Competing Instincts

I would firstly like to expand on how I believe instincts work to influence our behaviour. Initially, we feel an urge or drive to behave or think in a certain way. For example, to say something we think is funny that might make another person laugh. If successful, we then feel good, at least partly because that person’s respect for us might have improved slightly. Thus, satisfying the instinct provides the reward of feeling good or at least feeling that we did something good (for us). My belief at the moment is that this need to increase respect is one of the strongest in most people. It competes with other instincts at all times however and, while not always prevailing, often seems to win. For example, this might explain why soldiers perform acts of bravery despite great risk to their life (and thus going against their survival instinct). I suspect it is to increase the respect they receive from not only their fellow soldiers but also everyone else, including their enemies. Another

Why do we do what we do from moment to moment and can it be explained? For most of my life I have tried to understand why people behave the way they do and why different people behave differently given the same apparent options. I suspect all people, at least subconsciously, try to understand human behaviour to better get along in life, but it has perhaps been more explicit in my thinking for a long time. I’d like to record here and in subsequent posts my thoughts on this and anything related to help focus the development of my ideas. I also hope that other people will read these ideas over time and potentially contribute their own thoughts by way of comment. To start I’d like to propose the idea (hypothesis) that underlying the motivation for all our behaviour are many simple instincts or drives (I will use a broad definition for the word 'instinct' that includes 'drives'). If, as I will assume, this is the case then what are they and can distinct instincts be i