...Assess the view that human behaviour is determined by social environment. This essay assesses the view that human behaviour is determined by social environment. Social environment refers to the physical and social setting in which people live in. It includes culture that individual was educated or lives in, the people and institutions with whom they interact with. Each of our social environments is moulded by individual’s upbringing and social factors. This suggests human behaviour is determined by nurture. However, I disagree with the statement human behaviour is determined by social environment. I believe human behaviour is the basic living instincts, predetermined by each individual’s biological factors such as DNA. Sociologists tend to argue that human behaviour is determined by social environment that is nurture. They suggest that on the whole our behaviour is not fixed biologically. Sociologists believe the society of an individual shapes their behaviour and personality. According to this perspective of social determinist genes have less effect on an individual. They suggest family as an agent for individual’s primary socialisation. Secondary socialisation agents are friends, environment, religion, and mass media and so on. These factors create personality for an individual that they claim to have. Furthermore, without proper socialization humans cannot learn to behave appropriately to fit into social environment. Feral children are the results of those deprived from...
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...Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behaviour has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behaviour within that context. By claiming a more biological route it explains that the behaviour of both humans and animals are due to biological and evolutionary factors. Sociobiology is mostly interested in the evolution of physical structures and is more genetic control orientated therefore differentiating it from evolutionary psychology. The focus on adaptation and reproductive success rather than progress toward perfection is made most clear through the work of sociobiologists like Edward O. Wilson. Adopting a focused approach to the understanding of behaviour on the genetic level, Wilson saw social behaviour as being controlled, in principle, by particular genes. Evolution and human behaviour from a sociobiologists view point occurs as a result of genetic determinism, reflexes, habituation, Fixed Action Pattern’s (FAP’S) and complex social behaviour. Sociobiologists would argue that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving advantageous ways of interacting with the natural environment, selection pressure also led to the genetic evolution of beneficial social behaviour.. Take for intense a sociobiologists view on genetic determinism. Genetic determinism is the belief that genes and environmental conditions, determine specific structural features and behavioural phenotypes or observable characteristics...
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... and control of criminal behaviour in both the individual and society. Criminology has been studied for many years and it has become a major topic in our society. I believe criminals are not born criminals. It’s our own choice to commit a crime. Also, criminal behaviour comes from our living environments. Lastly if anyone is a criminal they were raised to be a criminal. It is our own choice to commit a crime. Just like it is our own choice to study for an upcoming test in school. In the classical early history of criminology, a guy named Jeremy Bentham believed in utilitarianism which is the view that people’s behaviour is motivated by the pursuit to seek pleasure and avoid pain. It is about what a person wants. The consensus theory is a sociological early history theory which states that people know the difference between right and wrong, some individuals choose to do wrong. We all have a brain and we all know how to use it. Lastly, the rational choice and deterrence theory plays an important part of a criminal. Some people suggest that criminals calculate the costs and the benefits of criminal activity and if the benefit outweighs the cost, the criminal is willing to take the risk of getting caught. These theories prove that a criminal can think before they do. Everybody has a choice in life. Criminal behaviour also comes from growing up in poverty. Some people have less resources. Our living environments impact on how people behave...
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...Discuss genetic and environmental influences on behaviour. (22) There has been a debate in psychology regarding nature (genetics) and nurture (the environment) and whether one of these explanations alone determine human behaviour, or whether there are other factors influencing our actions. There are two different stances that people take on whether language development is genetic or environmental. Nativists believe that the capacity for language can be classed as ‘innate’. Whereas empiricists suggest that, it is environmental variables that play a vital role in language development. It would be ethically impossible to study behaviour in total isolation in order to determine whether genetics or environmental influences for our behaviour. The closest research recorded, focusing on this case is a girl named Genie (1970); who was socially isolated for the first 13 years of her life, by her father. Genie’s case presented researchers with a unique opportunity. Psychologist James Kent described Genie as a ‘profoundly damaged child’ as it was discovered that she could hardly walk and could only speak around 20 simple words. It was suggested that although she started learning single words. In most cases it is thought that after a few words have been acquired it is then followed by what is called language explosion. However, this never happened for genie her language abilities didn’t improve, and she appeared unable to apply grammatical rules and use language in a meaningful way...
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...operate in our world by forming associations between a particular stimulus and the most appropriate behavioural response, stimulus response unit’s, which explains why we behave the way we do. Classical conditioning attempts to account for this through learning by association. Watson used this in his conditioning of his case study ‘little Albert’. He conditioned a baby to fear that which he previously had not by associating it with an instinctive fear. Watson was able to conclude from this that phobias are not a result of the unconscious, as psychoanalytic had believed, but were the result of conditioning. E.L. Thorndike’s concluded for his experiments on cats that there were two laws of learning; the law of exercise and the law of effect. The law of exercise stating that the more times a task is carried out the better we become at it; learning having taken place. The law of effect says that there is a link between our behaviour and its consequences. Thorndike showed we not only learned through Pavlov’s stimulus-response conditioned behaviours but also because behaviour has resulted in a positive outcome in the past. B.F. Skinner, influenced by Thorndike, contributed to behaviourism with the concept of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning requires a reward or unpleasant consequence during the learning process to encourage or discourage us in our learning and repeating of the behaviour. By studying the behaviour of rats Skinner was able to show that behaviour followed by...
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...Describe and evaluate the evolutionary theory of food preferences According to an evolutionary approach current human behaviour can be understood in terms of how it may have been adaptive in our ancestral past. Evolutionary theorists are concerned with behaviour which is adaptive and having survival value, these researchers look for ultimate explanations. Current behaviours may be maladaptive and dysfunctional but can be understood as having been adaptive and functional in some way. To undertake this type of analysis they draw on the theory of natural selection and suggest that all species including humans, evolve through a process of natural selection and that only those characteristics that confer advantage or at least do not confer disadvantage survive as the species evolve. This is an interactionist approach, as an individual’s genetic predisposition is assumed to interact with their environment. In terms of eating behaviour, an evolutionary psychologist is interested in the following questions: “Are there innate preferences for certain foods?”, “How would these preferences have been adaptive in the past?” and “How do these preferences function now?” Early research by Davis investigated the eating behaviour of infants and young children. Davis observed the kinds of choice children living in a paediatric unit made in relation to their diet. Based on her data, Davis concluded that young children have an innate, regulatory mechanism and are able to select a healthy diet...
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...century. Before this period, early psychologists such as Freud focused on emphasising the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behaviour. In these early days psychology had developed from philosophical studies, so the approaches used were similar to those adopted by the philosophers at the time. The main approach used the method of introspection, which tried to understand the mind through the analysis of an individual’s thoughts, feelings and experiences (Hayes, 2008). However, this approach was later criticised for its subjectiveness since one person’s introspection can differ from another’s (Gross, 2003) and that although introspection can reveal an individual’s private experiences it cannot be objectively measured or observed by others (Smith et al, 1998). The concept of behaviourism as a formal school of psychology was introduced by the American psychologist, JB Watson in 1919 (Carlson et al, (2000). Following a series of experiments he conducted on animals which included cats, dogs, monkeys and rats, he came to the conclusion that psychology should not be concerned with the mind or the consciousness. He suggested that psychologists should instead focus on the external observations on the behaviour of animals or humans in order to understand how the environment influences the subject’s behaviour (Smith et al, 1998). Watson, along with fellow researchers such as Pavlov and Skinner, began to develop a framework which emphasised observable processes...
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...discuss the relationships between perception, motivation and behaviour in relation to the work of the human resource manager in an organisation. In order to do this I will briefly introduce each subject, comment on the linkages that exist between each of them and comment on the critical aspects of each that HRMs need to understand in order to be effective. I will then discuss the management of perception. Human resources management is one of the most dynamic and challenging area of management (Bratton & Gold, 1999). Each individual has its own set of standard which clearly defines his or her personality .This can be influenced by the origin of culture and tradition mind set. In an organization structure perception, motivation and behaviour are three fundamental elements that lead to strong implementation of organization structure. The human resource department must have the mechanism to manage the three fundamental elements. If they are not managed properly it can have an adverse impact on the organization strategy. According to Leopold & Harris (2009) the foundation of human resource management is based on the five areas: • Staffing - Recruiting the right person with the right qualification, skills and experience to key positions. • Development and training - Development and training programme to ensure that staff has the right knowledge and skills to keep up with new development taking place in the working environment. • Reward - Future prospect for each staff. Performance...
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...This essay assesses the view that human behaviour is determined by social environment. Social environment refers to the physical and social setting in which people live in. It includes culture that individual was educated or lives in, the people, institutions and media with whom they interact with. Each of our social environments is moulded by individual’s upbringing and social factors. This suggests human behaviour is determined by nurture. However, I disagree with the statement human behaviour is determined by social environment. I believe human behaviour is the basic living instincts, predetermined by each individual’s biological factors such as DNA. Sociologists tend to argue that human behaviour is determined by social environment that is nurture. They suggest that on the whole our behaviour is not fixed biologically. Sociologists believe the society of an individual shapes their behaviour and personality. According to this perspective of social determinist genes have less effect on an individual. They suggest family as an agent for individual’s primary socialisation. Secondary socialisation agents are friends, environment, religion, and mass media and so on. These factors create personality for an individual that they claim to have. Furthermore, without proper socialization humans cannot learn to behave appropriately to fit into social environment. Feral children are the results of those deprived from social interaction with other humans. Isabelle was born to mother who...
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...of your personality was caused because of your environment, how you were raised. So does nature or nurture contribute more to someone's personality and behaviour? Or do they both play a role in shaping our lives? I hope to come to a conclusion with this debate in the end of my thesis. With nurturing, people tend to observe others actions and behaviour, and try to be like others. As a result, the human behaviour is the result of experience and imitating. The social learning theory suggests that we learn through imitation and observation. It also suggests that people learn within the environment and get approval from the public by learning through an influential model. Bandura, a known psychologist found that according to this theory, a model can be the main cause for learning new actions. However, when there is a role model that illustrates bad behaviour, that behaviour could be imitated by young children. A few psychologists criticised Bandura’s theories- where children behaved more aggressively after observing violent acts from their family members. This meant that children, who witness their parent’s aggressive behaviour, have a higher risk of being abusive later on in their life. This theory is also questionable as there could be other factors, like genetics, which affect the behaviour. Our behaviour is more influenced by the genes we inherit than the environment we are brought up in. When socialisation does affect our identities, genetic and hormonal factors have a...
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...the dominant views in their culture. This will determine your behaviour as an adult. We research upbringing so that if an individual is at high risk of developing criminal behaviour due to his upbringing, the risks can be easily reduced by changing the way an individual is brought up. Upbringing suggests that criminal behaviour can be learnt from others, i.e. if a child observes criminal behaviour he is at high risk of committing a crime. There are three ways through which an individual learns from others: classical conditioning, operant conditioning and the social learning theory. Social learning theory is the idea that we learn indirectly, through others – normally role models (such as criminal family members, criminal peers etc.). In Akers et al study on social learning and deviant behaviour, data on adolescent drinking and drug-taking behaviour was collected by a survey. A large sample of teenagers was surveyed, with a small sub-group interviewed to check the validity of the data. Quantitative data was collected by asking about the frequency of their alcohol and drug consumption on a scale of 1 (never) to 6 (nearly everyday) and qualitative data was collected by asking about their alcohol or drug related experience, why they were involved in alcohol and drug consumption, are they following a role model, what reward or punishment they get by this behaviour and if others (parents etc.) object to their behaviour. Statistical analysis showed that social learning theory can...
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...people make sense of their environments‘. Psychology as a scientific study of behaviour and mental phenomena, in its systematic approach to observe, describe, predict and explain behaviour (class note), offers different approaches to studying and explaining behaviours, the main approaches includes, behaviourist, psychodynamic, cognitive, humanistic and biological. In this essay, two of the approaches (behaviourist and psychodynamic) will be discussed. There are two categories of behaviourism; radical which explain operant conditioning and classic or methodological behaviourism which explains classical conditioning. Watson (1913, 1919,) developed and popularised methodological behaviourism, while . . . as Morris (1988) recorded, Skinner's radical behaviourism start to be recognised within the academic folklore, in the late 1950s. Psychodynamic perspective was originally explained in the publication by Freud (1900) titled The Interpretation of Dreams, although there are many other psychodynamic theories based on Freud’s ideas (such as Jung’s, Adler‘s, and Erikson’s). This essay is purposed to highlight the similarities and differences between the two aforementioned psychological approaches (behaviourist and psychodynamic). Behavioural approach emphasises scientific study of only observable and measurable behaviours, responses and their environmental determinant. In behaviourism learning theory applies and it has a focus on human behaviour as primarily a function of...
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...Essay Criminal behaviour should be considered a matter of individual rather than social responsibility. Discuss Carl Ikejezie Criminal behaviour is one of the negative aspects of the human society and it affects the whole world. Its causes are innumerable, from lack of jobs to lack of education to poor family upbringing and genetic predisposition. Criminal behaviour is any behaviour that has a criminal intent, or results in punishment by law enforcement of some type. This essay intends to show with evidence from research that criminal behaviour is a matter of social responsibility more than individual responsibility. The following are some of the crimes: sexual abuse, robbery, drug dealing, fraud, arson, theft, manslaughter, etc. The causes of this behaviour are many; because of the nature of this essay only four will be discussed here, namely: poor upbringing, lack of education, lack of jobs, and genetic predisposition. Poor upbringing is responsible for many criminal behaviours in society. Parental involvement in children’s upbringing is essential. The early learning can be enhanced or inhibited by the environment in which a child grows up. If the child witnesses family conflict and disorders, he is more likely to be a victim of violence that can hurt him for life. One research reveals that the absence of the father in family is determinant in the behaviour of young people, and is defined as “hyper masculine”. These young...
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... Parkville Campus, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, harzing@unimelb.edu.au Acknowledgements This study was supported by funds from the 'Jubiläumsfondsprojekt Nr. 11618 of the Oesterreichischen Nationalbank'. We thank Professor Gerhard Fink and Dr. Markus Pudelko for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Abstract Using data collected from 25 interviews with Austrian employees in the European Commission, we explore the conditions under which cultural differences do and do not influence interactions. Previous experience with culturally-determined behaviour and experience working in a foreign language is found to foster norms that reduce conflict based on cross-cultural differences. Time pressure, on the other hand, makes cultural differences, specifically the way that criticism is delivered and the extent of relational-versus-task orientation, more explicit. Our...
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...5/13/2012 leaders are born not made If you order your custom term paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on leaders are born not made. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality leaders are born not made paper right on time. Out staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in leaders are born not made, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your leaders are born not made paper at affordable prices with Live Paper Help! . Leaders are born, not made Over the years there has been many opinions on this statement, and when trying to understand leadership success many approaches have been looked at. Researchers at the start of the 0th century focused on traits that leaders possessed. It was thought that some people were born with traits which made them a leader. Before the nd World War a lot of research was carried out, which sought to identify these characteristics. This is known as the Great Man Approach, since being born with these characteristics made you a “great man”. So is it true that leaders are born? Before seeking to answer this question, the theories should be examined. Stodgill...
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