Some psychologists have talked about pleasure seeking or hedonism as a personality trait. I believe, however, that the construct of 'pleasure seeking' is invalid. Nobody seeks sensual pleasure. Here's why.

The phenomenon of satiation disproves the construct of hedonism (sensuality). Suppose, for example, that a theorist defined sensuality to include pleasure from eating and sex. Such a construct implies that the need for eating can be satiated by sexual activity and vice versa. Since this is obviously invalid, the construct of sensuality is invalid.

When a person seeks sensual pleasures, he or she is motivated by separate and totally unrelated needs for each pleasure (sex, eating, physical activity, and so on). The joint occurrences of the motives is co-incidental and not a manifestation of a common motive or need.

A general issue with personality theory is that many constructs -- like pleasure seeking -- are invalid because they refer to common consequences of unrelated antecedents. Theorists made the mistake known as "error of consequence" -- they assume that if X is a consequence of Y, X was the goal. Since pleasure is the consequence of both eating and sex, psychologists have invented the construct of "pleasure seeking." The goal of eating, though, is satiation of hunger, not pleasure; the goal of sex is orgasm, not pleasure.