The Meaning of Control: Making Sense of Behaviour

Powers, William T.

ISBN 10: 0964712156 / ISBN 13: 9780964712157

Published by Benchmark No date, 1998

About this Item

Shrink wrapped. Size: Octavo (standard book size). Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. No foxing in this copy. All edges clean, neat and free of foxing. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Psychology & Psychiatry; Science & Technology. ISBN: 0964712156. ISBN/EAN: 9780964712157. All our pictures shown here are of the actual item, not stock photos. Inventory No: 34236. For further info on this title, click on the "Contact Seller" button within this listing. We will try to reply within 24 hours. Otherwise you can order right now (inclusive of shipping options) from the "Add to Basket" button to the right.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Meaning of Control: Making Sense of Behaviour
• Publisher: Benchmark No date
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0964712156
• ISBN 13: 9780964712157
• Binding: Softcover
• Edition: Edition Unstated.
• Condition: New Book
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Psychology & Psychiatry

About this title

Synopsis

Making Sense of Behavior, The Meaning of Control by William T. Powers is a profound and sometimes funny introduction to control theory as applied to the behavior of living things.

Written for the common reader, MSOB demonstrates how "living control systems" really behave and interact. Deliberately simple examples peel back the layers of Powers' Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) to reveal its universal truths.

PCT is taught in the Life Science disciplines in a growing number of universities worldwide. Practical PCT applications continue to multiply: the study of infants (Netherlands); the turnaround of troubled schools (USA, Australia), Leadership Training (USA, Canada).

About the Author

Mr. Powers' interest in control theory began when he was a junior medical physicist at the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital in Chicago during the early 1950s. Since then he has carried on dual careers; an official one as a designer of electronic systems for science, medicine, and commerce, and an unofficial one as an explorer of the organization of living systems.

Now retired with his wife Mary in Durango, Colorado, he continues his work on living systems through a busy discussion group on the internet, through designing computer models of living control systems, and through meetings and conferences on his favorite subject.

He has published numerous articles in scientific and technical journals as well as authoring four books currently in print. With Richard J. Robertson, Professor of Psychology, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, an "early adopter" of PCT, he co-edited the first introductory college text* on Perceptual Control Theory, which is being adopted by increasing number of universities in the USA and abroad.