MOTHER NATURES BAG OF TRICKS IS SMALL

There is greater unity in psychology than our internal squabbles might suggest because Mother Nature uses the same tricks in many contexts. There are fundamental principles that apply widely in psychology and have parallels in biology and physics. Behavior is a function of potentials that become manifest when the strenght of instigation to action exceeds a threshold. Thresholds result from exciting and inhibiting tendencies that are instigated along with a response of interest. Adaptive behavior is a blend of just two possibilities available to organisms, changing themselves to accommodate an unyielding environment or changing the world to meet their needs. © 1990, Institution of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.