Man has instincts as well as the animals and all his mental activity is due
to impulses coming from these instincts. An instinct may be defined as an
innate specific tendency of the mind which is common to all members of any
one species and which impels the individual to react to certain definite
kinds of stimuli with certain definite types of conduct, without having
first learned from experience the need of such conduct. For example, there
is an instinct of pugnacity which impels us to attack that which injures us
or interferes in any way with the attainment of our desires, an instinct of
flight which impels us to seek escape from danger, a parental instinct from
which come the impulses that lead us to protect and care for our young.
But, beside impelling the individual to react to certain definite kinds of
stimuli with certain definite types of conduct, an instinct, when
stimulated, gives rise in every case to an emotion which is characteristic
of it. For example, with the instinct of pugnacity, we have the emotion of
anger; with that of flight, the emotion of fear; with the parental instinct,
the emotion of love or tender feeling. An instinct, therefore, is regarded
as a mechanism made up of three parts:
First, an afferent or cognitive part, through which it is stimulated.
Second, an affective part through which it gives rise to the emotion which
is characteristic of it.
Third, an efferent or conative part through which it gives rise to a
characteristic type of conduct.
McDougall gives a list of about twelve instincts, each with its accompanying
emotion. These he regards as primary and the source of all thought and
action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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