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    Instinct Theory of Motivation

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    Abdur Rehman Somroo
    The instinct theory of motivation suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based and driven by innate instincts. Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to propose this theory and outlined 18 instincts including curiosity, hunger, and sex. Sigmund Freud believed human behavior was driven by life and death instincts, while William James identified instincts for survival like fear, anger, and love. According to the theory, instincts drive all behaviors and help ensure survival through innate patterns like birds migrating or infants rooting for food. Konrad Lorenz demonstrated the power of instincts by getting geese to imprint on him instead of their mothers.

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    Instinct Theory of Motivation

    Uploaded by

    Abdur Rehman Somroo
    2K views1 page
    The instinct theory of motivation suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based and driven by innate instincts. Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to propose this theory and outlined 18 instincts including curiosity, hunger, and sex. Sigmund Freud believed human behavior was driven by life and death instincts, while William James identified instincts for survival like fear, anger, and love. According to the theory, instincts drive all behaviors and help ensure survival through innate patterns like birds migrating or infants rooting for food. Konrad Lorenz demonstrated the power of instincts by getting geese to imprint on him instead of their mothers.

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    The instinct theory of motivation suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based and driven by innate instincts. Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to propose this theory and outlined 18 instincts including curiosity, hunger, and sex. Sigmund Freud believed human behavior was driven by life and death instincts, while William James identified instincts for survival like fear, anger, and love. According to the theory, instincts drive all behaviors and help ensure survival through innate patterns like birds migrating or infants rooting for food. Konrad Lorenz demonstrated the power of instincts by getting geese to imprint on him instead of their mothers.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    2K views1 page

    Instinct Theory of Motivation

    Uploaded by

    Abdur Rehman Somroo
    The instinct theory of motivation suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based and driven by innate instincts. Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to propose this theory and outlined 18 instincts including curiosity, hunger, and sex. Sigmund Freud believed human behavior was driven by life and death instincts, while William James identified instincts for survival like fear, anger, and love. According to the theory, instincts drive all behaviors and help ensure survival through innate patterns like birds migrating or infants rooting for food. Konrad Lorenz demonstrated the power of instincts by getting geese to imprint on him instead of their mothers.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    THE INSTINCT THEORY OF MOTIVATION

    Psychologist  William  McDougall  was  one  of  the  first  to  write  about  the  instinct  theory  of 
    motivation. He suggested that instinctive behavior was composed of three essential elements: 
    perception, behavior, and emotion. He also outlined 18 different instincts that included curiosity, 
    the maternal instinct, laughter, comfort, sex, and hunger.   

    Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud used a broad view of motivation and suggested the human behavior 
    was driven by two key forces: the life and death instincts. Psychologist William James, on the 
    other hand, identified a number of instincts that he believed were essential for survival. These 
    included such things as fear, anger, love, shame, and cleanliness. 

    The instinct theory suggests that motivation is primarily biologically based. We engage in certain 
    behaviors because they aid in survival. Migrating before winter ensures the survival of the flock, 
    so  the  behavior  has  become  instinctive.  Birds  who  migrated  were  more  likely  to  survive  and 
    therefore more likely to pass down their genes to future generations.   

    According  to  the  instinct  theory  of  motivation,  all  organisms  are  born  with  innate  biological 
    tendencies that help them survive. This theory suggests that instincts drive all behaviors. Instincts 
    are  goal‐directed  and  innate  patterns  of  behavior  that  are  not  the  result  of  learning  or 
    experience. For example, infants have an inborn rooting reflex that helps them seek out a nipple 
    and obtain nourishment, while birds have an innate need to build a nest or migrate during the 
    winter.  Both  of  these  behaviors  occur  naturally  and  automatically.  They  do  not  need  to  be 
    learned in order to be displayed.   

    In animals, instincts are inborn tendencies to engage spontaneously in a particular pattern of 
    behavior. Examples of this include a dog shaking after it gets wet, a sea turtle seeking out the 
    ocean after hatching, or a bird migrating before the winter season.   

    Konrad Lorenz famously demonstrated the power of instincts when he was able to get young 
    geese to imprint on him. He noted that geese would become attached to the first moving thing 
    they encountered after they hatched, which in most cases would be their mothers. However, by 
    ensuring that he was the first thing the geese encountered, they instead became attached, or 
    imprinted, on him.   

    In  human  beings,  many  reflexes  are  examples  of  instinctive  behaviors.  The  rooting  reflex,  as 
    mentioned earlier is one such example, as is the suckling reflex (a reflex in which babies begin 
    sucking when a finger or nipple places pressure on the roof of their mouth,) the Moro reflex (a 
    startle reaction seen in babies less than 6 months of age) and the Babkin reflex (a reflex in which 
    babies open their mouths and flex their arms in response to rubbing the palms of their hands.) 
    Infants display these instinctive reactions when confronted by stimuli in their environment. For 
    example, brushing an infant's cheek will cause the child to turn his or her head and search for a 
    nipple.   

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