Purpose, Meaning, and Action: Control Systems Theories in Sociology

Control Systems Theory, a newly developing theoretical perspective, starts from an important insight into human behaviour: that people attempt to control the world around them as they perceive it. This book brings together for the first time the work of prominent sociologists contributing to the development of this wideranging theoretical paradigm.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Sociologists as Control-Systems Theorists; T.J.Fararo & K.A.McClelland Introduction to Affect Control Theory; C.A.Francis Sentiment Formation in Social Interaction; D.R.Heise The Affect Control Theory of Emotions: The Case of Depression; N.J.MacKinnon & M.Goulbourne The Interrelationships among Identity, Action, and Emotion; L.Smith-Lovin & D.Robinson Guilty Americans and Shameful Japanese? An Affect Control Test of Benedict's Thesis; H.W.Smith & Y.MiowLin Can You See What I See?; P.Burke The Moral Identity: A Principle-Level Identity; J.Stets & J.Smith A PCT-Based Theory of Collective Action; C.McPhail & D.S.Schweingruber The Why, What, and How of Selling Door-to-Door: Levels of Purpose and Perception in a Sales Company; D.S.Schweingruber A Perception-Control-Theory Account of Elementary Cooperative Action; D.E.Miller & R.A.Hintz, Jr. The Ubiquity and Centrality of Social Processes of Control; K.A.McClelland Steps Toward a Control Theory of Institutions; T.J.Fararo & J.Skvoretz

About the Author :
KENT ALAN MCCLELLAND is Professor of Sociology at Grinnell College, USA. His published work ranges widely, including work on sociological applications of control systems theory, racial and sexual harassment, immigration, research methodology, gerontology, social stratification, and pedagogical essays on ways to improve sociological writing. He is a past president of the interdisciplinary Control Systems Group. THOMAS J. FARARO is Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, where he has been since 1967. He is the author or co-author of numerous publ

Review :
"Assembling an outstanding line up of established leaders and rising stars, McClelland and Fararo review works from all the major control theoretical approaches in sociology. More than any prior efforts, their research exhibits a remarkable array and depth of empirical applications. Without even a wisp of immodesty, this book shows what can be accomplished by a rigorous scientific approach to sociological theory and research." - Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina "Purpose, Meaning, and Action shows that progress can be made, that there can be bridges built between the old and the new and that doing this is difficult work. These seventeen distinguished authors have done an amazing job in adapting the approach of Perceptual Control Theory to a field where data tend to be slippery and guideposts are a long way apart. It looks as if sociology has taken a long step down a new path." - William T. Powers, author of Behavior: The Control of Perception