.”
 Lorenz, the mild-mannered Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorology professor who
developed the concept, never intended for it to be applied in this way. Indeed, he meant to convey
the opposite point.

The purpose of his provocative question, he said, was to illustrate the idea that some complex
dynamical systems exhibit unpredictable behaviors such that small variances in the initial conditions
could have profound and widely divergent effects on the system’s outcomes. Because of the
sensitivity of these systems, outcomes are unpredictable. This idea became the basis for a branch of
mathematics known as chaos theory, which has been applied in countless scenarios since its
introduction.

Lorenz’s insight called into question laws introduced as early as 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton
suggesting that nature is a probabilistic mechanical system, “a clockwork universe.” Similarly,
Lorenz challenged Pierre-Simon Laplace, who argued that unpredictability has no place in the
universe, asserting that if we knew all the physical laws of nature, then “nothing would be uncertain
and the future, as the past, would be present to [our] eyes.”

Lorenz discovered that this deterministic interpretation of the universe could not account for
the imprecision in human measurement of physical phenomena. He observed that nature’s
interdependent cause-and-effect relationships are too complex to resolve. To approximate the
most likely outcomes for such complex systems as weather patterns, he began using sets of slightly
different starting conditions to conduct parallel meteorological simulations. This method is still
used today to generate our daily weather forecasts.

On the cover of this issue, we pose a question: “If we could rerun life from the beginning, would
it turn out the same?” In "Replaying Evolution,” Zachary Blount addresses this question through
empirical analyses of the Long-Term Evolution Experiment, an ongoing study in experimental
evolution—now approaching 30 years of investigation—that has been tracking genetic changes in
several initially identical populations of Escherichia coli bacteria. He investigates the role of small
differences in the evolutionary substrate on the outcome of the process. Interestingly, in “Anyone
Can Become a Troll,” Justin Cheng, Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Jure Leskovec, and Michael
Bernstein explain that the likelihood ordinary people will cultivate certain online behaviors also
depends on a specific set of circumstances, ones that neither guarantee nor exclude the possibility
of becoming an aggressor; and in Technologue, “Smart and Squishy Robots,” Yigit Mengüç
describes the unique technological conditions under which the development of soft-bodied robots
became feasible. Each of these pieces features a complex system—evolutionary, psychological, or
technical—that demonstrates the utility of chaos theory for identifying circumstances with
unpredictable outcomes.
 Although Lorenz died in 2008, it’s clear that his enduring contribution to our understanding of
complex systems deserves celebration—particularly this May 23rd, which would have been his
100th birthday. —Jamie L. Vernon (@JLVernonPhD)

What is Psychology?
(https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154874.php)

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, according to the American Psychological
Association. It is the study of the mind, how it works, and how it affects behavior.
The APA adds that it "embraces all aspects of the human experience, from the functions of the
brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged."
Psychologists and psychiatrists work together to help people with mental health conditions, but
they are not quite the same.
A psychologist treats a patient through psychotherapy, helping to relieve symptoms through
behavioral change. The role of the psychiatrist, who is a medical doctor, focuses more on
prescribing medication and other interventions to manage mental health conditions.
What is Psychology?
The mind is highly complex, and conditions that relate to it can be hard to treat. Thought
processes, emotions, memories, dreams, perceptions, and so on cannot be seen physically, like a
skin rash or heart defect.
While physical signs of some mental health issues can be observed, such as the plaques that
develop with Alzheimer's disease, many theories of psychology are based on observation of human
behavior.
A practicing psychologist will meet with patients, carry out assessments to find out what their
concerns are and what is causing any difficulties, and recommend or provide treatment, for
example, through counselling and psychotherapy.
Psychologists may have other roles, too. They may carry out studies to advise health authorities
and other bodies on social and other strategies, assess children who find it difficult to learn in
school, give workshops on how to prevent bullying, work with recruitment teams in companies, and
much more.
Branches of Psychology
There are different types of psychology that serve different purposes. There is no fixed way of
classifying them, but here are some common types.
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology integrates science, theory, and practice in order to understand, predict and
relieve problems with adjustment, disability, and discomfort. It promotes adaption, adjustment, and
personal development.
 A clinical psychologist concentrates on the intellectual, emotional, biological, psychological,
social, and behavioral aspects of human performance throughout a person's life, across varying
cultures and socioeconomic levels.
Clinical psychology can help us to understand, prevent, and alleviate psychologically-caused
distress or dysfunction, and promote an individual's well-being and personal development.
Psychological assessment and psychotherapy are central to the practice of clinical psychology, but
clinical psychologists are often also involved in research, training, forensic testimony, and other
areas.

Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology investigates internal mental processes, such as problem solving, memory,
learning, and language. It looks at how people think, perceive, communicate, remember, and learn.
It is closely related to neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.
Cognitive psychologists look at how people acquire, process, and store information.
Practical applications include how to improve memory, increase the accuracy of decision-making,
or how to set up educational programs to boost learning.
Developmental psychology
This is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes that a person experiences over
the life span, often referred to as human development. It focuses not only on infants and young
children but also teenagers, adults, and older people. Factors include motor skills, problem solving,
moral understanding, acquiring language, emotions, personality, self-concept, and identity
formation. It also looks at innate mental structures against learning through experience, or how a
person's characteristics interact with environmental factors and how this impacts development.
Developmental psychology overlaps with fields such as linguistics.
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology looks at how human behavior, for example language, has been
affected by psychological adjustments during evolution. An evolutionary psychologist believes that
many human psychological traits are adaptive in that they have enabled us to survive over
thousands of years.
Forensic psychology
Forensic psychology involves applying psychology to criminal investigation and the law. A
forensic psychologist practices psychology as a science within the criminal justice system and civil
courts. It involves assessing the psychological factors that might influence a case or behavior and
presenting the findings in court.
Health psychology
Health psychology is also called behavioral medicine or medical psychology. It observes how
behavior, biology, and social context influence illness and health. A physician often looks first at the
biological causes of a disease, but a health psychologist will focus on the whole person and what
influences their health status. This may include their socioeconomic status, education, and
background, and behaviors that may have an impact on the disease, such as compliance with
instructions and medication. Health psychologists usually work alongside other medical
professionals in clinical settings.
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology looks at the structure and function of the brain in relation to behaviors and
psychological processes. A neuropsychology may be involved if a condition involves lesions in the
brain, and assessments that involve recording electrical activity in the brain. A neuropsychological
evaluation is used to determine whether a person is likely to experience behavioral problems
following suspected or diagnosed brain injury, such as a stroke. The results can enable a doctor to
provide treatment that may help the individual achieve possible improvements in cognitive damage
that has occurred.
Occupational psychology
Occupational or organizational psychologists are involved in assessing and making
recommendations about the performance of people at work and in training. They help companies
to find more effective ways to function, and to understand how people and groups behave at work.
This information can help improve effectiveness, efficiency, job satisfaction, and employee
retention.
Social psychology
Social psychology uses scientific methods to understand how social influences impact human
behavior. It seeks to explain how feelings, behavior, and thoughts are influenced by the actual,
imagined or implied presence of other people. A social psychologist looks at group behavior, social
perception, non-verbal behavior, conformity, aggression, prejudice, and leadership. Social
perception and social interaction are seen as key to understanding social behavior.

Other branches include military, consumer, educational, cross-cultural, and environmental

psychology. The number of branches continues to grow.
SOURCES

- PDF : http://pbsciences.org/pdf/EN-JMOOD-56d0d908.pdf