ABSTRACT
According to affect theory, there are a variety of drives that motivate human behavior. 1 However, the power of the drives to motivate is relatively weak, so the drives recruit the much more powerful affects. Many of the drives are necessary to the ongoing survival of the individual organism, such as drives to obtain food, water, shelter, and a constant flow of oxygen. Some of the drives are not necessary to immediate survival, but are related to longer-term goals such as reproduction. And at least two drives are oriented specifically toward aspects of human relations. The drive to attach has obvious value to an organism that is helpless and dependent for such an extended period in early life (much longer than any other species). There also appears to be a drive to develop a sense of an independent self that is competent to survive unaided. In a sense, these two are related, but sometimes they also seem to conflict.
