One of the key factors for “the modern era in the study of animal learning was the suggestion that animal research can provide information that may advance the understanding of human behavior” ( Domjan, 1998). This notion was endorsed by a pair of American

According to Dollard and Miller, two drives operate within humans and can be found in and tested on many animal models. These drives are primary drives, or habits, and secondary drives. At birth and while young, a human, and non-human alike, may be stimulated into action mainly by primary drives, such as hunger. As is true of all drives, the stronger the deprivation of a drive, the stronger the drive becomes. Moreover, if a stimulus always occurs when a primary drive is operating, then that stimulus may also come to acquire drive-like properties, or in short, like a drive, cause behavior. These are associations with a primary drive. In staying with the hunger model, an example of a learned drive would be fear of going hungry or starving to death as a result of feeling hungry. The primary drive, such as hunger, is a drive that is associated with a psychological process that is necessary for the organism’s survival, the need to eat. All non-primary drives are learned or acquired on the basis of a primary drive and are the psychological correlate of a need or stimulus that impels or motivates an organism into action. Plainly stated, drives are Dollard and Miller’s primary motivation for behavior. They also view secondary drives as a crucial component in human motivation as they believe that most human behaviors reflect the operation of these acquired drives, such as anxiety, shame, and the desire to please. Once a primary drive is stimulated it can only be satiated; it can never be extinguished. Yet, because secondary drives are learned, Dollard and Miller believe that these drives could be extinguished. So examples of acquired drives, such as anxiety, shame, and the desire to please and other secondary drives like anger, guilt, and the need for power or money can all be extinguished. Dollard and Miller also believed that most of one’s primary drive rewards are replaced by secondary rewards, like money, which become the core reinforcers of most adult behaviors. However, since these are secondary drives, they can be overcome, or extinguished (Unknown, 2001).

psychologists by the names of Dr. John Dollard and Dr. Neal Miller. In the early 1940’s these two men took animal models of human behavior and began to develop a theory of learning in an attempt to cast psychoanalytic theory in a form that could be subjected to scientific examination and study in the laboratory. By translating Freud’s theory into concepts and language more readily suited for the lab, Dollard and Miller developed a theory of personality from animal and human research that stressed the importance of learning and found basis in a small number of discernible, simple processes and elements. And thus, Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory was created.

Overall, Dollard and Miller’s theory emphasizes learning and praises the use of animal research as a model for drawing inferences about human behavior. They believe that one’s actual personality is based on one’s most recent learning experiences, and thus it can and does change from day to day and month to month. They state that one’s personality is composed of habits, the learned associations between drives, appropriate cues, and responses. A person differs from another because their prior experiences differ and that person’s personality can be expected to change with new and future experiences (Unknown, 2001).

Nevertheless, once a drive is aroused, cues are what directs the organism. Cues encourage one to respond and are the one thing that determines when and where one will respond and even which responses will be made. A good example is when one is called to the table for dinner. Whatever is used, whether a smell, a bell, or a shout from one’s mother, it acts as one’s cue. It guides one to the supper table where the appropriate eating res

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