Factors Which Influence Human Behavior

Human behavior is a main way human personality is manifested. The study of personality is interesting to scholars and scientists  because it gives an opportunity to find mechanisms which define human behavior.

Human behavior depends on many factors. Some specialists believe that environmental factors have major influence on human personality. Other group of scholars believe that biological or born factors have crucial meaning. Both groups of scholars give convincing arguments to support their theories.

Human development is one of the most popular areas of psychology. Most of the psychologists try to distinguish the theories human beings go through in the process of their growth. Different prominent psychologists tried to found factors which influenced the development of human personality. Freud is mostly remembered for his psychoanalytic theory centered on the important role of instincts. Erikson developed Eight stages of life theory while Jung is famous for the theory of adulthood. Different scientists center on different aspects of human life. Freud centers on the dominant role of sex. Jung believes that notable development occurs on the stage of adolescence and centers on the study of this period of human life. Erikson stresses on the study of self and social orientation. Each theory has rational points and can be useful for the science for psychology. From the other hand it’s hard to define one theory, which would be totally correct and would respond to all requirements. The questions which become extreme important when we talk about the developmental theories are: continuous or discontinuous character of development; specific tasks common for everybody that should be accomplished during the different stages; the importance on the environmental influence on the development of the personality. In my paper I will try to focus on these important questions trying to compare developmental theories presented by three different psychologists.

 

The personality is defined as perceiving and thinking about yourself, others and surroundings which is usually shown in social and personal contexts. There are different theories which try to measure the influence of born characteristics and the surrounding to the forming and development of the personality. Such factors as heredity, learned behaviors, environment influence the personality. The question is what has a greater influence on the development of personality ”“ hereditary factors or an environment. Hereditary factors such as intellect, motor skills, abilities and disabilities have an indubitable influence on us but such factor as environment starts influencing on us at once after our birth through the behavioral patters presented but our parents, later friends and colleagues, mass media and social surrounding.

Most people adopt the traditions, rules, manners, and biases of their culture.

Personality can be expressed only in regard to other people or personalities as it can be expressed in society only. It was proved by the cases when the children lost in forest were grown up by the animals and didn’t have the sense of self-identity at all when found by people.

Socialization is inevitable, and unless individuals are completely isolated, socialization will occur. Erikson formulated the phases of socialization each of which is regarded as psychological crisis and only worked out can be transformed into another stage. First stage is called mistrust and when overcame enables children to ask for help of others. Another stage is called autonomy and deals with the freedom of decisions and is responsible for the sense of self-respect and self approval.  Third stage is called initiative and develops the state of personal adequacy and will to act and meet challenges.  Forth stage is called industry and is responsible for the interest in  getting the new knowledge and producing the ideas of your own. Fifth stage called identifies or identity confusion and overcoming this crisis the person learns to exhibit stable self-concepts and to take responsibilities.

So, the degree of development of personality is seen through the marks of others in addition to our own self-perception and self-esteem.

The abilities to interact and to correspond the needs of the society define the characteristics of well-socialized personality. According to Freud’s theory “Personality differences arise from the different ways in which people deal with their fundamental drives”.

The ability to adaptation in this changeable world characterizes usually a well-developed personality. The adaptation implies the ability to handle stress and to find the way out of difficult situation with the less damage for psychical and physical state and also stands for one of the characteristics of the well-developed personality. The right perception of yourself also indicates a high-level of personality development.

Compassion and understanding the feelings of others become the characteristics of highly developed person. Empathy is a term which stands for the ability to penetrate the inner world of thought and feelings of others and is definitely one of the well-developed person’s indicators. But the characteristics of the well-developed personality can be changed in order to correspond the needs of the environment. Good personality in the family interaction and good personality for the successful business can require completely different characteristics.



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