Primary Influences on Individual Behavior and How Motivation can be used to Influence Others - Essay Example

Primary Influences on Individual Behavior and How Motivation can be used to Influence Others Primary Influences on Individual Behavior and How Motivation can be used to Influence Others Influences on human behavior are caused by several factors. Social, cultural, religious and environmental factors are some of the factors that influence individual behavior. Social factors may be influential on human behavior where such aspects like peer groups, family and other social groups may shape the behavior of an individual. An individual can also be influenced by environmental factors such as trends in one’s life such as demographic factors, abilities and skills, perception and attitudes. Cultural factors like values, customs, and beliefs can influence the behavior of a person in a society. Religious factors are some of the most effective influential ways to human behaviors. Further, behavior can also be influenced by motivation where it can be used to drive human actions. This paper aims at outlining the primary influences on individual behavior while analyzing how these influences affect the behavior of an individual. It will also focus on discussing how an individual’s behavior can be influenced by motivation. Behavior refers to how a human conducts himself or how he acts especially to others or to the environment. Behavior is largely influenced by a response to internal or external stimuli thus causing a reaction on someone. An individual can react to various responses of stimuli depending on various influential factors. Social factors are well known to influence the behavior of an individual. Social factors involve actions that are adopted by a person in relation to influence he gets from other people. An individual can develop a behavior in relation to influences from others that affect his emotions, character or opinions. The aspect of social influence comes from people that surround the life of an individual. Family, work mates, peer groups or the community living within the neighborhood can influence the behavior of an individual in many ways. The influence that comes through social factors may be based in forms like, leadership, peer pressure, persuasion, conformity, obedience, socialization or sales activities. An individual is likely to adopt a certain behavior following factors such as peer influence where one may develop a positive or negative attitude towards his parents. Further, conformity or obedience is form of social influence brought about by socialization with such people like parents, relatives or seniors in the society such as teachers. This indicates that an individual adopts certain behavioral characteristics in relation to the people surrounding him. A person develops behavior on certain basis that includes compliance, internalization and identification. Through compliance, a person develops a behavior of adhering or agreeing to others but keeps the opinion to himself. One may also adopt a behavior by copying the characters of celebrities who influence the social trends and thus one develops a behavior of being identified with such people. Internalization involves a behavior that is developed and accepted in the public and at an individually level (Dlugos, 2008). Environmental factors play a major role in determining the human behaviors. Factors like, demographic factors, abilities and skills, perception, attitude and personality influence the behavior of a person. Demographic aspects such as economic background, nationality, education, race, age or sex may influence how a person behaves. People tend to behave in a certain way depending on their economic class, education level, race or sex. An individual is likely to adopt certain behavioral characteristic due to difference between her class and attitude to another group of people. For example in America, race has been attributed to formation of certain behaviors. The blacks are said to engage in behaviors that are related to violence and indecent behaviors more than other communities in U.S. This indicates that factors such as race can be attributed to human behavior. Other factors that like perception involve the ability to interpret stimuli as a result of changes in environmental factors. Attitude involves reaction towards occurrences in the environment that will either attract favorable or unfavorable response to such occurrences. Moreover, an individual can reacts to various aspects of environment such as texture, noise, color, and light. A certain behavior can be adopted in relation to the aspects like noise where one may develop unfavorable response towards it (Clark, 2010). Cultural factors influence the behaviors within different individuals. Beliefs, customs and values may form a great part of influence on the behavior of an individual. Culture affects the behavior of an individual due to the fact that cultural practices are believed to be the right practices by an individual. Culture influences the environment and thinking system of an individual thus leading to certain behaviors. A belief can be described as perception and knowledge that a person develops towards a certain object through accepting it as the truth. Through beliefs a person is likely to develop a certain behavior that is attributed to that object or element. Values involve the general statements that individual attribute to an element to guide them on influencing their beliefs and forming behaviors. Value portrays the regard towards an element on its importance, usefulness or worth. If one has a high regard of something or an element, he is likely to form a different behavior than an object that would be less valuable. Value forms certain behaviors within individuals in accordance to the regard attributed to such element or something. Customs are another set of cultural aspects that results to different behaviors among different individuals. Customs are traditions or accepted ways of doing things within a certain society. Customs influence behaviors of individuals in different societies since people behave in certain ways while they are undertaking activities that involve customs. For example, in America, during certain festive occasions, it is expected that someone should by a gift for someone else. This custom influences people to buy such presents thus forming a certain behavioral characteristic among such people. In business, cultural factors are known to be the most influential factors on consumer behavior. The purchases made by different customers are mostly based on customs, what they believe in and the value of an item (Dlugos, 2008). Religious factors contribute to development of certain behaviors among different people. Religion teachings and believes may influence certain habits on individuals. For example, religions that teach their followers on decent behaviors influence them to refrain or abstain from certain behaviors or habits. Followers who are devout on certain religions are likely to display different types of behaviors from those that are not devout or nonbelievers. People tend to form their behaviors on what they believe as right or wrong. Religion also forms a certain social setup that influences the characters of different individuals. It is also related to cultural practices that lead such aspects like beliefs and customs that are critical in formation of habits and behaviors. How Motivation can be used to Influence Others Motivation is said to be driving force on the actions of an individual. The influence on the behavior of an individual requires that both his needs and desires to be aligned to the direction of his behavior. Since motivation is based on emotions and focus to achieve certain goals, behavior is formed based on how to achieve goals by changing certain behaviors. Achievement motivation involves a behavior that is based on needs to attain excellence and success. People initiate goals and objectives in life and thus they set a certain course of actions to influence them on achieving such goals. This leads to the use of motivation as the most effective tool of determining success in individual goals (Dlugos, 2008). Motivation is a significant factor in increasing energy, morale and zeal towards achieving goals. In this regard and individual may display a number of changes in his character due to the motivation drive. In fact, the desire to achieve a certain goal may be accelerated by motivation to a level where an individual achieves higher and better results than anticipated. Motivation can even be used to indicate the efforts that have been applied by a group of students. It can be used to indicate whether candidates applied zeal and energy in their tests or whether they were not motivated during such test. Motivation outlines the difference between success and failure. A motivated candidate is likely to be interested to continue with the task once he completes a certain phase. Students who are not motivated or those who reveal low motivation levels develop negative attitude towards a project and they may not be interested to continue with the same project once they complete a certain phase (Clark, 2010). Motivation affects how individuals involve their mental abilities to influence decisions and also to change how people operate. Motivation can influence a person to process information fast and thus can perform tasks with diligence and interest than those who are not motivated. Motivation can be used to influence others through motivation talks and activities that display success from motivation aspect. For example, if a certain student undertakes his studies with determination, he is likely to register desirable results that can influence other students to apply the same system to excel in their studies. Similarly, motivational talks are influential in motivating people to align their needs and desires towards achieving goals. In such talks, the motivation drive is instilled in the students who might change their actions towards achieving their goals (Clark, 2010). In conclusion, there are various factors that affect the behavior of an individual. Factors like religion, environmental, cultural, and social influence behavior and habits of an individual in several ways. Motivation is also another tool that can be used to influence the behavior of a person. References Clark, T. R. (2010). EPIC change: How to lead change in the global age. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dlugos, M. J. A. (2008). 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