ABSTRACT
Neutral stimuli that occur regularly in combination with stimuli that produce affect can, by a learning process, come to produce an anticipation of affect that is probably a miniature feeling of affect itself. This fractional anticipatory affect may then come to elicit appropriate behavior that will enhance the affect if positive or reduce it if negative. After learning has occurred, the anticipatory affect may be used as an explanation of behavior–it may be seen as the essence of the motive behind the behavior. The paradigm involved is the one that we started with at the beginning of Chapter 3 (stimulus→ affect→ behavior), and, despite its para-mechanical aspects, it is quite useful in accounting for behavior elicited by strong drives resulting from physiological deprivation, and ego involvement where fear of loss of esteem is at stake–situations in which the anticipatory affect is negative. It may also apply to situations where the anticipatory affect is positive as suggested by McClelland et al. (1953).
