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Psychological Inertia
The term psychological inertia can be best understood by defining inertia within a  psychological context. Inertia implies an indisposition to change; a form of being ‘stuck’ in routine ways due to human programming. Psychological inertia is a " cognitive function which remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force."

Psychological inertia represents the strength of habits to limit the possibility of a human behaving in a better way; habits represent a pattern of action which a human gets stuck in redundantly performing regardless of proof he or she should act otherwise. A layman way of defining psychological inertia would be as the tendency for people to think about things the same way unless acted upon by some external force.

This phenomenon can and may result in a myriad of barriers to problem solving and moving forward. These barriers can be exemplified as: “I must act the way I traditionally do!” or “The knowledge I currently possess is the right knowledge!” This is a self-handicapping concept that provides boundaries to our own advancement.

History
Research on psychological inertia is available as early as 1931. Studies as early as these focus on cases of 'general inertia' and have purely theoretical approaches to defining and assessing this concept. Interestingly, the variety of different types of psychological inertia as outlined by TRIZ ("the theory of inventive problem solving") did not emerge until the latter half of the century. Significant statistical analysis regarding psychological inertia is evident as early as 1969 in research performed by Pitz. Since then a variety of research has been done examining the varying types and effects psychological inertia has on human beings.

Some of the most prominent research on the consequences of action and non-action inertia has been performed fairly recently, as of 1995 and onward. Tykocinski and Pittman (1998) are responsible for running multiple statistical research studies in order to outline psychological inertia and subsequently possible explanations for it. Their 1995 study boasts six experiments of which complex mathematical analysis was done on a variety of results in order to both theoretically and statistically provide significant evidence for the existence of inaction inertia; one of the many but more common subforms of psychological inertia.

Prominent research on the various types of psychological inertia is evident in the work done by TRIZ. Since Pitz' (1969) research on psychological inertia, a variety of types have been defined and outlined. TRIZ accounts for seven main forms. The next section will outline Kowalick's (1998) account of the seven main forms of psychological inertia and his examples explaining them.

TRIZ Forms of Psychological Inertia
There are many other various forms of psychological inertia; however, these seven adequately illustrate what psychological inertia is. The following seven forms and examples have been directly taken from Kowalick's (1998) article Psychological Inertia. It is important to note all forms of psychological inertia are difficult to empirically observe as they emerge subconsciously due to being part of our internal programming. Below is a list of the seven common forms of psychological inertia:


 * 1) The Retarding Power (or inertia) of a Word
 * 2) A Partial Restriction Becomes a Blanket Restriction
 * 3) Tradition Cannot be Broken
 * 4) Words and Their Assumed Properties or Characteristics
 * 5) Inadmissible Range of Data
 * 6) Association of Objects with Senses
 * 7) All Information Given is Valid

The Retarding Power (or Inertia) of a Word
This form may be illustrated via the example of carrying strings on a shopping bag. For years shopping bags used to have strings attached for carrying purposes. When the bag contents reached a certain weight, the strings caused damage to the carrier’s fingers. The word "strings" implied that all shopping bags must have strings (the idea of using strings was attractive from a cost point of view), and served as a form of psychological inertia to prevent progress in designing a "shopping bag system" that did not have this problem. An entire family of new shopping bags ultimately emerged. One is tape-like: "many strings (lines) that form a surface." Another is a fluid-filled (from one line, to many molecular fluid particles) carrier that, like the tape solution, also distributed stresses over a broader area. Words themselves (like "strings") are often enough to halt progress in a given technology for decades, because "this is the way it has always been understood."

A Partial Restriction Becomes a Blanket Restriction
There are two groups of people. Each member of group one weighs exactly 150. Each member of group two weighs exactly 200. Three people selected from these two groups have a total weight of 550 - but one of these persons cannot be from group one! How many people are selected from each group? It is left to the reader to answer this question; if you cannot, then you may be operating under one of the laws of psychological inertia.

Tradition Cannot be Broken
The managers in a certain company were unaware of what was going on in the manufacturing section, and the President didn’t like it. The company’s managers had a history of being "stand-offish" - looking down upon those employees who were not managers. The President wanted to change this situation as soon as possible, but unfortunately, remaining behind the "sacred" doors of one’s managerial office had become quite a "tradition." What the President did was to initiate a weekly exchange at his staff meetings: each manager, in turn, had to discuss and present a manufacturing procedure in significant depth, with the other managers being encouraged to ask penetrating questions. In no time at all, the managers were spending time in the manufacturing area. The general solution to problems like this (i.e., changing tradition or changing the culture) is: "Create a situation where the individuals involved in the change strongly want to change." Such cultural and traditional barriers are one form of psychological inertia, because they represent cultural and "traditional" programming.

Words and Their Assumed Properties or Characteristics
How can a pipe fit through a square hole (the area of the pipe and the hole are just about equivalent, with the square hole only having slightly less cross-sectional area)? Many persons will think of "pipes" as being "round." But a pipe need not be round - it could be square. This is yet another form of psychological inertia.

Inadmissible Range of Data
Scientists were conducting a test. They had one end of a rope attached to a frying pan, and the other end of the rope to the pulling-harness of a dog. At what speed should the dog run so that the frying pan won’t rattle? Some problem-solvers are "stuck" in the psychological inertia of inadmissible data points. The problem as stated may imply to them that the dog must be moving, when in fact this is not a constraint. The answer: zero.

Association of Objects with Senses
Three light bulbs in a room are operated by three respective switches outside of the room - at a point inaccessible by sight to the room. The initial condition is that no lights are on. How is it possible to know which switch is for which light - if, from the site of the switches outside the room, only one trip to check on the status of the lights is allowed? HINT: use more than one of your senses (the sense of sight is usually connected with a light bulb). The form of psychological inertia illustrated in this problem relates to "associations." It is often the case that a particular object is related to a particular sensation or function in one’s mind - without opening up the possibility that other relationships are also possible. Overcoming this barrier leads to higher creativity.

All Information Given is Valid
Three worms are crawling along a perfectly straight line, in the same direction, and at the same continuous speed. The first worm says "I am (lead) worm number one, and there are two worms crawling behind me." The second worm says "I am worm number two, and there is a worm crawling in front of me and a worm crawling behind me." The third worm says "I am worm number three, and there are two worms crawling in front of me, and two worms crawling behind me." How can this be? (Hint: is all the information valid?). Wrong information is often a powerful barrier to solving problems. Some problem-solvers believe everything that is presented. The answer here is simple: "The third worm is lying!"

How Psychological Inertia Can Be Reduced or Eliminated
There are current techniques and exercises that force participants to use "out of pattern" methods to help break down psychological inertia. A study done by O'Connor focuses on how to combat clinical inertia. This inertia is a subset of psychological inertia not listed in Kowalick's (1998) seven forms; although of the seven forms, the second and third would most closely relate to this study. O'Connor (2005) emphasizes that working physicians use a variety of treatments in order to combat diabetes. He states physicians often fall into a rut of over-utilizing common therapy, even in cases where it is evidently unnecessary. In order to better effectively treat patients, and combat the effects of clinical inertia, this study focuses on switching up the prescription of treatments to patients as well as changing treatments for current patients and observing effects. This is advocated in hopes of keeping things fresh and allowing the physician to be more aware of the limitations and implications of particular therapies through "out of pattern" methods.

Another important research study examining the effects and potential treatments for psychological inertia is one performed by Bieber (1951). This is a very old study and represents one of the initial movements towards defining and examining psychological inertia. It is important to note this research article is not as statistically valid and influential as Pitz's (1969) referenced article above. Bieber argues pathological boredom and inertia are the "by-products of fear and manifestations of neurotic inhibition." He asserts these inhibitions arise from early training by 'puritanical' parents or a poor upbringing. Treatment for psychological inertia, in Bieber's sense of the term is best achieved through either psychoanalysis or  analytically oriented psychotherapy.

Current/Prominent Research
There is a variety of current research on psychological inertia. However, the focus of the research is not solely on inertia itself, but the various forms and their consequences within complex studies. For example, Bieber’s (1951) study on inertia examines its relation to pathological boredom while Mamali’s (1973) article studies inertia’s effect on successful leadership. Furthermore, much current research focuses on a variety of forms and implications, such as:


 * Emotional
 * Mental
 * Inaction/Nonaction
 * Sleep
 * Social Perception

These types of inertia all fall under the umbrella term of psychological, however, have various different effects and consequences. This section will chronologically outline fairly current and/or prominent key studies which specifically examine a variety of these forms individually.

Mamali (1973)
This study researched inertia's effect on successful leadership through social perception via two parts. This was done by examining the relationship between the status of an information giver and how the information is treated by a receiving group. It was found information presented from a high-status individual was retained by a significantly larger percentage of the receiving group than from a low-status individual. The results of this study led to the conclusion that "the inertia of social perception distorts relationships between hierarchical levels. This presents barriers to psychological and social development via the deteriorated reception of messages due to the inertia of social perception.  Findings from this study have implications within the fields of education and business where information presentation and retention critical.

Kuppens (2010)
This article examined the effects of emotional inertia on psychological maladjustment. Emotional inertia is defined as "the degree to which emotional states are resistant to change." It was hypothesized subjects with psychological maladjustment would be characterized by high levels of emotional inertia due to psychological maladjustment being associated with both nonreactive emotions and ineffective emotion-regulation skills. This hypothesis was was supported through two naturalistic studies showing evidence for emotional fluctuations among the participants being characterized by higher levels of inertia (both positive and negative emotions) than in that of the control group:

The findings of this study support the existence and definition of emotional inertia, however, do not account for the mechanisms underlying it. Kuppnes (2010) offers the untested hypothesis that "emotional inertia results from reductions in responsivity to internal and external stimuli as well as from failures of emotion regulatory processes aimed at altering emotional states." However, this hypothesis has yet to be tested and is purely theoretical in nature. In conclusion, Kuppens asserts emotional inertia to be a useful, yet understudied concept. He advocates for further research to pinpoint the underlying processes of emotional inertia and the occurance in other manifestations of psychological inertia.

Groeger (2011)
This study examined an interesting subclass of psychological inertia termed 'sleep inertia'. Sleep inertia is defined by this study as, "that post-sleep state in which people experience reduced alertness and during which they gradually regain levels of performance characteristic of their rested waking levels of functioning." The effects of sleep inertia were assessed on an executive load relying on working memory performance. It was concluded that sleep inertia negatively effected an executive load relying on working memory by taking longer to return to asymptotic performance after sleep than simpler tasks non reliant on  executive functions. This study accounts for a biological explanation of 'inertia' by supporting neurological evidence asserting more complex cognitive functions achieve their resting level of functioning only after sufficient blood has been returned higher cortical areas, such as the  frontal cortex post sleep.

Other Applications
An interesting application for psychological inertia outside of cognitive science is within TRIZ. According the official website: "TRIZ is a problem solving method based on logic and data, not intuition, which accelerates the project team's ability to solve these problems creatively. TRIZ also provides repeatability, predictability, and reliability due to its structure and algorithmic approach." The "motto" or "hypothesis" behind this theory of problem solving is: "Somebody someplace has already solved this problem (or one very similar to it.) Creativity is now finding that solution and adapting it to this particular problem."

"TRIZ" is a a Russian acronym for the "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving". G.S. Altshuller and his colleagues in the former U.S.S.R. developed the method between 1946 and 1985. Millions of patients have been analyzed in international studies in order to discover the "patterns that predict breakthrough solutions to problems". This view opposes the spontaneous and intuitive creativity of individuals or groups and instead relies on the patterns of problems and solutions.

Three primary findings of the research of TRIZ are as follows :


 * 1) Problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences. The classification of the contradictions in each problem predicts the creative solutions to that problem.
 * 2) Patterns of technical evolution are repeated across industries and sciences.
 * 3) Creative innovations use scientific effects outside the field where they were developed.

This problem solving method consists of "learning these repeating patterns of problems-solutions, patterns of technical evolution and methods of using scientific effects, and then applying the general TRIZ patterns to the specific situation that confronts the developer". This is significant to applications within psychological inertia as the TRIZ process has been found to significantly increase a persons creative capacity. As such, methods that are part of the regular TRIZ procedures break routine patterns and force developers to think creatively to come up with novel solutions to particular problems. This directly opposes the limiting effects of psychological inertia on the mind and is grounded in logic and data as opposed to intuition.

TRIZ could be applied to combat psychological inertia in nontraditional settings such as in the study by Sandri et al. (2010). This study observed pronounced psychological inertia among entrepreneurs; holding on to losing projects or investments for longer than reasonable periods of time instead of disinvesting. In this study the patterns of decisions among entrepreneurs, as well as non-entrepreneurs were analyzed in order to provide a better understanding behind the rational of their actions. TRIZ could be applied in nontraditional situations such as these, within the business world, in order to actively train entrepreneurs to be aware of the confounding effects of psychological inertia on their decision making and to consciously attempt to avoid them. It is important to note an emphasis on the patterns behind decision making in both TRIZ and the study at hand.

It is important to note although TRIZ may be applied in order to combat psychological inertia, it incurs a severe limitation. The various procedures of TRIZ provide the tools in order to increase one's creative capacity, however, it is also necessary to increase one's level of thinking. This is something that TRIZ does not do as the father of this theory, Altshuller, rejected this notion early on when searching for a process of creativity. The dichotomy between 'creative capacity' and 'creative thinking' is very important to TRIZ as it only addresses the former and rejects the existence of the latter in the process of creativity. For if one only increases their creative capacity but not their creative thinking it is similar to having a very large glass, that one can only fill with a little bit of water. Certain exercises (not to be confused with brainstorming) have been identified to help raise one's level of creative thinking, however, these exercises have and will not ever be part of the TRIZ approach and are labelled as 'beyond TRIZ'.

Limitations
The different forms of psychological inertia are very difficult to observe - because they are a strong part of personal programming, which emerges subconsciously; therefore, psychological inertia is most often quite invisible. The varying forms of psychological inertia are only evident to oneself through a 'prolonged, intentional effort'. Another strong limitation of research done on psychological inertia is self-report measures are subject to much bias as usually the participant is not aware they themselves are under the influence of inertia. As such, accurate self-report measures of psychological inertia are difficult to obtain. It is recommended for experiments to be performed blind to control for such measures.

As evident from the current research examined, it is clear the various forms of psychological inertia are understudied. This is a significant limitation in wholly understanding the concept, its implications for psychology and how to go about controlling for it. Future research, as outlined in the next section must focus not only on examining the existence, effects and forms of psychological inertia but also the processes underlying it. This will provide for a more holistic account of this concept.

Mental Disabilities in Children
There is a variety of opportunity for future research on psychological inertia in many different fields. This phenomenon has been widely studied among adults in varying environments and contexts. However, there has not been much research on the effects of psychological inertia among children, especially those with mental disabilities. A study done by Roskiewicz (1997) advocated the term 'mental inertia' be used instead of mental retardation in order to refer to children with mental disabilities. This study advocates further research into the field of mental inertia among children, emphasizing methods other than quantitative approaches to determine the degree of deviation. However, an issue with this study in the context of psychological inertia is it uses the terms mental inertia and mental retardation almost synonymously; suggesting one to be equivalent to the other. This is not the case as mental inertia represents a barrier to creative thinking whereas mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood which significantly affects cognitive functioning. Therefore, it would be interesting to see research examining mental inertia among children with mental disabilities and the ways in which they may overcome it.

TRIZ
Furthermore, TRIZ is consistently providing groundbreaking research in how to define and examine psychological inertia. It is one of the few sources that has provided research on the broad cognitive forms of inertia encompassed by the umbrella term psychological. According to their main website TRIZ has plans for future research in motion for specifically designing systems to get people to become aware of the specific type of inertia they are subject to. Moreover, they are working on designing a specific subclass of TRIZ in order to actively target psychological inertia through a battery of exercises following their unique creative methods.

Different Forms
As stated above, TRIZ has provided a plethora of research into what psychological inertia is and its different forms encompassed by the term. However, the seven forms outlined by TRIZ are in no means absolute; when examining them it is possible for overlap and in other cases instances we have not accounted for. This is evident in a study performed by Sevdalis (2006). This study examined possible effects which may account for inaction inertia other than the traditional explanation, suggesting previous accounts of inaction inertia are incomplete. As the study exemplifies, when people miss a good bargain or deal, they are less likely to take a subsequent offer which is not as good. Traditionally this has been coined as 'inaction inertia'. Findings in their study advocate subjective value and regret considerations determine purchase likelihood when no previous bargain has been missed. However, regret considerations are the sole determinant of this likelihood when a previous bargain has been missed. As such, they conclude inaction inertia arises at least partly due to regret masking the financial advantages of a second bargain. Therefore, Sevdalis (2006) suggests previous accounts of inaction inertia re incomplete,and calls for further research in this area.