Instinct
Instinct is an innate unlearned tendency or impulse which is fixed and unchanging and shared by all the members of a species. When a particular form of behaviour is termed instinctive in an animal it becomes the province of ethology. Referring to any form of human behaviour as instinctive leads immediately to heated controversy bedevilled by politics and ideology. In any event the concept appears to be of dubious value in understanding any particular piece of human behaviour, most of which is learned.
Webster Dictionary Meaning
1. Instinct
- Urged or stimulated from within; naturally moved or
impelled; imbued; animated; alive; quick; as, birds instinct with life.- Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished.
- Specif., the natural, unreasoning, impulse by which an animal is guided to the performance of any action, without of improvement in the method.
- A natural aptitude or knack; a predilection; as, an instinct for order; to be modest by instinct.
2. Instinct
- To impress, as an animating power, or instinct. Category: Psychology & Behavioral Science
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