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- DictionaryIn·stinct
noun
- 1. an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli: "birds have an instinct to build nests"
adjective
- 1. imbued or filled with (a quality, especially a desirable one): formal "these canvases are instinct with passion"
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C2. the way people or animals naturally react or behave, without having to think or learn about it: All his instincts told him to stay near the car and wait for help. [ + to infinitive ] Her first instinct was to run. It is instinct that tells the birds when to begin their migration.
- Znaczenie Instinct, Definicja W Cambridge English Dictionary
INSTINCT definicja: 1. the way people or animals naturally...
- English (US)
instinct. noun [ C, U ] uk / ˈɪnstɪŋkt / us. Add to word...
- Znaczenie Instinct, Definicja W Cambridge English Dictionary
- Overview
- Defining instinct
- Darwin’s conception of motivational instinct
- Instinct as impulsion
instinct, an inborn impulse or motivation to action typically performed in response to specific external stimuli. Today instinct is generally described as a stereotyped, apparently unlearned, genetically determined behaviour pattern.
In the past the term instinct has stood for a number of distinct conceptions about animal behaviour. For example, Alexander Jamieson, in the first volume of his A Dictionary of Mechanical Science, Arts, Manufactures, and Miscellaneous Knowledge (1829), defined the term instinct as “an appellation given to the sagacity and natural inclinations of brutes, which supplies the place of reason in mankind.”
As a rough rendering of what the term instinct means to most people, this definition still has merit. If it is taken to include the possibility that humans too can be governed by instinct, this definition is broad and vague, encompassing the variety of senses that the term has since been used to convey. However, this inclusiveness is unable to distinguish the subtle differences of meaning encompassed by the terms instinct and instinctive.
The words instinct and instinctive have borne a variety of meanings in the many different contexts in which they have been used. Their varied meanings and connotations are encountered in everyday language. For example, instinct can refer to reflexive or stereotyped behaviour, to an intuitive hunch, to a congenital aptitude or disposition, to a deep-seated impulsion (e.g., “maternal instinct”), to ways of acting that do not appear to have involved learning or experience in their development, or to knowledge that is inborn or subconsciously acquired.
The concept of instinct is complicated by the fact that it ranges across behavioral, genetic, developmental, motivational, functional, and cognitive senses. There is also a likelihood that one of these senses might be taken to entail one or more of the others. For example, evidence that a pattern of behaviour depends upon a genetic basis frequently has been assumed to imply that the pattern is unlearned. The fallacy of this reasoning should have been betrayed by the commonplace knowledge that animals can be selectively bred for attributes (e.g., trail following and sheepherding in dogs) but require extensive training for their potential usefulness to be realized. Yet the dichotomous way of thinking continues to bedevil discussion and is the basis of the recurrent dispute known as the nature-nurture controversy (heredity versus environment), which entails debate over whether behaviour, intelligence, aptitude, character, and so forth are products of genetics or of exposure to environmental factors (e.g., culture). Even British naturalist Charles Darwin argued that inheritance implied development unaffected by experience.
Darwin was well aware that the term instinct was used in several different senses. At the beginning of the chapter titled “Instinct” in his crucial work On the Origin of Species (1859), he declined to attempt to define the term:
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Several distinct mental actions are commonly embraced by this term; but everyone understands what is meant, when it is said that instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate and to lay its eggs in other birds’ nests. An action, which we ourselves require experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more especially by a very young one, without experience, and when performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive. But I could show that none of these characters are universal.
Darwin used the word instinct in a number of different ways—to refer to what impels a bird to breed; to a disposition, such as courage or obstinacy in a dog; to selectively bred patterns of behaviour such as the tumbling movements of tumbler pigeons; to feelings such as sympathy in people; and to stereotyped actions such as those employed by honeybees when constructing the cells of a honeycomb. It is regrettable that Darwin did not make the distinctions of the meaning of instinct more explicit, for he gave powerful precedent for the indiscriminate use of the word, the ambiguity of which has repeatedly clouded and confused the understanding of behaviour.
However, there also was a positive side to Darwin’s interest in instinct. He drew attention to questions about the causal basis of actions that seemed incapable of explanation in terms of learning or cognition, and it opened up the remarkable world of animal behaviour, which seemed far removed from the world of human nature. Thus, Darwin’s legacy has stimulated the study of motivation and provided a foundation for comparative psychology and for ethology.
Instinct as some kind of urge or driving force is exemplified by three very different kinds of motivational theory: Freudian psychoanalysis; inherent purpose, as defined by American psychologist William McDougall; and causal conceptions, as proposed by classical ethology.
- Colin Beer
Definition of instinct noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. instinct. noun. /ˈɪnstɪŋkt/ [uncountable, countable] a natural quality that makes people and animals tend to behave in a particular way using the knowledge and abilities that they were born with rather than thought or training.
instinct (that…) a feeling that makes you do something or believe that something is true, even though it is not based on facts or reason synonym intuition Her instincts had been right. See instinct in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Check pronunciation: instinct.
noun. in· stinct ˈin-ˌstiŋ (k)t. Synonyms of instinct. 1. : a natural or inherent aptitude, impulse, or capacity. had an instinct for the right word. 2. a. : a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason.
a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency. a natural aptitude or gift: an instinct for making money. natural intuitive power. Latin instinctus prompting, instigation, enthusiasm, equivalent. to * insting ( uere) ( in- in - 2 + * sting ( u) ere presumably, to prick; see distinct) + -tus suffix of verb, verbal action.
