Human Behavior
Human behavior is the responses of individuals or groups of humans to internal and external stimuli.
It refers to the array of every physical action and observable emotion associated with individuals, as well as the human race.
While specific traits of one's personality and temperament may be more consistent, other behaviors will change as one moves from birth through adulthood.
In addition to being dictated by age and genetics, behavior, driven in part by thoughts and feelings, is an insight into individual psyche, revealing among other things attitudes and values.
Social behavior, a subset of human behavior, study the considerable influence of social interaction and culture.
Additional influences include ethics, encircling, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion and coercion.
"Thus, human behavior is greatly influenced by the attitudes we use on a daily basis."
Understanding human behavior:-
The reason most people fail to understand human behavior correctly is that they look at their behavior without taking other variables into consideration.
If you had the goal of understanding a car's wheel, can you analyze the wheel alone without trying to understand its relationship with the other parts of the car?
If you did so then you might get the wheel incorrectly or fail to understand its function. For example you might never understand why the wheel has certain holes in the middle and even assume that its faulty but when you come to know that this wheel will fit into a rotating shaft then the holes in the center will make all the sense in the world.
The same goes for humans, You wont understand human behavior correctly before you take into consideration the person's beliefs, values, lifestyle, way of thinking and all other variables that affect him directly or indirectly.
Understanding Human nature by connecting the elements together:-
Because dreams always come in the form of symbols the loss of the car in Brian's dream was just a reflection of his fear of loss of his status. In other words the dream meant that Brian was concerned about losing his status or prestige! (see what does your dream mean)
Because the subconscious mind thinks using symbols and because logic is ignored to a certain extent during its operation Brian's mind forced him to develop that obsessive compulsive disorder because it was so concerned about the threat of the loss of his status.
In other words, Brian developed that disorder because he was too afraid to lose his status and checking whether the car was locked or not was a reflection of his fear of losing his car if he became poor.
Social Norms:-
Social norms, the often-unspoken rules of a group, shape not just our behaviors but also our attitudes.
An individual’s behavior varies depending on the group(s) they are a part of, a characteristic of society that allows their norms to heavily impact society.
Without social norms, human society would not function as it currently does; humans would have to be more abstract in their behavior,
as there would not be a pre-tested 'normal' standardized lifestyle, and individuals would have to make many more choices for themselves.
The institutionalization of norms is, however, inherent in human society perhaps as a direct result of the desire to be accepted by others,
which leads humans to manipulate their own behavior in order to 'fit in' with others. Depending on their nature and upon one's perspective,
norms can impact different sections of society both positively (e.g. eating, dressing warm in the winter) and negatively (e.g. racism, drug use).
Creativity:-
Creativity is assumed to be present within every individual. Creativity pushes people past their comfort zone.
For example, the Wright Brothers' invention of the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. The aircraft first took flight in 1903, and fifty years later the first passenger jet airliner was introduced.
Creativity has kept people alive during harsh conditions, and it has also made certain individuals wealthy. We use creativity in our daily lives as well, such as finding a shortcut to a destination.
Core faith and culture:-
Another important aspect of human behavior is people's "core faith". Such faith can manifest in religion, philosophy, culture, and/or personal belief and often affects the way a person can behave.
As of 2012, some 80% of the United States public identified with a religion, and religion can play a large role in society. It is only natural for something that plays a large role in society to have an effect on human behavior.
Morals are another factor of core faith that affects the way a person behaves. Emotions connected to morals include shame, pride, and discomfort - and these can change the way a person acts.
Most importantly, shame and guilt have a large impact on behavior.
Emotions:-
Emotion is any conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and a certain degree of pleasure or displeasure. Scientific discourse has drifted to other meanings and there is no consensus on a definition.
Emotion is often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. In some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion.
Those acting primarily on the emotions they are feeling may seem as if they are not thinking, but mental processes are still essential, particularly in the interpretation of events.
For example, the realization of our believing that we are in a dangerous situation and the subsequent arousal of our body's nervous system (rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, muscle tension) is integral to the experience of our feeling afraid.
Other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can precede cognition.
Observing and understanding human behavior is a crucial part of psychology.
Human Behavior in Psychology:-
Imagine a wrapped present. You can't see what's inside, but there are clues available to you: the size and shape of the package, the sound it makes when you shake it, how heavy it is, even whether it feels solid or soft.
You can make an educated guess about what the present is if you observe all of these things.
Human behavior is like that. Everything you do and say tells the world about what's going on inside of you.
Because psychologists can't observe thoughts or emotions,behavior has been an important part of psychology since the very beginning of the discipline. In the early 1900s, though, a study of behavior became even more important when Ivan Pavlov introduced the world to conditioning.
Pavlov was studying the digestion of dogs when he discovered that the dogs began to drool whenever they saw the person who was in charge of feeding them.
He designed an experiment - ringing a bell whenever the dogs were fed. Pretty soon, the dogs would salivate whenever they heard the bell - even if there was no food in sight!
What Pavlov's dogs demonstrated was classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) is presented at the same time as another,
unrelated stimulus (such as the food). The non-neutral stimulus will automatically produce a response (drooling at the food). This is an unconditioned response.
After a while, the neutral stimulus will also produce the response, as when Pavlov's dogs drooled at the sound of the bell. This is called a conditioned response.
Human behavior is the responses of individuals or groups of humans to internal and external stimuli.
It refers to the array of every physical action and observable emotion associated with individuals, as well as the human race.
While specific traits of one's personality and temperament may be more consistent, other behaviors will change as one moves from birth through adulthood.
In addition to being dictated by age and genetics, behavior, driven in part by thoughts and feelings, is an insight into individual psyche, revealing among other things attitudes and values.
Social behavior, a subset of human behavior, study the considerable influence of social interaction and culture.
Additional influences include ethics, encircling, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion and coercion.
"Thus, human behavior is greatly influenced by the attitudes we use on a daily basis."
Understanding human behavior:-
The reason most people fail to understand human behavior correctly is that they look at their behavior without taking other variables into consideration.
If you had the goal of understanding a car's wheel, can you analyze the wheel alone without trying to understand its relationship with the other parts of the car?
If you did so then you might get the wheel incorrectly or fail to understand its function. For example you might never understand why the wheel has certain holes in the middle and even assume that its faulty but when you come to know that this wheel will fit into a rotating shaft then the holes in the center will make all the sense in the world.
The same goes for humans, You wont understand human behavior correctly before you take into consideration the person's beliefs, values, lifestyle, way of thinking and all other variables that affect him directly or indirectly.
Understanding Human nature by connecting the elements together:-
Because dreams always come in the form of symbols the loss of the car in Brian's dream was just a reflection of his fear of loss of his status. In other words the dream meant that Brian was concerned about losing his status or prestige! (see what does your dream mean)
Because the subconscious mind thinks using symbols and because logic is ignored to a certain extent during its operation Brian's mind forced him to develop that obsessive compulsive disorder because it was so concerned about the threat of the loss of his status.
In other words, Brian developed that disorder because he was too afraid to lose his status and checking whether the car was locked or not was a reflection of his fear of losing his car if he became poor.
Social Norms:-
Social norms, the often-unspoken rules of a group, shape not just our behaviors but also our attitudes.
An individual’s behavior varies depending on the group(s) they are a part of, a characteristic of society that allows their norms to heavily impact society.
Without social norms, human society would not function as it currently does; humans would have to be more abstract in their behavior,
as there would not be a pre-tested 'normal' standardized lifestyle, and individuals would have to make many more choices for themselves.
The institutionalization of norms is, however, inherent in human society perhaps as a direct result of the desire to be accepted by others,
which leads humans to manipulate their own behavior in order to 'fit in' with others. Depending on their nature and upon one's perspective,
norms can impact different sections of society both positively (e.g. eating, dressing warm in the winter) and negatively (e.g. racism, drug use).
Creativity:-
Creativity is assumed to be present within every individual. Creativity pushes people past their comfort zone.
For example, the Wright Brothers' invention of the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. The aircraft first took flight in 1903, and fifty years later the first passenger jet airliner was introduced.
Creativity has kept people alive during harsh conditions, and it has also made certain individuals wealthy. We use creativity in our daily lives as well, such as finding a shortcut to a destination.
Another important aspect of human behavior is people's "core faith". Such faith can manifest in religion, philosophy, culture, and/or personal belief and often affects the way a person can behave.
As of 2012, some 80% of the United States public identified with a religion, and religion can play a large role in society. It is only natural for something that plays a large role in society to have an effect on human behavior.
Morals are another factor of core faith that affects the way a person behaves. Emotions connected to morals include shame, pride, and discomfort - and these can change the way a person acts.
Most importantly, shame and guilt have a large impact on behavior.
Attitude:-
An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event; it alters between each individual.
Everyone has a different attitude towards different things. A main factor that determines attitude is likes and dislikes.
The more one likes something or someone the more one is willing to open up and accept what they have to offer. When one doesn’t like something, one is more likely to get defensive and shut down.
An example of how one's attitude affects one's human behavior could be as simple as taking a child to the park or to the doctor.
Children know they have fun at the park so their attitude becomes willing and positive, but when a doctor is mentioned, they shut down and become upset with the thought of pain.
Attitudes can sculpt personalities and the way people view who we are. People with similar attitudes tend to stick together as interests and hobbies are common.
Emotion is any conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and a certain degree of pleasure or displeasure. Scientific discourse has drifted to other meanings and there is no consensus on a definition.
Emotion is often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. In some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion.
Those acting primarily on the emotions they are feeling may seem as if they are not thinking, but mental processes are still essential, particularly in the interpretation of events.
For example, the realization of our believing that we are in a dangerous situation and the subsequent arousal of our body's nervous system (rapid heartbeat and breathing, sweating, muscle tension) is integral to the experience of our feeling afraid.
Other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can precede cognition.
Human Behavior in Psychology:-
Imagine a wrapped present. You can't see what's inside, but there are clues available to you: the size and shape of the package, the sound it makes when you shake it, how heavy it is, even whether it feels solid or soft.
You can make an educated guess about what the present is if you observe all of these things.
Human behavior is like that. Everything you do and say tells the world about what's going on inside of you.
Because psychologists can't observe thoughts or emotions,behavior has been an important part of psychology since the very beginning of the discipline. In the early 1900s, though, a study of behavior became even more important when Ivan Pavlov introduced the world to conditioning.
Classical Conditioning:-
He designed an experiment - ringing a bell whenever the dogs were fed. Pretty soon, the dogs would salivate whenever they heard the bell - even if there was no food in sight!
What Pavlov's dogs demonstrated was classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) is presented at the same time as another,
unrelated stimulus (such as the food). The non-neutral stimulus will automatically produce a response (drooling at the food). This is an unconditioned response.
After a while, the neutral stimulus will also produce the response, as when Pavlov's dogs drooled at the sound of the bell. This is called a conditioned response.
7 Methods of Studying Human Behavior :-
Some of the important methods of Studying Human Behavior as Formulated by Psychologists are as follows:
1. Introspection Method 2. Observation Method 3. Experimental Method 4. Clinical Method/Case History Method 5. Survey Method 6. Genetic Method 7. Testing Method.
1. Introspection Method:
This method was introduced by EB Titchener. This is also known as self-observation method. Introspection means ‘to look within’.
It is not possible to understand the inner feelings and experiences of other persons. But the individual himself can observe and report.
Example: A patient can report about his pains and other disturbances in a better way than by a nurse. He will look within himself and explain how he is feeling. This will help for a better treatment. Though Introspection is a useful method, it has some demerits also.
These are:
(a) We cannot verify the reports given by the observer hence we have to accept his report. At times even if he is reporting correctly there may be distortions
(b) This method cannot be used to study children, animals and persons suffering from mental disorders. But this is a cheap and easy method.
2. Observation Method:-
This method is very useful in the areas where experiments cannot be conducted. In this method the observer will observe and collect the data. Example: In the hospital the nurse will make observation of patient’s temperature, pulse, BP, facial expressions, etc.
This method is very useful to study the children, mentally ill, animals and unconscious patients. At times the observer will go to the natural settings, situations, etc. in order to get the objective data.
This is a very good and useful method. But the disadvantages here are:
(a) There are chances of subjective report, and prejudices of observer may creep in. Sometimes to observe the natural behavior the observer may have to spend more time, energy and money.
3. Experimental Method:-
This is the most objective way of studying the behavior. In this method, experiments are conducted in the laboratories under controlled conditions. In experiments, usually the effect of independent variable on the dependent variable is studied.
Hence, there will be two variables, viz., Independent and dependent variable. There will be some other variables which are not wanted by the experimenter, and their interference may affect the results of the experiment.
Examples: The effect of music on the level of blood pressure can be studied in laboratory settings. Here, the music is independent variable and the BP is dependent variable. All other sounds other than music are extraneous variables that are to be controlled, so that the effect of only music can be assessed. Similarly the effect of different drugs, food, etc. can also be studied.
Experiments may also be conducted by using two groups called experimental group and control group. In such experiments, independent variable is operated only on experimental group and the control group is kept constant.
Generally the following steps are followed in an experiment:
a. Identification of the problem
b. Formulation of hypothesis
c. Designing the experiment
d. Testing the hypothesis by experiment
4. Clinical Method/Case History Method:-
This method is used very commonly in hospitals and also in educational settings. In hospitals, when a patient is admitted, the nurse can collect the detailed information pertaining to the disease of the patient.
The information includes the past history of the disease, treatment taken already, changes if any like-improvement, present condition, probable causes, signs and symptoms, etc. This information may be obtained from the patient, his close relatives like parents, siblings or others who accompany him or from his friends, neighbors, etc.
5. Survey Method:-
This is used to gather the information from large number of people. Questionnaires, checklists, rating scales, inventories are used to collect the required information. This method is usually used to gather information about political opinion, customers’ preferences, etc. It may also be used to know the information pertaining to medical profession—like awareness about diseases and remedial programmes, malnutrition, opinions about health needs, health facilities available, etc.
6. Genetic Method:-
This method is also called as developmental method. Most of our behaviors are the result of earlier experiences. In some cases when we need to understand some behavior we need to know their developmental aspects also.
For example, in order to understand the behavior of adults we need to know their childhood development.
This can be done by two ways:
(a) Cross-sectional study in which, the children of different age groups will be studied simultaneously,
(b) longitudinal study in which, the same individual will be studied in different stages of life. This is more useful method to understand the behavior from point of view of hereditary and environmental influences.
7. Testing Method:-
Different tests are developed by psychologists to study various aspects of behavior. The attitudes, interests, abilities, intelligence, adjustments, personality and such other factors which influence behavior, can be studied by administering the suitable tests.
