1. Health

Discuss in my forum

Instinctive Response

By , About.com Guide

Updated May 09, 2008

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

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.

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.

A part of The New York Times Company.

We comply with the HONcode standard
for trustworthy health
information: verify here.