What did Glasser mean by "our behavioral system'? Why does Glasser use the term "angering" instead of anger?? How is a control system different from a stimulus=response theory??

-- dennyphillips (rule62dap@comcast.net), June 14, 2003

Answers

Because he holds that most actions/behaviours such as the 'process of getting angry' are choices and not something that just "happens" to us it makes sense to call it 'angering'. We speak of people 'Walking'and Talking'and 'Thinking'and 'Laughing' and we recognise all of these as choices, so why not speak of people 'Angering' Choice theory is an 'Internal Control' theory and it says that everything we do ultimately comes from decisions we make inside ourself and not as a result of something happening to us. What happens to us, ie somebody insults us, affects us in that it gives us information. What we choose do with that information, i.e. get Angry, is entirely up to ourselves. It is the exact opposite to External Control psychology which holds that we are controlled by things that happen outside us/to us. Our behavioural system is the process by which we take in information ,process it and then behave[think ,act, feel and go through physiological changes] in an attempt to control our perception of the world outside us.

-- ken lyons (kenlyon@gofree.indigio.ie), June 14, 2003.