Human Behaviour and its Conditions - Essay Example

? Assignment Human Behaviour and its Conditions Societies form a major part of the human race because since times immemorial, no man has been able to survive completely on his own. Every human being requires the company of another in order to share and discuss information and resources with because not every man has all the knowledge in the world. However, in order to live with other people, a person must be able to understand their point of view on different aspects in life as well. It is not easy for a man to be able to adjust and live with someone else, however as the world has been progressing with each passing day, man has begun to comprehend the need of following a certain kind of social conduct or behaviour in order to present himself in the best possible manner so that he is accepted by his peers or the group or society that he lives within. Human behaviour may thus been defined as they way a person is able to conduct him or herself in front of the rest of society. There are certain morals of a code of conduct that are accepted within a group of people according to which people may be either accepted or rejected from a large group. The various aspects of understanding human behaviour are very complex because it can be described from the view of different sociological aspects of a human being with respect to society. Behaviour may be described as ranging from symbolic interaction towards other people or by the conflict theory and how a person is not able to adjust with someone else. (Gerrig, Richard J. & Philip G. Zimbardo) As a human being grows and develops within society, the people around him bring about a noticeable change within him. The factors that persist within the environment around a man are enough to change him from what he was into something he will be in his future. This is because every man relies heavily upon the experiences that he encounters during the course of his lifetime and thus is changed by the kind of circumstances that he has been thrust into. This paper helps to examine how these outside factors like attitudes, beliefs and expectations affect the way a human being acquires information from various sources, and also looks into whether or not human behaviour is conditioned by associations between environment stimuli and responses as well. Every human being is subject to some kind of environment or the other. Children born in rich households grow up with everything on their platter while those born in poverty stricken homes need to work and earn their meals from a very ripe and young age which steals away their childhood as well as their innocence from them. The environment and atmosphere within which a human being lives in for the most of his life helps him to respond to it in a specific manner. (B, A) As discussed in the example above, a rich child would rarely do his own work because of having domestic help to do the same for him whereas a poor child would be used to carrying out his own chores and duties as taught by his parents. A well off family will have the proper means to educate their children from whereas on the other hand, a poverty stricken family will only teach their children how to beg for alms and earn a square meal a day. Thrust in these various situations, a child reacts to the environment around him in a positive or a negative manner. His behaviour is conditioned upon how he reacts to different situations with the resources that are available to him. As per the above example, a poor child would be subject to violence and negative emotions because his parents would be getting frustrated on a frequent basis, subjecting him to equal emotions as compared to a child from a well to do family who would be getting a very good response from his parents and thus would be repeating what he sees, in front of his peer group. Naturally, this child would grow up to have inculcated certain morals and values within him which the poor child would not be subject to because of the violent surroundings that he has been raised within. (English Test) Therefore, this is how the environment affects the growth spurt of a child with respect to stimuli and response from the outside and makes a difference in the way he behaves with other people around him. The child who has received education will be in a much better position to socialize with others of his age because of the skills that he has acquired in learning to deal with people. Furthermore, he will have grown up in an environment where he would have observed his parents being friendly with other people in society and looking at how they deal with everyday life situations. As compared to this, a poverty stricken household would have hatred and desperation emanating from within its surroundings, within the purview of which a child has been raised. That child grows up to not know how to behave with other people around him due to the lack of social skills and sophistication that is required in order to be accepted into society. However, there may arise a point where even the poverty stricken child is provided every opportunity by the government or any other source to be able to prove his merit to the world around him. He might receive formal education and be able to interact with people belonging to a different section of society. Thus, dealing with other people and changes in the attitudes of the new people around him might lead him to change the way he looks at the world. In this way, he might be able to change his outlook towards society and inculcate good habits and a good moral behaviour within himself due to the cultures, norms and social expectations that he has been exposed to. Much the same way, the well of child could fall into bad company and the attitudes of the new people he might be spending time with, might change his behaviour and his personal outlook of life. Thus, in conclusion, human behaviour is subject to change most of the time because of the kind of experiences that every man is able to undergo during the course of his lifetime. Every moment that is spent within the life of a man helps him to look at life in a different way and acquire information from all sources available to him. A man could have been born in the worst of surroundings and have the worst behaviour within society, terrorising people and not understanding the needs and desires of those around him. (Human Society) However, at the same time, he may also be able to undergo a vast change because of the different attitudes, cultures and values that he has been exposed to during another phase within his life because of which he changes his outlook altogether as well as his behaviour and is able to present himself in the best possible manner. A sense of understanding evolves within a man only when he is ready to understand what people want from him, as well as what he wants from himself. Introspection is a very vital aspect of understanding human behaviour too. For example, a boy being born from Indian parents might be raised in America. his parents might have deep rooted belief in Indian culture and tradition however, since he has been in the company of American friends, his perspective and behaviour might have undergone a vast change making him completely different from his parents which might further give rise to the conflict theory arising from a difference in their behaviours. However, the fault is no one’s because the boy has been brought up in an environment which has influenced the way his behaviour looks towards different cultures and traditions as well as beliefs. He understands different norms that he is expected to carry out when in the company of other people and does them even though his parents might be against the same. Therefore, a person’s behaviour depends completely on the kind of environment that he has been subject to. It is a universal fact that every action has an equal reaction which it responds to with and thus, if a person is thrust into a certain kind of environment; that will be the stimulus to which his reactions will be the response. This is how human behaviour may be judged by the environment around a man. Similarly following the same, cultures, attitudes and beliefs vary from person to person and thus help to influence the kind of environment that a man grows up within. These aspects are subject to change and that is why a human being might have different notions of varying behaviour throughout the course of his lifetime; he may be accepted by society at times, and at others, he might be shunned from the same, depending on what his behaviour has been like towards the majority of the people. (Jacobs, G) Works Cited Gerrig, Richard J. & Philip G. Zimbardo (2002).Glossary of Psychological Terms. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/research/action/glossary.aspx People's character is influenced by environment rather than genetics. Do you agree or disagree?. English Test. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic72343.html B, A. (2009, September 11). How Human Behavior is Influenced by the Environment. Associated Content. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2154141/how_human_behavior_is_influenced_by.html Human Society. Project 2061. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap7.htm Jacobs, G. (1999, November 1). Social Development Theory. ICPD. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.icpd.org/development_theory/SocialDevTheory.htm Read More