Jim Edd Jones
February 1, 2015
Differentiation and Learning
Differentiation and learning is a big topic. One small corner of it is how the level of differentiation of individual and system play out in the learning of complex skills to an expert level. We’ll consider only individuals who have attained expert level in some complex skill, like basketball, ice skating, violin, computer programming, molecular biology, learning a foreign language, medical diagnostics, drawing and painting.
A rather large research field has established in the last 30 years or so that achieving expert skill level in a complex skill requires massive amounts of practicing the right things in the right way. And doing so with motivation, focus, commitment, mindset, perseverance, and a fortuitous systems context. That last is from Jones.
First takeaway. A person at any level of differentiation can, given the presence of the things I just mentioned, be capable of attaining expert level skill. However, the journey to that expert level will play out very differently at different levels of differentiation and different intensities of chronic anxiety.
The rest of this paper will describe two different extremes of this, experts whose individual and systems level of differentiation is low. And experts whose individual and systems levels of differentiation are relatively high.
Low differentiation experts
Low differentiation systems are full of intense chronic anxiety. It’s known that anxiety can interfere with learning quite dramatically. So, if that’s the case, how could someone with relatively low level of differentiation in a low differentiation system, with high intensity chronic anxiety, possibly learn skills to an expert level? One answer. Binding anxiety.
There are many examples of highly skilled and accomplished individuals who have crashed and burned because of immature behavior in other parts of their lives. How did they achieve their expert skill level? When you listen to interviews and stories from top highly skilled pro athletes, you repeatedly hear similarities in a subset of them. “I grew up in a chaotic family where you couldn’t predict what was coming next. My neighborhood and school was physically dangerous. Practicing my skill was my sanctuary away from family and community. I could focus and shut out all of that. Pro sports became my dream.” Notice how all this helps fill most of the requirements for expert learning I mentioned. Massive amounts of practice, commitment, perseverance, motivation. It can work, provided you somehow get access to the right things to practice and have a fortuitous family system.
This is using intensely focused practice repeatedly to bind anxiety. And it can work, to become expert. But notice what is missing. Sheer single-minded anxiety binding neglects developing a more mature self.
On to our other extreme straw man. A person with expert skills with high differentiation and coming from a high differentiation family system.
High differentiation experts
A high differentiation system takes a realistic team approach to the real life challenges it faces and creates a systems emotional environment which fosters development of self, including respecting the autonomy of selfs in that system, including their goals.
Better differentiated individuals and systems are realistic about life challenges, tasks, and systems in which they operate.
With respect to complex skills, a better differentiated individual will select skill goals which don’t interfere with overall better differentiated life goals. A better differentiated system will respect the goal and skill choices of its individual members, even when they don’t agree with them. Why? Out of respect for the development of individual selfs.
Given that as a background context, a better differentiated individual will be capable of learning a skill more efficiently. Why? There is less self pretending. More accurate perception of failures and successes in the skill learning. It is valuable to be more accurate about what the learning people call prediction error. And to be more accurate with good affect.
The better differentiated person tolerates anxiety and frustration better than most. That is needed, given the many, many failures in the course of learning a complex skill. The learning goes better when you are not derailed by failure, but observe it and use it to determine what you need to correct and then act on that observation.
A better differentiated person and system will not neglect and self-deceive about emotional functioning. The skill learning is done in a way that does not neglect development of self.
In better differentiated systems, attention to development of self complements pursuit of goals, whereas in the low differentiation example, focus on the learning requires ignoring development of self, in order to bind the intense anxiety.
Higher differentiation selects goals that are cognizant of reality and realistically address reality issues. When one of these goals needs a particular difficult skill, the higher differentiation person will go after it, even when they do not have any pre-existing aptitude for it. They will tolerate the frustration and discomfort, knowing the necessity of the skill for the larger goal.
In high differentiation people, their realistic goals become integrated with their identity, as long as big picture reality does not dictate a shift. When it does, they change goals and skill development.
High differentiated systems take advantage of and gain from members pursuing diverse goals. Low differentiation systems tend to fight diversity and oppose the development of self in those individuals who have defined self differently from most of the system.
Jim Edd Jones
February 1, 2015
Differentiation and Learning
Differentiation and learning is a big topic. One small corner of it is how the level of differentiation of individual and system play out in the learning of complex skills to an expert level. We’ll consider only individuals who have attained expert level in some complex skill, like basketball, ice skating, violin, computer programming, molecular biology, learning a foreign language, medical diagnostics, drawing and painting.
A rather large research field has established in the last 30 years or so that achieving expert skill level in a complex skill requires massive amounts of practicing the right things in the right way. And doing so with motivation, focus, commitment, mindset, perseverance, and a fortuitous systems context. That last is from Jones.
First takeaway. A person at any level of differentiation can, given the presence of the things I just mentioned, be capable of attaining expert level skill. However, the journey to that expert level will play out very differently at different levels of differentiation and different intensities of chronic anxiety.
The rest of this paper will describe two different extremes of this, experts whose individual and systems level of differentiation is low. And experts whose individual and systems levels of differentiation are relatively high.
Low differentiation experts
Low differentiation systems are full of intense chronic anxiety. It’s known that anxiety can interfere with learning quite dramatically. So, if that’s the case, how could someone with relatively low level of differentiation in a low differentiation system, with high intensity chronic anxiety, possibly learn skills to an expert level? One answer. Binding anxiety.
There are many examples of highly skilled and accomplished individuals who have crashed and burned because of immature behavior in other parts of their lives. How did they achieve their expert skill level? When you listen to interviews and stories from top highly skilled pro athletes, you repeatedly hear similarities in a subset of them. “I grew up in a chaotic family where you couldn’t predict what was coming next. My neighborhood and school was physically dangerous. Practicing my skill was my sanctuary away from family and community. I could focus and shut out all of that. Pro sports became my dream.” Notice how all this helps fill most of the requirements for expert learning I mentioned. Massive amounts of practice, commitment, perseverance, motivation. It can work, provided you somehow get access to the right things to practice and have a fortuitous family system.
This is using intensely focused practice repeatedly to bind anxiety. And it can work, to become expert. But notice what is missing. Sheer single-minded anxiety binding neglects developing a more mature self.
On to our other extreme straw man. A person with expert skills with high differentiation and coming from a high differentiation family system.
High differentiation experts
A high differentiation system takes a realistic team approach to the real life challenges it faces and creates a systems emotional environment which fosters development of self, including respecting the autonomy of selfs in that system, including their goals.
Better differentiated individuals and systems are realistic about life challenges, tasks, and systems in which they operate.
With respect to complex skills, a better differentiated individual will select skill goals which don’t interfere with overall better differentiated life goals. A better differentiated system will respect the goal and skill choices of its individual members, even when they don’t agree with them. Why? Out of respect for the development of individual selfs.
Given that as a background context, a better differentiated individual will be capable of learning a skill more efficiently. Why? There is less self pretending. More accurate perception of failures and successes in the skill learning. It is valuable to be more accurate about what the learning people call prediction error. And to be more accurate with good affect.
The better differentiated person tolerates anxiety and frustration better than most. That is needed, given the many, many failures in the course of learning a complex skill. The learning goes better when you are not derailed by failure, but observe it and use it to determine what you need to correct and then act on that observation.
A better differentiated person and system will not neglect and self-deceive about emotional functioning. The skill learning is done in a way that does not neglect development of self.
In better differentiated systems, attention to development of self complements pursuit of goals, whereas in the low differentiation example, focus on the learning requires ignoring development of self, in order to bind the intense anxiety.
Higher differentiation selects goals that are cognizant of reality and realistically address reality issues. When one of these goals needs a particular difficult skill, the higher differentiation person will go after it, even when they do not have any pre-existing aptitude for it. They will tolerate the frustration and discomfort, knowing the necessity of the skill for the larger goal.
In high differentiation people, their realistic goals become integrated with their identity, as long as big picture reality does not dictate a shift. When it does, they change goals and skill development.
High differentiated systems take advantage of and gain from members pursuing diverse goals. Low differentiation systems tend to fight diversity and oppose the development of self in those individuals who have defined self differently from most of the system.
Jim Edd Jones
February 1, 2015
Differentiation and Learning
Differentiation and learning is a big topic. One small corner of it is how the level of differentiation of individual and system play out in the learning of complex skills to an expert level. We’ll consider only individuals who have attained expert level in some complex skill, like basketball, ice skating, violin, computer programming, molecular biology, learning a foreign language, medical diagnostics, drawing and painting.
A rather large research field has established in the last 30 years or so that achieving expert skill level in a complex skill requires massive amounts of practicing the right things in the right way. And doing so with motivation, focus, commitment, mindset, perseverance, and a fortuitous systems context. That last is from Jones.
First takeaway. A person at any level of differentiation can, given the presence of the things I just mentioned, be capable of attaining expert level skill. However, the journey to that expert level will play out very differently at different levels of differentiation and different intensities of chronic anxiety.
The rest of this paper will describe two different extremes of this, experts whose individual and systems level of differentiation is low. And experts whose individual and systems levels of differentiation are relatively high.
Low differentiation experts
Low differentiation systems are full of intense chronic anxiety. It’s known that anxiety can interfere with learning quite dramatically. So, if that’s the case, how could someone with relatively low level of differentiation in a low differentiation system, with high intensity chronic anxiety, possibly learn skills to an expert level? One answer. Binding anxiety.
There are many examples of highly skilled and accomplished individuals who have crashed and burned because of immature behavior in other parts of their lives. How did they achieve their expert skill level? When you listen to interviews and stories from top highly skilled pro athletes, you repeatedly hear similarities in a subset of them. “I grew up in a chaotic family where you couldn’t predict what was coming next. My neighborhood and school was physically dangerous. Practicing my skill was my sanctuary away from family and community. I could focus and shut out all of that. Pro sports became my dream.” Notice how all this helps fill most of the requirements for expert learning I mentioned. Massive amounts of practice, commitment, perseverance, motivation. It can work, provided you somehow get access to the right things to practice and have a fortuitous family system.
This is using intensely focused practice repeatedly to bind anxiety. And it can work, to become expert. But notice what is missing. Sheer single-minded anxiety binding neglects developing a more mature self.
On to our other extreme straw man. A person with expert skills with high differentiation and coming from a high differentiation family system.
High differentiation experts
A high differentiation system takes a realistic team approach to the real life challenges it faces and creates a systems emotional environment which fosters development of self, including respecting the autonomy of selfs in that system, including their goals.
Better differentiated individuals and systems are realistic about life challenges, tasks, and systems in which they operate.
With respect to complex skills, a better differentiated individual will select skill goals which don’t interfere with overall better differentiated life goals. A better differentiated system will respect the goal and skill choices of its individual members, even when they don’t agree with them. Why? Out of respect for the development of individual selfs.
Given that as a background context, a better differentiated individual will be capable of learning a skill more efficiently. Why? There is less self pretending. More accurate perception of failures and successes in the skill learning. It is valuable to be more accurate about what the learning people call prediction error. And to be more accurate with good affect.
The better differentiated person tolerates anxiety and frustration better than most. That is needed, given the many, many failures in the course of learning a complex skill. The learning goes better when you are not derailed by failure, but observe it and use it to determine what you need to correct and then act on that observation.
A better differentiated person and system will not neglect and self-deceive about emotional functioning. The skill learning is done in a way that does not neglect development of self.
In better differentiated systems, attention to development of self complements pursuit of goals, whereas in the low differentiation example, focus on the learning requires ignoring development of self, in order to bind the intense anxiety.
Higher differentiation selects goals that are cognizant of reality and realistically address reality issues. When one of these goals needs a particular difficult skill, the higher differentiation person will go after it, even when they do not have any pre-existing aptitude for it. They will tolerate the frustration and discomfort, knowing the necessity of the skill for the larger goal.
In high differentiation people, their realistic goals become integrated with their identity, as long as big picture reality does not dictate a shift. When it does, they change goals and skill development.
High differentiated systems take advantage of and gain from members pursuing diverse goals. Low differentiation systems tend to fight diversity and oppose the development of self in those individuals who have defined self differently from most of the system.
Jim Edd: Really good description of higher and lower levels of differentiation. I like your description of the development of the skill in the lower DoS as a way of binding anxiety. Differentiation can certainly answer the question of how a star falls from grace. Thanks for your work on this.
Thanks, Ann
Ditto re: Ann’s comment about a learning focus driven by anxiety and the need to bind it. Sometimes I think my involvement with Bowen theory can be like that. It sure calms me down.
I believe involvement with Bowen theory is an anxiety binder for all of us, like any intense involvement can be. The question is what is the level of differentiation of one’s use of an anxiety binder. Do I use the anxiety binder to make myself oblivious to development of self and other tasks or do I use that anxiety binder as a tool in the larger task of development of self?
I’ll be thinking about this Jim Edd. I’m thinking I like my intellectual projects more than subjecting my self to the anxiety of contact with family when the tension is high.
Jim Edd,
In everyday language, your descriptions might be called the “one-track star” and the “well-rounded person.” You do a great job of describing the two different learning trajectories based on different levels of differentiation in individuals and systems.
What a fascinating and useful way of understanding learning.
I like those two phrases.
also ditto re: Stephanie’s comment. So many very accomplished creative people have personal lives in emotional disarray. Is this another instance of how the emotional system benefits from the family member that absorbs more of the family anxiety. I’ll skip over to Stephanie’s post now.
Thanks for this post Jim Edd.
It sure can be, but not necessarily.
Jim Edd,
There is so much in your article that is intriguing. I would be interested if you were to fill it out further with examples. I learn a lot from examples. That was something I got from first reads of Bowen’s book–I couldn’t grasp the theory, but the examples were helpful. I wonder how you would think about people’s desire for comfort (watching TV, overeating) vs. the discipline of practice. Is there a way that practice becomes pleasurable for people who are able to keep doing it?
Some people just enjoy the process of learning something new. Just doing the practice doesn’t necessarily make it become pleasurable. There are other pleasures. The pleasure of mastery, pleasure of doing something you thought yourself incapable of, pleasure of curiosity in exploring, pleasure in the beauty of what you are gradually able to do, kinesthetic pleasure of coordinated complex skills, pleasure of small improvements in direction of your goal, applause, pleasure in learning to tolerate failure when you know it is for a good reason.
Examples of lower differentiation experts. Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, Aaron Hernandez, Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Magic Johnson.
Tiger Woods has a fascinating family history. Intense primary triangle. Father’s multiple affairs, Father’s complete cutoff from his two children from his first marriage.
Higher differentiation experts. Bill Bradley, John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.