Criterion-Selection Theory: How Structures of Criteria Are Expressed Through Choice and Action

This text presents Criterion-Selection Theory, a framework for understanding choice not as a decision hidden inside the mind, but as an action or observable result in which a structure of criteria appears outwardly. In this view, a criterion is not simply a rule or a conscious judgment. It is an operating principle that sets the direction of action within a situation and state. Choice is understood as the result of several criteria operating together across physiological, unconscious, conscious, and structural layers. These criteria may combine, conflict, strengthen one another, or change in priority depending on the subject's situation and state. The theory also explains character as a relatively stable trait of a structure of criteria that appears through repeated results of choice. Criterion-Selection Theory is not presented as a completed system, but as a first organization of concepts for explaining human results of choice from the viewpoint of criteria, criterion structures, and observable action.