SENSITIVITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION - IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Sensitivity theory holds that people differ in both the types of reinf orcement they desire and in the amounts of reinforcement they need to satiate. People who crave too much love, too much attention, too much acceptance, too much companionship, or too much of some other fundamen tal reinforcer are at risk for aberrant behavior because normative beh avior does not produce the desired amounts of reinforcement. People wh o are intolerant of even everyday amounts of anxiety or frustration al so are at risk for aberrant behavior. Individual differences in desire d amounts of particular reinforcers may predict person-environment int eractions, risk factors for psychopathology, and the occurrence of gen eralized and durable therapy effects versus the occurrence of relapses . Parallel predictions are made for individual differences in toleranc e of aversive stimuli. Implications are discussed for applied behavior analysis, the development of psychopathology, and treatment strategie s. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd