Afterword: Theory and Meta-Theory

Abstract

The sort of model of self-regulation that we have presented in this book represents a substantial departure in certain respects from other widely accepted paradigms in human psychology. In particular, the emphasis placed by the learning paradigm upon drives and reinforcement as explanatory principles (e.g., Hull, C.L., 1952; Rotter, 1954; Skinner, 1953; Spence, 1956) has been absent here. We have instead assumed that goal-setting and discrepancy reduction are normal consequences of the way in which the human being is organized as a self-regulating system. This departure may seem radical to some readers. But we suggest that many theorists who have nominally stayed within the framework of the learning paradigm have already begun to approximate exactly this type of model.

“Everything of importance has been said before by someone who did not discover it.”

A. N. Whitehead