term, in accordance with our use of it in the previous paragraph, to include modes of behaviour in which some element of experience may be included, our list grows very much longer. Some writers have enumerated over thirty human instincts. It will be enough for our purpose to consider a few of the most important.
(1) One of the earliest forms of instinctive behaviour is that prompted by fear. In its earliest hours the infant displays fear on the occurrence of any loud noise, and instinctively shrinks from it. This shrinking may develop into movements of flight and concealment as soon as the infant is capable of them. Along with this we may take the instinct of repulsion. The child instinctively shrinks from slimy creatures.
(2) The child instinctively opposes anything which rouses its anger. Any prolonged discomfort, or the interruption or lateness of a meal, will make the child angry. At first the infant has to be content to express its anger in cries; but, as soon as it is able, its instinctive opposition to what has aroused its anger issues in active pugnacity. "Many a little boy has, without any example or suggestion, suddenly taken to running with open mouth to bite the person who has angered him. … As the child grows up … and the means we take to overcome obstructions to our efforts become more refined and complex, this instinct ceases to express itself in its crude natural manner, save when most intensely excited, and becomes rather a source of increased energy of action."[1]
- ↑ M'Dougall: Social Psychology, p. 61.
