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Instinctive Response

By Lisa Fritscher, About.com

Updated: May 9, 2008

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, MD

Definition:

An instinctive response is a response that is apparently pre-programmed into the brain, possibly due to evolutionary mechanisms. Instinctive responses are used as the basis of certain psychological techniques, especially behaviorism’s classical conditioning.

Even in non-behaviorism therapies, it is important to understand the impact that instinctive responses have on human behavior. They can be among the most powerful and difficult-to-break behaviors.

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