A formulation ofr the explanation of behavior is needed to guide the work of the applied psychologist whose first task is to explain behavior. It can also serve as a coordinating framework for the basic research that centers around each of psychology’s many constructs. This paper puts forward the notion that the appropriate framework reflects the intersection of numerous person and environment systems; in other words, that it is found in the structure of a situation.

When you see a commercial on television do you sometimes ask yourself: Whose attention is it seeking? To whom is it talking? Have you then asked yourself: Why those people? Was that an active choice? Whose choice? Prompted by what considerations? What alternative strategies for attention engagement were available?