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Comparing Models of Behavior

Here are a few publications about basic ideas in PCT, and about comparisons between PCT and traditional theories in the behavioral sciences, social sciences, and brain sciences.

Powers, WT (1998).  Making sense of behavior. New Canaan, CT: Benchmark.  In this non-technical book, Bill Powers introduces and explains basic concepts from PCT.  He also draws some important contrasts between PCT and the theories and models from traditional behavioral and life sciences.

Bourbon, WT, & Powers, WT (1999).  Models and their worlds. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 50, 445-461.  In this article, Tom Bourbon and Bill Powers use experiments and theoretical analyses to  compare the models of behavior from PCT, and from traditional behavioristic and neuro-cognitive theories.

Runkel, P (1990)  Casting nets and testing specimens:  Two grand methods of psychology. New York: Praeger.  In this delightful book, Phil Runkel compares two radically different way to do behavioral research.  The traditional method treats behavior as the end result in a lineal process of cause and effect.  The alternative method emphasizes aspects of behavior that reveal processes like the individual control of one's own perceptions.  Along the way, Runkel elegantly demolishes many experimental and statistical abuses that permeate traditional behavioral and life sciences.