Environmental Restriction and “Stimulus Hunger”

Theories and Applications
  • Peter Suedfeld
Chapter

Abstract

Throughout much of the history of psychology, theorists concerned with motivation have focused on constructs having to do with internal states. Certainly toward the middle of the twentieth century most professional psychologists agreed that the major sources of motivation lay either in tissue deficits (drive-reduction theory) or in the combination of physiological and psychic needs for various kinds of gratification (psychodynamic theory). In both instances, the basic thrust was that a variety of physiological processes gives rise to sets of intense stimuli that, monitored and interpreted within the body, engage some sort of behavioral regulator which leads to the emission of appropriate responses. To a degree, the stimuli are unpleasant; behavior is directed toward their elimination, which is reinforcing. Biological concepts of instincts, homeostasis, and general drive (D) all share this basic underlying orientation (Cannon, 1932; Freud, 1915; Hull, 1943).

Keywords

Environmental Restriction Arousal Level Sensory Deprivation Attitude Manipulation Stimulus Restriction 
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Copyright information

© Plenum Press, New York 1981

Authors and Affiliations

  • Peter Suedfeld
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PsychologyThe University of British ColumbiaVancouverCanada

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