Diversity: Society and Individual Behavior
To understand someone whose behavior is puzzling, surprising, or contrary to your expectations requires a way of seeing the world as he/she does. From within, an individual’s behavior makes sense, is understandable and reasonable, even when not clear to us on the outside (Northwestern University).
There is no way to tell what made an individual act the way that they do. Certain factors during childhood, teenage years, and adult life can occur that change a persons behavior, ethics, and views on life. These factors cannot be assumed under any circumstance, though. When meeting a person for a first time, it is impossible to say what made them behave like they do. Some factors are easier to see than others. A very mature person will usually be older, which is an attribute that can be seen. Their behavior can be assumed by their age. Someone may also act differently because of their ethnicity. This is another visible attribute. Some attributes are not as easy such as religion. By simply seeing someone walking down the street, it is almost impossible to say they are strutting because of their religious beliefs. This is what makes guessing the cause of the behavior because of a certain factor so hard.
In the past, ethnicity meant nothing to the human race. Today, ethnicity is a major role in society. Ethnicity impacts individual behavior in many ways. No only does the culture in the ethnic group affect how a child will develop, the media and society affect how the child will be treated because of their ethnicity. This can develop either a positive or negative behavior. If the media and society turn away from the ethnic group, the individual will become angry. If the media and society welcome the ethnic group, the individual will be happy.
The largest way that ethnicity effects individual behavior is childhood. A child is raised in an environment of a certain ethnic background. Since every race has their own customs and traditions, the child experiences these first and gains knowledge and understanding about them at a very early age. “A phenotype said to characterize one group of people can more often that not, be found amongst other groups of people. For example, fair skin might be characteristics of ‘Pakeha’ people, but some Maori people also have fair skin” (Nikora, 1995). This leads to the second reason being that most behavioral characteristics ascribed to race are more likely to be culturally determined rather than biologically or genetically determined. Every race also has certain attitudes and opinions that the child learns very quickly. By the time the child reaches adulthood, they have experienced a lot of different aspects from their culture. This culture makes them act in a certain way, and that is how ethnicity impacts individual behavior.
Gender is another large factor that is considered in individual behavior. In the same respect of ethnicity, a child learns gender and gender accepted rules at a very early age. A female is not supposed to play football while a male is not supposed to play with Barbie’s. Throughout the life of a child they are told by parents and everyone around what is expected of them as a girl or boy. A girl is supposed to be polite and innocent while a boy can be loud and playful. While the child continues to age, they become less dependant on gender as a way of behavior. They no longer act in a certain way because they are a boy or a girl. In fact, in society today, more woman and men are exchanging roles than ever before. Women work while men stay home with the newborn child. This is a new phenomenon that is in affect now because of the knowledge that both are given. “Examining perceptions may be useful for other reasons as well. For example, some models of ethical decision-making suggest that the perceptions individuals hold about others’ ethics are critical in shaping their own ethical beliefs and behavior” (Schminke). These are just small examples of how gender affects what the individual will do and how they will behave.
Age is an important factor in how an individual will behave as the age of an individual progresses. While a child does not an extreme amount of responsibility and cares, an adult must take on an entire different role. This will affect how an individual behaves simply for the reason of responsibility. While a child progresses in age they become more educated and realize more about the world around them. This makes them appreciate it more and become more mature by understanding. Their behavior is affected by this because they know treat people and things with respect because they know that they are supposed to. “The analysis of juvenile offense histories of two Japanese birth cohorts indicated that a steep decline in age-specific offense rates in late teens could be seen as characteristic to Japan in recent years, which ran counter to the allegedly “invariant” effect of age on criminal behavior” (University, 2000) The behavior is at extremes for a child and an adult.
Religion plays a role in how an individual behaves as well. A person that is extremely religious will follow their belief word for word. If something happens that is against their belief than they will react differently than a person that is not as religious. This affects the behavior because of reaction. One of the ways that religion affects behavior is through fear. Many religious people fear a consequence if they do something wrong. This will make them act in certain ways and do certain things that other people won’t. The only problem is that fear may not be the best way to control the behavior of people. It has been done since the beginning of time when law was created, but religion offers no real threat of punishment unless it is truly believed in. “Religion has been the major determinant of human behavior since the dawn of consciousness” (Religion). A non-religious person may enjoy a party lifestyle while a religious person would never party because of their beliefs.
All of these factors affect individual behavior differently. When all of these factors are mixed together in one personality, it makes a unique person. These unique people are what make up the diversity of the world today. Each of the examples listed above show an impact on the personality and individual behavior of a person. The main thing to understand is that only one of these things does not affect how a person behaves. Each of these and many more all in some sort of way affect a person to make them behave the way they do. These are only a few of the factors that cause individual behavior to differ from person to person. There is no one factor that makes a person behave in one certain way. Behavior is one of the most non-understand parts of the human mind. Just like emotion and feeling, behavior may never be fully explained. The theories that are available provide a small example of why a person may behave the way they do but not describe every aspect of the person’s behavior.
References
Look Smart Mental health, (n.d.). Retrieved Dec. 28, 2005, from The impact of gender and setting on perceptions of others’ ethics Web site: http://www.looksmartmentalhealth.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_2003_April ai_101174066.
Nikora, L. (1995). Retrieved Dec. 28, 2005, from Race, Culture and Ethnicity: Organisation of Maori social groups Web site: http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/mpru/pubs/paps-sums/nikora1995.htm.
Northwestern University, (n.d.). Retrieved Dec. 28, 2005, from Human Behavior in Organizations: An Introduction Web site: http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/introd/introd.htm.
Retrieved Dec. 28, 2005, from Religion, Ethics, and Social Behavior Web site: http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfjks/why1.html.
Unniversity of Pennsylvania, (2000). Retrieved Dec. 28, 2005, from Age, life course transitions, and criminal behavior Web site: http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9976433/.
