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• Archive: 2005 Peter J. Burke, Chairman, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, co-editor, Advances in Identity Theory and Research.“It is wonderful to see, after more than thirty years, the reprinting of Powers classic volume, Behavior: The Control of Perception, which was instrumental in introducing, defining, and outlining a control theory for understanding purposive behavior.
• From its inception, it has set forth a consistent, coherent and somewhat revolutionary view of the nature of the relationship between perception and behavior that people (indeed, all living things) use behavior to purposefully control their perceptions or sensing of important conditions in the environment.
• Two things make this reprinting significant.
• …First, though it was written over thirty years ago, it remains very contemporary and current in its view, perhaps because it was initially so prescient in understanding purposive behavior.
• Second, though it is not an overly long book, it covers virtually all aspects of the control process from simple control systems to multi-leveled hierarchical control systems, from learning and reorganization to memory, and it attends to the biological bases of the processes as well as the more social aspects like conflict and interpersonal control.”–Professor Burke, back cover copy 2005
1973 – Russell L.