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Bernard T. Engel, PhD; Rudolf H Moos, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1967;16(5):574-581.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to consider the similarities among a number of concepts which arose relatively independently in diverse fields of behavioral research. There are two major elements which unite these concepts: first, they derive from the interrelated problem of characterizing both stimuli and individuals; and second, the experimental designs by which the concepts are tested are similar. In particular, we will develop the thesis that the psychophysiological principle of response specificity is a unifying principle because it collects so many seemingly unrelated concepts. Both the various forms of specificity and some of the experimental variables necessary to demonstrate their existence will be described, and then an attempt will be made to show that many different concepts in psychology and psychiatry can be related to one another through the principle of specificity.

The most general division of the principle . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
San Francisco

From the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco Medical Center (Dr. Engel), and the Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif (Dr. Moos).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Nov 18, 1966.

Reprint requests to 1323 Moffitt Hospital, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco 94122 (Dr. Engel).

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