Human Behavior - Factors Affecting Human Behavior and Actions

Factors Affecting Human Behavior and Actions

Genetics: Human behaviour can be affected in many ways, one of which is genetics. Everyone has different traits such as intelligence and shyness which they inherit through heredity. These traits impact human behaviour and there are indications that behaviour is affected by genetics. First, behaviour can be different in different species. People behave differently from how a chickadee behaves for example. Second, behaviour can be reproduced in consecutive generations of humans. In each generation of people there will be similar behaviours that occur. Third, biological structures can be alternated resulting in behaviour changes. For example, if you develop a brain injury you can change from behaving politely to being aggressive. Another way behaviour can be affected is by behaviours that are brought up in families. For example, certain behaviours that can occur from a mental illness that runs in the family. Fourth, evolutionary history of genetics has a big impact on behaviour. All species have DNA which can bind us all together. Geneticists are now able to introduce or exclude specific genes, resulting in different traits and behaviours arising from those traits. One gene does not create behaviour. Behaviours result from a combination of genes, and these genes can be affected by different factors. Factors such as genes and environment are included in the growth of any trait. Genes can be manipulated and modified, and the environment can increase certain outcomes of genes. Understanding genetics in relation to behaviour is difficult and there are many things still being studied about this.

Social Norms: Social norms are essential in understanding human behavior. Norms is described as an unwritten rule on how society must behave, and what majority of people believe about others and how they should act in a particular social group or culture. An example of a social norm would be students, and how they are expected to attend school on time and complete any task given to them by the teacher (Perkins, 2006). Having norms allows people to have an understanding of social influence in a general and orthodoxy way. The types of groups that affect a person social norm would range from friendships, family members, workplace, and our national state. Another example of social norms is students, neighbors, and patients in a hospital are all aware of the norms governing behavior. Individual’s behaviour changes according to the group they go into, which allows norms to provide an order in society. Without social norms, it would be difficult for human society to function; humans’ beings need norms in order to guide and direct their behaviours. Sociology theorist Karl Marx and Talcott Parsons had established theories that the both believed that society need norms. Marx believed that norms are used to create roles in society, which allows people to function properly in different social class structures. He also established that this creates social structure. Parsons on the other hand, believed that structural functionalist affect school, norms that dictate the interactions of in all social encounters. These are some of the reasons why people, believe that social norms are crucial to human behaviour.

Core Faith & Culture: Another important factor of human behavior is their “core faith”. This faith can be through religion, philosophy, culture or personal belief and often affects the way a person can behave. Ninety five percent of our nation claims some sort of belief in a higher power, which makes religion a large importance in society. It is only natural for something that plays such a large role in society to have an effect on human behavior. For example, when a lesbian couple was featured on the JC Penney mother’s day ad in 2012, thousands of Christian mothers boycotted the pro-gay marriage company. Morals are another factor of core faith that affects the way a person behaves. Emotions connected to morals including shame, pride, and discomfort and these can change the way a person acts. Most importantly, shame and guilt have a large impact on behavior. Lastly, culture highly affects human behavior. The beliefs of certain cultures are taught to children from such a young age that they are greatly affected as they grow up. These beliefs are taken into consideration throughout daily life, which leads to people from different cultures acting differently. These differences are able to alter the way different cultures and areas of the world interact and act.

Attitude: An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event. The interesting thing about an attitude and human beings is that it alters between each individual. Everyone has a different attitude towards different things. A main factor that determines attitude is likes and dislikes. The more you like something or someone the more you are willing to open up and accept what they have to offer. When you don’t like something you are more likely to get defensive and shut down. An example of how our attitude affects our human behaviour could be as simple as taking a child to the park or to the doctors. Children know they have fun at the park so their attitude becomes willing and positive, but when we mention doctor, they shut down and become upset with the thought of pain. Attitudes can sculpt personalities and the way people view who we are. People with similar attitudes tend to stick together as interests and hobbies are common. This doesn't mean that people with attitudes don’t interact, because they do. What it means is that specific attitudes can bring people together (e.g., religious groups). Attitudes have a lot to do with the mind which highly relates to Human behavior. The way a human will behave depends a lot on how they look at the situation and what they expect to gain from it. Positive attitudes are better than negative ones as negativity can bring on negative emotions that most of the time can be avoided. As humans, it is up to us to make sure our attitudes positively reflect the behaviors we want to show. This can be done by assessing our attitudes and properly presenting them in society.