Podcast appearances and mentions of Richard S Marken

Listeners familiar with our recent podcasts exploring the remarkable legacy of William T. Powers revolutionary Perceptual Control Theory of human behaviour, including its contribution to cognitive behavioural therapy through the development of the Method of Levels approach, may be wondering about the empirical evidence for such a sweeping repudiation of classical behaviourism.  Prepare to have those questions answered with this episode’s return visit of Richard S. Marken; this time to discuss his 2014 book, Doing Research on Purpose: A Control Theory Approach to Experimental Psychology (New View Publications, 2014).  In a remarkable collection of papers, Marken traces, not only the steadily accruing empirical validation of PCT, but also, the evolution of a new methodology for experimental psychology itself given the need to assess the impact of phenomena that exist only inside the minds of individual organisms; namely, the preferred reference values for sensory experience.  Emerging from this methodological renovation is the bedrock of PCT investigation; the Test for the Controlled Variable, a robust experimental procedure opening a window on the dynamics of varied forms of behaviour including the science of fly-ball catching in baseball players and Frisbee catching by “man’s best friend”.  In his book and in our conversation, Marken offers us a glimpse of experimental psychology, and the world at large, through “control theory glasses” and muses upon the possible social and ethical nature of a world that accepted PCT as the ground of our behaviour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listeners familiar with our recent podcasts exploring the remarkable legacy of William T. Powers revolutionary Perceptual Control Theory of human behaviour, including its contribution to cognitive behavioural therapy through the development of the Method of Levels approach, may be wondering about the empirical evidence for such a sweeping repudiation of classical behaviourism.  Prepare to have those questions answered with this episode's return visit of Richard S. Marken; this time to discuss his 2014 book, Doing Research on Purpose: A Control Theory Approach to Experimental Psychology (New View Publications, 2014).  In a remarkable collection of papers, Marken traces, not only the steadily accruing empirical validation of PCT, but also, the evolution of a new methodology for experimental psychology itself given the need to assess the impact of phenomena that exist only inside the minds of individual organisms; namely, the preferred reference values for sensory experience.  Emerging from this methodological renovation is the bedrock of PCT investigation; the Test for the Controlled Variable, a robust experimental procedure opening a window on the dynamics of varied forms of behaviour including the science of fly-ball catching in baseball players and Frisbee catching by “man's best friend”.  In his book and in our conversation, Marken offers us a glimpse of experimental psychology, and the world at large, through “control theory glasses” and muses upon the possible social and ethical nature of a world that accepted PCT as the ground of our behaviour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Listeners familiar with our recent podcasts exploring the remarkable legacy of William T. Powers revolutionary Perceptual Control Theory of human behaviour, including its contribution to cognitive behavioural therapy through the development of the Method of Levels approach, may be wondering about the empirical evidence for such a sweeping repudiation of... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/systems-and-cybernetics

To many, the title, A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features (Routledge, 2012) , may seem incongruous with a podcast channel called “New Books in Systems and Cybernetics.”  However, listeners familiar with my previous interview with Richard S. Marken about his co-authored book, Contolling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human, will be aware of contemporary developments of Willam T. Powers’ essentially cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) and the Method of Levels (MOL) approach to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that emerged from Powers’ revolutionary vision.  Marken’s co-author, Timothy A. Carey, has been the driving force behind the evolution of MOL and is also the co-author, along with Warren Mansell and Sara Tai of the University of Manchester, of this episode’s featured book.  Lead author, Mansell, and his colleagues have deftly crafted a clear and concise introduction to the underlying principles and practical procedures of this therapeutic approach that is as digestible and useful for students of cybernetics in general as it is for practicing psychotherapeutic clinicians.  In our conversation, Mansell crisply outlines the growing transdiagnostic conception of mental distress, the hypothesized system of hierarchically nested control-systems undergirding human behaviour, and the stunningly simple yet powerful therapeutic approach that is grounded in this cybernetic hypothesis and that is gaining ever more robust empirical support with each passing year.  This is important work for researches in all disciplines committed to exploring a cybernetic conception of adaptive (or maladaptive) human behaviour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To many, the title, A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features (Routledge, 2012) , may seem incongruous with a podcast channel called “New Books in Systems and Cybernetics.”  However, listeners familiar with my previous interview with Richard S. Marken about his co-authored book, Contolling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human, will be aware of contemporary developments of Willam T. Powers' essentially cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) and the Method of Levels (MOL) approach to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that emerged from Powers' revolutionary vision.  Marken's co-author, Timothy A. Carey, has been the driving force behind the evolution of MOL and is also the co-author, along with Warren Mansell and Sara Tai of the University of Manchester, of this episode's featured book.  Lead author, Mansell, and his colleagues have deftly crafted a clear and concise introduction to the underlying principles and practical procedures of this therapeutic approach that is as digestible and useful for students of cybernetics in general as it is for practicing psychotherapeutic clinicians.  In our conversation, Mansell crisply outlines the growing transdiagnostic conception of mental distress, the hypothesized system of hierarchically nested control-systems undergirding human behaviour, and the stunningly simple yet powerful therapeutic approach that is grounded in this cybernetic hypothesis and that is gaining ever more robust empirical support with each passing year.  This is important work for researches in all disciplines committed to exploring a cybernetic conception of adaptive (or maladaptive) human behaviour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

To many, the title, A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features (Routledge, 2012) , may seem incongruous with a podcast channel called “New Books in Systems and Cybernetics.”  However, listeners familiar with my previous interview with Richard S. Marken about his co-authored book, Contolling People: The... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/systems-and-cybernetics

The word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cyberneticians nervous and is often downplayed in contemporary descriptions of the field.   Perhaps this is one reason why William Powers’ fundamentally cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT, has, in recent decades, continued its substantial development outside the disciplinary boundaries of cybernetics proper.  But, in fact, PCT stands as one of the most robust and fully developed strands of the cybernetic legacy which, through its impact on psychology via the development of PCT grounded Method of Levels therapy, has had a tangible influence on a mainstream field; not something that can be claimed by all that many developments in cybernetics since its heyday in the 1950’s.    Richard S. Marken and Timothy A. Carey cut right to the heart of the nervous-making matter with the title of their 2015 book, Controlling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human from Australian Academic Press.  In my conversation with co-author, Richard S. Marken, we get comfortable with the notion that, as Powers put it, “behaviour is the control of perception” and that controlling is, quite simply, what we do all day, every day; from being able to sit upright in a chair without collapsing, to completing our every day tasks at work, to maintaining our sense of ourselves as the kind of people we would most like to be.  The good news, delivered by Carey and Marken in clear, highly accessible prose for the general reader, is that, if we take the time to understand the hierarchically nested control systems of which our psyches are comprised and bring their operation into our conscious awareness, we can take great strides in avoiding those facets of control that bring us into uncomfortable and, at times, destructive conflict with others and with ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cyberneticians nervous and is often downplayed in contemporary descriptions of the field.   Perhaps this is one reason why William Powers’ fundamentally cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT, has, in recent decades, continued its substantial development outside the disciplinary boundaries of cybernetics proper.  But, in fact, PCT stands as one of the most robust and fully developed strands of the cybernetic legacy which, through its impact on psychology via the development of PCT grounded Method of Levels therapy, has had a tangible influence on a mainstream field; not something that can be claimed by all that many developments in cybernetics since its heyday in the 1950’s.    Richard S. Marken and Timothy A. Carey cut right to the heart of the nervous-making matter with the title of their 2015 book, Controlling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human from Australian Academic Press.  In my conversation with co-author, Richard S. Marken, we get comfortable with the notion that, as Powers put it, “behaviour is the control of perception” and that controlling is, quite simply, what we do all day, every day; from being able to sit upright in a chair without collapsing, to completing our every day tasks at work, to maintaining our sense of ourselves as the kind of people we would most like to be.  The good news, delivered by Carey and Marken in clear, highly accessible prose for the general reader, is that, if we take the time to understand the hierarchically nested control systems of which our psyches are comprised and bring their operation into our conscious awareness, we can take great strides in avoiding those facets of control that bring us into uncomfortable and, at times, destructive conflict with others and with ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cyberneticians nervous and is often downplayed in contemporary descriptions of the field.   Perhaps this is one reason why William Powers' fundamentally cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT, has, in recent decades, continued its substantial development outside the disciplinary boundaries of cybernetics proper.  But, in fact, PCT stands as one of the most robust and fully developed strands of the cybernetic legacy which, through its impact on psychology via the development of PCT grounded Method of Levels therapy, has had a tangible influence on a mainstream field; not something that can be claimed by all that many developments in cybernetics since its heyday in the 1950's.    Richard S. Marken and Timothy A. Carey cut right to the heart of the nervous-making matter with the title of their 2015 book, Controlling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human from Australian Academic Press.  In my conversation with co-author, Richard S. Marken, we get comfortable with the notion that, as Powers put it, “behaviour is the control of perception” and that controlling is, quite simply, what we do all day, every day; from being able to sit upright in a chair without collapsing, to completing our every day tasks at work, to maintaining our sense of ourselves as the kind of people we would most like to be.  The good news, delivered by Carey and Marken in clear, highly accessible prose for the general reader, is that, if we take the time to understand the hierarchically nested control systems of which our psyches are comprised and bring their operation into our conscious awareness, we can take great strides in avoiding those facets of control that bring us into uncomfortable and, at times, destructive conflict with others and with ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

The word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cyberneticians nervous and is often downplayed in contemporary descriptions of the field.   Perhaps this is one reason why William Powers' fundamentally cybernetic Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT, has, in recent... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/systems-and-cybernetics