[Martin Taylor 921015 16:00]
The following question probably indicates that my understanding of PCT is
less secure than I have been believing it to be, but here goes, anyway.
On two occasions recently. I observed what seems on the face of it to be S-R
behaviour--the situational context causing a non-functional behaviour to be
executed. On one of those occasions, I was the actor, and it felt as if this
behaviour was "extracted" automatically from me rather than being the control
of any perception of which I was then (or now) aware. Here's the situation.
Event 1: I was carrying a door upstairs in my house. The stairs have rather
nice panelling on the side. As I turned the corner at the top, the swing of
the door caused it to bump the panelling lightly. I immediately said "Sorry"
and then wondered why I did so. As a conditioned response in the S-R tradition,
it's easy to understand. But where does it fit in PCT?
Event 2 is very similar. I was approaching a double door that has glass windows
as its upper panels. When I was about 5 yards away, a woman came through in
the other direction. When she opened the door, through which she could easily
see anyone on my side, the door bumped a cardboard box she had not sees, left
by a cleaner or somebody. She also said "Sorry" immediately, even though she
was well aware she had not hit anyone.
The trigger for writing this note was Bill's comment on dialing the old phone
number for someone whose number recently changed. It's not quite the same
situation, but there seems to be something in common.
Bill, or anyone: is there a straightforward PCT interpretation of this
immediate execution of "Sorry" following a bump when one is well aware that
there is no-one there to accept the apology. I imagine that this situation
has many analogues in other contexts, and it is a bit puzzling at present.
Martin