Psychology Atlas

How The Mind Works
Theories and Concepts

Drive Theory

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A drive theory attempts to analyze, classify or define the psychological drives, a drive being an instinctual need with the power to influence behavior, an excitatory state produced by a homeostatic disturbance. Drive theory holds that organisms are born with certain psychological needs and that a negative state of tension arises when these needs go unsatisfied; once a need is satisfied, drive is reduced and the organism returns to homeostasis, with drive tending to increase over time on a feedback control system much like a thermostat. In 1943 the psychologists Clark Hull and Kenneth Spence put forward a drive theory as an explanation of all behavior, supported by Hull's maze studies showing rats deprived of food longer were more likely to develop a habitual path to obtain it.

Facts
Origin Year
1943 1
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Developed By

Co-developed with Kenneth Spence, not yet a live psychologist entity in this atlas; filed as an EntityRequest rather than left unrecorded.

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1. Wikipedia: Drive Theory
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
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In 1943 two psychologists, Clark Hull and Kenneth Spence, put forward a drive theory as an explanation of all behavior.
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