Purpose, Meaning, and Action

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction: Control Systems Thinking in Sociological Theory

   1. Introduction: Control Systems Thinking in Sociological Theory

      • Thomas J. Fararo, Kent A. McClelland

      Pages 1-27

3. From Perceptual Control to Institutional Control

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. Understanding Collective Control Processes

      • Kent A. McClelland

      Pages 31-56

   3. Purposive Collective Action

      • Clark McPhail, David S. Schweingruber, Alin Ceobanu

      Pages 57-83

   4. The Why, What, and How of Selling Door-To-Door: Levels of Purpose and Perception in a Sales Company

      • David S. Schweingruber

      Pages 85-111

   5. Institutionalized Social Action: Control at the Program Level

      • Thomas J. Fararo, John Skvoretz

      Pages 113-136

4. Affect Control and Identity Control in Social Interaction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

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   2. Overview and Comparison of Two Theories

      1. Introduction to Affect Control Theory

         • Clare Anne Francis

         Pages 139-161

      2. Control Theories of Identity, Action, and Emotion: In Search of Testable Differences Between Affect Control Theory and Identity Control Theory

         • Lynn Smith-Lovin, Dawn T. Robinson

         Pages 163-188

   3. Studies in Affect Control

      1. Sentiment Formation in Social Interaction

         • David R. Heise

         Pages 189-211

      2. Guilty Americans and Shameful Japanese? An Affect Control Test of Benedict’s Thesis

         • Herman W. Smith, Yap MiowLin

         Pages 213-236

      3. The Affect Control Theory of Emotions: The Case of Depression

         • Neil J. MacKinnon, Michelle M. Goulbourne

         Pages 237-266

   4. Studies in Identity Control

      1. Perceptions of Leadership in Groups: An Empirical Test of Identity Control Theory

         • Peter J. Burke

         Pages 267-291

      2. The Moral Identity: A Principle Level Identity

         • Jan E. Stets, Michael J. Carter

         Pages 293-316

5. Back Matter

   Pages 317-332

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Control Systems Theory, a newly developing theoretical perspective, starts from an important insight into human behaviour: that people attempt to control the world around them as they perceive it. This book brings together for the first time the work of prominent sociologists contributing to the development of this wideranging theoretical paradigm.

• emotion
• identity
• Institution
• interaction
• Moral
• sociology
• systems theory

"Assembling an outstanding line up of established leaders and rising stars, McClelland and Fararo review works from all the major control theoretical approaches in sociology. More than any prior efforts, their research exhibits a remarkable array and depth of empirical applications. Without even a wisp of immodesty, this book shows what can be accomplished by a rigorous scientific approach to sociological theory and research." - Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina

"Purpose, Meaning, and Action shows that progress can be made, that there can be bridges built between the old and the new and that doing this is difficult work. These seventeen distinguished authors have done an amazing job in adapting the approach of Perceptual Control Theory to a field where data tend to be slippery and guideposts are a long way apart. It looks as if sociology has taken a long step down a new path." - William T. Powers, author of Behavior: The Control of Perception

KENT ALAN MCCLELLAND is Professor of Sociology at Grinnell College, USA. His published work ranges widely, including work on sociological applications of control systems theory, racial and sexual harassment, immigration, research methodology, gerontology, social stratification, and pedagogical essays on ways to improve sociological writing. He is a past president of the interdisciplinary Control Systems Group.

THOMAS J. FARARO is Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, where he has been since 1967. He is the author or co-author of numerous publications dealing with topics in theoretical and mathematical sociology. His most recent books are Social Action Systems: Foundation and Synthesis in Sociological Theory (2001) and Generating Images of Stratification (co-author, 2003).

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