Who believed that behavior was driven by instincts

Drive theory— Put forth by famed neurologist Sigmund Freud, this theory postulates that human behavior is motivated by the desire to reduce the tension caused by unfulfilled instinctive urges or drives. Ethologist— One who studies animal behavior in the animal's natural habitat.

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What is it that motivates behavior? Is the way that we behave something we are born with, or is it something that develops as we age and due to the experiences we have? What evidence supports the basis of motivation?

According to the instinct theory of motivation, all organisms are born with innate biological tendencies that help them survive. This theory suggests that instincts drive all behaviors. So, what exactly is instinct?

Instincts are goal-directed and innate patterns of behavior that are not the result of learning or experience.

For example, infants have an inborn rooting reflex that helps them seek out a nipple and obtain nourishment, while birds have an innate need to migrate before winter. Both of these behaviors occur naturally and automatically. They do not need to be learned in order to be displayed.

In animals, instincts are inherent tendencies to engage spontaneously in a particular pattern of behavior. Examples of this include a dog shaking after it gets wet, a sea turtle seeking out the ocean after hatching, or a bird migrating before the winter season.

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz famously demonstrated the power of instincts when he was able to get young geese to imprint on him. He noted that geese would become attached to the first moving thing they encountered after they hatched, which in most cases would be their mothers. However, by ensuring that he was the first thing the geese encountered, they instead became attached or imprinted, on him.

In humans, many reflexes are examples of instinctive behaviors. The rooting reflex, as mentioned earlier is one such example, as is the suckling reflex (a reflex in which babies begin sucking when a finger or nipple places pressure on the roof of their mouth).

The Moro reflex is a startle reaction seen in babies less than 6 months of age, and the Babkin reflex is when babies open their mouths and flex their arms in response to rubbing the palms of their hands. Infants display these instinctive reactions when confronted by stimuli in their environment. For example, brushing an infant's cheek will cause the child to turn their head and search for a nipple.

Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to write about the instinct theory of motivation. He suggested that instinctive behavior was composed of three essential elements: perception, behavior, and emotion. He also outlined 18 different instincts that included curiosity, maternal instinct, laughter, comfort, sex, and food-seeking.

Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud used a broad view of motivation and suggested the human behavior was driven by two key forces: the life and death instincts. Psychologist William James, on the other hand, identified a number of instincts that he believed were essential for survival. These included such things as fear, anger, love, shame, and cleanliness.

The instinct theory suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based. We engage in certain behaviors because they aid in survival. Migrating before winter ensures the survival of the flock, so the behavior has become instinctive. Birds who migrated were more likely to survive and therefore more likely to pass down their genes to future generations.

So, what exactly qualifies as an instinct?

In his book Exploring Psychology, author David G. Meyers suggests that in order to be identified as an instinct, the behavior "must have a fixed pattern throughout a species and be unlearned."

In other words, the behavior must occur naturally and automatically in all organisms of that species. For example, infants have an innate rooting reflex that leads them to root for and suck on a nipple. This behavior is unlearned and occurs naturally in all human infants.

Doctors often look for an absence of such instinctive reflexes in order to detect potential developmental issues.

While instinct theory could be used to explain some behaviors, critics felt that it had some significant limitations. Among these criticisms:

• Instincts cannot be readily observed or scientifically tested
• Instincts don't explain all behaviors
• Just labeling something as instinct does nothing to explain why certain behaviors appear in certain instances but not in others

While there are criticisms of instinct theory, this does not mean that psychologists have given up on trying to understand how instincts can influence behavior.

Modern psychologists understand that while certain tendencies might be biologically programmed, individual experiences can also play a role in how responses are displayed.

For example, while we might be more biologically prepared to be afraid of a dangerous animal such as a snake or bear, we will never exhibit that fear if we are not exposed to those animals.

In addition to instinct theory, there are other theories which have been proposed to help explain motivation. These include:

• Arousal theory of motivation, which claims that people behave in certain ways to either increase or decrease their arousal
• Drive theory of motivation, in which people are "driven" to behave in certain ways to reduce the internal tension caused by unmet needs
• Expectancy theory, which claims that our motivation will increase with the perceived desirability of an expected reward
• Humanistic theory of motivation, which claims that behaviors are the result of a desire for self-actualization
• Incentive theory of motivation, in which we make choices to maximize pleasure and minimize pain

In actuality, none of these theories, including instinct theory, can fully explain motivation. It's likely that components of all of these theories, as well as theories not yet proposed, are integrated in a way that results in the motivation for the behaviors of humans.

There have been various different approaches to explaining motivation. Based on these, there are different theories of motivation. One of them is Instinct Theory of Motivation which completely focuses on the biological approach to motivation.

The theory states that

Every organism is born with different biological traits and tendencies in order to help them survive. These aren’t learned or experienced behaviors, rather patterns of behavior that occur naturally and are goal-directed. These patterns of behavior are referred to as instincts, and the theory suggests that instincts drive all behaviors.

Definition of Instinct

The term instinct was first coined by Wilhelm Wundt in 1870s to refer to any repeated behavior. The inherent tendencies depicted by an organism to engage in certain unlearned patterns of behavior are referred to as instincts. In simple words, instinct is the behavior shown by an organism in response to a certain stimuli.
For example, when a newborn infant’s cheek or lip is touched, it will turn its head toward it and making sucking motion with the mouth. This is known as rooting reflex, which assists in successful breastfeeding.

Examples

• The tendency of a dog to shake his body when it gets wet.
• Birds migrating south before winter.
• Mother’s reflex to take care of her child regardless of her upbringing in different societies.

A Brief History

Many psychologists have defined instinct theory which include vital elements which explained a person’s instinctive behavior. Almost all of them believed every action/activity is caused by something meaningful.

William McDougall

William McDougall was one of the firsts to write about instinct theory of motivation. According to him, instinct must be

• Unlearned
• Uniform in expression
• Universal in species

and composed of

• Perception
• Behavior
• Emotion

Based on the three elements, he outlined 18 different instincts such as maternal instinct, comfort, sex, hunger, laughter and curiosity.

For instance, you usually pay attention to odors in the kitchen when you are hungry. This is your hunger instinct. This motivates you to check the refrigerator for food.

Sigmund Freud

Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud suggested that human behavior was driven by two key forces

• Life instincts (eros) – engaging in sex, eating, and other activities to be alive
• Death instincts (thanatos) – engaging in aggressive behaviors like fights, stunts, not caring about survival.

He explained all animals, social or otherwise, have aggressive instincts which drive them to be involved in aggressive activities. These aggressive activities help in releasing the instinctual energy called catharsis, cleansing of guilt.

William James

William James is another psychologist to have studied about motivation and he believed that

Our instinct is to survive.

Important instinctive motivation factors in his theory were:

• Fear
• Love
• Anger
• Shame
• Cleanliness

Instinct Theory of Motivation: Observation

Instinct theory of motivation suggests that the key to our motivation is biological or genetic programming of our body. The general idea is that similar motivations occur on humans because of the similar biological programming shared by humans.

Motivation to survive is the root of all motivations.

And, as we act or behave on other motivations emerged as a result of our core motivation, all our actions are considered as instincts.

A common example used by psychologists to explain Instinct Theory of Motivation is that a human mother will always attempt to take care of her baby, regardless of her upbringing and social standard. The theory suggests that they behave so because of their biological components. Since, no other factor seems to be at play, the action is referred to as instinct.

Critical Evaluation

One of the major criticisms of the theory has been the fact that instincts aren’t universal. Looking back at the previous example, there are always few women who do not exhibit the same level of affection and care as expected.

Another problem is that the levels of motivation can also be different. For instance, people exhibit different levels of jealousy and aggression.

Simply labeling a behavior as instinct doesn’t explain why certain behaviors appear in certain situations but not in others. Also, the fact that instincts aren’t something that can readily observed and scientifically tested does not do any favors to this theory.

However, this doesn’t mean that psychologists have stopped their study on the subject matter. In fact, modern psychologists are starting to believe that while instincts can be biologically programmed, the manner in which they are displayed is also affected by individual experiences. For instance, seeing a bear in TV won’t scare us but if seen live, then that’s a completely different story.