Instinct is the inherent inclination of a
living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* ...
organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...
towards a particular complex
behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a
fixed action pattern A fixed action pattern is an ethological term describing an instinctive behavioral sequence that is highly stereotyped and species-characteristic. Fixed action patterns are said to be produced by the innate releasing mechanism, a "hard-wired" neura ...
(FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a corresponding clearly defined stimulus.
![BabyLoggerheadTlalcoyunque3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/BabyLoggerheadTlalcoyunque3.jpg)
Any behaviour is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of
learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors.
Sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...
s, newly hatched on a beach, will instinctively move toward the ocean. A
marsupial
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...
climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal
courtship
Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private m ...
behaviour, internal escape functions, and the building of
nest
A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...
s. Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience; for example, a dog can improve its listening skills by practice.
![Instinct dog shake](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Instinct_dog_shake.jpg)
Instincts are inborn complex patterns of behaviour that exist in most members of the species, and should be distinguished from
reflexes, which are simple responses of an organism to a specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light or the spasmodic movement of the lower leg when the knee is tapped. The absence of volitional capacity must not be confused with an inability to modify fixed action patterns. For example, people may be able to modify a stimulated fixed action pattern by consciously recognizing the point of its activation and simply stop doing it, whereas animals without a sufficiently strong volitional capacity may not be able to disengage from their fixed action patterns, once activated.
Instinctual behaviour in humans has been studied, and is a controversial topic.
Early theorists
Jean Henri Fabre
Jean Henri Fabre
Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (21 December 1823 – 11 October 1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, and author known for the lively style of his popular books on the lives of insects.
Biography
Fabre was born on 21 December 1823 in Saint ...
(1823–1915) is said to be the first person to study small animals (that weren't birds) and insects, and he specifically specialized in the instincts of insects.
Fabre considered an instinct to be a linked set of behaviours that an organism undergoes unconsciously in response to external conditions.
Insect and animal behaviour
Fabre concluded a significant difference between humans and animals is that animals cannot reason.
He came to this conclusion after observing how insects and wild birds continued to repeat a certain behaviour in response to a novel situation.
While these instinctive behaviours appeared complex, the insects and animals did not adjust their behaviour despite it not helping them in that novel situation.
The following are some insect and animal behaviours that Fabre observed and labelled "instinctive",
for they do not involve reasoning:
* Maternal instincts
*
Metamorphosis
*
Mimicry
* Molting
* Playing dead
*
Taxis
A taxis (; ) is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism (turning response, often growth towards or away from a stim ...
Fixed patterns
Fabre believed instincts were "fixed patterns", meaning these linked sets of behaviours do not change in response to novel environmental situations.
One specific example that helped him arrive at this conclusion is his study of various wasp species.
All of the wasp species he studied performed a certain pattern of behaviour when catching their prey, which Fabre called a fixed pattern.
Then Fabre intervened in the wasps' process of catching prey, and only one of the species adjusted their behaviour in response to this unfamiliar interception.
Fabre explained this contradiction by arguing that any individuals which stray from the norms of their species are merely an exception,
while also admitting that there could be some room for growth within a species' instincts.
Fabre's belief that instincts are fixed opposes the theory of evolution. He rejected that one species could evolve into another, and also rejected that the consciousness humans possess could be achieved through the evolution of unconscious traits.
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) is known for founding the first psychology laboratory, which occurred in 1879 at the University of Leipzig.
He was able to draw conclusions about instinct from his careful observations of both animal and human behaviour.
Unconscious processes
To better explain Wundt's research, Claudia Wassman analyzed a large collection of sources. This included some of the earlier journals Wundt wrote, which pondered the idea of unconsciousness more than his later and more known research.
Her paper concludes that he believed unconscious processes (which he called "instinctive movements") were the result of sensations and emotions, and these unconscious processes were building blocks towards
consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
.
Facial expressions
An example of what Wundt studied to arrive at his conclusions regarding unconscious processes includes the facial expressions babies made in response to the sensations of sweet, sour, and bitter tastes.
He concluded these facial expressions were the result of the babies trying to avoid unpleasant emotions because there was something unpleasant in their mouths, and that these instincts (which he uses interchangeably with reflexive movements) only became innate because past generations learned it and it benefited their survival.
Natural selection
The process by which Wundt explained the existence of instincts is
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
. More specifically, his research suggests natural selection causes small changes in the nervous system over time.
These changes bring about hereditary drives in organisms, which are then responsible for any unconscious processes.
Another thing to note is that Wundt used the terms ''unconscious processes'', ''reflexive movements'', and ''instinctive movements'' interchangeably, often grouping them together.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud considered that mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of mental
desire
Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of aff ...
s, are called instincts.
William McDougall
In the early 20th century, there was recognized a "union of instinct and emotion".
William McDougall held that many instincts have their respective associated specific
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...
s. As research became more rigorous and terms better defined, instinct as an explanation for human behaviour became less common. In 1932, McDougall argued that the word ''instinct'' is more suitable for describing animal behaviour, while he recommended the word ''
propensity
The propensity theory of probability is a probability interpretation in which the probability is thought of as a physical propensity, disposition, or tendency of a given type of situation to yield an outcome of a certain kind, or to yield a long- ...
'' for goal-directed combinations of the many innate human abilities, which are loosely and variably linked, in a way that shows strong
plasticity.
Abraham Maslow
In the 1950s, the psychologist
Abraham Maslow argued that humans no longer have instincts because we have the ability to override them in certain situations. He felt that what is called instinct is often imprecisely defined, and really amounts to strong "drives". For Maslow, an instinct is something which cannot be overridden, and therefore while the term may have applied to humans in the past, it no longer does.
Konrad Lorenz
An interest in innate behaviours arose again in the 1950s with
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarde ...
and
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the o ...
, who made the distinction between instinct and learned behaviours. Our modern understanding of instinctual behaviour in animals owes much to their work. For instance, there exists a sensitive period for a bird in which it learns the identity of its mother. Konrad Lorenz famously had a goose
imprint
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series
* "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror''
* ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film
...
on his boots. Thereafter the goose would follow whomever wore the boots. This suggests that the identity of the goose's mother was learned, but the goose's behaviour towards what it perceived as its mother was instinctive.
Frank Beach
In a conference in 1960, chaired by
Frank Beach
Frank Ambrose Beach, Jr. (April 13, 1911 – June 15, 1988) was an American ethologist, best known as co-author of the 1951 book ''Patterns of Sexual Behavior.'' He is often regarded as the founder of behavioral endocrinology, as his publication ...
, a pioneer in
comparative psychology, and attended by luminaries in the field, the term ''instinct'' was restricted in its application. During the 1960s and 1970s, textbooks still contained some discussion of instincts in reference to human behaviour. By the year 2000, a survey of the 12 best selling textbooks in introductory psychology revealed only one reference to instincts, and that was in regard to
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
's referral to the "
id" instincts. In this sense, the term ''instinct'' appeared to have become outmoded for introductory textbooks on human psychology.
The book ''Instinct: An Enduring Problem in Psychology'' (1961) selected a range of writings about the topic.
Richard Herrnstein
In a classic paper published in 1972, the psychologist
Richard Herrnstein
Richard Julius Herrnstein (May 20, 1930 – September 13, 1994) was an American psychologist at Harvard University. He was an active researcher in animal learning in the Skinnerian tradition. Herrnstein was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psycholo ...
wrote: "A comparison of McDougall's theory of instinct and Skinner's
reinforcement theory Reinforcement theory is a limited effects media model applicable within the realm of communication. The theory generally states that people seek out and remember information that provides cognitive support for their pre-existing attitudes and belief ...
—representing nature and nurture—shows remarkable, and largely unrecognized, similarities between the contending sides in the
nature–nurture debate
Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the balance between two competing factors which determine fate: genetics (nature) and environment (nurture). The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English h ...
as applied to the analysis of behavior."
F. B. Mandal proposed a set of criteria by which a behaviour might be considered instinctual: (a) be automatic, (b) be irresistible, (c) occur at some point in development, (d) be triggered by some event in the environment, (e) occur in every member of the species, (f) be unmodifiable, and (g) govern behaviour for which the organism needs no training (although the organism may profit from experience and to that degree the behaviour is modifiable).
In ''Information Behavior: An Evolutionary Instinct'' (2010, pp. 35–42), Amanda Spink notes that "currently in the behavioral sciences instinct is generally understood as the innate part of behavior that emerges without any training or education in humans." She claims that the viewpoint that information behaviour has an instinctive basis is grounded in the latest thinking on human behaviour. Furthermore, she notes that "behaviors such as cooperation, sexual behavior, child rearing and aesthetics are
lsoseen as 'evolved psychological mechanisms' with an instinctive basis." Spink adds that
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.
...
similarly asserts that language acquisition is instinctive in humans in his book ''
The Language Instinct
''The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language'' is a 1994 book by Steven Pinker, written for a general audience. Pinker argues that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. He deals sympathetically with Noam Chomsky's claim t ...
'' (1994). In 1908,
William McDougall wrote about the "instinct of curiosity" and its associated "emotion of wonder", though Spink's book does not mention this.
M. S. Blumberg in 2017 examined the use of the word instinct, and found it varied significantly.
In humans
The existence of the simplest instincts in humans is a widely debated topic. Among possible examples of instinct-influenced behaviour in humans are the following.
# Congenital preparedness for developing
fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
of snakes and spiders was found in six-month-old babies.
#
Infant cry is believed to be a manifestation of instinct. The infant cannot otherwise protect itself for survival during its long period of maturation. The
maternal
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...
and
paternal bond
A paternal bond is the human bond between a father and his child.
Father-infant bonding
Infants can become attached to their fathers. Mother-infant bonding has been a common focus in household research; however, more studies in the United Sta ...
manifest particularly in response to the infant cry. Its mechanism has been partly elucidated by observations with functional MRI of the parent's brain.
# The
herd instinct is found in human children and
chimpanzee infants, but is apparently absent in the young
orangutans
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ' ...
.
#
Hormones are linked to specific forms of human behaviour, such as
sexuality. High levels of testosterone are often associated in a person (male or female) with
aggressiveness
Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
,. Decrease in
testosterone
Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristi ...
level after the birth of a child was found among fathers.
#
Hygiene
Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
behaviour in humans was suggested to be partly instinctive, based on
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...
s such as
disgust
Disgust (Middle French: ''desgouster'', from Latin ''gustus'', "taste") is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant. In ''The Expression o ...
.
#
Maternal bond
A maternal bond is the relationship between a mother and her child. While typically associated with pregnancy and childbirth, a maternal bond may also develop in cases where the child is unrelated, such as an adoption.
Both physical and emoti ...
or maternal instinct is when a mother develops a relationship to a child to provide for its well-being. Maternal oxytocin is the hormone and neuropeptide thought to be responsible for predisposing women to showing bonding behavior and bonding.
#
Self-preservation
Self-preservation is a behavior or set of behaviors that ensures the survival of an organism. It is thought to be universal among all living organisms. For sentient organisms, pain and fear are integral parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the ...
in people generally is when we have the instinct to survive.
#
Fight-or-flight
The fight-or-flight or the fight-flight-or-freeze response (also called hyperarousal or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. It was first des ...
response in human beings has been said to be a particular response to the arising harmful event, attack or threat to survival.
#
Cooperation behavior or social instinct has been postulated as an instinct necessary for the future survival of people.
#
Resistance towards change is the difficulty experienced by a person when they are trying to push against the suggestions made to change behavior or accept certain treatments regardless of whether it will improve their condition or not, it allows for instinctive gratification.
Reflexes
Examples of behaviours that do not require thought include many reflexes. The stimulus in a reflex may not require brain activity but instead may travel to the spinal cord as a message that is then transmitted back through the body, tracing a path called the
reflex arc
A reflex arc is a neural pathway that controls a reflex. In vertebrates, most sensory neurons do not pass directly into the brain, but synapse in the spinal cord. This allows for faster reflex actions to occur by activating spinal motor neurons w ...
. Reflexes are similar to
fixed action pattern A fixed action pattern is an ethological term describing an instinctive behavioral sequence that is highly stereotyped and species-characteristic. Fixed action patterns are said to be produced by the innate releasing mechanism, a "hard-wired" neura ...
s in that most reflexes meet the criteria of a fixed action pattern. However, a fixed action pattern can be processed in the brain as well; a male
stickleback's instinctive aggression towards anything red during his mating season is such an example. Examples of instinctive behaviours in humans include many of the
primitive reflexes
Primitive reflexes are reflex actions originating in the central nervous system that are exhibited by normal infants, but not neurologically intact adults, in response to particular stimuli. These reflexes are suppressed by the development of the ...
, such as rooting and suckling, behaviours which are present in
mammals. In rats, it has been observed that innate responses are related to specific chemicals, and these chemicals are detected by two organs located in the nose: the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and the main olfactory epithelium (MOE).
Maturational
Some instinctive behaviours depend on maturational processes to appear. For instance, we commonly refer to birds "learning" to fly. However, young birds have been experimentally reared in devices that prevent them from moving their wings until they reached the age at which their cohorts were flying. These birds flew immediately and normally when released, showing that their improvement resulted from neuromuscular maturation and not true learning.
In evolution
Imprinting provides one example of instinct.
This complex response may involve visual, auditory, and olfactory cues in the environment surrounding an organism. In some cases, imprinting attaches an offspring to its parent, which is a reproductive benefit to offspring survival. If an offspring has attachment to a parent, it is more likely to stay nearby under parental protection. Attached offspring are also more likely to learn from a parental figure when interacting closely. (Reproductive benefits are a driving force behind
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
.)
Environment is an important factor in the evolution of innate behaviour. A hypothesis of Michael McCollough, a
positive psychologist, explains that environment plays a key role in human behaviours such as forgiveness and revenge. This hypothesis theorizes that various social environments cause either forgiveness or revenge to prevail. McCollough relates his theory to
game theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...
. In a tit-for-tat strategy, cooperation and retaliation are comparable to forgiveness and revenge. The choice between the two can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on what the partner-organism chooses. Though this psychological example of game theory does not have such directly measurable results, it provides an interesting theory of unique thought. From a more biological standpoint, the brain's
limbic system operates as the main control-area for response to certain stimuli, including a variety of instinctual behaviour. The limbic system processes external stimuli related to emotions, social activity, and motivation, which propagates a behavioural response. Some behaviours include maternal care, aggression, defense, and social hierarchy. These behaviours are influenced by sensory input — sight, sound, touch, and smell.
Within the circuitry of the limbic system, there are various places where evolution could have taken place, or could take place in the future. For example, many rodents have receptors in the
vomeronasal organ
The vomeronasal organ (VNO), or Jacobson's organ, is the paired auxiliary olfactory (smell) sense organ located in the soft tissue of the nasal septum, in the nasal cavity just above the roof of the mouth (the hard palate) in various tetrapods. T ...
that respond explicitly to predator stimuli that specifically relate to that individual species of rodent. The reception of a predatory stimulus usually creates a response of defense or fear.
Mating in rats follows a similar mechanism. The vomeronasal organ and the main olfactory epithelium, together called the
olfactory system
The olfactory system, or sense of smell, is the sensory system used for smelling ( olfaction). Olfaction is one of the special senses, that have directly associated specific organs. Most mammals and reptiles have a main olfactory system and an ...
, detect pheromones from the opposite sex. These signals then travel to the medial amygdala, which disperses the signal to a variety of brain parts. The pathways involved with innate circuitry are extremely specialized and specific.
Various organs and sensory receptors play parts in this complex process.
Instinct is a phenomenon that can be investigated from a multitude of angles: genetics, limbic system, nervous pathways, and environment.
[Liang T, Brinkman BAW (2022) Evolution of innate behavioral strategies through competitive population dynamics. PLoS Comput Biol 18(3): e1009934. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009934] Researchers can study levels of instincts, from molecular to groups of individuals. Extremely specialized systems have evolved, resulting in individuals which exhibit behaviours without learning them.
See also
*
Drive theory
In psychology, a drive theory, theory of drives or drive doctrine is a theory that attempts to analyze, classify or define the psychological drives. A drive is an instinctual need that has the power of driving the behavior of an individual; an " ...
*
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objecti ...
*
Genetic memory
*
Heuristic
A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate ...
*
Human ethology
Human ethology is the study of human behavior.
Ethology as a discipline is generally thought of as a sub-category of biology, though psychological theories have been developed based on ethological ideas (e.g. sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, ...
*
Innatism
*
Prey drive
Prey drive is the instinctive inclination of a carnivore to find, pursue and capture prey. The term is chiefly used to describe and analyse habits in dog training.
Aspects
In all predators the prey drive follows an inevitable sequence: Search (or ...
(hunting instinct)
*
Psychological nativism
In the field of psychology, nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are "native" or hard-wired into the brain at birth. This is in contrast to the "blank slate" or tabula rasa view, which states that the brain has inborn capabilities ...
*
Rationality
Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abil ...
*
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within ...
*
Unconscious mind
The unconscious mind (or the unconscious) consists of the processes in the mind which occur automatically and are not available to introspection and include thought processes, memories, interests, and motivations.
Even though these processes exi ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Animal cognition
Articles containing video clips
Ethology
Neuroethology concepts
Unconscious