Introduction

The perceptual process has provided psychology with some of its most fascinating problems. Contemporary definitions of psychology almost invariably assert, in one way or another, that it is the study of behavior. The founding fathers of modern psychology, among whom there were some truly outstanding men, have, because of their efforts to build an objective science, exerted an unwarranted determining influence upon contemporary psychology and psychologists. One of the difficulties of the more simple varieties of what might be called inherited disposition theories of the origins of personality is that they tend to suggest a permanent and static quality—a relatively invariant structural foundation—for such regularity as may exist in the behavior of a person. Just as there can be language about language—metalanguage—so too can there be communication about communication—meta-communication. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.