Purposeful Behavior as the Control of Perception

This article continues the discussion begun in my 1989 Educational Researcher essay on the problems posed by the unpredictability and indeterminism of human behavior for educational research and responds to criticisms of these arguments offered by Lehrer, Serlin, and Amundson (1990). In the course of this discussion, a theory of purposeful behavior known as perceptual control theory is presented which provides an explicit, working model of how individuals are able to produce repeatable outcomes via variable means. It is argued that the traditional "scientific" method of educational research, which attempts to find relationships between "independent" and "dependent" variables over groups of individuals, is in principle incapable of providing valid explanations of the how and why of purposeful human behavior.

[1]  J. Hailman.  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Stephen Jay Gould. W. W. Norton, New York (1989), 347, Price $19.95 (U.S.A.), $27.95 (Canada) , 1991 .

[2]  T. Cook,et al.  Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings , 1979 .

[3]  H. Chaiklin,et al.  The Myth of the Madding Crowd , 1992 .

[4]  W. THOMAS BOURBON,et al.  Invitation to the Dance , 1990 .

[5]  Robert Rosenthal,et al.  How are we doing in soft psychology , 1990 .

[6]  W. Hershberger.  An approach through the looking-glass , 1986 .

[7]  Gary A. Cziko,et al.  Unpredictability and Indeterminism in Human Behavior: Arguments and Implications for Educational Research , 1989 .

[8]  Wayne A. Hershberger.  Volitional action : conation and control , 1989 .

[9]  Professor,et al.  On the Threats That Do Not Face Educational Research , 1992 .

[10]  D. Spalding.  The Principles of Psychology , 1873, Nature.

[11]  E. Minium.  Statistical reasoning in psychology and education , 1970 .

[12]  William T. Powers,et al.  Simulating Individual and Collective Action in Temporary Gatherings , 1992 .

[13]  D. Campbell,et al.  Comprehensive evolutionary epistemology bibliography , 1990 .

[14]  Gary James Jason,et al.  The Logic of Scientific Discovery , 1988 .

[15]  F. Plooij,et al.  Developmental Transitions as Successive Reorganizations of a Control Hierarchy , 1990 .

[16]  J. G. Taylor,et al.  Experimental design: a cloak for intellectual sterility. , 1958, British Journal of Psychology.

[17]  Chapter 12 Behavior in the First Degree , 1989 .

[18]  John Cotton,et al.  Statistical reasoning in psychology and education. 2nd ed. , 1978 .

[19]  Daniel J. Brown.  Mirror, Mirror. . . .: Down with the Linear Model1 , 1975 .

[20]  Daniel J. Brown.  Down with the Linear Model. , 1975 .

[21]  William. T. Powers,et al.  Living Control Systems II: Selected papers of William T , 1989 .

[22]  George Grubel,et al.  Control Systems Group. , 1971 .

[23]  D. Berliner.  Knowledge is Power: A Talk to Teachers About a Revolution in the Teaching Profession , 1988 .

[24]  Imre Lakatos,et al.  The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes , 1978 .

[25]  K. Popper,et al.  Conjectures and refutations;: The growth of scientific knowledge , 1972 .

[26]  G. Ferro-Luzzi.  On Evolutionary Epistemology , 1982, Current Anthropology.

[27]  W. T. Powers.  Behavior, the control of perception , 1973 .

[28]  D. Campbell.  Blind variation and selective retention in creative thought as in other knowledge processes. , 1960, Psychological review.

[29]  K. Kelly McKERROW,et al.  Naturalistic Misunderstanding of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle , 1991 .

[30]  M. N. Ozer.  A Cybernetic Approach to the Assessment of Children: Toward a More Humane Use of Human Beings , 1979 .

[31]  R. Marken.  Degrees of Freedom in Behavior , 1991 .

[32]  R. Ackermann.  The Philosophy of Karl Popper. , 1978 .

[33]  L. Cronbach,et al.  Aptitude and instructional methods , 1977 .

[34]  W. Kruskal,et al.  The Social Sciences: Their Nature and Uses. , 1983 .

[35]  I. Lakatos.  Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes , 1976 .

[36]  L. Cronbach.  Beyond the Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology. , 1975 .

[37]  I. Lakatos,et al.  Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes , 1970 .

[38]  D T CAMPBELL,et al.  Perception as substitute trial and error. , 1956, Psychological review.

[39]  F. Schrag,et al.  In Defense of Positivist Research Paradigms , 1992 .

[40]  Richard S Marken,et al.  Perceptual organization of behavior: a hierarchical control model of coordinated action. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  Imre Lakatos,et al.  The methodology of scientific research programmes: Contents , 1978 .

[42]  William T. Powers,et al.  Living Control Systems: Selected Papers of William T. Powers , 1989 .

[43]  D. C. Phillips.  The Dilemma of Enquiry and Learning , 1982 .

[44]  Tore Dalenius,et al.  The Social Sciences: Their Nature and Uses. , 1983 .

[45]  B. Funderburk,et al.  Mirror, Mirror... , 2004 .

[46]  Richard Lehrer,et al.  Knowledge or Certainty? A Reply to Cziko , 1990 .

[47]  W. Williams.  Chapter 25 The Giffen Effect:A Control Theory Resolution of an Economic Paradox , 1989 .