Sensitivity theory of motivation and psychopathology: an exploratory study.

Sensitivity theory, a comprehensive theory of human motivation, states that people with mental retardation are motivated by the same basic motives as are individuals without mental retardation, but to different extents. Reiss and Havercamp, the conceptualizers of this theory, suggested that unusually high or low set points to certain motives may lead to behavioral or psychiatric problems. Here we examined the relationship between psychopathology and motivation in 111 participants with a dual diagnosis and 111 participants with mental retardation only. The former scored higher on 8 of the 15 motives and had more motives above one standard deviation from the mean of the normative sample. Results lend support to the original hypothesis of Reiss and Havercamp.