The term steady state can be applied in very many different contexts. In biological psychology there are two common usages: (i) pharmacological: the steady state plasma level of a DRUG is the concentration achieved between the phase of absorption and distribution around the body, and the phase of metabolism and excretion. Typically, therapeutic drugs are taken at intervals and so the concentration in PLASMA fluctuates over time: the achievement of a steady state is desirable but difficult.
Longer-term forms of administration are valuable in helping achieve this; see for example TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY. (ii) In OPERANT psychology, steady state responding refers to a constant level of performance maintained by a definable set of conditions which provide just enough REINFORCEMENT to maintain responding. Typically, small fixed ratio SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT are used to achieve this. There is minimal session-to-session variability and sessions can be extended without change for hundreds of hours. A steady state baseline of responding represents a valuable BASELINE for comparing the effects of further experimental manipulations.
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