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Drive theory explains that humans have biological and psychological needs, and behavior is driven by the desire to satisfy those needs. Clark Hull believed that learning is dependent on reducing these drives, and successful actions to satisfy needs are repeated through behavioral conditioning.
Drive theory, also known as drive reduction theory, is a psychological theory of motivation and learning generally attributed to Clark Hull, a psychologist at Yale University from 1929 to 1952. Drive theory states that human beings in experience biological or psychological drives or needs, and that much human behavior occurs as an effort to satisfy those needs and reduce the potency of biological or psychological drives. These drives can include basic physical needs, such as thirst, hunger, or the desire for sex, or they can also include psychological needs, such as the need for companionship. Hull believed that much of the learning process was dependent on reducing thrust. Humans first recognize a need, then act to satisfy the need, then learn, through behavioral conditioning, how that need can be satisfied in the future.
All humans, and many other organisms, have basic physical and psychological needs. Most people recognize human physical needs for food, water, clothing, shelter, and warmth. Psychological needs typically include the need to feel loved, to feel accepted by a community, to enjoy companionship, to engage in creative expression, and to feel safe. Psychological and physical needs can occur simultaneously in the same person, working together to create a singular drive. An example of this could be the urge for physical and sexual contact, integrated with the urge for love, which prompts many people to seek long-term romantic partners.
Hull’s drive theory states that, when an organism experiences a physical or psychological drive, and is aware and attentive to it, that organism will act to reduce the strength of the drive by satisfying the need. For example, when a person is hungry, he or she is experiencing a biological craving for food. Seeking and eating food reduces that drive by easing hunger. Often, drive downsizing only happens on a temporary basis. The need can reappear, and when it does, drive theory states that renewed action will be required to satisfy the need again.
Hull went on to postulate that this pattern of behavior, in which a need stimulates action intended to satisfy the need, is a fundamental component of the learning process. When a person feels a need and takes a successful action to satisfy that need, he is more likely to repeat the same action the next time he feels the same need. Once the same need-satisfying action has been successfully repeated a few times, most organisms learn, through the process known as behavioral conditioning, that that action will always lead to the same need-satisfying consequences. If, by chance, a previously successful need-satisfying action loses its effectiveness, then drive theory states that the organism will look for an alternative action to satisfy the need.
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