Understanding Tendencies: Affectivity vs. Activity in Psychology
Understanding Tendencies: Affectivity vs. Activity
Introduction: Traditional psychology often limited its scope to states of consciousness. However, contemporary psychology demonstrates that these states are explained by underlying forces. Tendencies are internal forces oriented towards goals. A tendency is spontaneous and unconscious, forming the basis of all human activity, such as the tendency to eat, which manifests as hunger. A tendency can be symbolized by the pressure of a compressed spring, which seeks to return to its original shape. It is an active power directed in a specific way. The distinction between tendency, need, desire, and instinct is not always clear. Need and desire indicate a conscious tendency towards a purpose, like the desire for a burger, while instinct allows an animal to fulfill its tendency with innate knowledge. What is the nature of tendency? Is problematic tendency a consequence of affectivity or activity?
Sensualist Perspective (Affectivity)
For Condillac, the founder of sensualist theory, tendency is a consequence, not a cause. There are no innate tendencies; “sensibility (sensuous experience) is the only principle which determines all the operations of the soul.” To feel the need for something, we must have some knowledge. Pleasure creates desire. In his Treatise on Sensations, he compares the mind to a statue devoid of knowledge, need, and predisposition, except for sensation, which explains our knowledge, tendencies, and desires. Once consciousness is involved, affectivity becomes a source of activity. We desire what has pleased us and avoid what has displeased us. The pleasant feeling after smoking a cigarette for the first time creates a desire to repeat the experience. Similarly, smelling a rose creates pleasure, and the memory of the perfume creates a desire to smell it again. Desire is explained by a sensation we want to experience again. Activity follows affectivity; one cannot desire what one does not know. Pleasure precedes tendency and desire. According to Freud, pleasure, specifically the desire for pleasure, governs human behavior. Its satisfaction depends on the proper functioning of organs and overall health. For Aristotle, sensations are the origin of pleasure, and the pleasure from possessing an object is the origin of desire. Desire arises from the object; the desired object motivates the search. It is about obtaining something pleasurable; we are driven by the search and desire for pleasure. Thus, according to Aristotle, desire, a conscious tendency towards an object, arises from the pleasure experienced when possessing a desired thing.
Discussion on Sensualism
However, Condillac overlooks that to desire to smell a rose, one must possess a pre-existing tendency for pleasant odors. It is not the memory of pleasure that creates the tendency. Pleasure itself is explained by predisposition, the previous tendency. If we do not all enjoy the same pleasures, it is because we do not have the same desires (sports are pleasant for some, unpleasant for others). Tendency precedes the sensation or experience of pleasure. At most, the experience of pleasure transforms the tendency into a desire, a conscious tendency towards its object. According to Spinoza, “between tendency and desire there is no difference except that desire is the tendency with self-consciousness.” The memory of past meals and experiences alters dietary tendency but does not create it.