ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with an historical perspective on regulatory functioning. It identifies the basic objectives and methods of living system regulation. The chapter examines the particularly human method of cognitive regulation, focusing on three types: self-evaluation; regulation of performance; and regulation of social relations with a special focus on moral reasoning. One way of observing regulatory functioning is to disrupt a system and observe its efforts to recover from the disruption, as for example through a glucose tolerance test. The self-regulatory function of “private speech” is receiving attention. The chapter discusses the two most primitive regulatory methods, biochemical and affective. ensory-perceptual information processes probably evolved from biochemical regulators, with some sensory qualities subjectively experienced as attractive or aversive. The feedback signals monitored to regulate biological functions are primarily biochemical in nature. The literature on biological homeostasis, cognitive dissonance, psychological conflict, and self-concept illustrates this type of regulatory problem.
