

For example, a substance excreted by nursing women seems to increase sexual desire in other women. McClintock (1999), think that humans also have pheromone signals. But biologists debate whether or not human beings are as governed by instincts as other species seem to be. Their survival techniques and drive to court and reproduce are considered instincts. The behavior of animals is often understood as instinctive. These hormones in turn provoke sexual behaviors. Pheromones, chemical signals detected by smell, for example, constitute a key stimulus for the release of some sex hormones.
German word for intimate relations series#
Many biologists consider instinct to be a series of traceable fixed-action patterns triggered by a key stimulus. Instincts are a part of preintellectual behavior that is not based on any prior learning or experience. CHEMICAL VERSUS PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSESīiologists consider instincts to be preprogrammed responses to external stimuli.

Some scientists believe that humans do not have a sexual instinct at all, because humans learn primarily from their social environment and because any behavior that might have been instinctive can be altered and overcome by thought. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) also tried to understand how the sexual instinct relates to the mental and emotional mechanisms governing human behavior.

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) thought sexual instincts comprised a part of what he called human will. That organisms seek sexual relations with one another is also an instinct believed to be founded on a compulsion to reproduce. How animals know, for example, what to eat or that they should migrate or hibernate for the winter, are instincts. They are species-specific practices for life and survival. In biological terms instincts are behaviors that occur as if natural and without teaching or model. A sexual instinct is the innate drive to have sexual relations.
