Clark Leonard Hull

Clark Hull was a renowned American psychologist that lived during the 20th century and studied many subjects while receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. His most important contributions were drive theory and his extensive study on how motivation and learning influence how we behave. His field of study is very interesting to me because I too have often wondered what causes us to do the things we do and what factors go into our decisions. Hull found that when we are deprived of things, it creates desires and a drive that fuels us to pursue a goal that helps us survive. This seems very logical to me. My main criticism would be neglecting the spiritual aspect of our motivation and how our beliefs move us to things that are even counter to our nature. I think often times our natural impulses and the things that push us toward being desperate, Christ calls us to do things very differently than the world around us. Certainly we are called to survive and to take the steps necessary to do that but we are also called from Scripture to fight contrary to what seems natural. While most of his most notable is noted as obsolete now, he laid the ground work for many things, such as behaviorism and the practice of hypnosis.