On Purposeful Systems

This book provides an innovative foundation for looking at human and social behavior u as a system of purposeful (teleological) events

Fred Emery

AldineTransaction Introduction, Preface, I. Foundations, 1. On Human Behavior as a System, 2. Structure, Function, and Purpose, 3. The Individuality of Psychological Systems, II. The Process of Pursuing Purposes, 4. Generation of Inputs: Perception, Consciousness, and Memory, 5. Modeling the Situation: Beliefs, 6. Evaluating the Situation: Feelings and Attitudes, 7. Formulation and Evaluation of Choices: Thought and Intuition, 8. Purposeful Systems and their Environments, III. Interactions of Purposeful Systems, 9. Feelings and Communication, 10. Signs, Messages, and Language, 11. Models of Communication, 12. Conflict, Cooperation, and Competition, IV. Social Systems and Beyond, 13. Social Groups as Systems, 14. Ideal-Seeking Systems, 15. Epilogue: Rounding the Conceptual Circle, Appendix I, Appendix II, Appendix III, Name Index, Subject Index