Hull's Drive Theory Analysis

Hull’s Drive Theory
Clark Hull can be regarded as the first dominant motivational theorist. He formulated his general theory of motivation and related it with experimental psychology. He drew on ideas from a number of other thinkers including Charles Darwin, Ivan Pavlov, and John. B. Watson and Edward L. Thorndike. He based his theory around the concept of homeostasis, the idea that the body actively works to maintain a certain state of balance or equilibrium. Based on this idea, Hull (1943) suggested that all motivation arises as a result of the biological needs. In his theory, Hull used the term drive to refer to the state of tension or arousal caused by biological or physiological needs. Thirst, hunger and the need for warmth are all examples

Drive is a pooled energy source. This was examined by varying two needs simultaneously and showing that they both activated the same response.
While Hull 's theory was popular during the middle part of the 20th-century, it began to fall out of favor due to a number of reasons. Because of his emphasis on quantifying his variables in such a narrowly defined way, his theory lacks generalizability. However, his emphasis on rigorous experimental techniques and scientific methods did have an important influence in the field of psychology.
One of the biggest problems with Hull 's drive reduction theory is that it does not account for how secondary reinforcements reduce drives. Unlike primary drives such as hunger and thirst, secondary reinforcements do nothing to directly reduce physiological and biological needs. While Hull 's theory has largely fallen out of favor in psychology, it is still worthwhile to understand the effect it had on other psychologists of the time and how it helped contribute to later research in psychology.
Lewin’s Field Theory
Kurt Lewin’s field theory flourished between 1935 and 1960. His emphasis on coalescing psychology with the philosophy of science resulted in an extensive number of pragmatic studies performed in the realms of child development, motivation and social behavior, particularly having to do with experiments and research on children’s

Lewin further says, behavior exists in a totality of interacting facts which involve a forceful field. The environments or situations in any part of the field are influenced by and depend on every other part of the field. This psychological field is otherwise known as the life space which includes the individual and his psychological or behavioral environment also known as facts that affect the behavior or thoughts of the individual at a certain point in time.
Life space is most frequently determined by the physical and social environment that the individual finds himself in. It may include places where he goes, events that occur, feelings about places and people encountered what he sees on TV or reads in books, his imagined thoughts and goals. Encompassed by a child’s life space are forces which the child may be aware of or not, in addition to forces which are accepted by the child as true though they may not be so.
Some say that Lewin’s conceptions were more of an approach rather than a theory, pointing out that Lewin failed to present an organized description and elaboration of his views on child development. In spite of criticisms, however, Lewin merits recognition for stimulating a vast amount of innovative research on children. He was quite effective at motivating other researchers to explore novel avenues of research. He unlocked new perspectives on development by borrowing ideas from physics and