Instinct (After Research)

The term Instinct or inborn behavior is the natural tendency of a living organism over a specific complex behavior. One of the most basic examples of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern (FAP), which is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion. For instance, the aggressive behavior of the male animals during the mating season is a good example of FAP, whereas people might be able to alter a stimulated fixed action pattern by consciously recognizing the point of its activation and directly stop doing it. Here we come to the point that any behavior is instinctive if it is carried out without prior experience, that is, in the absence of learning and is the expression of innate biological factors. For example, newborn sea turtles will automatically move toward the ocean or a newborn baby’s suckling instinct.

Instinct should be distinguished from a reflex, which is a simple response given by an organism to a specific stimulus such as narrowing pupil in response to bright light.  The differentiation of a reflex and an instinct is related with the strong volitional capacity, social learning. To illustrate, one of the most basic human instinct is to get noticed, to cry like all mammals and birds do for survival, which is also one of the most primary reflex of human beings and animals. It can be said that that instincts can be both learnable and inborn behavior.  According to Behavioral sciences, the term instinct is considered as the innate part of behavior that cannot be trained or educated in humans whereas psychologists argues that humans no longer have instincts because they have the ability to deal with and control them in certain situations.  Even though all living organism may profit from experience, it is claimed that to be considered instinctual, a behavior must be automatic, or may occur in every member of the species, or govern behavior for which the organism needs no training.