Analysis of Human Behavior: Biological and Behaviourist Perspectives

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes human behavior from various perspectives.

Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................1
Biological perspective...........................................................................................................................1
Behaviorist perspective........................................................................................................................2
Group influence.....................................................................................................................................2
Conformity..............................................................................................................................................3
Obedience..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................4
1

INTRODUCTION
Man behaviour is considered as the response of an individual towards an internal or
external stimulus. Psychology is the science of human behaviour that analyzes every
with an array of physical action as well as the observable emotion. The field of human
psychology has provided various perspectives depending on different determinants that
explain human behaviour. This assignment focuses on discussing the complexity of
human behaviour depending on the perspectives provided by psychologists. The
assignment mainly concentrates on describing two main psychological perspectives that
are biological and behaviourist perspective. The comparison between the two
perspectives will be done to strengthen the discussion as well the importance of group
influence will be researched.
2

Biological perspective
The biological perspective provides evidence that human behaviour is concentrated on
the biology of the human being and it deals with psychology. This perspective explains
how human behaviour is linked to the activities in human anatomy and bran. The
perspective highly supports the theory of the human mind as an integral part of human
psychology and behaviour. It is considered as one of the main perspectives in
psychology and includes the study of brain, immune, nervous system of the human
body. Initially, Charles Darwin was the one who introduced the influence of genetics on
human behaviour (Bertrand, Chugh and Mullainathan, 2005). Also the ancient debate of
nature versus nurture, the followers of nature part of debate supports the biological
perspective of human behaviour. This perspective is basically aimed at looking at and
evaluating human actions and problems. Biological perspective describes how human
genetics are responsible for the traits and behaviour of a person in a certain manner
(Breedlove and Watson, 2013). For example, if we take a particular trait of a person
such as aggression, different theorist and perfectionists will analyze it differently but a
biological viewpoint will present that there are biological roots present with the
behaviour of a person. Biological perspective may state that certain injury to brain or
malformation may cause aggressive behaviour or it may also link it to the genetically
acquired trait.
Behaviourist perspective
Behaviourist perspective mainly described how the behaviour of a human being is a
result of an acquired response to environmental stimuli. The behaviourism proposes two
main theories under that is classical conditioning and operant conditioning theory.
Classical conditioning theory by Ivan Pavlov explains how learning by association is
responsible for the behaviour of an individual. Whereas Skinners introduced the operant
conditioning theory that stated that behaviour is influenced by learning from the
consequences of behaviour. Operant conditioning theory explained that some behaviour
can be explained by the motive of an individual and there can be three behaviour
modification theories naming positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and
3

punishment. Behaviourism mainly focuses on studying the behavioural aspects that are
observable in nature with scientific methodologies. It highly contraindicates the idea of
free will and human behaviour as a subject to the individual's free will and states that
the environment is the one determining every kind of behaviour (Brunning, 2006).
Both the perspective explained that is behavioristic and biological are nomothetic
approaches. Both are deterministic but this characteristic is advantageous for biological
but disadvantage for behavioristic perspective. Both the theories are reductionist that
explains behaviour in simple terms. Both the perspective has successful applications
and is based on scientific evidence. Biological perspective focuses on nature whereas
behaviourist focuses on nurture. Biological perspective uses brain stem and twin studies
whereas behaviourist uses laboratory experiments. Behaviourist perspective is highly
criticized due to its limitation of underestimating the complexity of human behaviour
(Cash, 2011).
Group influence
Human behaviour is subject to get influenced by the social group setting. There are
different theories that describe how mob psychology and behaviour can influence
individual behaviour. A different concept in social psychology explains the influence of
group on the behaviour of an individual. Social loafing is a concept that explains how in
a group individual person exert fewer efforts or less work in a group project as
compared to the case where they do the project on their own (Andrews and Bonta,
2014). Deindividualization is another concept that shows how a person in a group stops
recognizing himself as own identity and just start recognizing themselves as a part of a
group and nothing else. Bystander behaviour is characterized in a person when he is
among a lot of people; it states that a person among the large group is less likely to
come forward to help. Empathy-altruism is described as a hypothesis that links the
feelings of empathy to altruistic behaviour.
Conformity
Conformity is defined as conforming within a group or to people. It is an important
aspect within a group and is necessary for better group working. It ensures uniformity in
the group and allows the group to function well. Conformity is influenced by peer
4

pressure that is the influence of peers on ideas of a group r the individual person. As
per Asch's experiment, the concept of peer pressure is evident, the experiment showed
how the involvement of peers in a room influenced the answers of participants and was
wrong (Batson, Lishner, and Stocks, 2015.). Majority influence is defined as the ideas
and thoughts of the group majorly influence individual idea with the majority. Also,
concepts like emergency situation and perceived expertise explain the theory of
conformity.
Obedience
Obedience is defined as the human behaviour to follow r work according to explicit
commands or set of actions provided (Winn, 2013.). Obedience for certain social roles
in society is perceived and taught as we are taught to obey and respect our elders and
parents. The concept of obedience in such a scenario is because of the experience they
hold. Milligram’s experiment describes how personal responsibility, buffer, prestige,
authority influences obedience and human behaviour (Schneider, Pierson and Bugental,
2014).
CONCLUSION
Behaviour psychology is a complex field that is explained by various theories and
perspective as well is defined as the science of emotions. These perspectives about
5

human behaviour explain different reasons for the development of behaviour in a
particular way. Also, the psychology and factors that influence it like group pressure and
obedience show how human psychology can be modified and redefined.
REFERENCES
 Andrews, D.A. and Bonta, J., 2014. The psychology of criminal conduct.
Routledge.
 Batson, C.D., Lishner, D.A. and Stocks, E.L., 2015. 13 The Empathy-Altruism
Hypothesis. The Oxford handbook of prosocial behavior, pp.259-268.
 Bertrand, M., Chugh, D. and Mullainathan, S., 2005. Implicit
discrimination. American Economic Review, 95(2), pp.94-98.
 Breedlove, S.M. and Watson, N.V., 2013. Biological psychology: An introduction
to behavioral, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience. Sinauer Associates.
 Brunning, H. ed., 2006. Executive coaching: Systems-psychodynamic
perspective. Karnac Books.
 Cash, T.F., 2011. Cognitive-behavioral perspectives on body image.
 Schneider, K.J., Pierson, J.F. and Bugental, J.F. eds., 2014. The handbook of
humanistic psychology: Theory, research, and practice. Sage Publications.
 Winn, W., 2013. Cognitive perspectives in psychology. In Handbook of research
on educational communications and technology (pp. 90-123). Routledge.
6