Pleasure is generally defined as a feeling of contentment, happiness or EUPHORIA. Pleasure is a term that is widely used by both the general public and the scientific community. However, the utility of this term for scientific investigation remains uncertain.
It is sometimes said that organisms seek to obtain pleasure and avoid PAIN. Yet, it also has been suggested that pleasure is simply an internal stimulus generated when we obtain a goal or restore an equilibrium; thus, it is not clear if the organism is striving for pleasure per se, or if pleasure is merely one of several internal signals generated when a particular goal is reached. Although pleasure and REINFORCEMENT are sometimes used interchangeably, this is an egregious error. Pleasure is an internal subjective state (that is, a feeling or EMOTION) while reinforcement is defined in terms of effects of stimuli upon behavior, and the relation between the feeling and the behavioral effect is unclear. In addition, although it is common in human research to study subjective reports of pleasure, it is very difficult in animals to determine whether ‘pleasure’ is being experienced.
JOHN D.SALAMONE
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