CH.1 UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN NATURE

•Individual behaviour•Concept of human behaviour•Factors affecting individual behaviour•The role of heredity•The role of environment

by: Dr. Renu jain

(A)INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOURINTRODUCTIONHuman skill is the ability to work well with other

people. A person with good human skills has a high degree of self-awareness and a capacity for understanding the feeling of others. People with this skill are able to interact well with others, engage in persuasive communications, deal successfully with disagreements and conflicts, and more.

CONCEPT OF HUMAN BEHVIOURBenjamin Lahey has listed 9 major psychological findings that best describe the nature of human beings.1. HUMAN BEINGS ARE BIOLOGICAL CREATURES: Our biological systems greatly

influence our behaviour. Hunger and thirst under the control of our body systems. Emotions by the nervous system. Our biological puts limits on what we can do or not. To overcome built planes to fly.

2. EVERY PERSON IS DIFERENT YET MUCH THE SAME: Every person is unique and different due to hereditary factors as due to environmental ones. Despite these similarities—our capacity to think, feel, remember and so on.

3. PEOPLE CAN BE UNDERSTOOD FULLY ONLY IN THE CONTEXT O THEIR CULTURE, ETHNIC IDENTITY AND GENDER IDENTITY: Our beliefs, attitudes and behaviour are shaped by the culture and ethnic group to which we are belong. Our behaviour is influenced by awareness of the gender to which we belong.

4. HUMAN LIVES ARE IN A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF CHANGE: Change continuously from the time they are born till they die due to our biological nature, experiences in life too contribute towards change.

5. BEHAVIOUR HAS MULTIPLE CAUSES: Due to many factors all influencing at the same time. Behaviour may change from person to person and for the same person from time to time.

6. BEHAVIOUR IS MOTIVATED: not directionless empty boat in an ocean. Most of our actions are intentional and purposeful. For eg. We work to earn money for food, clothing and shelter. The motives behind our actions may vary from culture to culture and person to person.

7. HUMANS ARE SOCIAL ANIMAL: live in social groups—in the company of others. work in groups for the mutual benefit of all.

8. PEOPLE PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE IN CREATING THEIR EXPERIENCES: Humans are active participants in determining the direction of their lives. They seek situations that will give them the kind of experiences. For eg. Who like meetings new people go to parties and clubs.

9. BEHAVIOUR CAN BE ADAPTIVE OR MALADAPTIVE: We are flexible creatures who discover ways and means of adjusting to the demands of the situation.

Excessive aggression is harmful to others and us, due to combination of biological and environmental factors. They can , however be corrected.

• INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES• “Individual differences may be described as those differences that

distinguish one person from another person and makes that person a unique individual in oneself.”

• Individual differences have been classified as primary and secondary dimensions .

1. PRIMARY DIMENSION: Personal characteristics such as age, gender, physical and mental ability have an important and sustained impact throughout our lives. Some has powerful influence like-cast. cast favouring attitude in org. It is more likely to be associated with prejudices .it is important to other people. They tend to be noticed.

2. SECONDARY DIMENSION: Characteristics that people acquire throughout their lives. Like-family status, education, work experience, organizational role, work style, communication style and attitude.

FACTORS AFFECTING INDIVIDUAL BEHVIOUR

According to John Ivancevich and Michael Mattson-1.Abilities and skills: Ability is the physical capacity of an individual. Skill is the ability to act in a way that allows a person to perform well.It should be matched with the job requirement.2.PERCEPTION: Every individual on the basis of his reference can organize and interpret environment stimuli. Many factors that influence the perception. The study of perception plays important role or the managers. It is important for managers to create the favourable work environment so that employee perceive them in most favourable way.3.ATTITUDE: it can be defined as a tendency to respond favourably or unfavourably to certain objects, persons or situations. Family, society, culture, peers and organizational factors influence the formation of attitude.Work environment should be favourable so employees form a positive attitude towards their job.4.PERSONALITY: Personality is the aggregate of a person’s feeling, thinking, behaviour and response to different situations and people. heredity, environment, physical and situational factors contribute to personality.5. DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS: These are socio economic background, education, nationality, race, age , sex etc. With good academic background, effective communication skill, good socio-economic background and well educated, young etc. as they are believed to be performing better than the others.

THE ROLE OF HEREDITYHeredity refers to our biologically inherited characteristics:In simple words, heredity refers to those characteristics that we get from our parents. Our physical characteristics such as colour of skin, shape of the nose, colour of the eyes are inherited from our parents . Besides influencing our physical characteristics, heredity also influences our behaviour.Maturation reflects the unfolding of genetically prescribed or preprogrammed patterns of behaviour. Such as: walking and talking.Many typical changes like grasping, sitting, crawling, standing , walking are tied to the maturation of the body and brain. However differ with regard to the rate and timing o development.

THE ROLE OF ENVIRONEMENTEnvironment consists of the society in which we are born and brought up.PRENATAL ENVIRONMENT1) Prenatal nourishment: Well nourished mothers bear healthier babies. mother with inadequate diets are more likely to bear premature or low birth weight infant, underdeveloped brain.2) MATERNAL DRUG INTAKE: No medicine prescribed unless absolutely essential. Drinking alcohol affect the growth of baby, slowed prenatal and postnatal growth, facial and bodily malformations and disorders of the central nervous system. Smoking cause of poor fetus growth, poor attention span, hyperacitivity, learning problems and poor IQ scores. Drug addicted mothers have premature babies, restless, irritable, less responsive, weigh less child.3) MATERNAL ILLNESS: Like german measules-cause to deafness and heart defects in the baby.4) MEDICAL X-RAYS: Radiation can cause gene mutations, alter a gene, produce a new and often harmful characteristic.5) MATERNAL AGE:OLDER PREGNANT WOMAN-MISCARRIAGE, PREMTURE DELIVERY, RETARDED FETAL GROWTH, STILL BIRTH AND BIRTH DEFECTS OVER 35.6) ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: Chemicals, radiation, extremes of heat and humidity can affect prenatal development. Nuclear radiation dangerous –mental retardation7) PATERNAL FACTORS: Exposure to lead, tobacco, smoke, alcohol may result in production of abnormal genes.Association between nervous system tumours in children and the occupations of their father such as electrical, miner.

POSTNATAL ENVIRONMENTThe external environment or social environment1) FAMILY: The first social environment, where he comes into contact

with the parents and other members of the family. Childs learns culturally appropriate ways of behaviour and social roles including gender roles. The child also learn skills which will enable him to get along with others.

a) PARENT-CHILD RELTIONSHIP: Acceptance of the child- positive self concept. Rejection of the child- bedwetting, slow intellectual development. Over protection-fearful, dependence and submissive.

b) ORDINAL POSITION(BIRTH ORDER): Eldest-responsible, second- popular, youngest- spoilt, only child-introvert.

c) FAMILY LIFE PATTERNS: Need both his parents.One parent families cannot meet all the physical and psychological needs of the child.They donot get proper model ,needed love and security.2 type of families-- In democratic families-fearless, full of plans, high in leadership and curious, authoritarian family- fearful and lack initiative.

2) SCHOOL: It plays an important role in the development of his personality. Childs learns how to get along with his peers, first real lesson of discipline, has to obey the rules. A child who is accepted and admired by the group feels secure and self confident. School gives opportunity to excel in various fields like sports, dramatics, debating etc. Teachers attitude, values, and enthusiasm influence the child’s personality.3)PEER GROUP: influence of peers is strong during the adolescence years, spent more time with friends. Clothes, language, mannerisms and his values are determined by his friends.4)CULTURE: Customs and ways of behaviour that are common to a society. Our food habits, dressing styles, values, morals and behaviour are all influenced by our culture. That’s why Indian different from Japanese.NATURE VERSUS NURTURE DEBATE:In reality , both heredity and the environment interact with each other to influence the development of the individuals.Some physical characteristics like eye colour and blood type are clearly inherited. But more complex traits such as intelligence and personality are influenced by both hereditary and environmental factors. For eg. Intelligence has a strong hereditary component but parental situation and education, have a strong influence on its development.Genes may set a limit on how tall a person may grow. Environmental factors such as diet and exercise will determine whether this limit is achieved or not.An enriched environment is one that is favourable to development and accelerates development. An impoverished environment is one that is unfavourable to development and slow development.