Human Behaviour

In this assignment I’m going to discuss the role of environmental on human behaviour and performance by identifying human behaviour in different sections. Behaviour – the psychical activity of organism. Environment – the external surroundings within which the organism lives, organism external factors effect the development or behaviour. Human performance – the effectiveness with which tasks or purposeful activities are carried out or accomplished by people in the work place etc. I’m going to look at bandura et al (1963), b.f.skinner (1971) and loftus and pickrell (1995) to assess how environment plays an important part in human behaviour and what other things other than environment effects human behaviour.
A Bobo doll is an inflated five-foot-tall toy which was used in the Bandura et. al. (1963) experiment. the experiment took place at Stanford university and a total of 96 children of equal number of boys and girls who attended the university nursery school participated in the experiment. They were aged about 3-6 years old the average age was 4 years and 4 months. Each child did the experiment individually and they were allocated to the one of the four groups. There were 24 children in each group. In group 1 the child observed a live model behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll. Group 2 the child observed a film of the live model behaving aggressively towards the Bobo doll. Group 3 the child observed a 'fantasy' model behaving aggressively towards the Bobo doll. Group 4 the child did not observe any aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll. The three conditions are defined to experiment conditions as they were conditions involving exposure to aggressive behaviour. With group 4 that is defined as the control condition as there was no exposure to aggressive behaviour as control condition is needed to see if the children that seen no aggression towards the Bobo doll and wanted to see if the children was provided with a mallet would they use it to hit something like the Bobo doll. Children’s behaviour can be influenced by seeing violent acts performed especially if it's an adult that performs the acts as they don’t see it has there’s any wrong in doing it if an adult is doing it. Some children could be more prone to violence if allowed to watch violent media or use to seeing violence around them. Children can get aggressive when it comes to jealousy of siblings or were neglected or abused. Children with A.D.H.D can influence aggression bandura (1963) found that children learn aggression by observing other people. The aggression they saw was towards the Bobo doll and this may have influenced their behaviour cause they may not of shown aggression towards another human being with ethics the fact the children are unlikely to be exposed to aggression in everyday lives and may learn that and see that as acceptable behaviour and may produce a change in behaviour. With the four different groups it was found that observing aggressive behaviour can cause aggressive behaviour.
MEDIA VIOLENCE Media can have a huge effect on how people behave and media violence could be a possible factor of causing violent behaviour in the real world with the fact of watching violent films and playing violent video games has been accused of causing violent behaviour. It has been assumed that people have a tendency to copy behaviour. The media's violent behaviour has caused a lot of violent behaviour in people including aggression. With the fact that films and video games have a age classification on them they cant be blamed for the violent behaviour of the people below the classification age as they shouldn’t be watching violent films or play the violent video games with the people over the classification age could have violent behaviour in there personality so it could come to them naturally. REINFORCEMENT B.F.Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the work of Thorndike (1898) by introducing reinforcement behaviour which is reinforced that tends to be strengthened. As if behaviour is not reinforced tends to be weakened as Skinner used positive reinforcement by placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box. The rat had to press the lever to gain food which reinforces behaviour for example if a parent gave their child £5 for hoovering up the whole house that child would tend to repeat this as they are being rewarded and it strengthens behaviour. Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement which will decrease a response rather than increasing it punishment can work by removing a rewarding stimulus such as deducting a child’s pocket money to punish undesirable behaviour. Addictions are reinforcement people react to their own environment and those around us and the consequences of our behaviour reinforce it. DETERMINISM Determinism is believed that all events including human choices are determined or caused by another. Which human actions are controlled by previous conditions it is often understood that determinism is ruling out free will and determinism is the view that human behaviour and thought is caused external or internal factors which is beyond the person's control. Skinner argued that freedom is an illusion and is only maintained because people are not aware of the environmental causes of behaviour. Bandura(1963) suggested that reciprocal determinism a position where the environment influences the individual who on the other hand influences the environment. There is an element of free will in all behaviour however it can also be controlled by outside influences. PERFORMANCE The performance of the human memory is that humans need to make sense of their environments including remembering names, places, self-confidence can influence learning and performance. People's performance is not only dependable on their actual competence but also on their assessment of competence. Memories can have inaccuracies which will go unnoticed and unlikely to have any particularly negative consequences. People can encounter a situation where memories of error can have adverse consequences by sometimes remembering things that didn’t actually happen and forgetting information. People's performance can be affected in many ways like stress, age ,mental health, illness. In experiments they may not have been told clear instructions and they can be manipulated. They can be told leading questions and post-event information can cause errors in the memory. FALSE MEMORIES False memories are constructed by combing actual memories with the content of suggestions received from others. 'In the lost mall' study implantation of false memory occurred when another person usually a family member claimed the incident happened corroration of an event by another person can be a powerful technique of planting a false memory. We often forget the details of past experiences so it is possible to create new memories about the past memories that are false. People can be convinced that something had happened to them in childhood when their parents or older relatives recalled the experience which encourages the person to remember. false memories can be quite difficult to distinguish although some group differences have been found which people can describe more in detail a true memory than they can with a false memory. Memory can fail us for many reasons. As leading questions and planting false memory can powerfully sculpt memories. False memories can affect behaviour in the same way real memories can. Food can be easy to manipulate by telling people they had become ill after eating certain foods when they was a child to see if that certain food could be avoided in the future with some people's behaviour change and avoided that food or believed that they did end up ill after eating that certain food. NATURE VS NURTURE Nature is to do with genetics as nurture is influence. Nature and nurture influence human behaviour, genetics make us what we are and environment makes us who we are. Nature is why people behave in certain ways for example, aggressively, caring, needy, etc. nurture can determine people's behaviour by the way they are brought up and people around them and what they learn for example parents, teachers, friends etc. nurture can not happen without nature. Some people are born with better genes than others. Some people live in a better society and give them a better head start than others. Some people use their will power better and work harder than others.
CONCLUSION Personality is on factor which influences behaviour. Mental ability can effect how many roles people are able to play which impacts directly on their behaviour. Our behaviour is based purely on the outcome of our life events and people may do what comes naturally. People choose their own environment in which they live. Bandura et al (1963) suggested that the environment causes behaviour and behaviour causes environment. Behaviourism is the only view that is observable. Environmental factors influence and reinforce behaviour.