Role of Environment in Human Behaviour and Performance Drawing - Essay Example

? Role of Environment in Human Behaviour and Performance Drawing on Examples from Chapters 3, 6 and 7 of Module Book Humans are social beings that are characterised by having a natural instinct to interact with their surrounding environment. With reference to humans, there are different classifications of environments that people are exposed to in their daily lives. Their social, cultural, economic and physical environments surround people. These environments play an integral role in determining how people act towards self, other people and the environment. The environment that a person is natured in determines a lot in terms of shaping their perceptions about other people around them. The social, economic and physical environment that surrounds people contributes to a large extent in shaping people’s behaviour. This paper aims at discussing the role played by the environment in influencing people’s behaviour and performance. The environment that people live and work in has the ability to positively or negatively influence their behaviour towards others in society. Positive influences from the environment are those that encourage, motivate and urge people to better themselves and others around them. Negative environmental influences work to discourage and limit people’s potential and ability in carrying out their duties (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 173). The environment is attributed to playing a crucial role in shaping people’s behaviour and impacting on their performances in the different activities they involve themselves. In order to guarantee that there is continued positive performance, people change the way that they do things, which entails changing their behaviour. Behaviour change is achievable at all levels of human existence, but the environment that surrounds an individual determines the ease with which this is accomplished. An important thing to note is that the environment does not influence the choices that we make with respect to people’s goals and objectives (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 238). The environment influences how the actions that people undertake to realize these goals play out. The environment acts as an external factor or influence that is always present in people’s lives. A lot of emphasis has been addressed and directed towards the role that environment plays in shaping people’s behaviour. Famous individuals in history like, for example, Karl Marx supported and advocated for the notion that the economic environment of an individual had a lot of influence in determining and shaping that person’s behaviour. Prior to this, the famous British biologist proved that the environment had a crucial role to play in what he termed as evolution of species (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 298). This led psychologists and sociologists developing a keen interest in the high probability that the environment had a critical role to play in behaviour. Human behaviour is unpredictable in terms of the expected responses to various responses from within self and the external environment. People respond to stimuli in very different ways, and it is very improbable for two people to respond to particular stimuli in the same manner. There are internal and external factors that influence human behaviour and performance. Internal factors are intrinsic to an individual, and are linked to a person’s biological make up which includes their physiology and genetic composition. Physiology determines how the human body handles an external stimulus, which is complemented by their genetic makeup. External factors are those that act on the individual from without their own body and is exemplified by their social context, peers and culture. The physical environment constitutes natural features like mountains and rivers and manmade features like buildings and cars. Human behaviour and performance is influenced by a multitude of factors that combine to create a force that has a positive or negative impact on people. Personality is the individual characteristic that defines each person as a unique and separate entity from other people. Personality is an internal factor that has a significant influence on human behaviour and performance. This is because it participates in the development of attitudes and understanding of others, which determines how well a person, interacts with these people. Personality contributes to a person’s behaviour in the sense that it determines their perception of others around them, which is considered as their social behaviour (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010:182). Society forms an integral part that people live in, and it has the ability to modify behaviour in an individual. In today’s world, there are different societies that are characterised by various societal norms that members must adhere to in order to fit in so that they can be accepted. Societies develop benchmarks for behavioural characteristics that are termed as acceptable of unacceptable. People cannot live without the participation of the society in their lives; thus, this makes it necessary for them conform to societal norms. Societal norms dictate almost all aspects of an individual’s life from appearance, belief, dress code and behaviour. Society is part of the external environment that affects people, and it includes culture which is also an integral component of society. Behaviour and performance comes from within an individual, and it has been postulated by researchers in the field of psychology that it is difficult to change behaviour (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 303). Behaviour is composed of small habits in the daily life of an individual, and these habits culminate to form a whole that is described as individual behaviour. According to BRACE & BYFORD, to successfully change behaviour, it is easier to focus on traits or habits that are deemed as being undesirable than attempting to execute a complete overhaul. An overhaul of behaviour in an individual is like trying to impose another personality onto that person. This is met with a lot of resistance from the individual, and it is bound to fail in 98% of the cases that have been observed (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 132). Behavioural traits or habits can be changed one at a time until the envisaged outcome is achieved. Traits can be removed completely from a person’s behavioural pattern, or they can be replaced by more desirable traits with the former being the most successful. The example given in the book about the famous experiment by Ivan Pavlov on how classical conditioning is done can be used to change behavioural traits. The rate of success of behaviour change methods are determined by the overall impact that this dynamism has on the individual and the environment (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 402). The socio-cultural environment has a significant influence on performance because it determines the suitability of support structures available for that purpose. Performance is the degree or the extent to which a delegated task is executed and its ability to fulfil, achieve or accomplish its set out objectives. The environment, both internal and external, plays a key role in facilitating the accomplishment of set out goals and objectives in people’s daily lives. The environment provides support structures that are vital to the performance of delegated tasks. The environment that a person lives in can be supportive or restrictive to individual performance. To improve performance, changing the environment is a sure way of guaranteeing the absence of restrictive features than trying to conform to a restrictive environment. This is because; conforming to a restrictive environment diminishes one’s abilities due to the unfavourable conditions in this environment. The example given in the book about The Asch Conformity Test best illustrates the positive and negative impacts of conformity. Changing the environment has been proven to have a far-reaching impact on improving performance than conforming to environmental conditions that have a limiting influence on ability (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 300). Enabling environments are those that an individual feels comfortable in and one that elicits confidence. The appearance of environmental surroundings has an impact on how people understand and perceive the suitability of that environment to their needs and purposes. This requires that, for an individual to perform at their optimum, they should expose themselves to environments that promote and favour their abilities and potential (BRACE & BYFORD, 2010: 398). Human behaviour and performance is significantly influenced by the environment, which forms an integral part of the world, which people live and carry out their daily activities. The ability of the environment to influence human behaviour and performance has been utilised in the formulation of techniques aimed at improving performance. Performance enhancing environments have been designed to suit fields like athletics and in the military where different environments are used to improve soldier’s combat skills. The impact that the environment, both internal and external, has on behaviour has shown that different environments can cause varied behavioural patterns in similar individuals, and even in twins. The environment has the ability to positively or negatively influences people’s behaviour and performance. This provides people with the ability to dictate the extent to which various environmental features impact on them. People can alter their immediate environmental features to suit their needs or adapt to those features of the environment that cannot be changed like mountains and oceans. The environment has been proven to pose a significant impact on behaviour and performance. This has enabled people to further their understanding on issues that seem not to have a bearing in their lives, yet it affects their being. This understanding has enabled people to devise ways and methodologies of taking advantage of this phenomenon to further their interests. The environment poses a significant resource for people that they can utilize to boost their performance and change their behaviour for the better. Realization of the environments ability to influence performance can be used therapeutically. Environments can be altered or eradicated if they are deemed unsuitable or unfavourable to human behaviour and performance. The environment’s impact on human behaviour and performance has enabled people better their lives by manipulating the environment in their favour. Bibliography Brace, N. & Byford, J. Discovering Psychology. Illustrated Edition. Open University WorldWide. 2010. Read More