How Psychology Can Help in Understanding Human Behavior - Essay Example

How Psychology Can Help In Understanding Human Behavior Psychologists analyze what people do and what people think. They study what people feel, dream, sense and perceive using scientific methodology to steer their investigations about human behavior and mental processes from centuries of determined inquiry (Nevid, 2009). The term psychology originated from the Greek word psyche, after the name of a lady in one Greek legend about love and immortality (O’Boyle, 2006). The Greek psyche means “mind” and the other Greek word logos, which means “study” or knowledge”, as explained in Nevid (2009). Psychology is the “science of behavior and processes” (Nevid, 2009, p. 4). Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian (2011) inserted systematic into the previous definition, which seemed appropriate. However, it is the definition provided by Bernstein (2011) best fits the goals of this paper - psychology is “the science that seeks to understand behavior and mental processes and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare” (p. 3). Psychology facilitates understanding of human behavior by addressing its four main goals – to describe, explain, predict and control behavior. One way by which psychology helps in understanding human behavior is by describing it. Psychologists address questions pertaining to human behavior by description of observable behaviors. The term describing in psychology refers to naming or classifying, and involves the preparation of a comprehensive record of behavior based on observation (Coon and Mitterer, 2009). As explained in Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian (2011), describing behaviors and mental processes of autistic children about their difficulties in learning language helps psychologists understand their behavior. A case in point would be Donna. As a child, Donna recounts that she does not understand what people were saying, simply sounds with no particular meaning. These senseless sounds bothered Donna and she reacts by endlessly tapping or twirling in fingers since these movements hold her attention and allows her to escape from a non-sensible environment (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011). Psychologists were able to solve the tapping and twirling puzzle by observing Donna and describing the circumstances which would trigger tapping or twirling. It should, however, be made clear at this point that describing observed behaviors benefits both normal humans or those who are mentally challenged like the autistic Donna in Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian (2011). Psychology paved the way for the development Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory. In this theory, Sternberg proposed a framework for teaching and assessment for any grade level or subject by which teaching and evaluation may be designed to highlight the three abilities analytical, analytic, practical, as well as memory. The framework consists of a description or listing of activities which were proven to facilitate analytic, creative and practical learning and sharpen the memory of the students (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2009). Thus, as already discussed, psychology can help in the understanding of human behavior by observing and describing learning behavior to facilitate learning among normal students and to understand learning difficulties among individuals with learning disabilities. Coon and Mitterer (2009), however, argued that describing alone would not help explain behavioral phenomenon. Hence, psychologists also attempt to explain various phenomena in order to understand human behavior. Finding explanations for various behavioral phenomena assists in discovering the causes of human behavior (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011). Psychology helps explain why students miss classes, why they obtain low achievement scores, why divorce is on the rise, why STD claims many victims despite the known perils of contracting it. From a mere description of observed behavior, psychology goes beyond listing by explaining the causes of behavior. Psychological breakthroughs in autism helped explain it is not really caused by cold and rejecting parents as it was believed in the 1950s, but rather by a mal-developed brain due to gene and biological factors (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011). In the case of autistic parents, psychology somehow eased the stigma of being branded as outright cause of their child’s autism. Another example of understanding human behavior through an explanation of how and why such behavior occurs is Albert Bandura’s experiments with the Bobo doll during the 1960’s. In these experiments, different groups of children were observed as they view films where an adult beats the Bobo doll in different ways: hitting with a mallet, sitting on the doll, throwing the doll on air, etc. Different consequences were shown – reward and punishment after beating up the Bobo doll. Among others, the experiments revealed that whatever the consequences of beating up the doll, the children were all likely to do the beating since merely getting away an aggressive act is reward enough for them. This provided an understanding of the importance of parental guidance and restriction regarding their children’s exposure to violent films or aggressive behavior. Describing and explaining behavior paves the way for prediction of behavior (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011; Coon & Mitterer, 2009). An illustration of the utility of psychology in understanding of human behavior would be in the case of introversion and extroversion. Describing the observed behaviors for introverts / extroverts and explaining the triggers for such behaviors have enabled psychologists to predict how these individuals would behave given particular circumstances. This enables teachers or health care professionals and other people who interact with introverts and extroverts understand them more. An understanding of introvert / extrovert behavior will allow relatives and other professionals to make the most out of their interaction with introverts and extroverts (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2010). Finally, the ability to predict behavior facilitates control of behavior, particularly negative behaviors (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011; Coon & Mitterer, 2009). This goal of psychology is, however, believed to have both advantages and disadvantages. One case in point would be the autistic Donna. Through psychology, Donna can be trained to control some of her undesirable behavior by teaching her more efficient methods of self control. Hence, training Donna to enhance self-control will help her to address situations which annoy her and enjoy relationships with other individuals. However, the negative side of controlling Donna’s undesirable behavior is the possibility that psychologists may be controlling her behavior without her consent. This constitutes the realm of ethics, particularly in terms of privacy (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011). Coon and Mitterer (2009), however, maintained that although control as a goal of psychology may appear to be a threat to personal freedom, control in psychological parlance comprises more of “altering conditions that affect behavior” (p. 18). Examples of such behavior altering control would be teachers fostering changes in the study habits of children so that they can learn better (Cool & Mitterer, 2009). It is not unusual for teachers to assign more reading assignments to slow readers in the class so that they can have more reading practice and enhance their reading speed. Psychologists who engage in clinical session with a patient who suffers from fear of heights or any other phobia are technically exercising some form of control over their patients to overcome their unfounded fear of something. Coon and Mitterer (2009), however, contend that “psychological control must be used wisely and humanely” (p. 18). This author (i.e., myself) supports Coon and Mitterer (2009) in their position that the four goals of psychology, namely: describing, explaining, predicting and controlling behavior are “is natural outgrowth of our desire to understand behavior. In essence, these four goals of psychology contribute to the understanding of human behavior as the following questions are answered: “What is the nature of this behavior? (description); Why does it occur? (understanding and explanation); Can we forecast when it will occur? (prediction); and What conditions will affect it? (control)” (Coon & Mitterer, 2000, p. 9). Beyond the fundamental goals of describing, explaining, predicting and controlling behavior, psychology looks at behavior as being contoured by behavioral and mental processes within each individual. Beyond objective observation, psychologists also consider cognition as a manifestation of behavior, which brought to the fore areas of cognitive psychology and cognitive science (Coon & Mitterer, 2000). All these help psychologists understand human behavior. Furthermore, psychology facilitates understanding of human behavior by their knowledge and sensitivity of individual differences. As social norms rule and define acceptable behavior among various groups, individual differences in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability and social orientation influences the development of social norms. Hence, psychology helps understand people through their efforts to appreciate diversity and bridge cultural and social barriers (Coon and Mitterer, 2009). Psychology has been a major force in the social sciences because of its many practical applications. Psychology contributes to understanding of human behavior in many different ways, such as development of theoretical underpinnings to better understand the nature of human beings, to facilitation of efforts to explain human behavior, to finding ways to cultivate an ideal workplace, and to improvement of student achievement (Neukrug, 2008). As emphasized in the best definition cited in this paper, the field of psychology steadfastly ventures to enhance the understanding of human behavior in the service of human welfare, driven by the altruistic motivation to make this world a better place to live. References Bernstein, D. A. (2011). Essentials of psychology (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Cengage. Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. O. (2009). Psychology: Modules for active learning (11th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson / Wadsworth. Neufrug, E. (2008). Theory, practice and trends in human services: An introduction (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education. Nevid, J. S. (2009). Psychology: Concepts and applications (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. O’Boyle, C. G. (2006). History of psychology: A cultural perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. Pastorino, E. & Doyle-Portillo, S. (2010). What is psychology?: Essentials. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Cengage. Plotnik, R. & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2011). Introduction to psychology (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Cengage. Snowman, J., McCown, R. P. & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Read More