Where instinct ends and sense memory, imitation, and desire step in is
difficult to determine. Later in life probably most of what we consider
instinctive action is simply so-called reflex action, depending on sense
memory, action learned so young that it is difficult to distinguish it
from the true reflex action, which is due only to race memory.
James, in his _Talk to Teachers_, gives us a partial list of the
instincts. Thus:
Fear Ownership Shyness
Love Constructiveness Secretiveness
Curiosity Love of approbation The ambitious impulses:
Imitation,
Emulation,
Pride,
Ambition,
Pugnacity
To this partial list we would add self-preservation, reproduction, etc.
But instincts conflict with each other, and man carries about with him
in babyhood many of them which may have been very useful to his
prehistoric ancestors, but which only complicate things for him.
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