In this episode we take a side trip with Dr. Mark Jackson, our colleague from the psychology department, to explore the historical view of instinct behaviors in humans. The next chapter of Darwin's Origin of Species deals specifically with instinct behavior in non-human animals and it stimulated us to question what the thought of the time was considering human instinct behavior. Dr. Jackson brings his sly wit to the conversation and tells us how the early field of psychology dealt with or explained innate behaviors in humans.
Mark introduced us to noted historical psychologist William James who is known as offering the first psychology class in the United States and considered the "father of American Psychology".
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| Dr. "Will.i.am" James |
One of the interesting ideas that we discussed concerning instinctual behaviors in humans is how many of our emotions are frequently intertwined with physical aspects of our bodies. Mark recounted the example of you seeing a bear and how your body may initiate the flight response before your mind can consciously evaluate the situation and determine you are afraid.
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| Unknown man having his legs decide how to deal with the situation before his rationale thought process begins. |
