The slave of the passions: Experiencing problems and selecting solutions.

This article argues that problem solving is motivated by feelings. The proposition is made that a person will experience a problem and engage in problem solving only if the person is in a state that feels aversive or if a mentally represented state becomes a goal by eliciting feelings more pleasurable than those that currently dominate. When people solve problems, the criteria they use in evaluating alternative solutions cannot in themselves motivate the choosing at an alternative. On evaluation, each alternative elicits a feeling that can be placed somewhere on a hedonic continuum. Whether rational or irrational, and even if the problem solver regards another alternative as correct, the alternative that produces the best feeling will always be selected as the solution to the problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Looking for Skinner and finding Freud.

Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner are often seen as psychology's polar opposites. It seems this view is fallacious. Indeed, Freud and Skinner had many things in common, including basic assumptions shaped by positivism and determinism. More important, Skinner took a clear interest in psychoanalysis and wanted to be analyzed but was turned down. His views were influenced by Freud in many areas, such as dream symbolism, metaphor use, and defense mechanisms. Skinner drew direct parallels to Freud in his analyses of conscious versus unconscious control of behavior and of selection by consequences. He agreed with Freud regarding aspects of methodology and analyses of civilization. In his writings on human behavior, Skinner cited Freud more than any other author, and there is much clear evidence of Freud's impact on Skinner's thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)