instincts are Classified in fourteen types  by

instincts are Classified in fourteen types  by
| instincts are Classified in fourteen types  by

A. Drever

B. McDougall

C. Thorndike

D. Woodworth

Please scroll down to see the correct answer and solution guide.

Right Answer is: B

SOLUTION

Instincts are goal-directed and innate behavior that is not due to learning or experience.

McDougall tried to explain behavior in terms of a few distinct inherited tendencies which he called instincts.

  • For him, instinct and emotion are always unified.
  • Emotion is the conscious aspect of an instinctive activity.
  • An instinct is an innate disposition that makes the organism sensitive to objects and disposes it to appropriate action.
  • He states that "An instinct determines it's possessor to perceive and to pay attention to objects of a certain class, to experience emotional excitement of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object and to act in regard to it in a particular manner or at least to experience an impulse to action”.
  • Further, he feels that an instinctive action is an outcome of, "A distinctly mental process, one which is incapable of being described in purely mechanical terms because it is a psychophysical process involving psychical as well as physical changes and like every other mental process.
  • It stated three aspects, the cognitive, the affective, and the conative aspects; every instance of instinctive behavior involves knowing of something or object, a feeling in regard to it, and a striving toward or away from the object”

 

  • Thorndike divided intelligent activity into three types :
    • Social Intelligence or the ability to understand and deal with persons;
    • Concrete intelligence or ability to understand and deal with things, as in skilled trades and scientific appliances and
    • Abstracts intelligence, or the ability to understand and deal with verbal and mathematical symbols
  • According to Woodworth, Both behavior and consciousness were the subject matter of psychology. His 'Dynamic Psychology' (1918) tried to explain behavior by merging theories of motivation, perception, learning, and thinking, also his book 'Psychology' (1921) became a standard textbook.
  • Drever emphasized the element of satisfyingness in interest. To him, interest is a feeling of worthwhileness passing into satisfyingness.

Hence, it's clear that McDougall classified instincts into fourteen types