Pleasure, Reward, Preference

Fülszöveg

PLEASURE, REWARD, PREFERENCE
Their Nature, Determinants, and
Role in Behavior
The crucial role of pleasure in behavior has been
stressed by a long hedonistic tradition that can
be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent
years many scientists have become deeply inter-
ested in hedonic processes, but they have used
widely differing theoretical approaches, vocab-
ularies, and research techniques. For example,
behavior theorists use reward and reinforcement
as their central concepts, social psychologists
and scaling theorists have devised various ways
of measuring preference, decision theorists and
economists speak of utility, and neurophysiolo-
gists investigate the "pleasure" centers of the
brain.
Here is a book—based on a symposium held
under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs
Division of NATO in June 1972, at Kors0r,
Denmark—which attempts to integrate these
approaches by presenting recent theoretical
work and research results from investigations... Tovább

Fülszöveg

PLEASURE, REWARD, PREFERENCE
Their Nature, Determinants, and
Role in Behavior
The crucial role of pleasure in behavior has been
stressed by a long hedonistic tradition that can
be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent
years many scientists have become deeply inter-
ested in hedonic processes, but they have used
widely differing theoretical approaches, vocab-
ularies, and research techniques. For example,
behavior theorists use reward and reinforcement
as their central concepts, social psychologists
and scaling theorists have devised various ways
of measuring preference, decision theorists and
economists speak of utility, and neurophysiolo-
gists investigate the "pleasure" centers of the
brain.
Here is a book—based on a symposium held
under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs
Division of NATO in June 1972, at Kors0r,
Denmark—which attempts to integrate these
approaches by presenting recent theoretical
work and research results from investigations
ranging from neurophysiological processes in
animals to uniquely human, cognitive pheno-
mena. The book opens with a historical and
theoretical review of the principal problems
and lines of inquiry and closes with a meta-
scientific, comparative review of the positions
represented. In between, it discusses such topics
as:
• Brain mechanisms and reinforcement;
• Stimulus complexity and attraction;
• Personality;
• Motivation and learning.
This signally important and timely book will
prove invaluable to pure and applied psycholo-
gists, neurophysiologists, sociologists, anthro-
pologists, economists, philosophers, and others. Vissza