Psychology so relies upon ‘experimental’ work that first-hand experience of important life-events is held to be worthless. In limiting itself to physically defined, ‘objective’ behaviours, such as pressing a switch or picking up a toy, the discipline ignores larger units of action like moving house, adopting a child or committing a crime.

In this book, originally published in 1985, what the authors mean by actions are the real-life units and categories of ‘things people do’: the things that would figure in a diary, a novel, an obituary or a casual conversation. Systems are the complex entities in the world, like animals, crops, the weather or the economy, that form part of everyday human concerns or touch upon them. It is an advanced area of enquiry which cannot be understood without reference to many other academic disciplines.

Action Systems introduces students to ideas and methods from the behavioural sciences, the philosophical and micro-sociological traditions (ethogenics, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology), linguistics and structuralism, and cybernetics, artificial intelligence, computing and mathematical modelling.

Despite its wide range, this is an introductory sourcebook for ideas, with lively illustrations and concise bibliographies. It is appropriate for students pursuing communication studies courses as well as introductory courses in the behavioural sciences.