Great, let’s unpack this step by step. Parsons’ “cybernetic hierarchy of control” sounds technical, but each word has a clear reason:

1. Why the name “Cybernetic”?

• Origin: From cybernetics (Norbert Wiener, 1948) – the study of self-regulating systems using feedback loops.
• Parsons borrowed this to explain how society is a self-regulating system, where values and norms guide behaviour, just as a thermostat regulates temperature.
• It implies:
  • Continuous feedback between levels.
  • Correction of deviations from norms.
  • Equilibrium-maintenance in society.

2. Hierarchy of what?

It is a hierarchy of systems that control one another:

1. Cultural system (values, beliefs, norms – symbols)
2. Social system (institutions, roles, norms-in-practice)
3. Personality system (individual motivations, internalised norms)
4. Biological system (organic drives, energy, instincts)

👉 The hierarchy is about levels of control.

• Higher levels (culture) regulate the lower ones (biology).
• Lower levels provide energy or raw material to upper ones.

3. Why “Control”?

• Control = the way higher-order systems guide, limit, and channel lower-order systems.
• Example:
  • Biology gives us sexual drive.
  • Personality shapes it into desire for intimacy.
  • Social system regulates it through marriage laws.
  • Culture frames it with values like “monogamy,” “purity,” etc.