BASIC INSTINCTS of the human being: What they are, Types and Examples

The term instinct in common parlance is used with a different meaning from the scientific one. For example, it is said that you have an instinctive liking or antipathy towards a person or that it is instinctive to feel disgust for a certain food. Other times it can be said that someone is instinctively generous, or perhaps taken to music.

The word instinct, therefore, is used to express very different situations such as acting impulsively without reflecting on having particular food tastes or natural predispositions. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with this wide and variable use of the word, it is enough to bear in mind that when it is spoken of 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.

Index

1. What is instinct
2. What are animal instincts
3. What are human instincts
4. Basic instinct types
5. The instincts for psychoanalysis

What are basic instincts? Instinct is a hereditary behavior. Instincts are patterns or innate behaviors, fixed, transmitted by hereditary route, 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 of the species.

Instinct is present in all animal species. Each individual is born with a set of behaviors that depend on your hereditary gene pool 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 is intended 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 the survival bias: what it is, causes and examples.

According to the classical biological approach, the instincts are essentially the survival instincts of the individual, 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 the eggs of the birds or the search for the water of the newly hatched 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 the wolves, according to which the oldest male of the group marks an area of ​​the floor with its own odor with secretions of particular glands or with splashes of urine. This indicates to the other specific animals that this space is theirs and that it must not be invaded or violated. If someone dares to transgress, the fight is unleashed.

Another possible instinct is to "rearrange", to try to fix the environment, as mice or squirrels do that store food supplies. seeds or peanuts in burrows, or birds that build the nest with refined skill and then keep it clean of debris and faeces.

Humans, 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 should be borne in mind that on these issues there are contradictory opinions among scholars from various disciplines such as biology, ethology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, etc.

However, there is a basic agreement to recognize that the further you climb the animal evolutionary ladder, the less you are dominated by instincts. So the Humans, in good and in evil, have the uncomfortable privilege of being a lot less driven by instincts. Their actions are not derived from direct instinctual drive, but are mediated by education, character, learning, society, and culture. In short, of the free choice of each one.

Here are 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, places the human beings above instincts. The differences are more significant than the similarities.
• Between these two extreme positions, there are several intermediate hypotheses. Some scholars, for example, recognize only the basic sexual and aggressive instincts.
• Other hypotheses also speak of other instincts, such as the maternal one. In other words, 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 basic and higher cognitive processes. It is clear that the more instincts are emphasized as innate and predetermined forces, the less our values ​​are valued. personal psychological qualities such as, remaining in the field of the so-called maternal instinct, a mother's love for the child.

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 the 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 basic instinct types and the corresponding primary emotions were as follows:

• The escape instinct and the emotion of afraid.
• The revulsion instinct and the emotion of disgust.
• The instinct of curiosity and the thrill of wonder.
• The combat instinct and the thrill of the go to.
• The submission instinct and the thrill of submission.
• The instinct of self-assertion and the thrill of wellness.
• The parental instinct and the emotion of tenderness.

Components of basic instincts

According to the theories of Hormic Psychology, this 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 urge to experience a specific emotional experience regarding this stimulus.
• Conative or action component: the impulse to produce an action in relation to it.

In psychoanalysis, instinct is distinguished from impulse insofar as it seeks the satisfaction of own needs like hunger, sleep or sex. It is based on schemes learned by the continuous interaction between the individual and the environment and without particular objectives. One of the examples of basic instincts is the homicidal one. This pushes to kill in a sudden and unexpected way, with a precise object-victim 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, the main source of creative and positive energy in man.
• 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 destroying, a source of destructive energy and negative.

The definition of instinct in these cases is quite controversial and is therefore often You can find the same definitions with the names of "impulse of life" and "impulse of life. death".

This article is merely informative, in 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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• Maldonato M. (et al.) (2008). Dizionario di Scienze Psicologiche. Naples: Edizioni Giuridiche Simone.