Psychology

Thank you for receiving my order this is an assignment on principles that govern human and animal behavior, I breakdown the ”grading rubric” to make it easier please follow all the content needed for each criterion and include citations.

ANSWER

Principles of Human and Animal Behavior

Principles are the truths which are not limited by age, time or one’s location. The first principle that givers human behaviour is that behaviour is largely a product of its immediate environment. This means that one’s immediate environment directly impacts how one behaves. For example, suppose as apparent one notices that a child is acting out. In that case, one should investigate the environment to determine the cause of the behaviour (Antonuccio & Hayes, 2016). In most cases, the child is acting out because they do not like something that is happening around their home, or they have moved to a new neighbourhood, and the change is affecting them.

The second principle that governs human behaviour is whether the behaviour is strengthened or weakened by its consequences. This means that a certain behaviour will continue if one is rewarded or weaken if it is not. For example, if a person keeps embarrassing another in public and the person laughs off the mean jokes, that person will continue using mean jokes and poking fun at them in public (Antonuccio & Hayes, 2016). However, if this behaviour is called out and the other person says that they do not like being made fun of in front of friends, the behaviour will stop. The consequences, in this case, determine whether or not the behaviour continues.

The third principle governing human behaviour is that behaviour responds to positive consequences better than negative ones (Antonuccio & Hayes, 2016). This means that people will respond better if they are positively encouraged than if they are scolded for their mistakes. For example, in a place of work, if one fails to complete their task, instead of the manager yelling at them, they could call them to the office and inquire why they did not complete the task. They can then encourage the employee to keep working hard as if they work harder, and they will get a raise or a promotion. This employee will respond better to positive encouragement than to a manager who publicly scolds them and threatens to fire them.

The fourth principle states that the course of behaviour in the future determines whether the behaviour has been reinforced or punished. This means that a person’s behaviour in the future will determine whether or not the consequences they received as a result of their behaviour were reinforcement or punishment (Antonuccio & Hayes, 2016). What one person might term punishment might be reinforcement to another and vice versa. The behaviour later in life determines the category.

These four principles govern my life. The first principle helps me understand my own behaviour and the behaviour of those around me. Sometimes when I am in low spirits, I examine my environment to determine the source of the feelings. This also applies to my partner. Sometimes when they are acting a certain way, I try to understand how the environment is affecting them. The second principle has helped me set boundaries with people several times. It has also helped me in disciplining children. All these principles apply in one’s life one way or another as they are the ones that govern our way of life.

The four principles have helped societies coexist. For example, behaviour weakens or continues depending on the consequences. This has helped human beings respect one another and respect each other’s rights. For example, if one steals, they go to prison. This has helped weaken the stealing behaviour. Societies interact peacefully because of the second principle.

References

Antonuccio, D., & Hayes, A. (2016). Learning principles of human behaviour. In Problem-based behavioural science and psychiatry (pp. 55-77). Springer, Cham.