I am writing a research paper debating the controversy in the realm of psychology regarding whether or not humans possess instincts. I have found your site very helpful but would like more information. If you could direct me to more information, journals, etc. possibly debating the existence of instinct... that would be most helpful. Thank you, LAura Peters Shoreline college Seattle, WA

-- laura peters (lorp2@home.com), June 26, 2001

Answers

I don't know that many people talk in terms of "instincts" much any more. William MacDougall was the last great anglo-american instinct theorist I know of, and his work was so taken to task by the behaviorists that the very term, "instinct" lost much of its currency (see Watson & MacDougall, 1929 at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/Battle/). Broader kinds of nativism regained popularity, especially in perception and linguistics, in the 1950s and 1960s. There has also been a kind of revival of instinct theory lately, in the forms of sociobiology (see E.O., Wilson, Richard Dawkins) and "evolutionary psychology." The best scholarly account of evolutionary psychology is Barkow, Cosmides & Toobey's _Adapted Mind_ (1992). A good popular account of evolutionary psychology is Steven Pinker's _How the Mind Works_ (see also the critical review of it in Jerry Fodor's _In Critical Condition_).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), June 26, 2001.

Hi Laura, Shoreline! Good school. You might be interested to know there is not much difference between Seattle and Toronto. Here there is a traffic jam every time you want to go some place, we have Starbucks here, and most people use PCs and complain about the software. Instinct? Next time you are in the University Bookstore, look in the education section for a developmental textbook. It will probably be in the ed. psych. section. It will be a 300 or 400 level text, and it will cover the various theories of developmental psychology. If they don't have one there, give that description to the reference librarian in the Suzzalo-Allen Library, and they will have one. Also, there is a paper back put out by the Gessel Institute that I think would be helpful for your study. And you might look at a Thought and Language textbook while at the U-Bookstore. You might begin reading about hardwired reflexive behaviors like the baby's rooting reflex or grab reflex. The startle response? I don't know the proper names for these behaviors, and I don't have a text avalible. You will find them in the Gessel book. I'm not sure what you mean by debating the existence of instinct? Maybe you are looking at what some folks call the nature-nuture debate? But if you are looking for human hardwired responses to environment then look at developmental psychology, maybe some current research on face recognition. Start with Gessel, maybe the institute is on-line? Hope the sun comes out for you this summer, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), July 03, 2001.

Thanks so much, very helpful.

-- laura Peters (lorp2@home.com), July 10, 2001.

You might check David Buss's text "Evolutionary Psychology". In the field of human evolutionary psychology you will often come accross terms like evolved psychological mechanisms in place of instincts. Terms like this may better characterize the species and individual variation and flexibility of brain/mental/behavioral events better. There is still the assumption that genes can to some degree influence brain structure and activity, which can influence thought and behavior. How important the environment is may vary considerably with the particular type of activity (and the particular individual). Psychologist's are often particularly interested in the part of the environment that makes up psychological experiences and learning.

-- Paul R. Kleinginna (prklein@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu), July 24, 2001.

check out Stephen Pinker's "How the Mind Works" and "The Language Instinct" .. both are focused on linguistics, but nevertheless very illustrative of human instinct. For the other side, you can always refer to any of BF Skinner's work on behaviorism.

-- Scott Bailey (ur_enki@yahoo.com), October 19, 2001.

Human beings possess NO instincts. An instinct is defined by 5 things: 1. Must be brought on by a stimulus that only has to occur once 2. Consistant throughout the entire species 3. Complex in nature 4. Must occur in the same sequence always 5. Completely innate, UNLEARNED

-- Ellen Fitzgerald (ginlover81@hotmail.com), February 09, 2002.

Well i beleive that humans posses a natural instinct. But im still working and looking for the right words to fit my theory. I'll come back when i get help finding the right words to use.

-- Enos Micheal Nicholas (enos_nick@hotmail.com), April 18, 2002.