What is the Difference Between Need and Drive?

The difference between need and drive lies in their definitions and the motivational forces they represent.

• Need: A need is a requirement that must be fulfilled, essential for the survival or well-being of an individual. Needs can be physiological, social, or emotional, and they generate a response tendency. In other words, when a need is not met, it creates a state of tension or deprivation, which motivates the individual to take action to satisfy the need.
• Drive: A drive is a state of psychological or physical arousal that arises from an unmet need. It is the internal motivation or desire to achieve something. Drives can be biological, such as hunger, thirst, or sex, or they can be secondary drives, like curiosity, which pushes humans to search, explore, and learn new things. The satisfaction of a drive is called drive reduction.

In summary, needs are essential requirements that create a state of tension when not met, while drives are the internal motivations or desires that arise from unmet needs, pushing individuals to take action and satisfy those needs.

Comparative Table: Need vs Drive

Here is a table comparing the difference between Need and Drive:

Needs are requirements that have to be fulfilled, and they can be biological (e.g., hunger, thirst), emotional (e.g., love, belonging), or social (e.g., safety). Drives, on the other hand, are states of mind that arise from needs and motivate an organism to act in ways that will help in fulfilling the need. For example, when we are hungry, we experience a drive to eat food to satisfy our hunger need.