THE INTERACTIONAL CRITERION-FRAME DISPLACEMENT PRINCIPLE (ICFDP)

The Interactional Criterion-Frame Displacement Principle (ICFDP) is a proposed theoretical framework for analyzing how an evaluative interaction can move from an initially invoked criterion to a different evaluative frame after a response, piece of evidence, action, process output, or other relevant input has been presented.The framework distinguishes the satisfaction of an initial criterion from the subsequent acknowledgment, interpretation, classification, and evaluation of the response. It examines how a new evaluative frame may legitimately supplement, correct, or replace an earlier frame, as well as how a frame change may displace the original question without resolving it.The central construct, criterion-frame displacement, describes a change in the active evaluative frame that materially redirects the treatment of an original proposition or question. The framework does not assume that every frame shift is erroneous, manipulative, or motivated by bad faith. It instead specifies conditions under which a frame shift may constitute a candidate instance of problematic displacement.The framework's primary illustrative case is a public-discourse exchange in which society asks for proof that two people are dating, paparazzi present purported evidence, and society subsequently labels the method or conduct as harassment. The case separates the evidentiary question concerning the dating claim from the independent ethical question concerning the evidence-acquisition method.The proposed architecture includes a formal ontology, operational definitions, a transition mechanism, a taxonomy of frame changes, a legitimacy audit, a recursive multi-interaction representation, a preliminary diagnostic index, falsifiable hypotheses, alternative explanations, and an empirical validation roadmap.Time, information, procedure, communication, institutional rules, and other mediating channels are treated as possible components rather than as the exclusive basis of the theory.ICFDP is presented as a research framework whose distinctiveness, measurement properties, cross-domain generality, and empirical usefulness require systematic testing. Its formal specification is not presented as proof of an established universal law.Keywords: criterion-frame displacement; evaluative reframing; interactional analysis; criterion satisfaction; reclassification; evidentiary evaluation; medium independence; recursive interaction; operationalization; falsifiability.