Please write 8 discussion on the paragraphs in quotation mark, discussions should be written in first person and it should be questions, ideas, thoughts, concerns, anything that stood out and every point should explain why stated. Also discussion should be nicely agreeing with points made that’s in the paragraph. The book to use is Motivation: Theory, Research and Application 6th edition by Herbert Petri and John Govern. A rubric on how to reply will be uploaded also
1. “I found the nominal fallacy described in the book to be incredibly interesting in terms of the study of instincts pertaining to behavior. Instinct as a behavior for both animals/ humans was the predominant lens to study from roughly the late 1800s to the early 1900s. It seems incredible that a researcher could simply make a claim with minimal testing/ experimentation to back their findings. I had to remind myself when reading this portion that psychology was still a relatively new field at this point in time, so there were no well-defined methodologies to be used, and new concepts, ideas, methodologies, etc. had to be developed and discovered via trial and error. This section specifically- the nominal fallacy, reminded me of something I just learned in experimental psychology, which is the obtaining of knowledge via authority. As researchers such as William McDougall were the ‘experts’ in their field, the majority of people would believe them and their findings, as we (as a collective) in our daily lives do not have time to research and check every claim that we a presented with.”
2. “Instincts to me means something that you are supposed to know or something that you learn. I disagreed with Kuo from the text because I believe instinctive is learned and innate. Instinctive is learned and innate because we have involuntary and voluntary movements. For example, breathing is instinctive because it is unlearned, we do it on our own without noticing most of the time. Another example is speaking and language which we learn, it is not innate. There are many things that are innate in our life but if a person’s brain gets damaged then the behavior or involuntary movements, they are supposed to naturally have will not function the same. ”
3. “I agree with aspects of both James’s and McDougall’s definition of instincts. James’s theory describes instincts as a behavioral response to stimuli, similar to a reflex, and McDougall theorized that instincts are identifying an object to satisfy the instinct, the emotion evoked by the instinct, and the decision to move toward or away from the object. Although I agree with these ideas, both psychologists did not provide supporting evidence, and they also neglected learned instincts, which I believe we also have. Kuo on the other hand, disagreed with both James and McDougall, arguing that instincts are not innate but learned behaviors, but I disagree with that statement. When a newborn child hears a loud noise, they typically scream or cry, which is an instinctual response to a ‘terrifying’ noise, not a learned behavior. Kuo also believes that responses are learned to produce a desired response, but in a situation where you get a fright, you don’t have time to think about a response, you let out a scream because you sense a threat. Although James and McDougall didn’t undertake a very scientific approach and had limited resources during their time, it is amazing to see that their theories were on the right track.”
4. “With early instinct theories, James and McDougall had two different ways of seeing instinct. James argues that instinct is an impulse. He says that there are two principles learning can inhibit an instinct like birds building a nest. He also says that some instincts are useful only at certain times or certain developmental periods. McDougall saw instinct as three components. I think it is a good way to break down instinct. It shows motivation in action and in detail. McDougall had an analysis of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when certain human characteristics are shared by all organisms. I disagree with anthropomorphism to some degree. Every individual talks to their pets and dresses them up. For example, we refer to our pets, as our children or “fur baby”. It seems innocent at first because they are an important part of our family, but I think it causes more harm. The harm comes in attributing our thoughts, feelings, behavior, and motivations to our pets. We continue interpreting our pet’s actions as if they were human. Why do humans always have to bring their morals, beliefs, and ego into everything, even with nonhuman animals?”
5. “I found the early instinct theories interesting, though they were lacking supporting evidence. However, there is clearly a reason that these specific theories were most popular, whether it be that they made the most sense or came from people who were admired in the field. Given the time period, I wonder if there were better theories from underrepresented people in the field that went unnoticed. Further, it seems that nominal fallacies are common when discussing this topic. It is easy to simply say something is instinct without having an explanation for it, especially when there is still much unknown. One example that brought up questions for me was William James listing modesty as an instinct (Petri & Govern, 2013). If modesty were an instinctive behavior, wouldn’t children be more modest, as opposed to their highly immodest behaviors? ”
6. “Reading about early instinct theories, I increased my knowledge of instinct and its role in motivating behavior. I thought that instinct is like a reflex, and I found a similar opinion in William James’ early instinct theory. From the perspective of instinct definition and classification, McDougall presented an explanation of the behavior typical for the psychology of motivation. I suppose that his thoughtful descriiptions and definitions caused controversy and largely determined the empirical nature of research on motivation in the following decades. However, when discussing this topic in class, Dr. Biolsi explained that instinct is a species-specific pattern of behavior that is not learned but innate. It made me think deeper about the fact that we possess an automatic system with high efficiency due to low resources consumption. This highly efficient system does not require cognitive efforts to conduct an automatic action or analysis because everything happens by itself. After the class, I have started to pay attention to the nonverbal signals of the people I communicate with, i. e., their facial expressions, posture, etc., and have realized that I have a body behavior that may be unusual for somebody observe.”
7. “When reading about the early instinct theories one thing that really stood out to me was the early thoughts psychologists’ had about instincts. What I mean by this is that some of their beliefs were that instincts were innate, and others believed they are learned and reinforced over time. Just like psychologist Kuo wrote an article where he believed that instincts are not innate at all and believed that they were learned. He also believed how instinct was a concept that has been happening forever and he believed there was no concrete evidence for instincts themselves. Then psychologists such as Mcdougall also believed that instinct was hard to prove. He did partially believe in natural instincts such as feeling hungry and wanting to search for food although, what he believed was learned behavior was how we got the food. Lastly, there was one thing in the textbook he said about instincts which was that he thought that instinctive behavior may have evolved it might appear as intelligent now. So would this would mean that instincts may have developed over time biologically and now they may just give the illusion that they are taught instead of innate? ”
8. “As instincts gained more recognition, all behaviors were attributed to instinct. Early instinct theories are proposed by William James and William McDougall. The authors discussed Tolman’s pointing out several problems with the concept of early instincts, including a lack of precise definitions for instinct and learning and naming behaviors (Petri & Govern, pg. 39). It interested me to learn the four ways McDougall suggests an instinct can be changed. I was most intrigued by instinctive behaviors that may become organized around certain objects or ideas and become less responsive in other situations (Petri & Govern, pg. 38). It is interesting to see how people are self-assured at their jobs, but submissive at home (Petri & Govern, pg. 38). Anthropomorphism was also an interesting concept to read about. The textbook gives an example of the cat feeling guilty about killing the robin. It never occurred to me that animals may experience guilt like humans, maybe sympathy. If they experience quilt like humans, that is still questionable. “
