ABSTRACT
Levine, Tursky and Nichols, using electrical stimulation, studied pain tolerance in relation to personality. Much work has been done in an attempt to test the hypothesis, to extend it to other varieties of perceptual material, and to relate it to personality variables. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who was one of the first to use these terms in the modern sense, assumed that they had a physiological reference point, but his physiological theories have not been widely accepted. It will be simplest to regard his speculations in this respect in the same light as those of other psychologists. Consider first the everyday use of the term “excitation” and its adjective “excitable.” Experimental work on the need for achievement has been well summarised by Atkinson; most of the measurement of individual differences in this field has been carried out by the use of the Thematic Apperception Test.
