Essay Example on Influencing Behavior: Unraveling the Dynamics of Sociocultural Factors on Human Behavior

Introduction

Human behavior refers to the expressed and potential mental, social, and physical activities within the phases of human life. According to (Trofimova et al., 2018), human life comprises successive development phases, which are marked by a set of distinct physiological, behavioral, and physical features. (Horwitz 2017) show that the main aspects of human behavior include Psychology, personality, interest, attitude, emotions, wishes, and prejudice. Psychology is the aspect of human behavior that I would like to research. Generally, (Wang 2016) shows that psychology connects people’s psychology with their minds.

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Biological Influences

Biological influences are the natural selection of adaptive traits that enable the human being to select the beneficial traits from a general population of traits. It also leaves behind the deleterious alleles causing a decrease in their frequency in the population. (Lewis et al., 2017) shows that individuals can either be less or more genetically similar because natural selection influences the allele frequencies in a population. Generally, natural selection generates a community that is better at adapting successfully to different environments.

The age of a person also influences their behavior. The age of a person dictates how they behave or respond to their environment. For instance, (Horwitz 2017) shows that older people are less enthusiastic compared to young people due to their low physical fitness. Moreover, due to their weak body response, older people are likely to be more resistant to change compared to young people.

Sex is another biological factor that affects the behavior of individuals. According to (Horwitz 2017), each gender is associated with a particular behavioral attribute. For instance, women are naturally hospitable, while men are naturally courageous. Moreover, some biological factors like menstruation in women are likely to influence individuals’ moods and behaviors.

Social-Cultural Factors

Social, and cultural factors influence psychology in a number of ways. Firstly, the presence of other people influences human behavior. For instance, (Lewis et al., 2017) illustrate that when a person is in a group of people they respect most, they will behave in a respectful manner. The way of talking will indicate that the person has good moral behavior. On the other hand, when some person is in a group of their peers, their behavior will change so that they can be able to suit the group. In general, the behavior of a person is influenced by the presence of others, either by copying their behavior or changing the behavior to suit the group of the present group of people.

Another aspect of social-cultural factors that influences human behavior is societal and family expectations. (Furuyashiki et al., 2019) show that society and the family expect particular actions from different people. For instance, society expects a person with a higher social status to have some specific qualifications. If an ordinary person becomes a leader, his behaviors will change to enable him to carry out his social duties.

According to (Wang 2016), Media is another social, cultural factor that influences human behavior. For instance, many people, especially the youth, are changing their way of dressing, socializing, and general lifestyle based on the things they observe on social media. Also, social media is affecting people's life whereby many people are spending much of their time in social media instead of socializing with others.

Psychological Factors

Psychological factors form a critical component of human behavior. (Lewis et al., 2017) shows that psychological factors influence human behavior in various ways. Self-esteem is one of the psychological factors that influence an individual's behavior. For instance, (Wang 2016) illustrates that people with low self-esteem are likely to be shy in front of others. Stress is another psychological factor that influences human behavior. (Lewis et al., 2017) shows that focus changes the way a person responds to their environment. For instance, a stressed person is likely to seclude themselves from groups and avoid conversations. Lastly, an individual's perception is another factor that influences human behavior. (Wang 2016) describes perception as the process of understanding or knowing. People's perception dictates how they respond to particular issues in their environment. According to (Lewis et al., 2017), the difference in people's perceptions accounts for the difference in an individual's behavior.

Research Topic

Human behavior is influenced by biological, social –social, cultural, and psychological factors, as mentioned above. I want to research the influence of the sociocultural factors on human behavior.

Research Questions

1. The study of the influence of social-cultural factors on human behavior would seek to answer the following questions;
2. Does the presence of other people influence an individual’s behavior?
3. Is there a relationship between the cultural and societal expectations of human behavior?
4. Does the use of social media influence the user’s behaviors?

Research hypothesis

The study would test the following hypothesis:

Research method

I would use naturalistic observation to conduct my study. The study would involve individuals' words in their natural environment to better understand how social-cultural factors influence people's behavior. Naturalistic observation would be the best method for conducting this research as it would be unrealistic to run the tests in the laboratory. (Cherry 2019) shows that naturalistic is an ideal method for studying psychological behaviors, especially in cases where the dependent value cannot be manipulated. Besides, since the real observations are conducted on random individuals in their natural environment, the study results would have a wider external validity.

References

Cherry, K. (2019, November 24). Naturalistic Observation in Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-naturalistic-observation-2795391

Furuyashiki, A., Tabuchi, K., Norikoshi, K., Kobayashi, T., & Oriyama, S. (2019). A comparative study of the physiological and psychological effects of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) on working-age people with and without depressive tendencies. Environmental health and preventive medicine, 24(1), 46.

Horwitz, A. V. (2017). Social context, biology, and the definition of disorder. Journal of health and social behavior, 58(2), 131-145.

Lewis, D. M., Al-Shawaf, L., Conroy-Beam, D., Asao, K., & Buss, D. M. (2017). Evolutionary psychology: A how-to guide. American Psychologist, 72(4), 353.

Trofimova, I., Robbins, T. W., Sulis, W. H., & Uher, J. (2018). Taxonomies of psychological individual differences: biological perspectives on millennia-long challenges.

Wang, Q. (2016). Why should we all be cultural psychologists? Lessons from the study of social cognition. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(5), 583-596.