Secondary Motivational Systems

Abstract

The concept of secondary motivational systems has come to permeate current accounts of both human and animal behavior. On a stimulus-response view, these interpretations relate to the acquired capabilities of particular conditions or events to energize, punish, or reinforce various classes of behavior. The present review attempted to evaluate the applicability of this con cept to the explication of behavioral phenomena, mainly in animals in simple situations, customarily subsumed under the headings of conditioned needs, fear, incentive motivation, frustration, conflict, and sensory reinforcement.