AIM Framework glossary
Intensity
Canonical definition
Intensity is the overall strength of motivational activation — how urgently the Decision Hub signals act now — independently of which sources are contributing to that activation. A low-intensity desire and a high-intensity compulsion can have identical Compositions while differing dramatically in felt urgency and behavioural compulsion.
Explanation
Intensity and Composition are the two independent readings that can be taken of any wanting, and confusing them is one of the framework's standard errors. Intensity tells you how loud the signal is. Composition tells you what is in it. A quiet want can be almost entirely Mimetic and a deafening one almost entirely Appetitive, and neither the volume nor the urgency, read at any single moment, discloses the source. That the two are independent follows directly from Source Opacity: the Decision Hub outputs a single magnitude, and a magnitude cannot encode its own provenance. A weak I-led desire to read a book and an intense I-led compulsion to finish a creative project share one Composition and differ in Intensity: the first is easily postponed, the second feels irresistible. Mild hunger and starvation are both Appetitive and differ in the same way. Intensity bears on intervention because high-intensity states, whatever their Composition, impair deliberative capacity and make I-Override more difficult; reducing Intensity through stress management, sleep, environmental calm or satiation creates the cognitive space that compositional analysis requires. Intensity is a magnitude separate from the AIM Weights, which are proportions and always sum to one.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.
Derivation
Related terms
- Decision Hub
- Composition
- AIM Weights (wA
- wI
- wM)
- Source Opacity
- Common-Currency Integration (Axiom 2)
- Salience