A Glossary of Descriptive Psychology Concepts

What's this all about?

AOC

1. Actor-Observer-Critic.
2. The three jobs central to being a Person.
3. The negative-feedback loop necessary for control in any system; for self-control in persons.
4. Three perspectives on Behavior.
   

As Actor, I initiate a behavior or, most likely, a behavioral sequence.

As Observer, I monitor its course and projected results, once it is under way.

As Critic, When that has progressed far enough, I evaluate it.

The result of that evaluation is fed back to the Actor.

Just the simple A-O-C structure gives us too spartan a picture of what goes on. For example, we do not simply switch from A to O to C to A as the above would suggest. Rather, we are routinely doing all three simultaneously, and because of that, we are doing those things that would appear in the simple A-O-C sequence. Having learned the jobs, we become Actors, Observers and Critics and routinely operate from those perspectives