Social Influences On Behavior - Research Paper Example

Abstract This paper attempts to acknowledge about the human behavior, its stage of changes according to specific situations, influence of human behavior on the society and role of society in building human character. Apart these are the precursors and consequences of the behavior in term of the social psychological concepts. The human role in the social loafing and the therapies to for dealing with these social problems. Man is a social animal. He differs from animal by his ability of thinking. It is the man's thinking power which is helpful in building his character and gives him some moral values in society. There are many reasons which built human character. Some are inherited but the basic reasons are family interaction and influence of the society he/she lives. Childhood environment is the initial stage for a child when his character builds. Parent's behavior and family environment influences the child's character. There no direct influence of the society on child. The school life is the first step when child goes outside have to live as an individual person. The society in which he lives plays a major role in for his character. Most of the things he adopts from the society. Human character/nature and society both are interconnected to each other. As Robert Trivers (1985) says" every body has a social life". The mental element of the person make him recognized in the society and the social events and happenings bring changes in one's nature. One has to face many types of situations in his life which leave a strong impact on his mind. The experiences develop his mental approach. The general and abstract values of the society are remarkable in influencing the human interaction with the society. One likes to communicate with that group of people which match with his requirements, feelings, thinking and according to his standard. It is personal norm which establish expectations and that shape interactions. It is not difficult to agree that one enjoys the society of his own type. Everybody prefers to live in that society which is according to his demands and mental approach. One can influence the society in many aspects but the most considerable aspect is his mental influence. It is not like physical aspect but it is the ability to cope with the situations and strong observing power. Every situation and requirement has its individual settings. When a group of people interact with each other during work then there mode of interaction is different from the situation when they meet as a friend. This is because of the type of situation they are meeting. Each situation demands different behavior. We can understand this by the simple example that when a teacher interacts with the student in classroom then his behavior is very much different from the situation when he guides him as coach of cricket team of the school. Two friends gossiping while taking tea talk differently from when they interact as colleagues in the office. The behavioral change occurs in two stages of life. One when a person is at the stage of learning. He is just in process of developing his life career. It is his school stage to last level of his study. Other stage is when he takes step in his career and practical life. There are many stage and theories of behavior change and these stages are not unitary (linear) but has a cyclic order. Procheska and DiClemente (1986) propose a model of behavior change. Human behavior changes in five different stages (Procheska DiClemente model for behavioral change). These are 1. Pre-contemplation: The earliest stage of the change and mostly people are not considering the change. They often do denying or ignoring the problem. 2. Contemplation: it is the stage when people become aware of the problem and consider it as some matter of fact. However they are not still in mood of action. 3. Preparation: here people have some intention to bring a slight change in the behavior. 4. Action: now at this stage people finally decide to change there behavior to handle the situation by solving the problem and achieving their perspective goals. 5. Maintenance: this is the final stage when people try to slip back into a former stage and try to unite and solidify the gains they achieve in the action stage. We say this final stage as a rebuilding stage. People own understanding about the problem, personal skill development and motivation, and ability to adopt the new activity or behavior play major role in above five stages. As quoted by Bernard Edmonds" to dream any thing that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of human mind. To do any thing that you want to do that’s the strength of human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is courage to success" Emotional behavior and self efficiency play as a catalyst in these stages. Prediction is another factor in this respect but it is somehow a slight risky (in case when prediction comes wrong when you have taken a serious step just because of your assumption) There are many precursors and consequences of behavior change in one's social interaction. Let we take a simple example how one can face the situation and handle the problem in organized way. Suppose a person is facing the problem relating to his honor and respect. Then he becomes most sensitive in this problem. He tries to hide the actual facts and figures (in case if he has done some mistakes) and avoid facing the situation. It should raise more problems for him and maybe such situation will occur that he has nothing to do and all goes wrong for him. So a sensible way is to face the situation boldly and must have power to admit his fault. It is also necessary to ensure others that you will not again responsible to do such deed again there is another case when you done nothing wrong and still situations are going against you. Then there is no chance to loose hope if you have courage to face the situation in sensible way. Control on you emotional behavior. All these will definitely leave a everlasting impact on the society. Some events and happenings remain in the society just for a time but some become a un forgettable history. If the happening is bad then society will surely adopt a bad impact but good happening have good impact. The nature of society is also considerable to check the nature of any happening or event in the society. Here we take a simple example of educated society and conservative society. in educated society there in no objection for a girl or women to go outside and either seek education or do a job but if we move towards a conservative society there we see lot pf people criticizing the education and job of women. This also affects the behavior of women in the society. In educated society women enjoys the life full of confidence and have much energy and courage even if she have to live independently but in other one women Alas! Feel her insecure. Her talent and ability turned into her cowardice. This difference in social interaction also brings a major difference in the personality development. One major factor which became considerable during social interaction is the social loafing. This factor arises due to individual relaxing and lack in contribution other than other. It is somehow different from laziness but it is due to lack of motivation and personal skill. One responsible for such act is obviously criticized by other co-workers and finally looses his/her position in the society. Compliance and social greeting are the two social skills that act as a therapist in your social interaction and values and make you successful in social adjustment. References Carel B. Germaine and Martin Bloom (1999), human behavior in the social environment: an ecological view, Columbia university press, New York 1999. Procheska J.O and DiClemente, C.C (1992) stages of changes and the modification of problem behavior. In M. Harsens, R.M Eisler and P.M Miller progress in behavior modification, sycamore press. R.A Foley, the origin of human behavior, Rutledge, New York. 2000. Read More