PCT, which pjeby thinks explains everything about everything
Not at all. It merely fills a lot of gaps and simplifies things in the model of mind that I already had. But my overall model still contains things that I consider to be lacking in the explanation department, and which PCT doesn’t really touch. PCT has become a central metaphor in my model, but it’s quite far from the entirety of my model.
For example, PCT has little to directly say about status, self-esteem, and the like, except insofar as it implies these are controlled perceptual variables like any other. (That is, that we have ranges for them that we’re comfortable with, outside of which we take action to restore them to that range.) PCT also doesn’t make much distinction between controlled “avoidance” variables (e.g “amount of pain”) and controlled “approach” variables (e.g. “amount of pleasure”), and I find those to be rather important practical distinctions.
In addition, one of the first mindhacking techniques I usually teach to people (dubbed “feeling elimination”) has no obvious connection to PCT, nor really a very good explanation at all. I know that it works, and many of the parameters that make it work or not work in a given instance, but as to how it really works, I know very little.
However, despite these inadequacies, PCT actually doesn’t have any competition as a generalized reductionist model of behavior. Not since Skinner has anybody in the field of psychology even tried to make such a generalized model, AFAIK, let alone succeeded half as well as PCT.
Not at all. It merely fills a lot of gaps and simplifies things in the model of mind that I already had. But my overall model still contains things that I consider to be lacking in the explanation department, and which PCT doesn’t really touch. PCT has become a central metaphor in my model, but it’s quite far from the entirety of my model.
For example, PCT has little to directly say about status, self-esteem, and the like, except insofar as it implies these are controlled perceptual variables like any other. (That is, that we have ranges for them that we’re comfortable with, outside of which we take action to restore them to that range.) PCT also doesn’t make much distinction between controlled “avoidance” variables (e.g “amount of pain”) and controlled “approach” variables (e.g. “amount of pleasure”), and I find those to be rather important practical distinctions.
In addition, one of the first mindhacking techniques I usually teach to people (dubbed “feeling elimination”) has no obvious connection to PCT, nor really a very good explanation at all. I know that it works, and many of the parameters that make it work or not work in a given instance, but as to how it really works, I know very little.
However, despite these inadequacies, PCT actually doesn’t have any competition as a generalized reductionist model of behavior. Not since Skinner has anybody in the field of psychology even tried to make such a generalized model, AFAIK, let alone succeeded half as well as PCT.