This is a table with two contrasting self-consistent ontologies that arise from the defining properties of coping and co-creation. It complements the key concept table Ideally the ontology of thriving dominates with continual focused contributions of the ontology of survival. But it is also possible that coping starts to dominate to the exclusion of the other ontology: a coping trap
| Ontology of survival (coping) | Ontology of thriving (co-creation) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Languishing | Low viability state as the outcome of a pattern of ineffective or misguided behaviors | High viability state as the outcome of a pattern of broadly effective behaviors | Flourishing |
| Threat: behavioral constraints | Agent appraisal of viability threats, entailing a reduction of the set of context appropriate behavioral options to include only those that allow the agent to survive | Agent appraisal of the absence of viability threats, allowing self-guided exploration of opportunities that enlarge the set of context appropriate behavioral options | Safety: behavioral freedom |
| Problem | A perceived threat to agent viability that activates a pressing need and hence motivates reactive behavior | A perceived possibility to improve (agent or habitat) viability and hence motivates proactive behavior and the expression of novel behaviors | Opportunity |
| Coping | The reactive fallback mode of behavior aimed at protecting agent viability by ending problem states. Quick and effective deactivation of coping is the measure of success of the coping mode | The pro-active default mode of behavior aimed at producing indirect viability benefits through habitat contributions that improve the conditions for future agentic existence | Co-creation |
| Reactive behavior | Behavior in response to perceived threats to viability | Behavior aimed at setting up or protecting the conditions for co-creation | Proactive behavior |
| Coping trap (Coping failure) | The continual or predominant activation of the coping mode of behavior through ineffective or counterproductive problem-solving strategies. | Prolonged or near continual activation of co-creation. | Successful co-creation |
| Targeted optimization | Goal oriented behaviors such as problem solving and task execution | Optimize the whole of agentic existence, while addressing selfish needs and creating ever better conditions for agentic life. | Pervasive optimization |
| Social mimicry | The adoption of behaviors of effective, healthy, or otherwise attractive agents leading to sameness and oneness | Skilled contribution of self-deciding individuals that adapt and use opportunities to promote habitat flourishing | Responsible autonomy |
| Learning to become less ineffective | Mimicry based learning, where behaviors of effective, healthy, or otherwise attractive agents are copied and expressed and hence manifest shared knowledge | The adoption of new behaviors via interactive engagement with different environments. Manifested as tacit knowledge | Learning as extending the behavioral repertoire. |
| Main mode of cognition: Intelligence | The ability to solve problems and fulfill goal oriented tasks (to end states of pressing needs) | The ability to avoid problems and co-create: (Also: The balancing skills to contribute to the biosphere) | Main mode of cognition: Generalized wisdom |
| Inadequacy | The tendency to self-create, prolong, or worsen problems that keep on activating the coping mode. An inadequate agent is predominantly coping, but unsuccessful in ending the activators of coping. | The skill to avoid problems or end them quickly so that coping is rare and co-creation prevalent. An adequate agent is a predominant co-creator | Adequacy |
| Coping adequacy | The skill to solve pressing problems (ending the need to cope) or mitigate their impact through control of the environment and constraining agency (continuing coping) | The skill to avoid and end problems through harmonizing relations, (inter-agent) conflict mitigation, and promoting unconstrained innate behaviors | Co-creation adequacy |
| In-group | A group of individuals sharing similar limits on adequacy (and worldview) | A group of individuals that each freely and self-guided contribute whatever benefit their adequacy offers | Community |
| Out-group | Individuals who violate sameness and oneness and hence frustrate coordinated coping | See above | See above |
| Security | A situation or state where viability threats-to-self are brought under control | A situation or state with positive indicators of the absence of viability threats | Safety |
| Power | The ability to realize intended outcomes by effortfully shaping and controlling the habitat and the activities of the agents that comprise it. Exercising power is a way to be authoritative. | Effortless action expressing authority through harmonizing a diversity of agentic interests by promoting natural agentic dynamics and development. | Wu wei |
| Security | A situation or state where viability threats-to-self are brought under control | A situation or state with positive indicators of the absence of viability threats | Safety |
| Well-being - short term | Self-evaluation of one’s agentic viability | Holistic self-valuation of one’s own and the habitat’s viability | Well-being - long term |
| Ontological security | The secure feeling an individual derives from attaining “on the level of the unconscious and practical consciousness, ‘answers’ to fundamental existential [problems] which all human life in some way addresses” (Giddens, 1991) | Self-realizing one’s full individual potential | Self-actualization |
| Rules of ontological security | I am accepted when I contribute to sameness and oneness I learn rules and routines of my in-group I adhere to in-group roles I protect the in-group against unmanageable diversity |
I can join freely I can learn freely I can contribute freely I can criticize freely |
Rules of psychological safety |
| Habitualization | The consolidation of routines via reference to socially constructed rules and routines, sustaining a group identity and the security on derives from in-group membership. | The motivation to liberate oneself from imposed limits on self-guided behavior and the restoration of the safety associated with co-creative processes. | Reactance |
| In-group | A group of individuals sharing similar limits on adequacy (and worldview) | A group of individuals that each freely and self-guided contribute whatever benefit their adequacy can bring. | Community |
| Out-group | Individuals who are not in-group and hence frustrate coordinated coping | ||
| Othering | The process of assigning individuals with other or less limits to adequacy to out-groups (possibly disgust driven) | Unconditional acceptance | Acceptance |
| Pathological normality | Complete and symptomless adaptation to a world shaped through coping that imposes limits on individual agency and self-development | The ability to co-create and cope in the service of full self-development | Healthy normality |
| Normative threat | Threats to oneness (shared authority) and sameness (shared values and rules) | Perceivable indications of other agents engaged in unforced activities. | Indicators of safety |
Source: Andringa, T. C., & Denham, F. C. (2021a). Coping and co-creation: one attempt and one route to well-being. Psychology in Russia, 14(2), 152–170.
