Instinctual Fixed-Action Patterns

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Fixed-action triggers will trigger humans to act in certain ways or patterns when encountering or confronted or experiencing certain situations/stimuli. They act automatically, seems instinctual but often is actually some conditioned response taught in our environment, to some triggers (click-n-whirr). 

In communications there are trigger-words that will cause humans to grant your requests when followed with reasons why they should grant your request such as the word, “Because.” Ask, because, reasoning and often humans will grant it even when they don’t want to. The challenge then becomes whether the person on the receiving end of such trigger words is conditioned to react in socially natural acceptable ways. 

Even tho instinctual tends to be assumed as almost genetically driven, DNA stuff with genes, often the fixed-action is more a recording or encoded routine or function that is triggered by some stimuli causing such patterns to be processed or triggered into action. As long as the action-pattern is appropriate to the stimuli then all is well, mostly, and when it is not then all is NOT well, mostly. 

This all involves the often socially conditioned group dynamic of ‘compliance principle or rule’. Instinct-like fixed-action (conditioned) patterns/responses/actions are a way to describe what some assume are instincts when in reality they are conditioned primal responses taught and trained in our environments through socially driven coping skills or conditioning. 

So, the questions pop into my head such as defining the individual terms, analyzing the meaning and then synthesizing a new, hopefully a more appropriate, phrase that will work for the dynamics of violence as applied in self-fense through martial disciplines. Here goes …

Instinct - Instinctual - Primal - Conditioned Responses

Instinct - an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli.

Instinctual - of, relating to, or of the nature of instinct; prompted by or resulting from or as if from instinct; natural; unlearned.

Primal - essential; fundamental; relating to an early stage in evolutionary development; primeval.

Conditioned Responses - an automatic response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus; he conditioned response must be learned; The conditioned response will only occur after an association has been made between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus.

Starting at the bottom, it appears that conditioned response works pretty good because it is about training, developing and creating automatic responses as to either verbal or physical or both to respons to stimulus so the click-n-whirr of the tape, sub-routine and/or function will be triggered, work under duress and stress-conditions to achieve self-fense goals. 

Since this is a learned conditioned response as described instinct and instinctual won’t work well because what we are doing must be open to necessary changes over time while instincts are typically fixed and since instinctual is of or related to instinct this term is not appropriate. 

Primal seems to work because what we train and practice and apply must be essential to making it work and fundamental to all training and practices so that it will be appropriate to situations and stimulus involved. Although it is not related but in a limited thin-thread way, i.e., fight or flight responses and chemical effects, it will have effect on an evolutionary development even if not nature related but evolutionary toward humans learning to handle more complex responses than natures’ instinctual flight-or-fight responses. 

In the end, the primal conditioned response recently becoming known to me from an article by Marc MacYoung really does hit the mark and the ‘instinctual fixed-action response’ seems not quite right in that instinct is used and fixed-action may present an incorrect perception because nothing in the conflict and violence game is fixed except maybe those fundamental principles underlying most trained responses. 

So, in future articles I will go back to Mr. MacYoung’s inferences underlying the phrase, “Primal Conditioned Response,” that can be verbal or action oriented, etc. 

Phew …. I consider this article a small minute example of the analysis and synthesis process you can find in the Boyd Loop explanations. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Hat tip (Ritsu-rei) to <Mr. Marc MacYoung at MacYoung’s Musings Blog> and No Nonsense Self-Defense Site> as the inspiration for this post.

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)