#2 Concept of Human Behavior

Module#2

Lesson Title: Concept of Human Behavior

Lesson Objectives:

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. explain the concept of human behavior;

2. examine your own self; and

3. discuss the different perspectives of human behavior.

A. LESSON PREVIEW/REVIEW

Introduction (2 mins)

Good day! How was your day? Hope everything goes well. Welcome to our topic this morning entitled the “Concept of Human Behavior”. Our topic today is related still with the previous topic “Philosophy of Social Norms and Ethics: Human Mind and Behavior” since it also talks about behavior, to be specific the different perspectives of human behavior. The learning objectives of this lesson are: first you are going to explain the concept of human behavior, second, you will examine your own self, and lastly, you have to discuss the different perspectives of human behavior using your own words. Are you now ready? Alright, let’s proceed with this first activity!

B.MAIN LESSON

Activity 2: Content Notes (13 mins)

Instructions: Read the concepts that follow, and after that you have to write the definition of human behavior, take note also of the two faces of every self and enumerate the different perspectives of human behavior. Write it on the space provided.

Concepts about Human Behavior

According to Natalie Boyd in her article entitled Human Behavior defined human behavior as the term used to describe a person's actions and conduct. It also refers to the reaction to facts of the relationship between the individual and his environment. Human behavior is mainly influenced by both heredity and environment. According to the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss as cited in the book of (Alata et al, 2018) entitled Understanding the Self, every self has two (2) faces: personne and moi. Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his biological givenness. Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. Example, Mrs. Rea is a police officer; she’s also a wife and a mother of two (2) kids. As a police officer she needs to maintain a stern but calm personality in order to be respected. As a mother, she may be sweet towards her husband and caring and loving towards her children. Mrs. Rea’s self that shifts in order to blend and fit with the given situation is her personne but herself that is static or constant is her moi.

Different Perspectives of Human Behavior

Philosophical

Socrates believed that the best life and the life most suited to human nature involved reasoning. He also believed that nobody willingly chooses to do wrong. Plato, on the other hand, believed that human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge. In trying to comprehend the principle of human behavior from a philosophical perspective, let us first determine what it is to be a person? Debatably, there are human beings that are not persons (those in a persistent vegetative state). There might also be persons that are not human beings (the great apes and intelligent beings on other planets). We are going to find out what is the basic condition for personhood. We can think of an autonomous being as one who is able to determine the ‘shape’ of their life through reasoned free choices. Examples of a different sort are prisoners. Prisoners have freedom of thought, but not freedom of action. Hence, they are autonomous in some ways, but not in others. On the other hand, if another human being is not acting autonomously, it might be appropriate not to treat them as a person

Psychological

In psychology, people are considered as living machines who receive information from the world, process it in various ways, and then act on it. According to a school of thought known as behaviorism, human behavior was all about the way a certain stimulus produced an appropriate response. Your behavior usually starts with sensory perception: the way your five main senses (vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste), plus other, lesser-known sensory abilities such as proprioception (your sense of where your limbs are and how your body is moving), feed information into your brain (Woodford, 2018).

Sociological

Functionalism as one of the schools in sociology explains that society is a system having parts which are connected and related with each other. It is through this system that human behavior is being formed in the process of socialization. According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings" (https://www.verywellmind.com/social-psychology). To know more about the different perspectives of human behavior please read pages 8-11 of this textbook “Theories of Crime Causation”.

   FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q1. What is the difference between behavior from human behavior?

Answer: Behavior is a generic term. It refers to anything that can be observed and measured. It applies not only to humans but also to all living things like plants and animals while human behavior is specific; it speaks of the voluntary and involuntary responses a person adopts in order to fit the society’s ideas of right and wrong.

Q2. What perspective of human behavior is commonly adopted by theorists?

Answer: Psychological and sociological since a person is in the society. He needs to interact with others and in the process of socialization his action then is determined by what stimulus from the environment that he perceived.

Q3. What makes the behavior abnormal?

Answer: If it does not fit with the norms established by the society. This is what we called conduct norms by Thorsten Sellin. Wearing a swimsuit inside the church is unethical and at the same time a form of abnormal behavior but if you wear that on the beach that is normal. Meaning, our behavior may be normal in this place but might be abnormal in the other place. It depends upon the circumstances.

Congratulations! That’s enough for today, study in advance topics regarding the Concept of Theory and its Importance! Thank you!