An operations model of psychosocial structure and function and of psychotherapy

Currently, personality theory and clinical psychology have a fairly substantial tradition of promoting a strongly scientific basis for clinical work and theorizing. However, an appropriate foundation model has been difficult to identify and establish. A theory of human operations, here proposed, may provide such an elementary model. The theory is rooted in the organizational and industrial field known as operations, which is a highly systematic, precise, flexible, scientific approach to the understanding and management of human goal-seeking action in the broadest sense. The proposed model includes the classical humanistic, clinical, and decision theoretic notions of values, cognition, emotions, ego, behavior, objectives, outcomes, feedback, and defenses. These notions are placed within an overall operations frame of reference and developed in such a manner that they can be used to assess human clinical problems and to design therapeutic interventions. The strengths and limitations of the model are discussed.