The term instinct comes from the Latin term “instinctus”, which derives from instinguer and means to incite. This term is used in ordinary language to indicate an action or behavior performed by an animal or a person automatically, without being aware of it, by an internal force.
According to common sense psychology, animal behavior is essentially based on instincts, which allow the survival of each animal and its species through the satisfaction of primary needs such as hunger, thirst, sleep and sex. In this Psychology-Online article, we will see together what is the survival instinct in psychology.
What the animal survival instinct
If we talk about animal survival, they say that in nature the fittest survives. The food pyramid wants some animals to feed on others and so on, until you reach the top of the pyramid. The strongest is the only one who survives. The top priority of any animal is, in fact, to get the food necessary to survive, as well as not to let itself be eaten by predators that are on a higher step of the food pyramid.
The survival instinct is like a “click” that is triggered in the most adverse situations. Awaken in the animal all its ingenuity in order to save its life. A series of mechanisms are activated that make the animal move constantly, as if it were automatically programmed. That’s what’s called survival instinct. Each animal and Each species has its own instinctive behaviors. For example, incubating, adopting “orphans”, hiding, eating with “one eye behind the head”, sleeping in ambush, entanglement, making sounds, etc.
What is the human survival instinct?
What is the human survival instinct? When talking about people, things get slightly complicated. For human beings, instincts would be “only” the basis of a series of more complex conditioning. Instinct becomes basis of behaviorwhich is very complex due to many other factors.
However, the human species also has an animal instinct, on the other hand the origin is common. The instinctive feeling is that of survival, hunger, thirst and sexual. Nature has programmed things by inserting these controls into the unconscious of all species that, without a doubt, guarantee the survival of the species itself.
Survival instinct theories in psychology
In psychology, the term instinct refers to a innate drive to a certain behavior triggered by certain environmental stimuli. This concept has been the subject of study especially from evolutionary perspectives. According to them, instincts are selected and set in the range of behaviors typical of a species based on the usefulness of the instinct for the survival of the species itself. In short, instincts constitute the main motivations of human behavior.
- If we talked to a Freudian, he would tell us that human behavior is regulated by instinctive impulses: an impulse is a genetically determined psychic constituent that produces a state of excitement, tension, that drives the individual to activity. According to , men are influenced in their actions by two basic instincts or impulses: survival or sexual procreation (Eros) and death or destructiveness (Thanatos).
- In 1954, the American psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow developed the human. He created the well-known that divides into five different levels, from the most basic, the needs for the survival of an individual, to the most complex, of a social nature. The individual fulfills himself by passing through the various levels that must be satisfied progressively.
The neural bases of human survival
The survival instinct runs between and . British neuroscientists at the University of Bristol have mapped this instinct in a study published in the Journal of Physiology. A work that illuminates the key circuits of fear, the mechanisms responsible for it and offers new objectives to develop therapies against , phobias and . Researchers have discovered a neural pathway that connects the periaqueductal gray matter (Pag)the area of the brain that is activated in dangerous situations, in an area called the pyramid, located in the upper part of the cerebellum.
In summary, when the central circuits of the Pag are activated in the presence of a situation perceived as threatening, they send impulses to the cerebellar pyramid. The latter, in turn, produces the characteristic physiological reactions associated with danger. The pyramid also functions as a station where different avenues of strong emotions converge.
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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