Instinct Theory

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Instinct theory is a theory that all actions, thoughts, and intents can be traced back to being caused by instinct. Human actions such as ridiculing others can be thought to be akin to an animal attacking a younger animal of the same species so as to deter them from trying to usurp a leader in the pack. It is often this that offers an explanation for why a person would act one way or another. Adultery is another form of this. Instinct tells animals to take the easiest path to survival. If a significant other doesn't produce offspring or sufficiently please a person, that person might look for another way to perpetuate the species or to live more easily. It is an advanced form of crude animal behavior.

The influence of dualism on early psychology provided a temptingly simple answer to the question of why people behave as they do. Because dualist views of human nature supported the idea of free will, the dualist 'theory' of motivation succintly asserted that people choose their courses of action.

This view presented problems for scientific psychologists, especially as research identified indisputable environmental influences on behaviour. Given the mechanistic influences on early psychology, a more appealing theory of motivation explained human behaviour as being, like animal behaviour, governed by instincts. Instincts are innate, goal-directed sequences of behaviour; they are more complex than simple reflexes but are impervious to the influence of learning and experience.

The concept of instinct enjoyed great popularity and support in the late 19th century. Two very different instinct theories of motivation were developed by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the functionalist WilliamJames.

Sigmund Freud. Freud's view of instincts was very broad, almost on the order of the later concept of a drive. In Freud's view, human behaviour was motivated by two biologically energized instincts, respectively termed Eros, the life instinct, and Thanatos, the death instinct. The life instinct was considered to be the basis for sexual motivation, while the death instinct underlay aggressive motivation.
For Freud, these instincts and most of their subsequent motivations remained a part of each individual's unconscious. In contrast, most other theories of motivation emphasize explanations for conscious motivation.

William James. In line with his functionalist perspective, James emphasizedthe survival value of instinctive motivation. He argued that humans were born with a score of instincts - such as fear, sociability, cleanliness, and love - which underlay all more complex behaviour. 

Critics assailed instinct theories of motivation for merely labelling yet failing to explain behaviour. Moreover, instincts were not observable and could not be subjected to empirical testing or behaviourist evaluation.



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