The term instinct in common language is used with a different meaning from the scientific one. For example, it is said that you have an instinctive sympathy or antipathy towards a person or that it is instinctive to feel disgust for a certain food. Other times you can say that someone is instinctively generous, or perhaps driven to music.
The word instinct, therefore, is used to express very different situations such as acting impulsively without reflecting to having particular food tastes or natural predispositions. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with this broad and variable use of the word, just keep in mind that when it is talked about in a scientific context it has a much more precise meaning. In this Psychology-Online article, we will talk about the basic instincts of the human being: what they are, types and examples.
What is instinct
What are basic instincts? Instinct is a hereditary behavior. Instincts are guidelines or innate behaviors, fixed, transmitted hereditarily, quite characteristic of each animal species. Instincts vary little from one individual to another of the same species. The goal of instinct is promote survival of the individual or the species.
What are animal instincts
Instinct is present in all animal species. Each individual is born with a set of behaviors that depend on your hereditary genetic set and that is carried out automatically: The individual, for example, carries out schematic actions such as attack or flight without power or having to choose what to do in the face of specific circumstances.
Instinctive behavior aims to promote the survival of the individual or the species. Therefore, the behaviors predetermined by instincts are diametrically opposed to those derived from learning. In this article, we tell you more about it.
According to the classical biological approach, the instincts are essentially the individual’s survival instincts, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, and conservation of the species (sexual mating, protection of the little ones). Each species has its own characteristic instincts. For example, the incubation of bird eggs or the search for water for newborn turtles.
Psychology of animal behavior
The psychology of animal behavior, called ethology, detects many other instincts individuals. For example, the defense of the territory of wolves, according to which the oldest male in the group marks an area of the ground with his own scent with secretions from particular glands or with splashes of urine. This indicates to the other specific animals that that space is theirs and should not be invaded or violated. If someone dares to transgress, the fight breaks out.
Another possible instinct is to “rearrange”, to try to arrange the environment, as do mice or squirrels who store supplies of seeds or peanuts in burrows, or birds who build the nest with refined skill and then maintain it. clean of waste and excrement.
What are human instincts
Human beings, of course, are part of the animal world, so the question arises as to whether they also have instincts and, if so, what they are. It must be taken into account that on these issues there are contradictory opinions among scholars of various disciplines such as biology, ethology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, etc.
However, there is a basic agreement to recognize that the higher one goes up the animal evolutionary scale, the less one is dominated by instincts. Thus the Humansin good and bad, have the uncomfortable privilege of being much less conditioned by instincts. His actions do not derive from direct instinctual impulse, but are mediated by education, character, learning, society and culture. In short, the free choice of each one.
Below we present different hypotheses about human instincts:
- There is a continuity between human beings and non-human animals.
- The condition of intelligent beings who can choose freely, puts the human beings above instincts. The differences are more significant than the similarities.
- Between these two extreme positions, several intermediate hypotheses lie. Some scholars, for example, recognize only the basic, sexual and aggressive instincts.
- Another hypothesis also speaks of other instincts, such as the maternal instinct. That is, there would be an innate disposition of all women to take care of children, protect them and feed them.
In this article, you will see what the . It is clear that the more instincts are emphasized as innate and predetermined forces, the less our personal psychological qualities are valued, such as, remaining in the field of the so-called maternal instinct, the love of a mother for her child.
Types of basic instincts
One of the first systematic theories of instincts was expounded by William Mcdougall in his “Hormic Psychology.” In it he manages to put the problem in a strictly psychological key, without completely reducing instinct to a biological or physiological process.
So, what are the basic instincts of the human being? An important aspect of this theory is the correspondence between emotional states and instincts. Each instinct described in animal behavior corresponds to an emotion tested by human beings. For Mcdougall, the types of basic instincts and the corresponding primary emotions were the following:
- He escape instinct and the emotion of .
- He instinct of repulsion and the emotion of disgust.
- He instinct of curiosity and the thrill of wonder.
- He combat instinct and the emotion of the.
- He submission instinct and the emotion of submission.
- He instinct of self-affirmation and the emotion of well-being.
- He parental instinct and the emotion of tenderness.
Components of basic instincts
According to the theories of hormic psychology, it considers instinct as the integration of the forces that compose it:
- Cognitive component: the impulse to pay attention to a certain stimulus.
- emotional component: the impulse to experience a specific emotional experience regarding this stimulus.
- Conative or action component: the impulse to produce an action in relation to it.
Instincts for psychoanalysis
In , instinct is distinguished from impulse in that it seeks the satisfaction of one’s own needs like hunger, sleep or sex. It is based on schemes learned by the continuous interaction between individual and environment and without particular objectives. One of the examples of basic instincts is the homicidal one. This pushes to kill suddenly and unexpectedly, with a precise victim-object in mind, as in crimes of passion.
According to Freud, the fundamental instincts in man, on which all other human impulses are based, are:
- life instinct (Eros): the innate need to create, maintain life and obtain joy and pleasure, linked to the meaning of libido, man’s main source of creative and positive energy.
- death instinct (Thanatos), the innate need to destroy, kill and relive experiences of sadness and pain, in addition to the need to die, linked to the meaning of destroy, a source of destructive and negative energy.
The definition of instinct in these cases is quite controversial, and therefore the same definitions can often be found under the names “life drive” and “death drive.”
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Argentieri, S. (2005). Encyclopedia of ragazzi. Istinto. Rome: Treccani.
- Maldonato M. (et al.) (2008). Dizionario di Scienze Psicologiche. Naples: Edizioni Giuridiche Simone.