Instinct

Introduction
Defining instinct
Darwin’s conception of motivational instinct
Instinct as impulsion
- Freud’s Trieb
- McDougall and behaviourism
- Ethology and instinct
  - Lorenz: genetically determined behaviour
  - Tinbergen: hierarchy of motivation
Instinct as innateness
Instinct as behaviour

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Foraging is an example of an instinct driven by impulses serving specific biological functions.

Portrait of Charles Darwin, circa 1874, seated and facing left, with a long white beard and wearing a dark coat.

Konrad Lorenz, an older man with white hair and a beard, wearing a suit and tie, looks to the side and smiles in this 1973 portrait.

Male three-spined stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) display instinctive territorial defense behaviour against trespassing males, who may be rivals for reproductive mates.

Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) sitting on a rock, showing its colorful face with bright blue and red markings and yellow beard.

Mating behaviour in animals is instinctive.

The courtship displays of animals such as the male frigate bird (Fregata minor) are driven by instinct.

At a Glance

instinct summary

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External Websites

The Catholic Encyclopedia - Instinct

Instinct

behavior

Also known as: innate behaviour

Written by

Colin Beer

Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

Colin Beer

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 6, 2026 •History

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...

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