Manifestations of instinctive activity. Instinctive form of behavior regulation "Socio-cultural activity: theory, history, historiography" monochrestomathy

Congenital quantization of behavior, as a rule, is observed in cases of adaptation of living beings to relatively stable conditions of existence, to a rigid special surrounding "situational niche". Instinctive activity also manifests itself in the early stages of the ontogenetic development of higher animals, and the main condition for its manifestation may be relatively constant conditions of existence for many generations of one or another animal species.

General patterns of formation
innate behaviors

one). Each systemic quantum of instinctive activity is deployed on the basis of an internal need and the action of special key factors of the external environment.

2). A genetically determined system quantum of behavior is characterized by rigid programming of stage and final results of behavior that satisfy the dominant need of the organism.

3). The deployment of instinctive activity of animals to satisfy their dominant needs under conditions of strict programming occurs with a constant assessment of the parameters of the results achieved and their comparison with the genetically programmed properties of the acceptor of the results of the action. In the absence of relevant information (for example, if it is impossible to implement a milestone result of an activity), the animal’s progress towards the final result stops until full information about the success of the achieved milestone result is received. Those. a prerequisite for satisfying the leading needs of animals in this case is the achievement of all milestone results. Only after receiving information about the final result that satisfies the dominant need, animals complete the instinctive system quantum of behavior and switch to other forms of activity.

4). For the implementation of instinctive activity, stable conditions for the existence of living beings are necessary.

5). The instinctive quantization of behavior practically does not use the mechanisms of individual learning. As a rule, instinctive behavior is more pronounced in animals that do not meet with their parents.

Behavior in a changing environment,
acquired behavior.

Behavior in a changing environment of existence is associated with animal learning. In a changing environment, the quantization of behavioral activity is built using acquired mechanisms.

The genetic mechanisms of acquired behavior constitute the initial stage of system quanta. Congenital are the mechanisms of reinforcement and orienting-exploratory reaction, on the basis of which learning takes place.

Ontogeny of learning

Imprinting. At the first stages of ontogenesis, learning occurs according to the principle of imprinting, imprinting. Imprinting contributes to the enrichment of the apparatus of the acceptor of the result of the action. Each environmental factor, especially one that carries vital information for the organism in terms of satisfying its leading needs, leaves a unique “trace” inherent only to it on the structure of the nervous elements excited by the corresponding need. This "trace" according to the anticipatory type is "revived" every time the next occurrence of this need and directs the animal to its more successful satisfaction.

Education with the help of parents. Parents play an important role in the education of animals in the early stages of ontogeny. The importance of parents is all the more necessary, the higher the animal is on the hierarchical ladder of evolutionary development. Parents teach their offspring to isolate special stimuli or whole events from the external environment that contribute to or, conversely, hinder the satisfaction of their vital needs and, ultimately, the preservation of their lives according to the principle: “This is possible, this is not possible.”

Individual training. Animals, by communicating with the environment, enrich the systemic quanta of behavioral activity. The learning process primarily affects the mechanisms for predicting results that satisfy the leading needs of the body, as well as improving the ways and means of achieving vital results.

The role of play in learning. Games contribute greatly to independent learning. In games, motor skills are formed and improved. Animals learn to highlight signals (objects) that help or hinder the satisfaction of their leading needs. In relation to these signal stimuli, dynamic programs of behavior are built, including reactions ahead of actual events.

Programming purchased
behavior based on conditioned reflexes

Unlike instinctive forms of behavior, programming is carried out with an orientation in the external environment only to certain stimuli that are vital in terms of satisfying the leading needs. Less significant stimuli that previously accompanied the satisfaction of needs may not be taken into account. The value of conditioned stimuli, in addition, may vary depending on their connection with reinforcing stimuli; they may retain or lose their signaling role.

instinct- a set of innate tendencies and aspirations that play a motivational role in shaping behavior. In a narrow sense, a set of complex hereditarily determined acts of behavior characteristic of individuals of a given species under certain conditions. Instincts form the basis of animal behavior. In higher animals, instincts undergo modification under the influence of individual experience.

Instinctive behavior is characterized by: 1) a specific way of motivation and 2) specific execution mechanisms. Instinctive action is a complex action that comes from organic motivation - from biological needs - and is carried out through primarily automatic reactions.

Although instinctive activity is carried out automatically, by means of more or less fixed mechanisms, it nevertheless differs fundamentally from purely reflex action, since it involves some greater or lesser share of lability.

Most psychologists would probably agree with the following definition: an instinct is a more or less complex pattern of behavior elicited by a more or less complex pattern of stimuli (internal or external), provided that this sequence of actions cannot be the result of learning. In addition, the term "instinct" usually implies that: 1) a certain sequence of actions ends with c.-l. a form of consummatory (final) behavior or is adaptive in nature; 2) the behavior is specific and occurs in all individuals of the same sex and species without exception; 3) behavior is stereotypical and rigid, although to some extent it can be modified in some individuals and species. The concept of instinct fell into disrepute in the 1920s. XX century., When to explain the behavior at different times and under different names, it was proposed several. thousand instincts. This misuse of the concept has led to its abandonment. Non-specialists continue to misuse it even now, equalizing instincts and established habits. As a special term, it was revived by the ethologists K. Lorentz and N. Tinbergen, and it was given a similar, but much more theoretical, theory. value than in the above definition. Ethologists have created a special terminology and described instinctive, or genetically programmed, patterns of behavior in the form of a sequence of events: a signal stimulus ("releaser") > an innate trigger mechanism (ITM) > a fixed pattern of actions (FAP). VMZ, a neurological process, is activated by a signaling stimulus and mediates FPD - innate, stereotyped responses. Ethological analysis describes consummatory (final) acts, such as building a nest or copulation, without assuming the movement of the animal towards the goal of having a nest or producing offspring. Instead, he proceeds from the assumption that the reaction is called in the presence of resp. releaser. The sequence "releaser - reaction" implies that in a typical case, the reaction causes a releaser, leading to the occurrence of the next reaction in the sequence, leading to the next releaser, and so on in the chain. In such cases, the elements of the "stimulus - reaction" (S - R) chain are not acquired in the process of learning, but are of an instinctive nature. However, the recognition of a chain of behavioral reactions as an instinct does not mean at all that the analysis of such behavior should be stopped at this point. It is necessary to determine the conditions under which this chain arises, for example, to identify signal stimuli or releasers. Instincts are by no means free reactions arising in the void. They are associated with incentives; only in very rare cases are these internal stimuli, which are also so strong as to cause the manifestation of instinct without the support of external stimuli (in the void). Ecologists tend to view behavior as either innate or learned, but this does not appear to be entirely true. Most psychologists consider the "nature or nurture" problem to be a pseudo-problem. Behavior is always determined by the combined influence of heredity and the environment, and it is often unprofitable to spend time and energy on determining the share of influence of one or another component. At the initial stages, the environment can influence development and genetically determined behavior, and learning is always associated with the modification of specific innate behavior. Learning simply involves increasing the frequency or accuracy of behavioral acts that are part of the body's already existing repertoire of behavior, linking them to new stimuli, establishing a connection with some stimuli, and not with others, or building certain sequences of behavioral responses.

STIMULUS KEY - special stimuli - external factors that cause the "launch" of the instinct. Their role can be played by signals of any modality: colors, smells, sounds, visual forms, movements, etc. Under natural conditions, several signs usually act, uniting in a "starting situation".

According to ethological theory, instinct is due to the action of both external and internal factors.

External factors include special stimuli, which are called "key stimuli".

To date, a large number of key stimuli have been studied in many animal species. As it turned out, signals of any modality can play this role: colors, smells, sounds, visual forms, movements, etc. Under natural conditions, several signs usually act, uniting in a “starting situation”.

External stimuli, which in their totality make up the starting situation, are called "key stimuli", or releasers. Each key stimulus triggers a set of stereotypical actions corresponding to it. Key stimuli are such signs of the external environment to which animals can respond, regardless of individual experience, with an innate behavioral act. For each key stimulus in the central program of behavior, there are mechanisms for triggering the corresponding behavioral response, the implementation of which does not depend on the consequences for the organism.

Super stimuli

In the course of research, an interesting phenomenon of the action of super-stimuli, or super-optimal incentives, was discovered.

So, for example, the mentioned male of the velvet butterfly especially willingly pursues objects that are darker in color than the natural color of the female and 3-4 times her size.

The seagull prefers to "hatch" an egg model 10 times larger than its own egg, leaving the latter unattended.

Superstimuli often serve animals in natural conditions. Examples are the huge "eyes" on the wings of some butterflies, which scare away raptors, or the cuckoo's large open beak, which makes the songbird feed it more willingly than its own chicks.

Internal factors include endogenous stimulation of the centers of instinctive actions, which leads to a decrease in the threshold of their excitation. Research has found the existence of super-stimuli, or super-optimal stimuli that are not found in natural conditions, but are more effective than natural stimuli. For example, a seagull prefers to incubate a mock egg much larger than a real egg, leaving the latter.

All forms of the psyche and behavior of animals are built on the basis of biological forms of existence, being developed in the process of adaptation to the environment. In their motivation, they all come from unconscious, blindly acting biological needs. But in the "instinctive" behavior of animals in a broad sense, instinctive forms of behavior in a more specific sense of the word are distinguished.

Instinctive actions are dominated by fixity due to lability: they are characterized by relative stereotype; different individual acts of instinctive behavior in different individuals of the same species remain basically, as it were, within the framework of one common structure. Thus, chicks hatched in an incubator and brought up in an aviary, never having seen how their parents or birds of the same species build nests in general, always build nests of basically the same type as their ancestors.

Instincts are usually understood further as actions or more or less complex acts of behavior that appear immediately, as if ready, regardless of training, from individual experience, being a hereditarily fixed product of phylogenetic development. So, a duckling that has just hatched from an egg, being thrown into the water, begins to swim, the chicken pecks at the grains. This skill does not require exercise, training, personal experience.

Speaking of heredity, phylogenetic fixedness or innateness of instinctive action, one must take into account that each specific act of behavior includes both hereditary and acquired components in unity and interpenetration. The development of behavioral forms that are the product of phylogenesis in each individual must also be mediated by his ontogeny. In some cases, as shown by the latest, more detailed research on instinct, instinctive actions are fixed only in the process of first performing these instinctive actions, then retaining the pattern established in them (L. Verlaine's experiments). Thus, it is not necessary to externally oppose to each other what is hereditary in instinct and what is acquired in other forms of behavior (skill). Within instinct itself there is a certain unity of these opposites with the dominance - in instinct - of the hereditary.

Instinctive actions are often distinguished by great objective expediency, i.e., by adaptability or adequacy in relation to certain situations that are vital for the organism, but are performed, however, without awareness of the goal, without foreseeing the result, purely automatically.

There are many examples of the high expediency of instinct. The female leafworm, making a funnel from a birch leaf, into which she then lays her eggs, preliminarily cuts this leaf as required so that it can be rolled up - in full accordance with the solution to this problem, which was given by the famous mathematician and physicist X Huygens, who determined the method of constructing the so-called evolute from a given evolvent. The bee builds its combs as if it had mathematical methods for solving problems of maximum and minimum: in the smallest space with a minimum of material, it builds honeycombs that, under given conditions, have a maximum capacity. All these are "instincts" - actions are performed without knowing and taking into account their meaning and consequences - but their "expediency" for the organism is indisputable.

This expediency of instinct made it a favorite offspring of metaphysical teleology of various persuasions and types, starting with the naive teleological reflections of old authors about the expediency of the instinctive activity of organisms as proof of the wisdom of their creator and ending with the refined vitalistic-spiritualistic concept of A. Bergson, who opposes the intellect, turned outward, to matter, instinct as a deeper force, connected with the very origins of the creative impulse of life and therefore surpassing the intellect in the reliability of its achievements: the intellect is always searching, exploring - and very often, if not mostly, is mistaken; instinct never seeks and always finds.

The same notorious expediency gave rise to others to carry out anthropomorphic tendencies in comparative psychology - to attribute human-like intellectual abilities to animals at the early stages of development, explaining instinct as initially rational actions, hereditarily fixed and automated (D. Romanes, W. Wundt).

It is not difficult, however, to see that this notorious expediency of instinct is inextricably linked with its extreme inexpediency.

Indeed, along with the data that speak of the high expediency of instinct, there are no less facts testifying to its exceptional blindness. So, the bee will just as diligently clog the cell of the comb in which the bottom is pierced, as if everything was in order, despite the complete aimlessness of this operation. The auk, whose egg was transferred to another place during the flight for food, upon returning sits down with mathematical accuracy in the same place, diligently warms her chest and “hatches out” the platform on the rock, not caring in the least about the egg that is in her field of vision (from observations G. S. Roginsky). There are many such facts. Thus, the expediency of instinctive behavior is far from being as absolute as it is sometimes imagined.

It is quite obvious that this expediency is essentially nothing more than adaptability, adaptation to certain conditions that are vital for the existence of organisms of a given species. It should be the subject not of metaphysical reflection, but of scientific explanation. This scientific explanation includes the elucidation of the mechanisms of instinctive action.

The main mechanisms through which instinctive actions are carried out are reflexes (unconditional).

Based on this, an attempt was made to reduce instinct to a reflex, defining instinctive action as a chain reflex, that is, as a chain of reflexes attached to each other, so that the response of the previous one serves as an irritant for the next.

This attempt fails for a number of reasons. First of all, this concept is debatable in the genetic aspect. The studies of G.E. Coghill and J. Harrick of the embryo of one species of salamander give experimental grounds for assuming that the reflex, i.e., the differentiated reaction of a separate nervous mechanism, is not such a genetically primary form, from which complex integral reactions of the organism are obtained in a summative way. At first, there are rather poorly differentiated integral reactions of the organism, from which separate reflex arcs are then distinguished; at the same time, the structure of the initially more or less amorphous integral reaction becomes more complicated. Genetically, instinct is thus most likely not just a sum or chain of reflexes.

The instinct is not reduced to a simple sum or chain of reflexes, also because, as a form of behavior, it is not limited to a set of mechanisms through which it is carried out, but implies a certain “motivation”, which determines or regulates the action of these mechanisms. An essential feature of instinctive action is that its source of motivation is a certain organic state or a change in this state, due to physiological changes in the body (in particular, the endocrine system, which determines the activity of the sex glands during puberty). This organic state makes certain stimuli especially significant for the animal and directs its actions.

With a change in this state, the relation of the animal to the objects of the environment changes; some stimuli lose their significance, others, previously indifferent, acquire it (the female ceases to attract and begins to attract food, etc.). Dependence on the organic state, one or another significance of stimuli, the direction of activity and the combination of various reactions into a whole distinguishes instinctive action as a form of behavior from a simple sum of reflexes. The limitation of the "motivation" of behavior by organic states and changes distinguishes instinctive behavior from other, higher forms of behavior.

Under natural conditions, the animal is not affected by an isolated and artificially isolated external stimulus, but by a combination of them, constituting a single situation. This latter is in relationship with the internal state of the organism. Under the regulatory influence of this state, which creates a certain willingness to act in a certain direction, activity unfolds. In the process of this activity, the specific situation in the relationship of external and internal conditions is constantly changing. Even the mere movement of an animal from one place to another already changes the situation for him; at the same time, as a result of the activity of the animal, its internal state may also change (satiation after eating, etc.).

Thus, as a result of the actions of an animal, the conditions under which they take place change, and a change in the conditions under which they take place cannot but cause changes in the actions themselves. The behavior of an animal is not fixed from beginning to end. The entry into action of certain reflexes, certain sensory-motor reactions is due to the changing conditions in which the animal's activity takes place, and this activity itself. Like any action of a living organism, in the process of its implementation it changes the conditions of its course and therefore changes itself. Carried out by means of relatively fixed mechanisms, instinctive behavior, however, is by no means a mechanical act. It is precisely because of this that instinctive actions can be to a certain extent adapted to the situation and change in accordance with the change in the situation, outwardly approaching rational actions.

Distinguished from individually variable forms of behavior (from skill and intellect), instinct, however, is closely connected with them. In the behavior of each animal, taken in its concrete reality, various forms of behavior usually function in unity and interpenetration, and not just an isolated instinct or the same isolated habit, etc. Thus, pecking in a chicken is an instinctive mechanism ready for the moment. birth. But at first, the chick pecks at both grains and small pebbles, beads, etc. Only then does he learn to distinguish grains and peck only them. Thus, the biologically important act of eating is carried out through reactions in which instinct and skill are intertwined. Here habit functions, as it were, within instinct. In the same way, elements of the intellect can function within instinct.

Living beings have instincts at different levels of development. Instinctive actions are observed in a very specific form in higher invertebrates, in arthropods: in particular, it is known what a great role instinctive forms of behavior play in bees and ants. Vivid examples of instinctive behavior in vertebrates are observed in birds. They also talk about instincts in relation to a person. Instincts at such different stages or levels of development are obviously different instincts. The difference in the nature and level of instinctive behavior is connected: 1) with the peculiarities of reception, with how the stimuli of instinctive actions are differentiated, - how differentiated and generalized the objects are perceived, at which the instinctive action is directed, and 2) with the degree of template and stereotyping of the instinctive action. The nature of reception and the nature of action are closely interrelated.

The blindness and irrationality of many instinctive actions and their inexpediency under non-stereotypical conditions are explained primarily by the fact that many instinctive actions are caused, as it were, by a conditioned stimulus, which is phylogenetically fixed as a signal that causes the corresponding actions without proper differentiation of those objects to which the instinctive action is essentially directed. .

Blind, "unreasonable" are instinctive actions that proceed from the sensation of individual sensory properties without perception of the object to which the action is directed, and are performed in the form of reactions to a separate one. sensory stimulus.

This is the case, for example, in those cases when a butterfly makes an attempt to copulate with any object from which the smell of a female emanates. Quite different happens when the instinctive action is determined by a distinct, sufficiently differentiated and generalized perception of objects and certain general, in particular spatial, properties of the situation. In these cases, instinctive actions are striking in their reasonableness, i.e., the adequacy of the situation. Such forms of instinct are found in an animal with developed external receptors, in particular in birds, which are distinguished by well-developed vision. As a particularly striking example, one can cite observations on a crow (in the experiment of M. Hertz). The nuts in this experiment were covered in small pots before the eyes of the crow. The crow knocked down the pot with its beak and took out the nut, but, grabbing the nut, it made an attempt to grab the pot as well - as a result, the nut fell out of its beak. Then the crow took the nut, put it into the pot, and, seizing the pot with its beak, carried it away along with the nut.

No matter how complex and reasonable the behavior of the crow was in this case, there is no need to assume that the solution of the problem took place here by means of an intellectual operation. The crow is one of the animals that prepare food for themselves in reserve, hiding it in hollow surfaces. Due to these biological conditions, the perception of hollow surfaces must be well developed in the crow, since the act of hiding food is associated with this. Therefore, the behavior of the crow can be interpreted in this case as an instinctive act. However, this does not exclude the possibility that this act appears, as it were, on the verge of a rational action. Reasonable instinctive actions, adapted to different situations, are based in most cases on a more or less generalized perception of spatial properties common to many situations.

At different stages of development, both the nature of the instinct and its relationship with other forms of behavior change. If we talk about human instincts (food, sexual), then these are instincts that are already fundamentally different from the instincts of animals. It is not for nothing that a new term is often introduced for their designation - attraction. For the transition from animal instincts to drives, fundamental shifts in development were required - the transition from biological to historical development, and this is due to the development of consciousness.

Man is born with instincts. These are innate qualities that help the individual from childhood to fight for his survival. Undoubtedly, without the help of adults, the child will not survive, even using his instincts. However, with a joint tandem, a person survives.

Instincts are given from birth to everyone. The basic instincts are sucking, grasping, crying. In the first days of life, a person needs only sleep, food and defecation. Only then does he begin to gradually develop his skills, creating his life more diverse.

Man never loses his instincts. He just stops using them as he develops. More and more, the skills that he developed and turned into habits come to the fore. However, in especially stressful situations, when the individual does not control his behavior, instincts control his behavior. Let's remember the desire to run when a dog attacks you, or the search for food when you are overcome by hunger.

Examples of instincts include:

Eat something sweet as it calms you down.
Drink alcohol to reduce mental activity.
Hug yourself, wrap yourself up or surround yourself with nice people when it's bad.

Instincts can change the form of their manifestation. However, they do not disappear on their own. In every situation, a person is looking for a way to calm himself, satisfy physiological needs and give rest. Without this, a person will not be engaged in other goals and aspirations.

What is instinct?

Instincts are part of every person. In an unconscious state or in the absence of mental activity, a person is completely subordinate to instincts. We can say that even adults sometimes perform automatic actions that are dictated by instincts ..

An automatic action that does not require control by the human mind is called instinct. It is an innate quality aimed at meeting the basic needs of the body. A person wants to eat, rest, reproduce and protect himself - these are basic instincts that satisfy the desires of the body.

At the level of instincts, a person practically does not differ from animals. The higher species of the animal world go further. They satisfy not only their physiological needs in the ways that are inherent in them by nature, but also develop their skills. For example, predators practice hunting skills.

A person begins to control his actions as he develops. More and more, the habits that she develops and supplant instinctive actions become the main ones. Sometimes a person acts consciously, that is, controls his behavior. However, the instincts are not dormant. In a situation of stress or unconsciousness, a person acts on the machine.

Automatic actions should be distinguished from each other, since they are:

Instincts are unconditioned reflexes.
Habits are conditioned reflexes.

human instincts

Every person has instincts. They are the basic and first driving forces that contribute to survival. However, over time, a person suppresses them by learning socially acceptable behavior, which becomes a habit. Even in such a situation, instincts do not disappear and are not forgotten. Sometimes you can notice how people behave inappropriately in specific situations. What does it say?

Instincts do not disappear anywhere, they are simply suppressed by conditioned reflexes or conscious, volitional activity. If the blocking system does not work in a particular situation, then the person begins to behave instinctively. He doesn't go crazy, but just acts automatically where the only goal is protection or survival.

In process of development instinctive manifestations can change. However, they always remain in a person. The main instincts are:

Self-preservation.
Power.
Reproduction.

If a person is subject to his instincts, then it is easy to control him.

A feature of the instincts is that they can suppress each other. Take the example of sexual infidelity, when a man takes the risk of sleeping with a woman without being sure that her husband will not catch them. The instinct of reproduction suppresses the instinct of self-preservation, but then they can switch if a husband appears (a person stops having sex and starts protecting himself).

Instincts are also the basis for the development of fears. If a person does not take action because it threatens him with something, then he develops fears in himself.

Human behavior under the influence of instincts can be very different from the actions that he performs consciously. Automatic actions are rude, primitive, thoughtless, which may be negatively perceived by society.

Instincts are important biological reflexes that are inherent in a person. They help in his survival. The rest already falls on how a person wants to live. Then he begins to develop certain skills and habits. Instincts do not need to be learned, they are already in a person. However, the progression of society affected how people further used their innate actions.

The need for socialization forces people to give up their instinctive behavior and develop other skills. To some extent, this affects human health. Without using his natural stimuli, a person ceases to use his physiological potential. This leads to a decrease in vision, hearing, the appearance of muscle weakness, the development of various diseases in the form of atrophy of individual cells, etc.

On the other hand, a person cannot live on the level of instincts, because then he will be completely rejected by society. He needs to learn to walk, talk, read and perform other actions in order to be adapted to the conditions that society has come up with.

Types of instincts

The following types of instincts are considered:

Reproductive: parental and sexual.
Social: related, conformal, vertical and horizontal consolidation, kleptomania, unrelated isolation.
Adaptation to the environment: territorial, search and gathering, constructive, migration, species limitation, veterinary and agricultural, landscape preferences, hunting and fishing.
Communicative: gestures and facial expressions, non-verbal, linguistic.

Instincts are invested in every individual. They can manifest themselves both independently and in interaction with other people. In turn, they are aimed exclusively at satisfying physiological needs. That is, the instincts are short-term in the period of their manifestation (as soon as a person has satisfied his desires, the instinct to perform the desired action disappears).

The first group includes the instincts of reproduction and manifestations of parental qualities. A person needs not only the fertilization of a woman so that she has a child, but also support, help for the child during the period of his helplessness (otherwise he would die). The absence of these instincts would have already destroyed mankind, since people would not multiply and would not take care of their own offspring.

The second group includes social instincts that encourage each person to unite with other people. The absence of this incentive would lead to the death of the individual, who would not be able to cope with the entire load of the environment. Uniting in groups, a person instinctively agrees to some suppression of himself, subordination, observance of the hierarchy. In such a situation, it is very easy to manipulate those who seek to preserve the group.

Man primarily strives to preserve his genome. That's why he joins families. At the same time, there is aggression and competition with those who are not family members. Man fights to keep his gene pure.

In addition, the individual always seeks to unite with another person. Cooperation is where no one is subordinate to anyone. However, people unite because it is much easier to complete a task or solve a problem together than individually.

By uniting, people create:

Vertical consolidation - when an individual agrees to obey and infringe on his freedom in order to be part of a group. At the same time, the team has a leader and obeys clear rules that cannot be destroyed.
Horizontal consolidations - when people unite of good will on the basis of altruism. A person will do something good for the sake of another individual in order to subsequently receive some benefit or help from him. There is no talk of selfless altruism here.

When in contact with his opponents, a person shows kleptomania - deceives, steals, steals. This is considered quite normal from the side of biology, when a person takes care of himself and his loved ones, brings them what he could take from others.

The instincts to adapt to the environment are irrelevant today. However, in the old days, a person always sought to find a place where it would be convenient for him to survive and satisfy his needs.

When uniting with people, a person is forced to look for ways to communicate with them. It uses verbal and non-verbal signs. If earlier they were primitive, then over time, society created its own language, which helps people understand each other. This makes them civilized people, although from birth a person does not know his own language.

Examples of instincts

The most frequently manifested instinct is the desire for self-preservation. Its striking examples appear almost everywhere:

A person is engaged in his own recovery when he falls ill.
He avoids those places and situations where death can threaten him.
Defends physically and verbally when attacked.
A person dresses warmly when he feels that he is freezing.
The person undresses so that his body temperature is comfortable.
He begins to look for food to satisfy his hunger, and drink to eliminate thirst.

Simply put, the instinct of self-preservation is aimed at preserving the integrity and vitality of the human body.

The instinct of reproduction is aimed at preserving the genus. For nature, it is necessary that a person retain his appearance. It is important for the family that new generations appear who will continue their family line. Here the instinct is manifested not only to conceive a child, but also to protect him, educate him, make him an independent person. Sometimes parental love crosses the line when adults overprotect their children, even when they themselves have become adults and independent, or are irresponsible about their development.

Wanting to become part of a society where privileges will be given, you can manipulate someone and even live at someone else's expense, makes a person take care to be attractive in appearance and possess useful communication skills. A person can sacrifice himself and even obey when necessary, if in the end this will allow him to receive certain benefits from others.

Outcome

Instincts are innate reflexes that a person cannot eliminate from his life. Periodically, each person obeys his instincts, which makes him act absurdly and primitively. However, the instincts are a part that is better to study and observe yourself than to fight it senselessly.

As a result of studying this chapter, the student should:

know

basic laws and principles of development of instinctive behavior;
basic methods for studying instinctive behavior;
the role of instinctive behavior in evolution;

be able to

Determine the proportion of instinctive components in the formation of a particular form of behavior;

own

Methods of analysis of the features of the instinctive behavior of animals.

History of the study of instincts

The concept of "instinct" appeared in the writings of ancient philosophers as early as the 3rd century. BC. This concept was given the following definition: instinct is an unconscious inner impulse, the expediency of which is due to a deity. Later, the concept of instinct became the subject of a bitter dispute between materialists and idealists. Idealist philosophers continued to adhere to the views of ancient thinkers, while many materialist philosophers of the 18th century, taking as a basis the materialistic side of Descartes's doctrine of the reflex principle of the nervous system, explained instinctive drives as the result of certain changes occurring in one or another system of the body. . Description and scientific characteristics of instinctive acts of behavior in animals in the same XVIII century. given in their works by J. Buffon, R. Reaumur, J. Leroy, A. Galler, G. Reymarus.

A completely materialistic explanation of the dependence of the origin of instinct on the living conditions of the animal at the beginning of the 19th century. was given by J. B. Lamarck. In the first half of the XIX century. F. Cuvier made a number of experiments to study the formation of complex instincts in animals. His well-known experiments on the "building" instinct of beavers have not lost their significance to this day. Of great interest to the doctrine of the behavior and instinctive activity of animals were the views of K. Roulier. At the very beginning of the 1840s. he opposed the point of view, widely held at that time among psychologists, that the instinct and mental activity of animals are unknowable and not subject to scientific analysis. Roulier believed that the main approach to explaining the causes of instinctive behavior should be to resolve the issue of the causes that determine the historical development of a given form of animal activity. He, like Lamarck, saw this reason in the way of life, in those conditions of existence in which this or that species lived throughout its history.

The most important stage in the study of instincts was the teachings of Ch. Darwin. He gave a fairly clear definition of instinct: "Such an act, which can be performed by us only after some experience or by equally many individuals without knowing on their part the purpose for which it is performed, is usually called instinct" .

As well as for morphological traits, Darwin saw the main reason for the formation of instinct in the natural (or artificial) selection of the hereditary variability of innate acts of behavior. Thus, his teaching offered a fundamentally new solution to the question of the origin of instincts. Darwin pointed out that the instinct of animals from now on "is not intentionally bestowed or created instincts, but only a consequence of one general law that determines the development of all organic beings, namely reproduction, change, survival of the strongest and death of the weak" .

Further study of instinct went in two main directions:

1) a detailed study of the diversity and adaptive significance of instinct in various animals. The representative of this line of work abroad was Lloyd Morgan, in our country - V. Wagner. Wagner collected and summarized a large number of observations of the instinctive behavior of animals and studied the variability and adaptive significance of a number of instincts. Later, the development of this direction was very fruitfully continued by ethologists;
2) the study of the physiological foundations of instinct. The founder of this direction in Russia was IP Pavlov. From the first steps of an objective study of higher nervous activity, he divided all the reflexes underlying the behavior of animals into two groups: conditioned and unconditioned. He actually identified complex unconditioned reflexes with instincts. IP Pavlov singled out the following main reflex (instinctive) reactions of the body: food, defensive, sexual, indicative, parental. These groups of instinctive reactions are common to all animal species. However, some species have specific instincts that are characteristic only for them, for example, the building instincts of beavers, migratory instincts of birds, "rinsing" instincts of a raccoon, etc.

A very thorough attempt to give a precise definition of instinct was made by the German zoologist G. E. Ziegler(1914). This scientist believed that instinctive behavior is characterized by the following points:

1) is hereditarily determined and is a characteristic property of a particular species or race;
2) does not require prior learning;
3) is performed essentially the same in all normal individuals of the species or race;
4) corresponds to the anatomical structure of the animal, i.e. is in connection with the normal functioning of its organs;
5) is adapted to the natural conditions of life of the species and is in connection with regular natural changes in living conditions, for example, with the seasons.

Thus, the definition of instinct proposed by Ziegler does not essentially differ from the Pavlovian definition of the unconditioned reflex and quite clearly formulates it not only from the physiological, but also from the biological side.

The complexity of the very concept of instinct as a hereditarily determined act of behavior, the limits of variability of this act, its meaning, its interpretation in nature, etc. - all this made many naturalists repeatedly return to the revision and refinement of the term itself. Obviously, the sequence of motor acts, their dependence on the influence of the environment, physiological state, adaptability to the living conditions of a given species are constant companions of instincts. In the process of development of the organism, instincts form and disappear, being replaced by one another.

A characteristic feature of most instincts is their confinement to certain age or seasonal periods. At the same time, the manifestation of many instincts radically changes the entire stereotype of an animal's life. Migration, food-procuring instincts, as well as reproductive instincts occupy certain long periods in the life of animals. The basis of this stationary instinctive behavior, of course, is the appearance in the central nervous system of persistent foci of increased excitability - dominants. For the first time, the well-known Russian physiologist drew attention to the emergence of dominant relationships and described them as one of the most general principles of the work of nerve centers. A. A. Ukhtomsky(1945). The dominant is the temporary existence in the central nervous system of foci of increased excitability, which can be intensified under the influence of various stimuli that affect the body from the outside or arise in itself, while many other centers are inhibited.

Ukhtomsky emphasized that the accumulating long-term stationary activity of the centers of the nervous system, which caused a decrease in the thresholds of excitability of some reactions and inhibition of others, is a mechanism that ensures the stability of animal behavior in accordance with the main biological phases of its life. In this case, humoral factors play a huge role, which are the cause of stationary changes in the excitability of the central nervous system, and they turn out to be the direct cause of the different reactivity of the nerve centers responsible for the development of a certain instinct. Sexual instincts with the entire set of reactions characteristic of each type are realized against the background of increased activity of the gonads. The parental instincts of mammals and birds are determined by certain hormonal changes, in which the increased secretion of the hormone prolactin by the anterior pituitary gland plays a significant role.

In the brain there are certain centers in which the arcs of unconditioned reflexes are closed, which are innate components of instinctive reactions, the functional state of which is essential for the implementation of one or another instinct. The hypothalamic region is of particular importance in this respect. Damage to this part of the diencephalon leads to serious violations of a number of instinctive acts, and, on the contrary, irritation of the hypothalamus with a weak electric current through the implantation of electrodes leads to the manifestation of certain instincts. Stationary changes in the excitability (dominant) of the nerve centers of the unconditional reflex components of the instinct determine the direction of the biological adaptation of the organism in various periods of its life. The provisions of N. A. Ukhtomsky are close to N. Tinbergen’s ideas about hierarchical role of instinct.

The regularities of the mechanisms of reflex activity were studied in the experiments of IP Pavlov. Food, sexual, defensive, maternal and some other reflexes are, according to the position of the Pavlovian school, the innate basis on which all further behavior is built. This clear separation of the group of innate reflexes is absolutely necessary and justified in the study of reflex activity. However, when we pass from the study of the patterns of reflex activity of the nervous system to the study of patterns of behavior, it becomes impossible to make a clear division of acts of behavior into conditional and unconditional.

In this way, instincts can be defined as complex unconditioned reflexes, "overgrown" with conditioned reflex components as a result of the adaptation of animals to specific living conditions for each individual. Stationary changes in the excitability of the nerve centers of the unconditional reflex components of the instinct (the emergence of a dominant) determine the direction of the biological adaptation of the organism in various periods of its life. The main criterion that distinguishes instinctive behavior from non-instinctive is, therefore, a greater proportion of unconditioned reflex components compared to conditioned reflex components in the formation of this type of behavior.

The modern idea of the physiological nature of instincts explains a number of aspects of the instinctive activity of animals. First of all, the “expediency” of instinctive acts of behavior, which is striking at first glance, becomes clear, since it is determined not only by the result of the natural selection of innate components of instinct in previous generations, but also by the result of the individual experience of each individual, adapting his innate pattern of behavior to specific conditions of life.

An enormous contribution to the study of instinctive behavior was made by ethologists, since this science from the very beginning was focused on studying the predominantly instinctive behavior of animals in the natural environment. Their undoubted achievement is that they moved from general reasoning to a consistent and objective study of the animal's reactions with their qualitative and quantitative registration. At the same time, the environment, which has an activating or, conversely, inhibitory effect on the corresponding motor acts, is also subjected to careful analysis.

The leading role in the creation of the modern doctrine of instincts in ethology belongs to the classics of this science K. Lorentz and N. Tinbergen.

Darwin Ch. Origin of species by natural selection. M., L., 1937.
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