ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a number of the studies in retrospect and attempts to point out the ways in which they constituted steps toward the present theory, and are a part of the contemporary groundwork. The set of interaction process analysis categories, as a whole, illustrates a concept of the general nature of the process as a feedback system of communication and control among a set of participants. Types of initial problem-solving may be followed by positive reactions. The opposite direction of outcome is a set of negative reactions. The problem of maintaining a steady state in the interaction process itself as a regularly cycling system is essentially a problem of establishing an orbit of activity whereby the action and reaction sequences go through a repetitive cycle. In this cycle, the disturbances created in one phase may or may not be reduced in a subsequent phase.
