Publication
Fred A. Moss. Study of Animal Drives. Journal of Experimental Psychology 7(3), June 1924. [3]
Historical introduction excerpt — Basic Thesis
This excerpt retains the author’s historical terminology; it is not an abstract or a current training prescription.
The behavior of any animal is the resultant of his drives to action and the opposing resistances. It is a fact of common observation that animals when confronted by certain situations tend to respond with rather definite, fixed, behavior. It is to these tendencies to action that I apply the terms ‘drive’ and ‘resistance.’
Drive.—By ‘drive’ I mean the impelling forces in the situation that stimulate the animal toward certain positive behavior. For example, if an animal is kept without food for a certain length of time, certain organic stimulations of the nerve-endings in the stomach provoke in the animal restless and seeking behavior until food is found and the “drive” for the time being, stopped. It is to the motive-force behind this seeking behavior that I apply the term ‘ drive.’
Resistance.—By ‘resistance’ I mean the repelling forces in the situation which stimulate the animal to negative reactions, or tend to draw him away from certain behavior. For example, the mere presence of cats produces in rats certain ‘resistances,’ and these ‘resistances’ stimulate the rats to behavior tending to keep, or remove, them from a closer contact with cats.
Responses