Gregariousness. — The activities displayed by children and adults brought about by the stimulus of being left alone are often called the gregarious instinct. The observed responses are wan- dering from place to place, restlessness, verbal complaint and actual seeking movements. If long continued the situation leads even the adult to break all bounds and to overcome many ob- stacles in order to mix with his fellow-man. Caste and social distinctions are broken down, and the most exalted person will fraternize with the humblest. When actually with the group the restlessness dies away even though the individual does not enter into any kind of social relation with his fellows, but merely idles along with them from place to place. Often the presence of a dog or a cat or of another human being far too young to serve as a real companion will suffice to cause the restlessness and seeking movements to disappear. Solitary confinement is one of the severest of punishments. These tendencies have been well worked out in McDougall's Social Psychology and in Le Bon's The Crowd. It is possible to analyze still further the instinct into simpler factors, but it is so well consolidated and so generally recognized (although there are many exceptions) that analysis seems to be out of place. Our cafes, boulevards, churches and county fairs are dependent upon it to a certain extent.
HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 259 Other So-Called Social Instincts. — Social psychologists have overemphasized the instinctive factors in the activities enumer- ated below. Man is supposed to exhibit special instinctive tend- encies in his behavior to other human beings. It is asserted that the human face is too early singled out by the child from all other objects for the process to be anything but instinctive. Our insight into the early functioning of the conditioned reflexes teaches us to expect that the baby would ' ' single out ' ' the person handing the bottle (or giving the breast) before all other persons. There are certainly very slight grounds for assuming instinctive factors here. Any object, a moving dancing manikin, for ex- ample, that could feed the infant, keep it dry and warm, pet it, etc., would be singled out just as early. Young ducks hatched out by the hen follow her around, single her out and learn her haunts, but surely no one would claim that there was anything more present than the following instinct plus habits which had been built up. Similar conclusions with respect to the lack of many instinctive factors must be drawn in the cases of the so-called "attention getting," ''responses to approving and scornful behavior," "mastering and submissive behavior," "display," etc. These are all important aspects of man's total be- havior, but there seem to be no just grounds for assuming that the activities are carried out at the instinctive level. Undoubt- edly just after birth conditioned reflexes begin to form with respect to the attendants and parents long before systematized habits begin to form. In other words, there is a genuine condi- tioned reflex level of functioning lying between the reflex-instinct level and the organized habit level. Many of the connections described in the older texts as instinctive are formed during this period. We have already shown how quickly and at what an early age children learn to control the parents ' actions — crying when left alone, when put down in the dark, when put to bed, etc., is a favorite trick. Retching and vomiting at the sight of certain foods is another; going into a rage when something is taken away from it is another (the parent often returns the object, thus "giving way" to the child). This conditioning of activity occurs so early that it is no wonder many observers have created * ' attention-getting ' ' and other instincts.
Imitation. — Psychologists and students of animal behavior generally are more or less divided in their opinion as to the presence of any function to imitate both in animals and in man. The analysis of the instinct has been very superficial. Thorn- dike's characterization of the stimulus and response is probably as accurate as any we have. It is as follows: "Smiling when 260 PSYCHOLOGY smiled at, laughing when others laugh, yelling when others yell, looking at what is observed, listening when others listen, running with or after people who are running in the same direction, run- ning from the focus whence others scatter, jabbering when others jabber and becoming silent as they become silent, crouching when others crouch, chasing, attacking and rending what others hunt, and seizing whatever object another seizes."
Manipulation. — This instinctive tendency is sometimes exalted by calling it constructiveness. That there is an original tend- ency to reach out for objects, to scrape them along the floor, to pick them up, put them into the mouth, to throw them upon the floor, to move back and forth any parts which can be moved, is one of the best grounded and best observed of the instincts. From our point of view this instinct to manipulate, even though it must be supplemented, as we brought out above, by certain habit factors, is probably the most important of all original tend- encies in view of the fact that nearly all later habit formations are dependent upon it. When we say most important here, we are neglecting for the moment the instincts connected with bodily functions, as sex, the eliminative functions, etc. Curiosity is often listed as one of the important human instincts. The activ- ities seen in curiosity are embraced in those connected with manipulation. Veblen, the economist, uses the instinct of work- manship as a pillar for his economic theories. It is doubtful whether there are any instinctive factors there which are not embraced in manipulation, positive and negative reaction tendencies, etc.
Other Asserted Instincts. — Other asserted instincts are greed, kindliness, teasing, tormenting, bullying, cleanliness, adornment. Further observation and analysis of these activities are necessary before it can be decided to what extent instinctive factors are present. Psychologists persistently maintain that cleanliness is instinctive, in spite of the filth of the negro, of the savage and of the child. It is a fight with most children from birth until the competition of sex occurs to get them to property wash their hands and face and body as a whole, not to speak of smaller matters such as washing the ears, keeping the teeth brushed and the nails cut and cleaned. Even the adult, highly conven- tionalized individual omits his daily plunge and lets his beard grow when living in an unsocial environment. The functioning of the instinct is supposed to occur when slimy, sticky substances are grasped. Our own observations on this point are cited on page 248.
Play. — Play is a form of instinctive activity the stimulus to HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 261 which is unquestionably in doubt. Play as a whole seems to be made up really of a variety of activities, all functioning more or less together. Manipulation is one of the most easily observable of the Activities; then, too, there are rapid shifts of facial ex- pression, vocalization, running toward and away from, crawling, hiding, etc. The activities under the influence of social factors soon become organized into the various games, or individual habit activity such as the making of mud pies, building with blocks, caring for, playing with and feeding small animals, etc.
We undoubtedly see in the play activities of children the embryonic activities of the adults, playing house, cooking, pet- ting dolls, etc. Here the shaping or training activities of a parent are easily observable. If a young human were to grow up in isolation, it is probable that he would play, but the form of the play would, without doubt, be entirely different from that observed in children brought up under modern conditions of civilization. Kipling has with some skill pictured the growth of Mowgli, who was suckled by the wolf and brought up in the forest with animals as playmates.
Groos has advanced a biological theory of play. Play, accord- ing to him, is a biological tendency. The young animal engages in those functions which will be of service to it in later life. He sees in the running, jumpingj-tumbling, fighting, early sex re- sponses, etc., the perfecting of those activities which the animal will use when the struggle for food, mate, etc., begins. This theory really has nothing to recommend it.
General Comments on the Above Instincts. — We are in- clined to take the point of view here also that most of these asserted instincts are really consolidations of instinct and habit. In certain of them, such as manipulation, the original activities predominate. In certain others, e.g., adornment, hunting, hab- itation, etc., the pattern as a whole is largely composed of habit elements. It should again be reiterated here that so far as the functioning and value of these attitudes to the organism, so far as the role they play in daily* life, so far as their backward and forward reference in the life history of the individual are concerned, it makes not a whit's difference what factors these capacities are analyzable into. The geneticist is likely to overem- phasize the number of original tendencies; the psycho-analyst, to underestimate them. He reduces instincts almost as a class to a few stereotyped factors connected with the (from his stand- 262 PSYCHOLOGY 262 PSYCHOLOGY point, fundamental) sex phenomena. The fact of the matter seems to be that in most cases there is no need of detailed analysis of these attitudes. Those that we have cited and man^ others function as wholes in the daily lives of all individuals. They are as potent and real as if they were inborn and began to func- tion in earliest infancy with all the completeness they exhibit in adult life.
The Instinctive Sex Responses. — The subject of the com- plete manifestation of the instinct of sex is too vast for brief treatment. We have already discussed some of the implicit fac- tors in connection with the emotion of love, and indicated there how attachments (conditioned reflexes) might grow up ^to per- sons and objects that stimulate the erogenous zones of the child, as in bathing, rocking and petting. We are dealing here, though, with a primitive order of habits and not with instincts. There seems to be no original tendency to approach the sex organs with the hands as there is to approach the mouth. In some five hun- dred observations of infants varying in age from birth to three hundred days we have never seen any instinctive tendency on the part of the child to approach the sex organs with the hands. Observation shows that even when the child is pinched or scratched on the sole of the foot the tendency for the hand is always upward and toward the face and rarely downward. The finding of the sex organs seems to be something of a genuine discovery, like the finding of the feet and toes (which occurs, of course, much earlier — 150 days). Once discovered, habits of distortion may possibly grow up. Undoubtedly there are a 'large number of purely instinctive responses connected with those organs.
The sex instinct as a whole has very many ramifications. Habits of the most varied kinds are built upon and around it. The study of the normal sex "sublimations" leads us into the whole field of human activity from folk-lore to philosophic and artistic productions. The study of sex perversions leads us very quickly into the field of the psychoses.
Inhibition and Control of Instinct. — The problems connected with the breaking down of instincts and their replacement by habit are of both practical and theoretical interest. Where in- HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 263 stincts are distorted they must often be broken down before normal activities can be given an opportunity for development. Furthermore, many of the perfectly normal instincts must be brought under social control before the individual is prepared to mingle with his fellow-men. One of the earliest examples of the socialization of normal instinctive acts is illustrated by the teaching of the infant continence with respect to its eliminative functions. Here the instinctive activities are left intact so far as the pattern is concerned, but the situation for the release of these activities is made more complex. The mother starts the process of control very simply by taking the child to the toilet every two hours or oftener and leaving it there until those acts are performed, and then bringing it back to its more customary and normal environment. The association grows up rapidly in nor- mal children. Thereafter,, the intra-organic stimulus (pressure of urine and faeces) leads the child to make some sign, usually a vocal one, which stimulates the mother to gather it up and carry it to the proper place for the performance of those func- tions. As the child grows older, the pressure of such stimuli touches off the act of going to the proper place of his own accord.
The extra-organic stimulation (the new situational factor, the sight and contact of the toilet) leads to the act of evacuation. There are thus a large number of habit activities built up around the instinctive function, but the latter as such is left prac- tically untouched except for a momentary initial inhibition (sphincter control).
A case in which the pattern itself is1 altered to some extent can be illustrated most simply from animal life. The bird dog when taught to retrieve, at first instinctively bites the bird when he grasps it, especially if it is wounded and fluttering. It is often difficult to get this part of the pattern broken up. It can be done by filling the dead bird with pins. If the dog then mouths the bird at all severely, the points prick him and it is necessary for him to close down very gently indeed when he brings the bird in if he is to avoid pain stimulation. Dogs and cats often suck eggs, which is a purely instinctive function with dogs at least. They can be cured by filling the egg with quinine or 264 PSYCHOLOGY cayenne pepper. In these illustrations there is the actual break- ing down of a part of the reaction pattern by reason of the changes introduced into the stimulus. The stimulus becomes other than it was. Instead of leading now to action a + b + c -f- d, for example, smelling at, licking the egg, cracking the shell and lapping up the contents, it leads to action a + x, i.e., to smelling and avoiding. Some children suck the fingers instinc- tively from birth. If not corrected, it may continue long after the infancy period. The most usual way of breaking the instinct is to place something upon the fingers that will lead to another reaction (quinine, pepper, etc.), or else to make the action im- possible by putting a cardboard tube on the arm so that the elbow cannot be bent. The instinct dies here because the act cannot be completed. Society puts a good deal of emphasis upon right- handedness. If handedness is instinctive as is most generally assumed, we have in the breaking up of left-handediiess a study in the displacement of an instinct. Everything is offered to the child 's right hand, people shake hands with it with the right hand, the parents place everything in such a way that the right hand will be used much more frequently than the left. All habits, then, are built up around the right hand and lef t-handedness dies by inanition, i.e., through lack of stimulation. Habits of a per- nicious character are often as difficult to break up as are instincts. Summarizing the general principle by means of which we break up or control instinct, we may say that we may break up an instinct by (1) arranging the environmental factors in such a way that the instinct cannot take place; the organism is re- strained to such an extent that although the movement is ini- tiated, it cannot be completed. Examples, tying down the hand of the child, muzzling the dog, harnessing the cow (to prevent its sucking its own milk). While the animal is restrained, we build up habits with respect to those objects which have hitherto been instinctively reacted to— the burglar often feeds the watch- dog in the daytime and speaks gently to him while the animal is tied up, hoping that when released at night the friendly habits with respect to himself will inhibit the instinct to rend and tear.
(2) On the other hand, we can alter the stimulus, as shown by HEREDITARY MODES. OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 265 the illustrations of the doctoring of the egg, putting pepper on the baby's fingers, etc. The stimulus then touches off once at least and usually several times the old reaction, but the new elements added to the stimulus touch off something in addition to the old instinct pattern, viz., an avoidance reaction, possibly also vomiting, hanging out of the tongue to cool it, etc. This phase of the stimulus may become so emphasized that the avoiding reac- tion may be the first to appear the next time the stimulus is presented.
In adult life the process of ' ' habituation ' ' is probably the most potent factor in eliminating especially the instinctive fear tend- encies (even though many such reactions are conditioned, they are often fully as powerful factors as if they were native). The movie of a workman going out over a single iron: beam twenty storiesi up from the ground produces many fear reactions on our part and sometimes nausea. If forced actually to walk such a beam suddenly yourself for the first time, it would produce faint- ing and falling without much question. When led gradually to it, it is soon done as readily as any other act. So with climbing to high places, rushing into burning buildings, taming lions and tigers, etc. Habit gradually makes the thing possible.
An interesting example of the breaking up of an instinct by experimental methods is cited by Partridge. On a visit to Central Park in New York he noted that the observers around the snakes' cage blinked and jumped back (defensive reflex) each time one of the cobras struck the glass. In order partially to duplicate the situation for an experiment on the breaking up of the instinct he set up a piece of heavy plate glass in front of his subjects and devised a mechanism which would release a rubber- faced wooden-headed hammer for striking against the glass. The hammer struck the glass at the level of the subjects' eyes. At first, of course, the subject blinked and drew back each time the hammer approached the eye. As the subject became more habituated to the situation inhibition occurred. The following figures refer to the number of times the wink was inhibited in each of a series of four hundred trials: 6, 14, 38, 65, 268, 352. That is, inhibition occurred only six times in the first four hun- 266 PSYCHOLOGY dred trials, whereas it occurred 352 times in the last four hun- dred trials.
The Recapitulation Theory. — Under the influence of sev- eral non-biologically trained psychologists, a rather persistent but nevertheless pernicious theory of the stages of childhood activity has grown up. This is known as the recapitulation theory. It holds, in short, that ontogeny repeats phylogeny— that the developing child must pass through all the stages that the race has passed through. He should thus by rights pass through a fish stage of activity, a monkey stage, a primitive man stage, etc. Certain psychologists have seriously subscribed to such statements as the following: " A babe a few days old...made peculiar paddling or swimming movements. " "In children and adults...we find swaying from side to side or backward or forward, not infrequent. This suggests the slow vacillatory movements used by fish." The best corrective for such harmful conceptions! is a real genetic study of the child and a deeper knowledge of biology.
Principal Role of Instincts. — Though the perfect instincts in man be few in number, his wealth of abortive and instinctive tendencies is quite important. In general it seems safe to sum- marize the role of instincts in man as follows: 1. Man is supplied with a large number of directly adaptive life-conserving activities which care for the intake, digestion and dissemination of food products and for the elimination of waste and for procreation. These purely vegetative functions serve him as they serve animals lower than man and are possibly just as "perfect."
2. Man at birth and at varying periods thereafter is supplied with a series of protective attack and defense mechanisms, which while not nearly so perfect as in animals, nevertheless form a substantial repertoire of acts which needs only slight supplementa- tion by habit before being of direct utility to the individual in his struggle for food, against enemies, etc. These are the pro- tective and defense attitudes — the instinctive factors predominate.
3. Then follow the occupational tendencies (manipulation) supplemented by habit— seen earliest in collecting, hoarding, HEREDITARY MODES OF RESPONSE: INSTINCT 267 building of blocks, hammering and the use of tools generally, drawing, modeling in clay, etc. In the crude stage of these activities, the instinctive factors predominate and make clear the lines along which habits must follow. The instinctive factors are, however, soon lost sight of in the activities of the skilled workman, the artist and the collector. These differing activities are seen at a very early age in children. Modern school methods, and especially the college, tend to break them down. One rarely finds a lad of twelve who cannot tell exactly what he wants to become, what he is fitted for and why he is fitted for jt. By the time he has had all the original manipulative tendencies culti- vated out of him in college, he can rarely tell what he is fitted for, and he drifts now into this work, now into that, depending upon his father 's business, temporary openings, the traditions of the school, or the aspirations of his parents or other backers. We cannot help but feel that there are enough instinctive lean- ings present in early youth to properly shape any child's future activities. The problem is to find the method of discovering them, and then to shape the schools and colleges in such a way that these tendencies will be fostered rather than lost. If they are kept central, any amount of culture may be built alongside of them without bringing about their submergence.
4. Individuality seems in some way to depend upon man's original tendencies, not upon the presence of the completed pat- tern type of instincts, since these do not exist in any large num- ber, but apparently upon factors which, when taken singly, are difficult to detect, but which when taken together are most im- portant. There is not much experimental evidence for this con- clusion, but there is a great deal of common-sense data. We have in mind such differentiations! as follows: Two men with the same and equal training, and approximately equal in ability in any skilled field, each capable of turning out fine work, will show individuality in workmanship, design and methods of approach- ing their problems. Two equally skilled pitchers or catchers in baseball show this very well. Two men working upon lathes or modeling in clay, or making drawings of the same microscopic slide illustrate it. Apparently there are different, fundamental 268 PSYCHOLOGY part activities which have persisted in spite of instruction. We dignify these in the artist by the terms " touch/' "technic," "in- dividuality," etc. The fact that they have persisted seems to prove their original nature.