| |
Books and Videos |
| |
|
|
|
|
Behavior:
The Control of Perception
“Powers’
manuscript, Behavior: The Control of Perception, is among the most
exciting I have read in some time. The problems are of vast importance,
and not only to psychologists; the achieved synthesis is thoroughly
original; and the presentation is often convincing and almost invariably
suggestive. I shall be watching with interest what happens to research
in the directions to which Powers points.” —Thomas S.
Kuhn
“Here is a
profound and original book with which every psychologist—indeed
every behavioral scientist—should be acquainted. It is delightful
to have a person of such varied and unorthodox background come forth
with a unique theory of the way in which behavior is controlled
in and by the individual, a theory which should spark a great deal
of significant research.”—Carl R. Rogers
© 1973, 2005
William
T. Powers. 332 pages, 6x9 inches, illustrated, paperback, Benchmark
Publications, New Caanan, CT. ISBN 0-9647121-7-2 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
People
as Living Things
—The Psychology of Perceptual Control
“I started
reading your book to see whatever you have to say about systems.
Then I really got fascinated by your book and read it from start
to finish. Very impressive! And a feast of recognition where you
say that integrating PCT into your thinking does not come overnight
but takes years. Your knowledge of the psychological literature
is enormous and the way you linked PCT thinking with that literature
(or discussed it against the background of that literature) was
very instructive to me.” —Frans X. Plooij, Director,
International Research-institute on Infant Studies (IRIS), The
Netherlands
©
2003 Philip J. Runkel. 539 pages, 8.25x11
inches, illustrated, paperback. Living Control Systems
Publishing, Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-0-4 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
Link to
Book Depository |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Method of Levels—
How to do
Psychotherapy Without Getting in the Way
"I've just finished
the Method of Levels, and I'm astonished, delighted, and inspired.
I was a psychotherapist for many years, using a variety of approaches
(predominantly Gestalt Therapy, several versions of family therapy,
and more recently Psychology of Mind), and while my clients were
often happy with the results, I frequently wasn't. My fundamental
dissatisfaction arose from the fact that I never knew WHY we were
successful when we were, and what had gone wrong or failed to
go right when we weren't. Now I think maybe at last I know."
— Kalen Hammann, Ph.D.
©
2006 Timothy A. Carey.
200 pages, 8.25x11 inches, illustrated,
paperback, with MOL DVD. Living Control Systems Publishing,
Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-4-7 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
Link to
Book Depository |
|
|
|
|
The
Wonder Weeks—
Eight predictable leaps in your baby’s mental development
Vanderijt and Plooij's work on infant development has enormous value for clinical use and scientific application. Not only have they explained the periods of puzzling, difficult behavior in infancy which so worry parents, they have also shown how these behaviors mark developmental leaps and have described the stages in the infant's understanding. Together, this gives parents and professionals soundly based insight into babies' developing minds. What's more, Vanderijt and Plooij have described the play and communication that work best with babies at different ages and thus helped parents understand and connect sensitively with their babies. This parent-child connection is the major prerequisite for the development of secure, well-adjusted children. The Wonder Weeks is essential reading for everyone who works with infants pediatricians, social workers, psychologists, and, of course, parents.
—John Richer, Ph.D., Dip. Psych., principal clinical psychologist, department of pediatrics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England
By
Hetty Vanderijt, Ph.D. and Frans Plooij, Ph.D (2008). 348 pages,
6.7x9.6 inches, illustrated, paperback. Kiddy World Promotions B.V., The Netherlands. ISBN 978–90–79208–01–2. |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
Link to
Book Depository
|
|
|
|
|
|
Management and Leadership:
Insight for Effective Practice
When i first learned
of PCT about seven years ago, I read everything I could get my hands
on and your articles, for me, most clearly explained PCT. Somehow,
your unique use of language, (perhaps it's more humanizing?) allowed
me to understand it better, whereas much that was written (that
seems to be changing) is so technical. The result being, if one
has not mastered PCT language one becomes lost—at least for a
time. Your explanations revealed PCT almost immediately for me.
— David Hubbard, LMHC
©
1994-2008 Dag C. Forssell. 92 pages, 8.25x11 inches,
illustrated, comb bound. Living Control Systems Publishing,
Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-5-5 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
Link to
Book Depository
|
|
|
|
|
Casting
Nets and Testing Specimens
— Two Grand Methods of Psychology
The spring semester is nearly half completed. I am using your book in two classes. My experience this year is identical to that last year., when I wrote to you, "As time passes … I am increasingly convinced that your book ranks alongside Bill's [Powers] book in 1973 as a seminal work in the new behavioral science." So it is. —Tom Bourbon, 1991
©
1990, 2007, Philip J. Runkel 8.25x11 inches,
illustrated. Living Control Systems Publishing,
Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-7-1 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
Link to
Book Depository |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Making Sense of Behavior
— The Meaning of Control
For almost a century, it has been the custom among American psychologists to seek to understand human nature by watching what people do. Most books about human nature focus on human doings; they focus on nameable acts with beginnings and endings. Consider a television set. What does a TV do? It shows us moving pictures on its screen; that is the "behavior" we see. But we could spend an entire lifetime studying the action on the screen and never come to understand a thing about how a TV functions. This book does not focus on visible acts. It focuses on perception. It shows us how action comes about if and only if we find a discrepancy between what we are experiencing and what we want to experience. — Philip J. Runkel.
©
1998
William T. Powers 180 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, paperback, Benchmark Publications, New Caanan, CT. ISBN 0-9647121-5-6 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Living Control
Systems
14 previously published papers, 1960-1988.
The
control theory viewpoint has gained many supporters in recent
years because of its rigor, its beauty, and its explanatory abilities.
This viewpoint was first developed by William T. Powers in the
papers in this book.
©
1989
William T. Powers 295
pages, 5.5x8.5
inches, paperback, Benchmark Publications, New Caanan,
CT. ISBN 0-9647121-3-X |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Living Control
Systems II
22
Previously unpublished papers, 1959-1990.
Powers
critiques the theories of mainstream behavioral scientists, showing
how their defects are avoided by applying control theory instead.
He also demonstrates the need for truly generative models if a
genuine science of living control systems is to be developed.
©
1992 William T. Powers 275 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches,
paperback, Benchmark Publications, New Caanan, CT. ISBN 0-9647121-4-8 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Powers—Runkel Letters
Phil
Runkel began the very first, six-page letter, July 23, 1985, this
way:
"I hope this letter reaches you. Some years have passed since
your article Quantitative analysis of purposive systems was
published in the Psychological Review in 1978. I was captivated
by it when it first came out, but I have only recently got round
to studying it with care. I am still captivated by it."
Powers responded: "Your letter implies a pleasant project,
which I will undertake immediately—that is, now. More or less
in the sequence of your letter:"
Thus
began a delightful, five year correspondence—a tutorial in
PCT.
???
pages, 8.25x11
inches, paperback. Living Control Systems Publishing, Hayward, CA.
Scheduled for 2008. |
Sample
content
Available
late 2008
|
|
|
|
|
Behavior:
The Control of Perception—Chinese
At the end of 2002, we found the book Behavior: Control of Perception by William T. Powers. After close reading of the book, we hold that Powers' PCT is a further development on the basis of Wiener's classical cybernetics, and with many innovations in theory and practice, is superior to the latter in the delicate illustration of the control mechanism scheme, in the creation of the new concept about purpose, that is, reference signal, in the hierarchy of the control of human perception, in its application in biology, computer science and cognitive science, and so on.
— President Yan Zexian and Fan Dongping, Professors, Philosophy, South China Normal University; Zhang Huaxia, Professor, Philosophy, Zhongshan University.
©
2004 William
T. Powers. 317 pages, 6.5x9.5 inches,
illustrated, paperback. Guangzhou, China. ISBN 7-5361-2996-3 |
Sample
content
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Introduction
to Modern Psychology
The Control-Theory View
Suitable
as the primary text for introductory college-level psychology courses
and for independent study, this textbook provides a unified approach
to the entire field of psychology, from laboratory studies of animal
behavior, through ethology and studies of human social behavior,
to clinical work.
©
1990 Richard J. Robertson and William
T. Powers. 220
pages, References & Index, 8.5x11 inches, illustrated, paperback,
Benchmark Publications, New Caanan, CT. ISBN 0-9647121-6-4 |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mind
Readings
Experimental Studies of Purpose
This
is a book that can show a willing psychologist how to do a new kind
of research. The theme that runs through all these papers is modeling,
the ultimate way of finding out what a theory really means. Richard
Marken is a skilled modeler, as will be seen. But he has a talent
that goes beyond putting ideas into the form of working simulations,
a talent that can be admired but is hard to imitate. He finds the
essence of a problem and an elegantly simple way to cast it in the
form of a demonstration or an experiment. — William T.
Powers.
©
1992 Richard S. Marken, 222 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, illustrated,
paperback, Benchmark Publications, New Caanan, CT. ISBN 0-9624154-3-X |
Sample
content
About ordering
Link to Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More
Mind Readings
This book expands on Marken's first book, Mind Readings, by venturing further into speculative modeling and even criticism, both ventures being successful and thought-provoking. His great talent for organizing complex subjects into comprehensible models—and then showing that the models actually work—is evident and as satisfying as it was in the first volume. Despite its being far ahead of its time, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know where psychology is, or should be, headed.
William T. Powers, author Behavior: The Control of Perception
©
2002 Richard S.
Marken, 210 pages, 5.5x8.5
inches, illustrated, paperback, new view, St. Louis, MO. title page
says ISBN 0-9704701-7-7, cover
says ISBN 0-944337-43-0 |
Sample
content
Link to Amazon
Link to
publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freedom From Stress
Ed's
aim in this book is first to teach control theory in terms that
are relevant to ordinary life and the problems of real people
who aren't theoreticians. In this book he slants the message toward
the specific problem of stress: what it is and what people can
do to free themselves of this difficulty. He is convinced, and
I agree, that the basic task is to understand what is going on,
not to prescribe some pill or procedure that will work like a
cold remedy. Out of understanding will come awareness of what
has to change. And then the change will come about naturally.
—William T. Powers
©
1989, 1993 Edward E. Ford, 220 pages, 5.5x8.5
inches, illustrated, paperback, Brandt publishing, Scottsdale,
AZ. ISBN 0-9616716-1-0 |
Sample
content
Link to Amazon
Link to
publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fundamentals—Discipline
for Home and School
In this latest book in Ed Ford's series on RTP, the focus is on change. How do people change their ways? What are good ways to make change possible? In particular, how should the key person in the RTP system, the teacher in the Responsible Thinking Classroom or RTC, deal with students sent there to think about their infractions and to plan how to avoid them in the future? It was seeing a poorly run RTC that got Ed Ford to ask these questions, and this book is the result of his cogitations and enquiries that propose some answers. —From Foreword by William T. Powers
©
2004 Edward E. Ford, 93 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, paperback, Brandt publishing, Scottsdale,
AZ. ISBN 0-9616716-9-6 |
Sample
content
Link to Amazon
Link to
publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PCT CD
CD
holds an up-to-date copy of the Living Control Systems Publishing
website. Suitable for people with a slow or no Internet connection. Available separate. |
Sample
content
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DVD: PCT supports
TQM
This 1993 presentation of PCT to a Deming Users Group, reports on results from using an approach to management based on PCT, demonstrates the Rubber Band experiment, and relates the principles of TQM to PCT.
Living
Control
Systems Publishing, Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-5-5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DVD: Rubber Band
Demonstration
This dramatization of the Rubber Band Demonstration was produced in 1993. Includes illustrated script booklet.
Living
Control
Systems Publishing, Hayward, CA. ISBN 0-9740155-5-5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
