HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Human Behavior



Human Behavior

Many people overlook the significance of the biological influence on human behavior. They fail to realize what a big impact our biology as humans have on characteristics, views and behavior. Mutations in our biology and neurological systems are the cause of many of the psychological disorders that people suffer today.

Our environment as well as the way we think and feel influence our everyday behaviors. These thoughts and feelings are processed by neurons in the brain and nervous system. Neurotransmitters in our brain and nervous system control all of our functions. When these neurotransmitters don't function properly, such serotonin which controls sleeping, eating, mood, pain and depression, psychological disorders may arise (Boakes, 2004).

In 1928 Skinner wrote to Saunders that his interests lay in psychology, adding in mild conceit: “even, if necessary, by making over the entire field to suit myself” (1979, p. 38). He never made the field over, but by the late-1930s he had established a new professional persona, no longer as Fred, but as “B. F.” Skinner; and a new style of psychological science. In the latter, knowledge was based on experimental control, not contemplation. Experimental control was established through the discovery and demonstration of functional relations, not correlations. The discovery and demonstration of those relations were the process and product of within-individual experimental control, not statistical control of between-group differences. Irreducible functional relations were basic behavioral processes. Theory was their integration. Although these characteristics were not exceptional in natural science, Skinner uniquely extended them to the behavioral, social, and cognitive sciences (Feldman, 2009).

With this style, Skinner founded a psychological science whose basic processes were, like Pavlov's, universal; they transcended individuals and cultures (e.g., reinforcement). Their products, though, were situated, that is, dependent on time and place, and thereby the province of natural history (e.g., reinforcers). Except in later simulation research, Skinner never systematically analyzed behavior's natural history, but instead offered interpretations of it based on and constrained by the basic processes. Where experimental control is not possible in science, for instance, in explaining plate tectonics and tidal forces, interpretation is a common form of explanation. Skinner's most famous and infamous interpretation was of verbal behavior, which he began in 1934 on a challenge from the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Within a year, he offered his first interpretation—“Has Gertrude Stein a Secret?”—arguing that her secret was automatic writing. Appearing in the Atlantic Monthly, this was the first of his popular press publications. They made him a visible scientist.

Molecular genetics seeks to identify specific genes that are associated with behavior and psychological disorders (Feldman, 2009). Research in molecular genetics has helped to identify genetic markers that are linked to many psychological disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. Research into this field may help develop earlier detection and treatment for these disorders and may also lead to effective gene therapy that can be used to potentially treat these same diseases.

Skinner assumed of others, so he assumed of himself: He was a locus for a confluence of ...