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PCT and MOL: a brief history of Perceptual Control Theory and the Method of Levels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

William T. Powers
William T. Powers*
Affiliation:
Lafayette, Colorado, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: W. T. Powers, 11990 E. South Boulder Rd, #144, Lafayette, Colorado, USA. (email: powers_w@frontier.net)
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Abstract

I have been asked to describe how Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) and Method of Levels (MOL) came into being, and as I approach the age of 82 that seems a prudent request. Some parts of the following should probably be taken more as a reconstruction than a verifiable record of the past, but I will strive for realism.

Keywords

Controlmindfulnesspsychotherapy processsystematic reviews
Type
Review
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 118 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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References

Cziko, G (2000). The engineering of purpose: from water clocks to cybernetics, ch 5 (http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/twd/pdf/twd05.pdf). In: The Things We Do. Using the Lessons of Bernard and Darwin to Understand the What, How, and Why of Our Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Powers, WT (1973). Behavior: The Control of Perception. Chicago, USA: Aldine Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Powers, WT, Clark, RK, McFarland, RL (1960). A general feedback theory of human behavior. Part II. Perceptual and Motor Skills 11, 309–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, N (1948). Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
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