Psychology & Mental Health
Psychology
In explaining how living things control their perception, PCT is clearly highly relevant to psychology. Indeed, there are close similarities between the core principle of PCT and the early work of the great psychologists and philosophers, William James and John Dewey.
William James regarded the sense of purpose as the central feature of the mind and he viewed living organisms as in control of their environment rather than at the mercy of environmental forces.
Since the 1960s, some of the major figures who have praised PCT or used it in their theories include:
Hobart Mowrer, the learning theorist, in his 1960 book: “…it is our good fortune that.. W. T. Powers, R. L. McFarland, and R. K. Clark (1957)… have kindly made available an advance copy of [their] paper… we may look forward to its further development and application with high expectation.”
Carl Rogers, the creator of person-centred counselling stated: “Here is a profound and original book with which every psychologist-indeed every behavioral scientist--should be acquainted.”
William Glasser, the creator of Reality Therapy: “Even though I had always believed that we are intrinsically motivated, I learned from an exponent, William Powers, a theoretician, that there is an actual theory of this motivation called [Perceptual] Control Theory.”
Charles Carver and Michael Scheier have applied a version of control theory inspired by PCT to social and clinical psychology. 1982, they wrote: “Powers (1973) explicitly considered the possibility that control systems can be interconnected hierarchically… it is on his reasoning that we now build.” See also the control theory built on Powers (1973) developed by Lord & Levy (1994), which has been evaluated systematically.
The current field of self-regulation within psychology is highly prominent, and is a key area where PCT has had its influence. The TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) system is an example of a self-regulation model that emerged at the same time as PCT (Miller at al., 1960). It also involves a hierarchical system of goal-directed systems. Indeed attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) increasingly utilises models of conflicting control systems in its approach.
Controversy!
But PCT also creates debate within psychology. The field of behaviourism proposes that behaviour is a learned response to ‘stimuli’ in the environment. Yet, Powers suggests that no specific behaviours are learned – all behaviour is modified ‘online’ to control perception. Evidence from a rat experiment is provided here.
A debate in the journal Science in 1972 reflected these issues: Many people from a behaviourist background have shifted to PCT. This article by Chris Cherpas provides one example.
Another key figure who is critical of PCT is Alfred Bandura, a key figure in the development of social learning theory and the creator of the concept of ‘self-efficacy’. Click here to read his debates with Jeff Vancouver which provide stimulating reading!
Testing PCT in Psychology
Some of the key principles of PCT have been tested within psychology. They have essentially involved building a PCT model of a system and then evaluating the match between the model and the observations of how the real system works. Click here to read more.
Jeff Vancouver has demonstrated that models that control perception rather than behaviour provide a much more accurate match to real-life data within psychology.
Tom Bourbon developed a PCT model of a simple tracker task that matched observed behaviour to a very high level (r > .95) over a period of five years.
Rick Marken describes a PCT model of catching fly balls in baseball that demonstrates of closer match with observed behaviour than alternative approaches.
In his latest book, Bill Powers provides a range of different computer demonstrations of PCT that have a tight qualitative match with observable phenomena such as balancing, arm co-ordination and crowd behaviour.
For further great insights into psychological processes based on PCT, take a look at Martin Taylor’s work, and Rick Marken’s website.