The Perturbation-Configuration-Response Divergence Theory (PCRDT)

People exposed to similar stressors can appraise situations differently and select different coping responses. This well-established class of observations motivates the present conceptual proposal: the Perturbation-Configuration-Response Divergence Theory (PCRDT). PCRDT asks how sufficiently comparable inputs may be transformed by different system configurations into distinct response policies, actions, response trajectories, and outcomes. Its primary case is the Matched-Stressor Coping Divergence Case (MSCDC), in which two people encounter sufficiently comparable stress exposure yet display different, potentially opposite, coping responses. The proposed Configuration-Conditioned Response Divergence Mechanism (CCRDM) organizes the explanation into eleven functional stages: perturbation specification, input-equivalence assessment, configuration encoding, state-dependent transformation, response-policy selection, resource-constraint gating, response realization, trajectory formation, feedback return, configuration reconfiguration, and contextual outcome evaluation. The framework is represented through state-space and response-mapping equations, an input-equivalence measure, pairwise response-divergence measures, and an aggregate measure for N systems. Six hypotheses, boundary cases, alternative explanations, operationalization principles, dyadic extensions, and a staged validation roadmap are specified. The framework draws on existing work in stress appraisal and coping, dyadic coping, general systems theory, cybernetics, control theory, and system identification. Its proposed contribution is integrative and methodological rather than a claim of wholly unprecedented components. The manuscript is conceptual: its equations and hypotheses are proposals requiring construct validation, comparative testing, causal identification where feasible, replication, and separate validation in each target domain. Keywords: stress appraisal; coping; response divergence; system configuration; state-space modeling; feedback; cybernetics; control theory; causal inference; cross-domain modeling.