What term best describes the central idea of drive theory?

What term best describes the central idea of drive theory?

• A. Drive theory
• B. Hull
• C. Inverted U theorist
• D. Linear/dominant response/well learned skill

Answer: (A)

Drive theory centers on arousal as the driver of performance. The central idea is that internal arousal, or drive, motivates behavior and that how well someone performs depends on the strength of this drive and how strong their learned habit is. When the task is simple or well practiced, increasing drive tends to boost the likelihood of emitting the dominant, well-learned response, so performance rises with arousal. Hull formalized this with a simple idea: performance is the product of drive and habit strength. So the best term to describe this central idea is drive theory itself—the theory is named for the very concept it describes. The other options point to related ideas or people rather than the core concept: Hull is the psychologist who proposed the theory, the inverted U thinker relates to a different view where too much arousal can hinder performance, and the last option describes how drive interacts with a dominant response in well-learned tasks but isn’t the term for the concept itself.

Drive theory centers on arousal as the driver of performance. The central idea is that internal arousal, or drive, motivates behavior and that how well someone performs depends on the strength of this drive and how strong their learned habit is. When the task is simple or well practiced, increasing drive tends to boost the likelihood of emitting the dominant, well-learned response, so performance rises with arousal. Hull formalized this with a simple idea: performance is the product of drive and habit strength.

So the best term to describe this central idea is drive theory itself—the theory is named for the very concept it describes. The other options point to related ideas or people rather than the core concept: Hull is the psychologist who proposed the theory, the inverted U thinker relates to a different view where too much arousal can hinder performance, and the last option describes how drive interacts with a dominant response in well-learned tasks but isn’t the term for the concept itself.