Theories of Human Behavior - Essay Example

Theories of Human Behavior ''''''During the early ages, there was a common conception among people that human nature essentially carries either of the two features that is good or bad. Literature has been a great medium that contained reflection of such basic behavioral traits of a person but with the development of human civilization we started to witness that human nature is not the solely either good or bad but it is actually a fusion of both kinds of traits. Looking at the ancient Greek and Roman literature we see that people are classified into two parts that either they are essentially good in nature or they are completely evil embodied. However, the social structure was changing and authors as well as literary scholars perceived human nature from different dimensions. Since 14th century onwards Europe experienced an intellectual movement called Renaissance humanism. During this period of time the authors and scholars started saying that it is would be wrong to judge a human being only from the perspective of good or evil. Personality of a human being is actually a fusion of both these characteristics. In this context we can cite the masterpiece of the world famous German Poet Faust. Though the poet has depicted his protagonist as an evil figure but at the same time certain traits of his character also came before the audience that showed his humane features also. In the same line famous English dramatists Christopher Marlow and Shakespeare also portrayed their characters in such ways that they contradicted the conventional human traits of good or bad and they emerged as human beings as we perceive in the modern context. However, what we call it modern psychology, there has not been that much of improvement or research done in this field. People perceived their fellow human beings in terms of renaissance ideology but at the same time no such theoretical approaches were introduced that can explain reasons behind such psychological overlapping. It was until 19th century that the actual nature of human psychology received a great deal of methodological appreciation and focus. In the meantime, several people and scholars have attempted to understand proper functionary nature of human psychology but none of those attempts have provided the kind of adequate attempt that can boost the study of human psychology further. ''''''In the field of cultural and humanistic cultivation, since 19th century onwards, different aspects of human behavior received a great deal of attention. It has often been argued by the modern psychologists that different aspects that cast a great deal of impact over human behavioral aspects, also act as constituent elements of human personality. Conventionally, the term 'personality' is often associated with seriousness of a human being or the gravity of his character but if we try to define personality from the perspective of psychology, it can be said that a person is an assimilation of different selves or entities. All these entities are exposed under different situations, especially through the actions that a human being undertakes when he needs to respond to the conditions around him. To fathom the depth of human personality, several psychologists, namely, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Harry Stack Sullivan and Erik Erikson have come up with their different theories. There are several other psychologists also who have contributed to a great extent in the exploration of human personality. Thus, since this time onwards we see that a lot of theories and methodologies have been introduced. At the same time all these aspects gave birth to a great deal of confusion. Despite all these confusions and debates, it cannot be denied that each of these theories has cast different types of focus over separate diverse dimension of human psychology. "In essence'" it can be said that, "a theory of personality is a set of unproved speculation about aspects of human behavior. Established facts are often lacking in scientific works, but theories offer guidelines that serve in the absence of more precise information." (Craighead, Corsini and Nemeroff, 1176) Modern psychological cultivation is founded mainly over theoretical constructs of these theorists but and each of these theories have developed a spate schools. However, it this context it must be mentioned that students of psychology often believe that such theoretical approaches, individually and respectively, are absolute but such beliefs often lead to confusion these theories draw a person to judge human psychology from biased angle only. For instance, if a psychologist is of opinion that Freudian method of psychoanalysis is capable of explaining all types of psychological conditions, then he will be limiting himself within its scope and would not think beyond so that he is capable of understanding human behavior from a spate magnitude. It needs to be understood at the first place if someone is trying to understand human behavior that theoretical constructs "are not undeniable truths, nor are they concrete entities. They are concepts created (or adopted) by the theorists better to describe, explain, predict, and control human behavior. Thus, any theory of personality represents but one possible way of interpreting and understanding psychological phenomena." (Craighead, Corsini and Nemeroff, 1176) ''''''Quest of human beings to understand the basic nature of human behavior commenced from the point as they tried to explore the basic qualities of human nature or personality. It has already been mentioned that human nature is comprehensive in nature and it is a construction of different entities of a human being. However, with the social metamorphosis as the theorists of human behavior have observed that the so-called evil nature of human beings are becoming more conspicuous, they started questioning about the basic nature of a human being if it is essentially malevolent or not. It is due to this reason most of the 19th century psychologists have attempted to explore the darker part of human psyche. "At the most negative extreme is psychoanalysis, which assumes that our powerful innate derives include incest and destructiveness. Since society will not tolerate such threats to its existence, it is inevitably comes into conflict with the individual'.Freudian theory thus posits a rather pessimistic definition of mental health: the ability to resolve our inescapable inner conflicts by channeling our drives away from inborn illicit wishes, and into less satisfying but more socially acceptable forms of behavior'." (Craighead, Corsini and Nemeroff, 1176) This very observation makes it clear that even in today's world the magnitude of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is simply undeniable. ''''''According to Freud the main aspect of human behavior is established over sexual instincts. In this masterpiece, The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud wrote, "psychoanalysis derives all mental processes (apart from the reception of external stimuli) from the interplay of forces '. All these forces are originally in the nature of instincts; thus, they have an organic origin." (Freud; Smith, 186) He has termed sexual energy as libido and at the same time he has asserted that libido plays the major role in the orientation of dream, expressing creativity of a person and determining the magnitude of attachment with the people around that individual. In this context one relevant question cannot be denied that what is the importance of emotion then in the life of an individual' If we go according to the line of Freudian theory of psychoanalysis, we see that Freud has provided much less importance to the factor of emotion in the life of an individual and he also expressed that compared to libido emotional aspect of a human being does not cast that much of importance in determining the actions of a human being. As Freudian theory of psychoanalysis considers the factors of instinct and sexuality as the forces of determining the core of human expressions and relations between fellow human beings, that is why the father of modern psychology finds "little room for the emotions as another foundational concept." (Smith, 186) He feels that libido not only plays a leading part in determining the humane actions and human aspects, but at the same time it also helps in determining that how a human being will respond to all those incidents that are happening around him. Thus, it becomes clear that people are sexual driving force is the main functionary aspect that controls human behavior. Standing over the foundation of psychoanalytic theory, Freud has classified the structure of mind into two parts, namely, conscious and unconscious and he classified personality into three segments, namely, id, ego and superego. Each of these three segments has separate identities of their own but at the same time these three parts interact mutually only to determine the behaviorist aspect and personality of an individual. ''''''Freud has provided the definition of Id in the book An Outline of Psychoanalysis (1939),' " everything that is inherent, that is present at birth, that is laid down in the constitution - above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization and which finds a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us." (Freud; Slee, 50) Thus, id becomes the main source of energy that acts as a stimulation of human personality and at the same time the energy is represented in the forms of drives. As Freud has opined that each human being actually seeks to satisfy his own instincts, the forces or drives actually act as the source for satisfying those instincts. He has also classified instinct into two categories, namely, eros or the sexual drive, which is also regarded by Freud as the main instinct of life and thanatos or the destructive drive. Freud opines that id is mainly dependent over eros or the sexual drive and act according to the sensual pleasure seeking entity of a human being, "A lowering of the tension of need is felt by our organ of consciousness as pleasurable: an increase of it is soon felt as unpleasure. From these oscillations arises the series of feelings of pleasure-unpleasure, in accordance with which the whole mental apparatus regulates its activities." (Freud; Slee 50) Ego, for Freud, represents the consciousness of a human being about his own existence. Ego acts as the mediator between the requirements of id 'for immediate instinctual gratification and the objections of the external world to such gratification." (Slee, 50) Human conscience is termed by Freud as the Superego. Thus, a person who is more inclined or responsive towards the requirement of id is actually very much instinctive or impulsive and he finds it difficult to remain confined within the norms of social conceptions of good or bad. According to Freud, among these people either erotical or thanatical behaviorist aspects are most conspicuous. A person, who provides more importance for his ego is ready to do anything in order to protect his self image and at the same time he is also conscious about the reaction of society about him to such extent that he often controls his actions and act right in the manner that the society expects from him. Such a person is always more keen to provide more preference to the social preferences rather than personal desires or expectations. A person, who knows how to maintain the balance between id and ego, is actually a perfect human being as he is dependent over his human consciousness and is ready to act just in the manner as a human being must act. Depending over his consciousness (superego) he automatically balances between the ideas of right and wrong. It is quite interesting to see that a person, who depends over his consciousness, while determining his actions, is neither acting according to the social ideas nor depending much over the demands of his instincts. He is actually doing the right thing and in legal terminology we can call it jurisprudential rational. Here we realize the relevance of Freud as people in the society can broadly be classified in these three categories. It is due to this broad spectrum of Freudian theory of psychoanalysis that the psychologists belonging to this school often claim that any kind of human actions or dimensions of human personality can be explained by Freud's theory or interpretation of psychology. ''''''Though Carl Jung denied Freud's approach but his theory of psychological analysis of a person contains a lot of limitation. Jung feels that human entity is mainly directed towards 'individualtion' as it is the basic requirement of a human nature to search for identifying his true self. Jung feels that personality of a human being comprises different types of contradictory behavioral approaches. No matter how much he has contradicted the approach of Freud but he has agreed with him over the point that "'consciousness is a tiny island in the midst of the vast and ineradicable unconscious." (Scarborough, 25) Separate impulses, such as, hunger-thirst, erotic desires, power seeking mentality and creative impulses determine the action of a human nature but there is a natural impulse in his approach that automatically directs him towards attaining the individuality or to obtain the balance between his different entities. However, Jung fails to identify or logically explains the factor that is responsible for introducing the balancing force among the different selves or entity of a human being. At the very initial stage of his theory he presumes about the harmonizing force and depending over it he goes on exampling his whole theory. Though a lot of psychologists have followed Jung's theory but at the same time they were also incapable of explaining the actual nature of the harmonizing force or how it is originated. Due to this reason, it is widely considered that Carl Jung's theory of psychoanalysis is greatly dependent over certain hypothetical assumption. Jung's theory becomes completely realistic only when we reckon it with Freud's theory. Thus, if it is said that Freud's theory is a perfect supplement for Jung's perception of human psychology, then it will not be an exaggeration. ''''''In this context we find that Erik Erikson's theory of human behavior and understanding of human personality does match to a great extent with that of Freud's understanding. In the book, Human behavior in the social environment, the authors have observed that, "The psychological approach (represented by Sigmund Freud and Erik H. Erikson) is introduced first, since this general view of human behavior ' on the human life cycle. The central theme of this approach is the interaction of the individual person ' with the social environment." (Anderson, Carter, Lowe, 198) Erikson's attempt of psychological analysis is considered monumental as he intended to 'create and extend a conceptual framework for the complete life cycle, based upon Freudian theory," (Anderson, Carter, Lowe, 201) but at the same time he also attempted to introduce a great deal of modification in the original theoretical approach of Freud. Erikson mainly concentrated over emotional and personality development of a person. He opines that psychological development commences since the early childhood in the life of an individual and during this time only he slowly develops in his character all those traits that are essential for both for his emotional or personality development. In this context we see that though Freudian theory of psychoanalysis acted as the main inspiration for Erikson's work but at the same time he has introduced a novel dimension in his work compared to Freud's, as he has introduced a great deal of emphasis over the factor of emotional development. Freud, in his psychoanalysis procedure, though has mentioned about emotional development of a human being but he did not put that much of emphasis over the development of emotional faculty. According to Freud human beings decide their actions depending over instinctive impulses rather than emotional ones. Erikson, on the other hand, does not deny the factor of instinctive impulses but at the same time he has asserted that emotional upsurge or lowering play considerably important role in orienting the actions of a human being under specific circumstances. At the initial point of emotional development, a child is mainly focused over those people whom he knows to be close or closely acquainted with him. It is during this time that children learn "what roles are appropriate for various family members, and they learn to accept parental limits. In addition, they develop gender identity through identification with the parent of the same sex." (Hutchison, 171) As a child gradually reaches to the end of the stage of emotional development, he stops providing entire focus to his family members and starts shifting his focus to those people, who are outside the family. It is during this time that an individual feels like sharing relationship with those people who do not belong to his own family and seeks to develop friendly relationship with them. If a child is not provided with the opportunity to establish friendly relation outside his family, he is sure to suffer from emotional disorders and in this context Elizabeth D. Hutchison has nicely elucidated the condition of those children, who have not been allowed to develop peer relationship beyond his family or close acquaintances, "Children who become struck in this stage are plagued with guilt about their goals and fantasies. They become confused about their gender identity and about family roles. These children are overly anxious and self-centered." (Hutchison, 171) Emotional faculties of aggression or attachment is also developed during this period of time and if proper opportunity has not been provided to the child to nourish all these faculties, then it will be hard for him to face the world and ups and downs of his own life depending over his emotional stability. In addition to this, the factor of emotional development also pays a very important role in determining the factor of social development in a child. It is during this time that a child is actually in the process of understanding the social aspects of a child's life and at the same time he also realizes that it is also an important social responsibility to value and respect the perspectives of different people. It is through the process of developing peer relationship a child realizes about the emotional state of his/her fellow mates. Automatically he develops such a faculty that helps him/her to empathize, support or protest the actions of the other people. Thus, this step can said to be the first stage when a child learns to grow up properly as a social being. Developing the peer feeling, developing the right partner, harmonize with others in the society, all these aspects according to Erikson's theory, are actually determined by the emotional faculty of a human being. Freud's theory of psycho analysis has explained to a great extent about the human nature and the factors that determine the actions. But, if we go according to the theory of Freud's psychoanalysis, we do not find adequate answer to the factors that are associated with social existence of a human being. Erikson's theory of personality and emotional development has filled up the void. ''''''Psychoanalysis definitely received a stronger foundation with the evolution of Erikson's theory. In essence, it can be said that Erikson's main focus was over the development of identity and ego but with the introduction of Kohlberg's theory psychoanalysis reached to a closer point of fulfillment and it was capable of explaining different dimensions of human behavior as well as personality theory from more accurate perspective. Freud in this theory provided a great deal of importance to the factor of superego, which can be compared according social concept with that of human conscience or morality. Kohlberg's theory psychoanalysis revolutionized this field of approach and looking at his contribution in this field, the critics suggest, "Kohlberg has contributed more than any other theorist to the study of moral development and his name is nearly synonymous with the field '. Kohlberg combined systematic research and clinical sensitivity to explore intersubjective experience and meaning discernment with a rigor that previously did not exist." (Greene, 137) His theory can said to be a perfect bridge between the theories of philosophers, psychologist and romantics and theories of social learners - behaviorists. Kohlberg has always asserted that behavior has an underlying structure and it is not a summation of separate responses excited by impulses from outside. (Rest, 7) He has derived the essence of all these disciplines related to moral aspect and at the same time, he attempted to come up with such a theory that would provide him with the potential to obtain a better analytical perspective of the situation. Finally he has come up with the argument that acts as his major theoretical foundation that "the culture, through its rules and standards, transmits to the individual the lists of virtues that he or she is to practice to improve moral character." (Greene, 138) He has asserted that there is a border or interface that distinguishes between the person and the circumstance, where he exists. An individual interacts with the surrounding through the means of biological or environmental and at the same time through such interaction he explores various types of innate structures. Kohlberg's work is greatly dependent over the philosophical structure of Socrates' work. Vigorous method of questioning in order to understand the right and wrong from the moral perspective has been derived from the Socrates' philosophical approach. Kohlberg has classified the stages of moral development into three main categories, namely, preconventional, conventional, postconvnetional or principled. Each of these three stages can be classified into two parts. For instance, preconventional is divided into heteronomous morality and individualism, instrumental purpose and exchange. Likewise, conventional approach is classified into a) mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships and interpersonal conformity and b) social system and conscience. Postconvnetional or principled is divided into, a) social contract or utility and individual rights, b) universal ethical principle. (Greene, 139- 141) In the context of social existence of a human being moral development plays a very crucial role. A person decides what is right and what is wrong not only for him but also for a greater benefit of the society. Thus, in the context of social existence a person providing a great deal of importance to the moral factor is absolutely essential. Society in the modern context is regarded as a great family and it is also expected from humanitarian perspective that every individual must honor the essential aspects of social existence just as he honors the macrocosmic aspects of his family and reaching the culmination of such honoring the bond of human fellowship receives a strong foundation. ''''''Erikson's focus over identification of a person's identity and ego and Kohlberg's theory of morality developed the foundation for social learning theory. This theoretical discipline says that human beings "are motivated by nature to experience pleasure and avoid pain. Social learning theorists acknowledge that thoughts and emotions exist, but understand them as behaviors in need of explaining rather than as primary motivating factors." (Hutchison, 157) As the psychologists were cultivating over this field, gradually they developed more diverse range of opinion over this aspect. In the same context the theory of multiple intelligences was introduced. It cannot be said that this revolutionary theory was actually a product of the social learning theory but at he same time as a student of psychology it is not very tough for an individual to understand that the theory of social learning received a new angle of dimension due to the introduction of the theory of multiple intelligences. Father of this theory is Howard Gardner and his theory is mainly aimed at exposing the factor "how people have come to possess different types of cognitive skills and how the same person is able to effectively use cognitive skills in some areas of life but not others." (Hutchison, 158) Looking at the main focus of the theory it is clearly understood that proper exploration as well as utilization of different faculties of a human being. It is not possible for a human being to make complete and perfect use of all his faculties with his individualized effort. Gardner's theoretical approach is aimed at exploring different selves of a human being so that he is able to understand diverse aspects of his life and he learns to provide adequate attention to all those aspects. Such attention over different selves of a human being makes him sensitive enough to look at the daily affairs from different angles and he develops an unique capacity of sensitize over all those issues. In other way it means that the theory of multiple intelligences is mainly aimed at making a human being an integral part of the society. In this context the theorist himself has commented that, "biopsy-chosocial potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture." (Gardner; Hutchison, 157) Thus, it is clear from the opinion of the theorist that if we focus separately over ego, self-identification or the morality factor then it is not always possible to find the common link between all these points. Thus, there is always a high probability that an individual will be more focused over a particular subject and he will learn to ignore the others. But the other aspects are equally important for a human being to identify the essential aspects for a harmonized social existence. That is why Gardner has provided the highest deal of importance over the issue, multiple-intelligence. Such intelligence actually helps a person to sort out all those information that are important to apply for a particular cultural set up, where the person is belonging in order to sort out the problems or to identify those aspects that will be most easily accepted by that cultural setting. Once such aspects or issues are identified, it becomes much easy for a person to develop such approaches or to orient himself in such manner that his approaches are properly appreciated by the society or he, as an individual, will be considered as a person of special value in the society. Thus, in this whole process of construction and formulation human brain plays the most essential part. Gardner's theoretic approach conveys that the expression 'intelligence' comprises three important qualities of a human being, namely, a) his/her ability to solve the problematic barriers that he/she or any person associated with him/her in their lives, b) to exercise his creative faculty he can create new problems through the method of self questioning and finally solving those and c) the capacity to come up with certain novel aspects or certain services that will be respected by another person or to the culture where he/she belongs. If we carefully follow the psychoanalytical approaches of previous theorists, we understand that human brain, at that point of time, was considered as a 'single cognitive system' but it was Gardner, who for the first time observed human brain 'as a central unit of neurological functioning that houses relatively separate cognitive faculties." (Hutchison, 158) Gardner asserts that human brain undergoes an evolution, only to develop different organs that can also be termed as modules. All these modules act as separate 'information-processing devices' and those modules make a person an embodiment of intelligence in their own ways. The most important function of the theory of multiple intelligence theory is that it helps an individual to explore the strength in him/her. Each person possesses such strength but as each of us perceive ourselves in a stereotypical manner, that is why, most of the time, it becomes tough for a person to explore the quality, which is exceptional and different from the main course of social survival. ''''''Studying carefully the chronological development psychoanalytical approach it becomes clear to us that Freud's theory has influenced the psychologist aftermath to a great extent. Till the modern times several scholars have introduced their theories but none of them could have appealed the filed of understanding human behavior or the traits related to human psychology to this extent. Since the time of Freud till the modern era, several psychologists were there who have supported Freud's approach and in that process they have formulated their own theories and others have protested against Freud's approach and in that way they have developed their respective discipline. However, it is quite astonishing to observe that no matter how much denial or acceptance was there but each perspective was revolving around Freud's approach of psychoanalysis. Even if we look at Gardner's approach of saying that a human being is an assimilation of different cognitive faculties echoes almost the same note of Freud's who for the first time focused over different personality traits of a human being and finally declared that human psychology is actually as assimilation of different entities that a person has not explored. In this context it needs to be said that understanding Freud's theory has received a new dimension due to the contribution of Henry Murray. He was also a personality theorist who used to emphasize to a great extent over the "importance of the unconscious" and asserts that Freud's pleasure principle is applicable to the aspect of human behavior in such a manner that is beyond the magnitude of any other theorist has provided it with. "Most people do a great many things ' that they do not enjoy doing '. But in such cases I believe ' that the man is determined (consciously or unconsciously) by thoughts of something unpleasant ' that might occur if he does not do what he is doing." (Ewen, 274) It is clear from the note of such observation that Murray has never actually propounded any original theory of psychoanalysis compared to other theorists of the same discipline. His main contribution was to come up with an amalgamation of different theories of psychoanalysis and his writings serve the purpose of "somewhat like an introduction to human behavior written in general terms." (Lester, 149) Indeed, Freud's methodology of psychoanalysis was of highest importance for Murray and focused over the importance of experiences in the early life of a human being for the development of individual personality. He also expressed that both conscious and unconscious psychology of a person play a great role in the personality development process of a human being. The difference between requirement of an individual and the influence of surrounding over that person, both these aspects have received adequate importance from Murray. Though Murray has never developed an individual theory of this own but in the context of making others realize about far reaching effects of Freud's theory, Murray's contribution cannot be denied. ''''''In the conclusion it can be said that since 19th century onwards to the recent times, several changes have happened in the context of psychoanalytic approach. Despite all these changes it is quite easily identifiable that the theories of human behavior are mainly aimed at understanding the shades of a person's personality. Though Freud has attempted to explore the matter from a very systematic way, works of other theorists have contributed to a great extent in the development of his theory and at the same time those theories have also acted as gap fillers between previous and modern approaches so that the whole concept of understanding human behavioral traits receive a fulfillment. ' ' Works Cited: 1. Ewen, Robert B., An introduction to theories of personality, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003 2. Freud, Sigmound, The Interpretation of Dreams, Kessinger Publishing, 2004 3. Greene, Roberta Rubin, Human behavior theory and social work practice, Aldine Transaction, 2000 4. Hutchison, Elizabeth D., Dimensions of human behavior, SAGE, 2003 5. Lester, David, Theories of Personality: A Systems Approach, Taylor & Francis, 1995 6. Lowe, Gary, Carter, Irl E., Anderson, Ralph E., Human behavior in the social environment: a social systems approach, Aldine Transaction, 1999 7. Nemeroff, Charles B., Corsini, Raymond J, Craighead, W. Edward, The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science, John Wiley and Sons, 2002 8. Rest, James R., Development in judging moral issues, University of Minnesota Press, 1979 9. Scarborough, Milton, Myth and modernity: postcritical reflections, SUNY Press, 1994 10. Slee, Phillip T., Child, Adolescent and Family Development, Cambridge University Press, 2002 11. Smith, Greg M., Film structure and the emotion system, Cambridge University Press, 2003 Read More