Biological and Genetic Contribution to Behavior - Coursework Example

Human Behavior and Personality al Affiliation) Human behavior and personality al Affiliation) Disposition Every human being has stable dispositions, which display certain attitudes, emoticons and behavior. The dispositions are usually seen in many different situations, which give an explanation as to why people, in many different settings, act in predictable ways. Every human being has a set of dispositions, or has at least a set of dispositions with varying strengths. This creates a pattern, which is unique. The approach of trait to personality is among the major theoretical areas in the study of personality. A trait can be seen as a characteristic, which is relatively stable, that is a cause of certain behavioral ways for individuals. The trait theory gives the suggestion that the personality of individuals is a collection of the broad dispositions. A personality is therefore formed through the interaction and combination of different traits, which are caused by different sets of dispositions. The contribution of disposition in the construct of personality is significant in such a way that it is responsible for developing the objective personality tests that have come to be a mainstay of the assessment of personality. The combination of various broad dispositions of an individual will dictate his personality. It is therefore possible to assess someone’s personality using the dispositions (Ewen, 2003). Biological and genetic contribution to behavior Huge biological contributions have been made by biological psychologists. Apart from the brain scanning and imaging techniques which they created, which allows us to see the living brains, they also developed the surgical methods, which can disable brain parts to find out the effect they have on abnormal human behavior. Besides, they have also explored the genetic contribution by trying to map the human behavior from birth. The most important contribution towards the understanding the human behavior, from the study of the Central Nervous System, is the understanding the transmission of messages in form of electrical impulses all over the body. These messages determine the overall human behavior. The Central Nervous System is made up of the spinal cord and the brain. It has control over much of human behavior through the transmission of electrical impulses, through the nerve fibers, which are made up of tracts of neurons, all over the body. Communication of these messages around the body and in the brain is done by the neurons via synapses. Messages are passed from one neuron to another via the synapses, which are junctions between neurons. These messages are transmitted through the neurotransmitters that move from the terminal button belonging to one neuron to the dendrite receptors of another neuron. This understanding is vital since it aids in understanding the causes of various human behaviors, and how the information related to that particular behavior is transmitted (Graubard, 1996). A personality is therefore formed through the interaction and combination of different traits, which are caused by different sets of dispositions. Combination of biology and social influences in shaping personality Biology and social influences can both combine and shape an individual’s personality. This is because someone’s personality is almost equally influenced by the two factors. The effect of biology majorly revolves around the genetic influence, while the social influence is the influence brought about by the people around us. Thorndike, a leading psychologist in the early 1900s, claimed that in shaping human’s personality, the main determining factor is the heredity. However, John Watson in 1925 argued out that he might take any infant at random, regardless of his ancestry, abilities or even race, and raise him to become a professional in anything he wanted. All of them might have been right since the interaction of both of these factors shape personality. The genes, which are the basic units of heredity, composed of DNA, have the genetic codes for protein synthesis. The effect of genes on the developing brain of an infant and the nervous system is what brings out the genetic effect on behavior. Genetic influence on behavior can be studied in three ways: studying other species’ personality traits, studying the human infants’ temperament and through the heritability study of twins. Looking at the heritability study for example, when the raising environment of identical twins is separated (using different mothers, friends, locality and many others), the children will still have a lot of similarities in their behavior because they share their genetic information. This shows how biology has impact on personality. However, the differences, which will exist between the twins, will be because of the social influence. If a person, for example is predisposed to depression but there are no factors to cause depression, like situations or stresses, he may never be depressed. Therefore, both biology and social influence can together shape personality (“Influences on personality”, n.d.). Self-actualization based on humanistic theories of May, Rogers and Maslow Individuals can get self-actualized. Self-actualization as used by many psychologists in many theories refers to a state of satisfaction or fulfillment, where a person is fully using his or her capabilities to achieve at the highest level. Maslow categorizes self-actualization as the top of the hierarchy of needs. People must fulfill the lower order needs before they can satisfy the high order needs on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As people move up this hierarchy of needs, they eventually reach the summit, which is self-actualization. In attempt to satisfy the low order needs, once they are met, one will move on to fulfill the needs on the next level. This trend will continue until when all the needs are met, and then one will be primed for self-actualization. However, Rogers and Maslow give necessary attributes and attitudes, which should be in an individual as a self-actualization pre-requisite. These factors include a wish to be fully human, to be themselves, to fulfill themselves, to risk being vulnerable, to be alive completely alive and should have the will of uncovering painful aspects so as to grow through and be able to integrate these parts to themselves (Hall, Lindzey, & Campbell, 1998). Primary limitations of research in humanistic psychology The humanistic psychology explains many human behaviors but there are issues with most of the early tenets of the study. A lot of questions have been raised concerning the lack of empirical evidence used in the research. Since the study has a subjective nature, there is still a worry about the humanistic approach falsifiability. Much variation is allowed by the holistic approach, although enough constant variables are not identified for it to be researched with complete accuracy. Psychologists are also worried about such an extreme focus on subjective experience of individuals. Little is done for the explanation and appreciation of the impact of the society on personal development. Some people argue that lack of social functioning can be caused by such extents of focusing on the self. Apparent continuity in individual persona over a period time does not seem to be accounted for by the presence of such a dynamic personality view. In addition, an explanation of the presence of evil or deviance within normal functioning personalities in the world is not given by the major humanistic psychology theory, namely that people are naturally good, and they intuitively seek positive goals. These limitations are significant in understanding the applications of humanistic psychology theories. They can be incorporated in the many differing views on human change and psychotherapy (Schneider, Bugental, & Pierson, 2001). Concept of locus control Self-efficacy is the strength or extent of a person’s belief in his own ability to reach goals and complete tasks. Locus of control on the other hand is the extent to which people believe that they can control the events affecting them. Bandura identifies the factors, which shape self-efficacy as experience, modeling, social persuasion, and physiological factors. The experience of mastery determines self-efficacy where failure lowers it while success raises it. Modeling focuses on other people where, if someone else succeeds, the self-efficacy raises, and if other people fail, self-efficacy reduces. Social persuasion is the encouragement or discouragement from other people where encouragement raises the self-efficacy while discouragement lowers self-efficacy. In physiological factors, the perceptions of various situations will determine the self-efficacy. The perception of situations in a positive way or viewing them as being normal raises the self-efficacy while the feeling of nervousness or tension of situations lowers the self-efficacy (Phares, 1976). Operant conditioning model of behavior This model of behavior eliminates free will. This model is a type of learning in which the consequences and antecedents modify the behavior of an individual. The major tools used in operant conditioning are punishment and reinforcement. This therefore means that an individual may restrain from a certain behavior because of the fear of the consequences that would follow rather than own choice. This therefore eliminates the application of free will. Conditioning in this model is used to change a behavior either in frequency, strength or form. The conditioning could either be through reinforcement or punishment for the change of behavior. Reinforcement is used for enhancing the behavior while punishment is used for suppressing a behavior. For example, when a dog learns a certain trick and gets a treat for it, he is positively reinforced. A rat is negatively reinforced when he learns to press a lever to avoid an electric shock. A demonstration of punishment is when a dog learns to avoid going to the couch because he is usually punished because of that behavior. Therefore, a consequence is referred to reinforce when it strengthens the behavior, which caused it, and it will be referred to a punisher when it weakens the behavior, which led to it (Hinson & Parsons, 2001). Personal impact of the course The major change on my personal views about personal development because of this cause is the realization that human personality can be influenced by genetics. According to the research done by psychologists on heritability where identical twins were used, it was possible to prove the fact that genetic information is responsible for human behavior. The study was done on identical twins since they are because of division of the same zygote, and therefore share all the genetic information. The study involves raising the identical twins in different environments, in different families and by different mothers, friends, and locality. When these twins are later observed, it will be realized that they have the same almost the same personality. It can be told from observing them that their personality that they have a resemblance. The different environments, though they might cause some slight changes, much of their behavior will be determined by their genetic composition. These changes on my understanding of personality development will affect my research in that I will also have to consider the human genetic map while carrying out researches on human behavior (“Influences on personality”, n.d.). Cognitive and behavioral perspective of personality Cognitive perspective of personality focuses on human’s thoughts as a major determining factor for behavior and emotions, thereby having the greatest influence on the personality. It is believed in the cognitive theory that the absence of these personal thought would mean the absence of behavior and emotions. This means that thoughts precede any action or feeling. It has a view that the change of thoughts would bring about the change of mood, behavior and thereby change the personality of an individual. The behavioral perspective on the other hand has it that the environment is the determinant to behavior. According to this theory, the constant behavioral patterns of different people are because of their kinds of response tendencies, and this means that a particular way of behavior is adopted by different people over time. It further postulates that behaviors with positive consequences tend to increase while there is a reduction in behavior of negative consequences. Therefore the major difference is the fact that cognitive theory has it that personality is dictated by the thoughts while behavioral theory has it that personality is determined by the environment. This means that according to cognitive theory, one can change his personality when he decides to while in behavioral, one has no control over his personality (Kazantzis, Reinecke, & Freeman, 2010). Reference Ewen, R. B. (2003). An introduction to theories of personality (6th Ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Graubard, M. (1996). Biology and human behavior. New York: Tomorrow, Publishers. Hall, C. S., Lindzey, G., & Campbell, J. B. (1998). Theories of personality (4th ed.). New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Hinson, S. L., & Parsons, R. D. (2001).Educational psychology: a practitioner-researcher model of teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. Influences on personality. (n.d.).Influences on personality. Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/SeemiJamil/influences-on-personality-7985058 Kazantzis, N., Reinecke, M. A., & Freeman, A. (2010). Cognitive and behavioral theories in clinical practice. New York: Guilford Press. Phares, E. J. (1976). Locus of control in personality. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press. Schneider, K. J., Bugental, J. F., & Pierson, J. F. (2001). The handbook of humanistic psychology: leading edges in theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Read More