Human Behavior And The Way Humans Function

Every single individual has a personality; it is the very quintessence of human existence. Personality drives our interactions with others, our desires – conscious and unconscious, our perceived needs, and to a certain extent, even our actions. Psychodynamic approaches to personality are focused on the belief that we have virtually no control over our own personality, that it is primarily controlled by unconscious powers. Social cognitive approaches to personality centers around the belief that we still have

Humans are categorized as being diverse, and as such, there are no two humans that are exactly the same. Humans and their behavior are not black and white. So why, in the field of psychology, do psychologists try to explain human behavior by using only one explanation? Psychology is the study of the human mind and of human behavior. Through the years, psychologists have created several theories to try to explain the cause of human behavior. These are called the approaches to psychology. The seven main approaches to psychology are: Behavioral, Biological, Cognitive, Evolutionary, Humanistic, Socio-cultural, and Psychodynamic. Many psychologists believe only one approach explains the cause of human behavior. However, considering only one approach to human behavior is limiting because there are many factors that can play a role in human behavior. All approaches should be considered when explaining human behavior because there are many weaknesses to each approach, considering all approaches is stronger, a therapy that considers all approaches is more beneficial, and many studies have proven there are multiple causes of behavior.

Behaviorism has been a major school of thought in psychology since 1913, when John B. Watson published an influential article. Watson argued that psychology should abandon its earlier focus on mind and mental processes and focus exclusively on overt behavior. He contended that psychology could not study mental processes in a scientific manner because they are private and not accessible to outside observation. In completely rejecting mental processes as a suitable subject for scientific study, Watson took an extreme position that is no longer dominant among modern behaviorists. Thus, most behaviorists view an individual’s personality as a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations. A specific situation

Signs and symptoms indicate that Smith is suffering from clinical disorders. All the signs and symptoms she is positive and hence indicating that she is suffering from adjustment disorder, bipolar disorder, eating disorder, major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder and the acute stress disorder. She suffered from some form of mental retardation when she was young, mainly when her mother was harsh. She could be pushed around and forced to babysit her younger sister and brother. She argued out that her mother was both physically and emotionally abusive.

As one of the oldest theories of personality, behaviourism dates back to Descartes, who introduced the idea of a stimulus and called the person a machine dependent on external events whose soul was the ghost in the machine. Although most theories operate to some degree on the assumption that humans have some sort of free will and are moral thinking entities, behaviourism does not accept that maladaptive characteristics are inherent in a person’s nature. “In the mind of the behaviourist, persons are nothing more than simple mediators between behaviour and the environment” (Skinner, 1993, p 428).

The purpose of this essay is to outline and evaluate at least three psychological perspectives of human behaviour. The three approaches that will be summarised are humanistic, social learning theory and the Biological approach. They will also be criticised and compared to one another. A brief description on psychology will occur, and there will also be a short summarisation on some key early influences of psychology, from its origins in philosophy.

With all great theorists and their great theories, there are critics who do not all agree with how their theories are postulated. In the case of B.F. Skinner, some who studied under him, and other researchers criticized his theory of Behaviorism and its components. The components that were criticized were his assertions about economic, social, political, and religious issues, learned behaviors, and the development of human behavior.

A sociological perspective on human behavior is connected to the society as a whole. It invites us to look for the connections between the behavior of individuals and the structures of the society in which they live. (Appendix 1)

The American Psychologist Association (APA) defines psychology as ‘the study of the mind and behaviour . The discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged. ‘(Association, 2014). With such an extensive definition, it is not overly surprising that its scientific kudos has been used to propagate political dogma, including abominable beliefs such as the innate inferiority of black people (Howitt and Owusu-Bempah, 1994) and to facilitate the legalislation of racist laws such as the American Jim Crow laws that placed severe restrictions on the rights and privileges of African Americans in 1877 (Brown and Stentiford,

There are countless psychological models and theories that correlate individual behaviors and paradigms to the capriciousness of managing conflict, many of which apply directly to the influence that goals or interests have in framing individual behaviors. For simplicity purposes, however, this study will focus primarily on the biological, psychological, and social aspects of conflict behaviors and the way they relate to motivation or drive for achieving such prospects.

Human collective behaviors vary considerably with so- cial context. For example, lane formation in pedestrian traffic [1], jamming during escape panic [2], and Mexi- can waves at sporting events [3] are emergent phenomena that have been observed in specific social settings. Here, we study large crowds (102 − 105 attendees) of people under the extreme conditions typically found at heavy metal concerts. Often resulting in injuries [4], the collec- tive mood is influenced by the combination of loud, fast music (130 dB [5], 350 beats per minute), synchronized with bright, flashing lights, and frequent intoxication [6].

Mortal Terror: Mortal Terror is the number one favorite from 90% of people who come toTale Heart Horror Amusement Park. You are occupied on your wait in line with sound of a heartbeat growing louder and louder and floorboards creaking when the line moves. When you get to the ride there is a creepy man operating the ride just like on all our other rides. You get strapped onto the ride without the staff saying a word, and if it’s dark out the only source of light is a single lantern that the staff uses to see. When everyone is strapped into the ride all of the lights shut off and you are immediately sent upward. When you get to the top the only thing you can see is the person’s face that is next to you, and a man with a dark lantern starring

In the case of Jane, the focus will be on understanding her behavior in the context of the environmental variables but completely ignoring the inner psychological issues that control her mental processes. Jane’s case will be very difficult to pursue – in regards to cognitive therapy; this is because of the “dissociation” of the important aspects of mental issues in defining character (O'connor, 2009). The theoretical assumption of the behaviorist is in stark contrast with the assumptions of the cognitivists. The cognitivists study the mental processes in totality (Mowrer,

The origin of modern human behavior is a subject in anthropology that accumulates much debate. Cognition is the dominant factor in such behavior, therefore raises the question, “when did this separation of intelligent or modern thought from the primitive come to daily behavior for our genus?” There are two such answers that hold experts in the field captive in debate: the rapid “imagination revolution” in the European-centrailized Upper Paleolithic, and the steadiness of cognitive growth provided first in Africa during the Middle Paleolithic. Although each argument provides supportive evidence for their perspective claims, the more naturally convincing shows this creative revolution taking place much earlier than the Upper Paleolithic. This explanations human cognition developing with no brisk advantageous revolutionary response, and instead by gradual means. This metamorphosis follows the pattern of biological human evolution. My argument combats the “imagination revolution” claim to the origins of creativity using specific artifacts dated earlier than those of European restrictions. Furthermore, it is the lack of excavation in Africa and the conditions of the terrain itself that pose problematic preservation of artifacts, unlike in Europe, to exonerate this innovative exclusivity. These pieces of evidence in Africa exemplify a higher process of thinking, commonly those showing deliberate means of bead and rock art used for both personal functions of expression. If art

Skinner was a behaviorist who wanted to provide a method for understanding human behavior, thoughts, and emotions. Skinner believed that classical conditioning was to simplistic to be a complete explanation of the complex human behavior. Skinner believed the best way to understand any behavior is to look directly at the causes of an action and its consequences. He defined this approach as operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is defined as “ the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again” (B. F. Skinner, 2011). The behavioral model observes human behavior as a practical and useful response. This model acknowledges that every behavior has a purpose and has advanced from the earlier stages of a person's understanding. Skinner created a way to allow individuals the ability to avoid negative behaviors. His theory uses positive and negative reinforcements while covering affective punishments to make sure a student's bad behavior does not turn into a pattern. According to our textbook, “one defining characteristic of the behavioral model is that it views behavior from a functional perspective in terms that are both measurable and observable (Wheeler, 2014,p.17).”