Instinct a Complex Behavior

Instinct – Inclination of Creatures, Complex Behavior

Innate behavior or instinct is the inclination of a living creature towards a complex behavior and stimulus. It is behavior which is inherited rather than learned and the simplest example of an instinct in behavior is FAP or fixed action pattern wherein a small to medium length sequence of action minus variation can be carried out in response to a clear define stimulus.

We could say that when a person tends to fight often, he seems to be having an aggressive instinct while the person may not be born with the inclination to fight. An instinct is inherited when an inborn pattern of behavior which is characteristic of species tends to response to specific environmental stimuli. Instinct could also be defined from a reflex that could be a response of an organism to a certain stimulus like the contraction of the pupil when faced with bright light or spasmodic movement of the lower leg when tapped at the knee.

They are the inborn complex reactions to behavior which may exist in members of the species though the absence of volitional capacity should not be mixed with an incapability to modify fixed action pattern. Some examples could be used wherein people may be capable of modifying a stimulated fixed action pattern by recognizing consciously the point of its activation and tend to stop doing it while animals with the absence of strong volitional capacity would not refrain from their fixed action patterns once they are activated.

Behavior Instinctive – Expression of Innate Biological Factors

Behavior could be instinctive if the same is performed without being connected with prior experience and can be an expression of innate biological factors.Instinct is innate which means that instinctive behaviors together with responses are present and complete in individuals at birth. The individual need not go through a series of experience in order to learn such behaviors.

A simple example could be taken from fish that has the innate ability to swim while most of the mammals need to learn how to walk. It is easy to identify innate behavior when animals portray it at birth though in some cases this behavior may show up later on in life. In these circumstances, improvement in the creatures’ ability to carry out an innate behavior may show that the creature is learning though another process is being done. When someone acts instinctively, we say his act is done without deliberation or thought but on an impulse.

Knowing/Believing/Feeling – Instinct

Knowing, believing or feeling something instinctively is something that we do not recall of having learned or even been instructed but it is the knowledge, belief or just feeling that came up within us. When someone that has an instinct for stage direction or mathematics means that they are by nature good in performing in that sphere of action. A maternal or creative instinct is referred to behavior which seems to be the expression of a deep characteristically human urge.

When a person acts out of an instinct of revenge, it is his revenge which becomes his motive. When some person acted blindly without any explanation of why they could have acted in a certain way or what was the purpose of the action, that type of a behavior is said to be done by instinct.