Illusory System Immersion: A Theoretical Model of How Domain-Specific Attachment Narrows the Integrative Component

This article proposes the Illusory System Immersion (ISI) model, a theoretical account linking the intensity of psychological attachment to five pervasive sociocultural domains – religious influence, scientific authority held as doctrine, traditional social belonging, political–ideological affiliation, and media saturation – to psychological adjustment. These domains are external in origin but become internalized into the structure of the self. The model proposes that greater attachment strengthens internalization, and that internalization, when it closes within its own boundaries, narrows the integrative component: a proposed construct defined as the self-referential capacity to grant reasoned acceptance – as distinct from rigid rejection and from impulsive acceptance – to positions lying outside the framework the individual has internalized. Existing constructs of open-mindedness define openness as willingness to revise belief, and therefore measure the direction of the final verdict rather than the presence of the reasoning that produced it; this contaminates both poles of such measures. The integrative component is proposed to address that gap. Narrowing is predicted to produce rigid affiliation together with reduced capacity for reasoned acceptance of external content – an outcome that may coexist with subjective well-being rather than distress. The article situates the construct in relation to actively open-minded thinking, open-minded cognition, identity fusion, and cognitive flexibility, treating its discriminant validity as an open empirical question, and sets out testable propositions and a measurement strategy. Preprint. Not peer reviewed. This manuscript has been submitted for publication.