Unconscious instincts in humans. Types and examples of instincts of modern man and their differences from animals

The concept of “basic human instincts” implies an innate predisposition in specific situations to perform certain actions or avoid certain actions. This desire may not be realized in all cases. In some situations, social prohibitions or other factors may interfere. However, in this case, the desire and the emotion that reinforces it can be isolated and defined.

It should be noted that the traditional description, characterizing instincts as a complex of complex innate reactions in the body, formed mainly in an almost unchanged form as a response to internal or external stimuli, is almost not applicable to people. This is mainly due to the lack in humans of fixed types of actions that have been described in animals. An exception can be made only for facial expressions, gestures, and postures, which, as it turns out, are largely inherited.

Modern researchers studying innate programs prefer to use the concept of evolutionarily stable strategies in behavior (ESSB). This term was first introduced by M. Smith.

Evolutionarily stable are those behavioral strategies in which the species and the individual, against the background of selective pressure and modification, bring the greatest adaptive benefits.

Human instincts are divided into three main categories.

The first includes life's congenital predispositions. They're in in this case ensure the safety of the individual's life. These human instincts are endowed with certain characteristic features:

A decrease in an individual’s chances of survival is caused by dissatisfaction of the corresponding need;

There is no practical need for another individual to satisfy one or another need.

1. Every normal individual has an innate motivation to avoid unsafe situations.
2. Evolutionary Many people have an innate fear of snakes, the dark, insects, and strangers (particularly when they are larger or in a group). A person may also be afraid of heights, rats, blood, mice, the sick, predators, or being bitten or eaten.
3. Food aversions or cravings. Genetically, people may have a predisposition to mineralized, salty, high-calorie foods. Some individuals feel the need to try new, unfamiliar food. Many people are predisposed to eating seeds, snacks, and chewing gum.
4. Thermoregulation.
5. Wakefulness and sleep.
6. Brachiation (flight). At the same time, some people are attracted by the view from above, others, when in danger, try to climb higher, and still others are engaged in activities related to the air (parachute jumping, aviation).
7. Excreta.
8. Collecting (gathering).
9. Biological clocks and rhythms.

10. Saving your energy (rest).

1. Instinct of procreation.
2. Parental behavior.
3. Dominance (submission), appeasement and aggression.
4. Territorial instincts.
5. Group behavior and others.

The third category includes innate programs. These human instincts are not associated with species or individual adaptation to reality. These programs are aimed at the future. These innate predispositions are not derived from those described above, but exist independently. These, in particular, include:

1. Instinct of learning.
2. Games.
3. Imitation.
4. Preferences in art.
5. Freedom (overcoming obstacles) and others.

The term natural instinct also arose Ancient Greece Even then, Hellas thinkers noticed that people have behavioral reactions that promote survival. For example, having barely touched a hot object, we quickly pull our hand away so as not to get a serous burn, the door slams - we turn around at the sharp sound to check if there is any danger. All this is a manifestation of the natural instinct of human self-preservation.

What are natural human instincts

Instincts (as well as biological motivations and emotions) refer to innate forms of behavior. Instinct consists of many reflexes. Reflexes are divided into vital (food, drinking, defensive), zoosocial, which are aimed at interacting with their own kind (sexual, parental), and research (for example, an orientation reflex, a freedom reflex, manifested by the desire to avoid any restrictions).

Instincts are encrypted in the hemocode and absolutely all people have them: me, you, and the passersby we see from the window. Genetically endowed instincts can be influenced - strengthened, weakened through upbringing, stereotypical behavior, religion, morality, say, due to improper upbringing, a child’s self-preservation instinct can decrease or become too strong. In dysfunctional families, where only the whip method is used, adolescents often become uncontrollable, subconsciously causing aggression towards themselves. Due to the lack of parental care, their INSTINCT of self-preservation is weakened. In children over whom adults are shaking, on the contrary, this instinct is hypertrophied - such children are afraid to take a step on their own.

Differences between human natural instincts and animal instincts

How does instinctive human behavior differ from animal behavior? People, unlike animals; can control their instincts, hide them and yet, analyzing the behavior of their two-legged and four-legged brothers in certain situations, you can see what I have in common. In the USA, experiments were conducted that showed that when a team is formed (for example, office workers), they inevitably have a leader, conditional slaves, one or two independent individuals trying to oppose the leader, and a clown who can only make faces. It's the same with animals. Observe, for example, a pack of dogs - you will see in them the same hierarchy as in a reasonable human group. After all, instincts are a powerful biological base that can be weakened by morality and law, but it is impossible to completely destroy it.

Patients with severe psychosis. who have a decrease in the mass of neurons, often suffer from gluttony, and cannot restrain their sexual impulses. Cases have been described when, on the basis of a disinhibited sexual instinct, mentally unbalanced people committed crimes. So, the less human there is in a person, the more his “animality” sticks out.

The influence of hormones on natural human instincts

Imagine that a person is hungry. His blood glucose level is reduced, and his need for food is unsatisfied. Emotions arise - anger, irritation, displeasure (which is especially acute in men). And this is great, because the so-called sympathetic nervous system is activated, the production of hormones that break down glycogen in the liver, from which glucose is formed, is stimulated. How stronger man the more angry he gets, the more he stands out necessary substances. Moreover, hungry male anger dictates the lifestyle - in cave times, a born earner went to the mammoths (the dominant motivation aimed at searching), now he strives to earn more in order to satisfy his need for food.

The relationship between hormone levels and sexual instinct is very clear. The hormone testosterone determines sexual desire in both men and women. It is produced in the ovaries (in women) and adrenal glands (in men), and this process is regulated by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. This is reflected in sexual behavior. By the way, representatives of the stronger sex with high levels of testosterone have great masculine strength, which they retain until old age. A 100-year-old grandfather, the same age as me, once came to see me October revolution. Even his passport showed where it says that he was born on October 6, 1917! The conversation with him turned out almost like a joke. I asked. What problems? And in response I heard: Two weeks ago... sexual intercourse did not work out.” Moreover, my very elderly patient was of sound mind

The difference between female and male natural instincts

Which instincts are more dominant in women and which ones are more dominant in men? Women have a more developed parental instinct. The maternal instinct is stronger than the paternal one, and this is inherent in nature: biologically, the male is created to “scatter the seed, and the female must raise the offspring.” In Britain, a study was conducted on the topic “Who remembers an insult longer.” It turned out that both men and women are offended equally often, but the first step to Ladies do reconciliation... This is a manifestation of maternal instinct; a woman needs a male who will help her take care of her offspring,

Natural instincts of humans that animals do not have

No! What would they say about purely human instincts, supposedly acquired in the process of socialization? All of them can be reduced to banal biology. Sometimes a person imagines that he has become very detached from the animal world. Let me remind you that the genes of gray mice are closest to our genes. I will list other similarities: memory. Animals have emotions, creative inclinations are observed in monkeys, but the presence of thinking in representatives of the fauna is still in doubt. True, some neurophysiologists say: A dog thinks! - The only thing animals don’t have is personality: that means they don’t have morality. However, social qualities appear when a person lives among his own kind. Modern Mowglis that are found among monkeys or wolves are not people

Was Sigmund Freud right when he said that everything has a sexual origin? By and large, life begins with sex - I mean the birth of a child. Yes, sexual desire is a fairly powerful engine, but I would not give first place only to it. I don’t think Freud is completely right. Man is a balanced conscious and unconscious animal; his actions are controlled by both principles. By the way, some scientists, developing Freud's thought, argue: yes, the unconscious plays a big role, but the unconscious is far from sexuality. Let us recall, for example, the Reiche pleasure principle, according to which we move from pleasure to pleasure. And yet the sexual instinct can only be completely suppressed medicines(in particular, powerful hormonal therapy) or surgically, removing the appendages and ovaries. It is impossible to completely suppress the sexual instinct through volitional effort (auto-training). To understand Freud's teachings, one must study his biography. “He was a deeply unhappy man. He had problems in his sexual life and then explained everything by sexuality! In my opinion, Sigmund Freud exaggerated somewhat, but there is still a rational grain in his theory.

The influence of a person’s sexual instinct on the choice of a partner

Without any doubts! An interesting study was conducted in Britain, which was later included in BBC popular science films. In a group of women and men, they asked each participant in the experiment to write requests to their prospective life partner, compared the questionnaires using a computer and got a result like this: “Lady A is perfect for Mr. M.” Then the couple was introduced and the woman was asked to rate her interlocutor. So: Lady L in reality gave Mr. M low scores, although the computer program showed that this person fully meets her requirements! What's the matter? It turns out that you cannot absolutely compare the attitude I consciously want and what actually works. Some deeper things play a role here than the parameters of height, weight, social status or belonging to the zodiac sign. ? It shoots - there are a lot of factors - both instinctive and social. It is very difficult to say which one is the main one.

Men are looking for an object that meets their criteria for female attractiveness. Initially, during the period of youthful hypersexuality, this object may not correspond to any parameters at all: it is enough for it to be just a woman. Then the image of the lady is formed, and the gentleman becomes more selective. But I think WHAT a real man looks for a partner not with a certain eye color or breast size, but perceives (or does not perceive!) the woman as a whole. If a person is looking for a companion, for example, who always has blue eyes or small feet, there is reason to suspect that he has mental disorders.

How natural instincts affect behavior

When a woman wants to attract the attention of a man, she, as a rule, pretenses herself: puts on makeup. new hairstyle by other elephants, engaged in grooming. In animals, grooming (care of skin, fur, teeth) is an innate reflex, and in Primates, picking through hair has the nature of affection. That is, by “cleaning her feathers,” the lady unconsciously gives the gentleman a sign that she takes care of herself and thereby increases her value. Well, a man, wanting to conquer a woman, subconsciously speak to her in a low voice - this is an indicator that everything is fine with his testosterone.

It is no coincidence that they say that scars adorn a man: they are a sign of aggressiveness, that is high level testosterone! By the way, when a boyfriend wants to express his interest in a woman, he fluffs his feathers: he says compliments, sings and plays the guitar, writes poetry, and in general, engages in mating dances, just like our smaller brothers.

The nature of maternal natural instinct

What is the nature of maternal instinct? The maternal instinct will be passed on genetically - it cannot be otherwise. Its essence is the desire of a man, caring for him. And in an effort to do everything to get pregnant. Moreover, during ovulation, when fertilization is most likely, a woman’s sexual desire reaches its peak. She becomes prettier, releases pheromones and shows with all her nature that she wants intimacy. During pregnancy, sexual activity will decrease - and this is also the essence of maternal instinct: now the main task wife types - bear a child. The desire is especially weak in the first (there is a risk of failure) and third trimesters (the time is approaching to give birth). When the baby was born; it must be immediately applied to the breast so that both the mother and the baby have the first contact, which is very important for both. And this happens from year to year - in all generations of mammals. How will a woman behave after giving birth? Everything depends on upbringing. The maternal instinct in daughters can (and should!) be developed from an early age: buy them dolls, surround them with purely girlish things.

Obstetricians know a trick; a mother who has been deliberately warned that she wants to abandon the child should be given the baby in her arms immediately after birth, or even better, offered to feed her at least once. Why? Because at this moment a very powerful maternal instinct awakens in a woman and after that it will be almost impossible to leave the child in the maternity hospital! Unfortunately, grief-stricken mothers are also aware of this feature, which is why they avoid contact with babies.

Maternal instinct does not appear - it is inherent in nature. When a girl is born, she already has neural connections. which will lead to the realization of this instinct. After this, a dominant motivation is needed, a stimulus that will set into motion the strongest mechanism. For people, this incentive is a child. Current trend When women refuse to give birth in favor of a career, is this an atrophy of the maternal instinct or its artificial suppression?

This is a problem all over the world, and especially in developed countries. And we are not talking about the atrophy of instinct; people do not change; in order for a person to change, more than one millennium must pass. Refusal to have a child is a negative influence of socialization, when the purpose of life is replaced and success, pleasure, wealth for one’s own sake come to the fore. Alas, suppressing the maternal instinct comes at a high cost to women. As a rule, certain moment An existential crisis sets in in their life - they start running to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, paying crazy amounts of money just to calm down. Because they cannot cope with the feeling of loneliness caused, for example, by meeting a friend who is worse off financially but is raising children. Conflict between instinct and social behavior can lead to very serious mental disorders

Paternal natural instinct

Paternal instinct, like maternal instinct, refers to the parental instinct. How is it expressed? Of course, in protecting the offspring! And yet I want to say one unpleasant thing, we are touched when on television we see a lion that allows the cubs to crawl on it. However, for some reason they hide from TV viewers that lionesses protect their cubs from their own fathers - a lion is capable of killing a lion cub if he wants to mate with a female. The fact is that a lioness, who is raising her offspring, does not allow the male to approach her, and having lost her cubs, she is again ready to mate. Note the biology of the paternal and maternal instincts. In humans, the development of the paternal instinct is, of course, greatly influenced by upbringing. Children, like monkeys, adopt the behavior style of their parents. Moreover, this instinct cannot disappear in a man, since, like all others, it is embedded in the genes. But can be suppressed by negative life experiences, negative environment... For example, in criminal gangs where women are despised, children are treated poorly. But tear such a person out of underworld, put him in normal society and he will become different.

A person is not born helpless and unable to do anything. It’s just that his body after birth is not yet formed enough to be able to perform all the basic actions that are characteristic of all people. Instincts are basic actions that are performed by absolutely all people. To understand what it is, how it affects our lives and what examples can be given, the online magazine site will consider this topic.

Absolutely all people are born with instincts. These are unconditioned reflexes that appear in all living beings and perform important functions. Among all types of instincts, the most important are the sense of self-preservation and reproduction. The desire to preserve one’s life manifests itself from the first minutes of life. The child screams, cries to be fed, warmed, lulled, etc.

As the human body strengthens and becomes independently functioning, the child is increasingly exposed to instincts. A striking example is the ability of pediatricians to tell parents at what month of their life what a child should do in order to be considered normally developing. During the first years of life, all children live at the level of instincts, which dictate to them how they will develop, what to do, how to react, how their bodies will act, etc.

However, instincts are not everything on which human life is based, otherwise people would not be different from the animal world. If animals act at the level of instincts, then people, as they develop and grow, acquire conditioned reflexes - these are certain skills that require training and consolidation in order to perform them. People are not born with these skills. If a person is not taught them, he will not be able to perform them. However, as education progresses, instincts increasingly fade into the background, giving way to conditioned reflexes.

Instincts cannot be suppressed or completely eliminated. However, a person is able to stop himself and control himself in time. If you exercise control over your own actions, then your instincts will not be able to manifest themselves in full force. The person will experience instinctual experiences and manifestations (such as a racing heart or sweating), but can control their actions.

Instincts are usually triggered in urgent and life-threatening situations. An example is an attack by a dog, from which a person wants to run away or fights off with stones, or withdrawing a hand from a hot kettle (it is unlikely that anyone will be able to avoid doing this, unless the person has impairments in the perception of analyzers or the processing of incoming information by the brain).

Instincts are always fully triggered when a person does not control himself. However, here it is necessary to distinguish between automatically acquired actions and instincts. The fact that a person does not think about the fact that he needs to raise his hand to turn on the light in the room does not make his actions instinctive.

A person’s instincts do not need to be taught; he already possesses them and obeys them if he does not try to stop his actions. A person must learn automatic conditioned reflexes and other behaviors in order to perform them.

What are instincts?

Instincts are understood as automatic, conditioned actions that are given to all people from birth and do not require their conscious control. Basically, instincts are aimed at the survival of the individual and the preservation of their species. Thus, a person instinctively begins to look for food or water when he is hungry or thirsty, runs away from danger or enters into battle when he is in danger, and has sexual relations with the opposite sex in order to obtain offspring.

However, psychologists point out that humans have many more instincts than the animal world. Human instincts are the desire for power, dominance, and communication. It should be noted that the most important instinct, which has many forms of manifestation, is the desire to maintain balance. The so-called homeostasis - when a person wants to experience peace and tranquility - is one of the basic aspirations.

Instinct is not a goal, as some people might think. The fact that a person consciously desires and wants to achieve something is not an instinct. Here a person simply arranges his life, which can exist anyway if he does nothing.

It is necessary to distinguish instincts from internal fears, complexes, feelings that develop in a person as he lives. They are also called acquired or social fears. For example, the feeling of guilt is an acquired quality that affects a person at a subconscious level. However, no one is born with a feeling of guilt; it is developed in people as they grow and develop.

You should also highlight such common fears as:

1. Fear of not being recognized.
2. Fear of criticism.
3. etc.

These are all social fears. They are more related to a person’s mental harmony than to his survival.

However, there are fears that to some extent can be attributed to instinctive. Thus, fear of sharks or spiders, fear of heights - these fears can be developed, but they are based on the instinct of self-survival, when a person must first of all take care of the safety of his health and life.

Human instincts

Man is a complex creature, which can be explained by the example of the transformation and complication of instincts over the course of his life. A person is born with biological needs that are dictated by instincts - automatic actions aimed at satisfying the needs of the body. However, a person lives in a society where there are its own rules, norms, traditions and other aspects. He is exposed to education, training, influence, which allows instincts to fade into the background.

Instincts do not disappear and do not disappear. Sometimes a person even learns to stop them and control them. As one gains experience and shapes one's life, a person's instincts transform. If you notice a person behaving inappropriately in a stressful situation, it means that he has not yet developed a mechanism that would restrain his instinctive behavior. However, there are individuals who have already learned to remain calm in situations that threaten them with death or require fertilization (sexual intercourse).

Thus, human instincts do not disappear anywhere, but they begin to obey certain fears, worldviews, conditioned reflexes, and even social norms when an individual learns to engage in the process in time in order to slow down his instinctive actions and quickly transfer them to other actions.

Instincts are given to absolutely all people and remain for life. They cannot be called either good or bad. Instincts help a person, first of all, to survive, otherwise his birth and existence become meaningless. On the other hand, instinctive actions are often considered unacceptable in a society where its own laws and frameworks of behavior have been developed. Therefore, a person must learn to control his instinctive impulses and transfer energy to perform actions acceptable by society.

This is what distinguishes humans from animals - conscious control, when instincts exist and continue to help a person survive. However, the individual is able to control himself and not obey instinctive energy if it is inappropriate in a particular case.

Types of instincts

There are many types of instincts:

1. The instinct of self-preservation is the most basic and initial. Every child begins to cry if there is no mother or the person who constantly takes care of him nearby. If a person’s instinct of self-preservation does not fade away over time under the influence of public education, then he becomes cautious and prudent. Gambling, risky people commit destructive acts when they jump with a parachute or climb into the cages of predatory animals. Depending on the degree of self-preservation instinct, a person will perform certain actions.
2. Continuation of the family. This instinct first manifests itself at the level of the desire for the parents’ family to remain intact and not be destroyed, and then the person himself begins to desire to create his own family and have children. This instinct also has different level its manifestation. There are people who control their sexual desires and remain faithful to their only marriage partners, and there are people who are unwilling or unable to control sexual lust, so they take mistresses or do not create families at all in order to be able to copulate with big amount representatives of the opposite sex.
3. Study. As the human body gets stronger, it begins to study the world. Curiosity becomes an instinct that is aimed at studying the world around him, the desire to understand it and begin to interact with it, which will also allow him to live harmoniously and preserve his life.
4. Dominance. A person experiences an internal need to have power, to lead other people, to control and manage. This instinct manifests itself in people to varying degrees.
5. Independence and freedom. These instincts are also innate, when every child resists any attempt to swaddle him, limit his actions or prohibit him. Adults also do everything to gain maximum freedom and independence in the world in which they are forced to live.
6. . This instinct can be combined with the instinct of research, since a person first studies the world around him, and then begins to adapt to it in order to develop such skills and form such knowledge that will help him effectively survive in the existing conditions.
7. Communicative. A person can be alone, but he gravitates more towards a herd existence, when he can communicate, conduct joint business and solve problems at the expense of others.

Examples of instincts

The most striking examples of instincts are a person’s desire to flee or defend themselves in a situation of danger. Also, almost all people in one way or another want to continue their family line. It is impossible to call the feelings that parents show towards their child instincts, but their presence forces mothers and fathers to take care of their offspring until they become independent and independent from them.

Social instincts, that is, those that are developed throughout life, can be called a tendency towards altruism and the desire to maintain a sense of self-esteem.

Bottom line

Instincts are given to all people for only one purpose - to preserve the human race (first the person himself, and then to encourage him to reproduce and preserve his young). Instincts become dull over the years, as a person learns to control them or stop in time thanks to those conditioned actions that he develops over the course of his life.

The article is interesting, informative and relevant. As the author writes in the introduction:

The term "instinct", like many other scientific terms - for example, "stress" or "ecology" - has long been in wide use, but its original meaning has undergone significant changes. Moreover, in everyday life they are so different from those accepted in the scientific community that sometimes scientists are recommended to introduce new terms to denote this or that concept. Such proposals are argued, for example, by the fact that the distorted meaning of the term “ecology” has taken root in the mass consciousness, and it is easier to propose a new term than to change the existing state of affairs. However, it should be noted that scientific terms and definitions have been honed over years and even centuries, and their correct understanding, coupled with appropriate use, is the key to the formation of an adequate picture of the world and way of thinking in people.

So, based on the definition and structure of instinct, which we have just examined, we can now assume that humans, a creature whose development is much higher than cats, have no instincts in the classical sense.

[Although, to tell the truth, a person still has one single instinct, which was discovered by Irenius Eibl-Eibesfeldt, a student of K. Lorenz. When we meet a person we like, we not only smile and part our lips, but our eyebrows also involuntarily raise. This movement, which lasts 1/6 of a second, was recorded by Eibl-Eibesfeldt on film in people of different races. He conducted most of his research in the wild corners of the planet, among tribes that do not know not only television, but also radio, and have rare and superficial contacts with their neighbors. Thus, eyebrow raising could not have been shaped by imitation learning. The main argument was the behavior of children blind from birth. The voice of a person they like also raises their eyebrows, and for the same 150 milliseconds.]

If expressions like “instinct of self-preservation” are incorrect, what then is the “automatic” withdrawal of a hand from a hot stove or fire? A person has an innate need for self-preservation, but not an instinct, since there is no corresponding FKD - an innate program of motor activity that would satisfy this need. Having been pricked or burned, we withdraw our hand - but this is not an instinct, but just a reflex (unconditioned) to painful stimulation. In general, we have a lot of protective unconditioned reflexes eg blink reflex, coughing, sneezing, vomiting. But these are the simplest standard reflexes. All other threats to the integrity of the body cause only those reactions that we acquire during the learning process.

“Maternal instinct”, “sexual instinct” and other similar expressions - they are all incorrect when applied to a person. And not only in relation to humans, but also to all highly organized animals. We have corresponding needs (Ptrb), but there is neither an innate program for their satisfaction, nor a key incentive (KS), nor a fixed set of actions (FCD).

Have you forgotten the Instinct formula yet, dear reader?

I = Ptrb + KS + FKD.

Thus, humans do not have instincts in the strict sense, and this is what makes our behavior plastic. However, the absence of rigid innate programs does not negate the fact that we are biosocial beings; and there are purely biological factors that determine many aspects of our behavior.

The article says that a person does not have instincts because there is no innate and fixed set of actions.

What does fixed mean? Even the most primitive set of actions has some flexibility, convention, and variability. For example, the so-called appendage stage can be very diverse and include other instinctive subprograms. The chick can overcome obstacles in different ways when moving towards its mother. If the chick, say, is turned sideways or upside down and fixed, it adapts to feeding in this position. If during feeding there is a threat of attack, feeding will be temporarily interrupted, but why continue, etc.

In most cases, this refers to the motor component of the instinctive act itself, when a newborn baby performs its first consummatory acts very unstably and unclearly. Apparently, this is due to the incomplete process of formation of neural ensembles of the brain, which are normally responsible for this innate act. Therefore, the very first movements of an animal when carrying out an instinctive act are “immature”, “uncertain”, and only after several trials and errors do they acquire all their purely species-typical features.

So the difference is only in the complexity of behavioral programs, so a clear boundary cannot be drawn. And if you look at intelligence from the point of view of cybernetics as a tool for achieving goals, then the boundary becomes completely blurred.

Two forces struggle in man: biological and social. The game of reason, social norms and instincts will never end. The instinct of self-preservation, protection, reproduction, maternal instinct and many others are against education and culture. What are instincts, can they be controlled? Find out from the article.

Instinct is an innate behavior, a way of responding to specific environmental conditions. Animals have many innate patterns of behavior: walking, hunting, feeding offspring, and speech interaction characteristic of the species. Do humans have instincts? A child needs to be taught everything: to walk, to talk, to hold a spoon. And these are just the basic skills.

Birds, for example, at a subconscious level know how to build nests. Do any of the newborn children know what rent is, or how to build a house? No, although instinct would be useful.

Instinct is the genetic program of a biological species, embedded in the individual’s psyche at birth. Think about whether people are given something at birth that is characteristic only of the species Homo sapiens. No. Without the care, attention and help of adults, it will die within 24 hours.

Instincts are patterns of behavior that do not need to be taught. A person must be taught everything that is characteristic of his species.

However, humans retain some animal instincts. Babies can crawl and eat food with their hands. True, it is unlikely that they will live to this point without their mother. If parents do not take care of the child, then he remains an animal. In psychological and pedagogical science they are called Mowgli children.

Reflexes

Reflex is a mechanism for realizing instinct. In essence, instinct is a complex of unconditioned reflexes. A person is given 15 reflexes at birth. They are divided into three groups: oral, motor, grasping. Most of them die off during the first year of a child's life.

Other reflexes – conditioned, acquired as a result of learning – become vitally important. We look around when crossing the road, not because of the instinct of self-preservation, but because we have been taught. We pull our hand away from the hot kettle because we once got burned.

And the mind also comes into play. People understand that it is not advisable to give birth every year. And in general, many people prefer career and personal growth. The social part suppresses instincts.

Of the unconditional instincts, the most influential instinct remains only the “herd” instinct. Human infection is susceptible to a number of mechanisms, including infection and imitation. A sense of community or herdism can turn a group into a chaotic crowd and deprive a person of individuality.

Biological and social in man

In relation to humans, it is customary to speak not about instincts, but about species memory. It can be genetic, passed on from generation to generation, and cultural - the heritage of society.

If some instincts are present, for example, aggression, sexuality, then society suppresses them. Thus, monogamy is the result of personal cultivation.

Animal instincts in a person are activated when the primary biological ones are unsatisfied: food, safety, sleep, housing, sex. Of course, consciousness, learned norms, values, and culture begin to fight instincts.

According to the theory of William McDougall, a person retains several instincts:

• escape at ;
• disgust, rejection;
• anger, often with fear;
• embarrassment;
• inspiration;
• parental;
• food;
• gregarious.

Why then, for example, does the maternal instinct not arise in all women? Psychotherapists claim that feeding a child and communicating with him in the first day after birth triggers the maternal instinct. If the contact happened later, then the instinct will not manifest itself. It is likely that other instincts also manifest themselves under certain conditions.

In other theories, the classification of human instincts is supplemented by the following types:

• procreation;
• dominance;
• study;
• Liberty.

In my opinion, a person has three main instincts.

Three main human instincts

During the development process, a person retains 3 main instincts:

• sexual,
• power,
• self-preservation.

These points are used by the media for consciousness. Remember what is often emphasized in advertising: success, safety, wealth, attractiveness.

In the process of socialization, the instinct of sexuality and power is suppressed. The instinct of self-preservation is cultivated. But aren't these three types related to each other? Self-preservation is both procreation, sexual self-realization, and professional development. So there are still three supporting directions.

The instinct of self-preservation is based on fear. This is also successfully used by the media. Have you noticed how many negative reports there are in the news? Is everything really that bad in the world? No. This is control of human instincts, intimidation. Fear slows down and fetters your arms and legs.

But the instinct of power and sex motivates, forces you to move forward and develop. That is why, when meeting people, they are ready to move mountains for a potential partner. Or at work, seeing the prospects of management, they rush forward.

Often the instincts for power and sex take over, dulling the third main instinct. However, not all so simple. Every instinct harbors fear. A person driven only by instincts, thinking irrationally, ultimately dies.

Instinct controls a person. Creates the ground for outside manipulation. Freud also said that the world is ruled by the thirst for power, sex and hunger. In my opinion, even now people’s activity always comes down to these three points.