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In this paper I have made use of a rather behaviouristic interpretation of psychological mechanisms which I am elaborating elsewhere,2 but which must be briefly recapitulated here.3
The organism, as I understand it, is so constructed that it must react to the primary stimuli of injuries and needs until they are removed. It also reacts to the secondary stimuli of threats as if they were primary and so avoids real injuries and needs; and its removal and avoidance reactions often involve as preliminary reactions the seeking of means.
The terms used in this paragraph more or less explain themselves; but, since they will be employed throughout the subsequent discussion, it is perhaps desirable to illustrate them by examples. Two primary types of stimuli were distinguished and called injuries and needs. A cut or a burn is an injury; hunger