The document discusses the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, introduced by Woodworth in 1929, as an expansion of Pavlov's classic theory to explain consumer behavior influenced by marketing and environmental stimuli. It details three dimensions of emotional responses—pleasure, arousal, and dominance—and how they mediate behavioral outcomes like approach or avoidance. The S-O-R model is highlighted for its applicability in various fields, including social media and healthcare, to analyze the interplay between external stimuli, emotional states, and resultant behaviors.

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Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Model
Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations Phdassistance, info@phdassistance.co
Keyword:
Organism Response (SOR) Model , Stimulus
Organism Response Theory, environmental situation
influence, frameworks Help, Organism-Response ,
Stimulus-Organism-Response
I. INTRODUCTION
Woodworth, (1929) proposed stimulus-organism-model
(S-O-R) as an expansion of Pavlov (2010)'s classic
theory of the stimulus–response mode. The stimulus-
response model was first procedure to understand the
buyer behavior of consumers. The consciousness of the
Buyer depends upon the marketing and environmental
stimuli while purchase decisions are succefully done
with the help of the Buyer's characteristics and decision
process.
II. THREE DIMENSIONS OF EMOTIONAL
RESPONSES
The three dimensions based on the emotional responses
to the environment elaborated by Mehrabian and
Russel (1974):
a. Measuring pleasure regarding the verbal judgments
based on the emotions such as happiness, joy, or
satisfaction level in some scenarios.
b. Arousal can be measured using verbal judgment,
such as the person's happiness level or situation-based
activeness.
c. Dominance can be predicted using the feelings of the
respondent's indication, which is in the form of
willingness to be dominant and based on environmental
situation influence. Based on the three dimensions,
assume that every individual may affect by emotional
conditions by each environment.
Figure 1: SOR Model

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In the past decades, stimulus–organism–response
(SOR) model has become one of the most commonly
used frameworks that integrate input, process and
outputs in a single model. To a great extent, this model
helps in understanding the causes behind individual’s
behavior and hence it is applied in addressing human
behavior-related issues. Stimulus-organism-response
(S-O-R) model is generally used to examine the
association between stimulus and response and to
examine how the organisms mediate these
relationships. This is carried out through different
pathways that provoke the cognitive and emotional
states of an individual, which then initiate behavioral
responses (Ul Islam & Rahman, 2017). In this model,
stimuli (S) induce two opposing types of responses (R)
in the user: approach or avoidance. Thus, internal
assessments of individuals (O) of several motions in the
world produce these behaviors. The below figure
represents the SOR model
Also, this model is considered to be best suited for
understanding consumer decisions whether to admit and
adopt or not (response) as it establishes cognitive
appraisal of individuals (stimuli)(apprehensions &
facilitating conditions). However, other models such as
(Technology acceptance model) TAM, unified
technology acceptance and use theory (UTAUT) etc.
are constrained and insufficient in elucidating how a
stimulus initiates attitude and intention of the
consumers (Dzandu et al., 2020). Thus, researchers
have adapted the SOR methodology to incorporate
complex aspects like cognitive and affective
components into the process in their own study settings,
due to its widespread applicability (Kim et al., 2020).
III. CONCLUSION
Researchers have widely embraced and used the
stimulus-organism-response model (S-O-R) to analyse
behaviour in the context of social media engagement
(Ul Islam & Rahman, 2017), mobile auctions (Chen &
Yao, 2018), healthcare (Suess & Mody, 2018), online
hotel booking behaviour (Emir et al., 2016). To
conclude, the S-O-R model
signifies the relation among stimuli in the environment,
emotional states of people and the behavior of approach
or avoidance which arises from the collaboration of
stimuli and emotion.
REFERENCES
Chen, C.-C., & Yao, J.-Y. (2018). What drives impulse
buying behaviors in a mobile auction? The perspective
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.02.007
Dzandu, M., Pathak, B., & Gulliver, S. (2020).
Stimulus-Organism-Response model for understanding
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http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/91325/
Emir, A., Halim, H., Hedre, A., Abdullah, D., Azmi, A.,
& Kamal, S. B. M. (2016). Factors influencing online
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Academic Research Journal of Business and
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Kim, M. J., Lee, C.-K., & Jung, T. (2020). Exploring
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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00472875
18818915
Mehrabian, & Russell. (1974). An approach to
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https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1974-22049-000
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https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2017.1385773
Ul Islam, J., & Rahman, Z. (2017). The impact of
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019
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