ABSTRACT
We have noted that efficient functioning of dominance and compliance, either in simultaneous or successive combination, requires a certain definite relationship between those two types of primary emotional reactions. Compliance is the preliminary, preparatory response. Its value in the general behaviour pattern is to act as a sort of first assistant to dominance. Compliance response is used to select the most efficient portion of the motor self to be reinforced, and also as a sort of escape valve to permit the discharge of over-intense antagonistic motor stimuli which might otherwise destroy some part of the motor self. To serve these functions, compliance must precede a compensating dominance response, and it must be adapted to the dominance reaction which brings the organism back to its natural reflex equilibrium.
