This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Carver, C. S. Articles by Scheier, M. F. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Carver, C. S. Articles by Scheier, M. F. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Control Processes and Self-Organization as Complementary Principles Underlying Behavior

Department of Psychology, University of Miami

Michael F. Scheier

Deparment of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University

This article addresses the convergence and complementarity between self-regulatory control-process models of behavior and dynamic systems models. The control-process view holds that people have a goal in mind and try to move toward it (or away from it), monitoring the extent to which a discrepancy remains between the goal and one's present state and taking steps to reduce the discrepancy (or enlarge it). Dynamic systems models tend to emphasize a bottom-up self-organization process, in which a coherence arises from among many simultaneous influences, moving the system toward attractors and away from repellers. We suggest that these differences in emphasis reflect two facets of a more complex reality involving both types of processes. Discussion focuses on how self-organization may occur within constituent elements of a feedback system—the input function, the output function, and goal values being used by the system—and how feedback processes themselves can reflect self-organizing tendencies.

Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 6, No. 4, 304-315 (2002)
DOI: 10.1207/S15327957PSPR0604_05


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. R. Vallacher, S. J. Read, and A. Nowak The Dynamical Perspective in Personality and Social Psychology Personality and Social Psychology Review, November 1, 2002; 6(4): 264 - 273. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. R. Vallacher, A. Nowak, M. Froehlich, and M. Rockloff The Dynamics of Self-Evaluation Personality and Social Psychology Review, November 1, 2002; 6(4): 370 - 379. [Abstract] [PDF]