[From Kent McClelland (980804.1600 CDT)]
I recently managed (with a lot of help) to put on the web copy of my paper
from the Vancouver CSG meeting. The title of the paper is "The Collective
Control of Perceptions: Constructing Order from Conflict." It can be
found at this address:
http://www.grinnell.edu/sociology/ccp.html
The paper is a revision of the lengthy paper I circulated a couple of years
ago with the subtitle, "Toward a Person-Centered Sociology"
(http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/csg/people/mcclelland/ccp/).
When I circulated the earlier version in the summer of 1996, there were
some fairly extensive comments on CSGnet about "conflictive control." I
sent the manuscript to a sociology journal and was asked to revise and
resubmit it, and the current version represents my effort, at long last, to
meet their specifications. This draft is shorter than the last version by
about a third (though still lengthy), and the sociological half of the
paper has been completely rewritten. Here's the abstract of my current
draft:
"This article offers a new perspective on sociological theory, based on
psychological insights from Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). After
reviewing the PCT model of goal-directed behavior and its empirical
support, I present results from computer simulations applying the model to
elementary social interactions by PCT agents. My key finding is that
agents controlling their own perceptions of a single environmental variable
can stabilize it even when their intentions conflict. The concluding
section discusses implications of this model of _collectively controlled
perceptions_ for the sources of order and conflict in social life, the
origins of social inequality, and the sociology of emotions."
Because I hope to send the revised draft back to the journal in a month or
so, I'm eager to get any comments or corrections before that time. I
intend in the paper to present PCT thinking accurately without frightening
off sociologists. Any suggestions on how I might do that more effectively
would be welcome.
Isaac Kurtzer has already made an interesting but somewhat dismaying
suggestion. He says (in a note directly to me), "Collectively controlled
perceptions (CCP's) are a misnomer. Instead, what you detail are
collectively stabilized environmental variables. Both 'control' and
'perception' as used in PCT _do not_ mesh with what you refer to _or_ are
simulating."
I find Isaac's comment dismaying, of course, because it seems to call into
question the main point of my paper. (Not only that, but I'd have to come
up with yet another new title. Drat!) Does the comment ring true to
others who have read the paper? Do I need to find a new name for what I've
been calling CCP's? Thanks in advance for any insights.
Kent
Kent McClelland Phone: Office 515-269-3134
Professor of Sociology Home 515-236-7002
Grinnell College Fax 515-269-4985
Grinnell, IA 50112-0810 USA E-Mail: MCCLEL@AC.GRIN.EDU
http://www.grinnell.edu/sociology/