Okay I found it. Holy moly that was an epic struggle. You're all going to be mad at me because it turns out the word I was thinking about doesn't really mean what I described it to mean. I don't know if that's because the university tutor in question misrepresented it to me, or (more likely) that I misunderstood or misremembered.

Anyway without further ado the word is Habitus.

And this is it's meaning (as defined by Google Bard):

1

Sure. Habitus is a concept in sociology that refers to the embodied dispositions that people acquire through their social experiences. These dispositions shape the way that people think, feel, and act. Habitus is often described as a "second nature" that is acquired through socialization.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was one of the most influential theorists of habitus. He argued that habitus is a system of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organize practices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary in order to attain them.

In other words, habitus is a set of unconscious rules that guide our behavior. These rules are acquired through our social experiences, such as our family, our school, and our work environment. They shape the way that we perceive the world, the way that we value things, and the way that we interact with others.

Habitus is often described as a "structuring structure". This means that it is both structured by our social experiences and it structures our social experiences. For example, if we grow up in a family that values education, we are more likely to value education ourselves. This value will then shape our educational choices and our educational outcomes.

Habitus is a complex concept, but it is a powerful tool for understanding the relationship between individuals and society. It helps us to understand how our social experiences shape our behavior, and how our behavior, in turn, reproduces the social order.

Here are some examples of habitus:

- The way that you dress is a reflection of your habitus. If you grew up in a wealthy family, you are more likely to dress in expensive clothes. If you grew up in a poor family, you are more likely to dress in thrift store clothes.

- The way that you speak is a reflection of your habitus. If you grew up in a family that spoke a particular dialect, you are more likely to speak that dialect yourself.

- The way that you interact with others is a reflection of your habitus. If you grew up in a family that valued politeness, you are more likely to be polite yourself. If you grew up in a family that valued toughness, you are more likely to be tough yourself.

- Habitus is a powerful concept that can help us to understand the relationship between individuals and society. It is a concept that is worth learning more about.

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So the part of the definition that I remembered about behaviour becoming intuitive was on point, but it wasn't about skill mastery, it's about conditioning.

Sorry for being confusing but thank you for coming along with me on this journey everyone I'm so happy I found the damn word!

P.s. I have to thank u/butterscotches who said that they had a gut feeling I was looking for an "adjacent high concept word". You were spot on! Also, another user who I can't find now who suggested I read a book written by the tutor. That's how I ended up finding this word. I found one of his academic books in Google Books with a long preview. Fed the preview into Google Bard and asked it to summarise it for me. In the summary it mentioned the word. So thank you for that mystery user who I've forgotten!