Human behavior remains a mystery even to the most experienced psychologists. None of them can predict it accurately enough: many factors will determine the reaction in a given situation. We can be sure of only one thing - human behavior is very complex, that is, structurally difficult, and it can be explained by many factors. To understand it even after what has already happened, psychologists use the concept of “determinants”. This means determining factors.
Fathers and Sons
The most fierce Western discussion about human behavior is briefly called "nature or education." Proponents of natural theory believe that all problematic aspects or achievements are recorded in DNA.
Advocates of the upbringing approach see the repeatability of the environment from generation to generation - and thus the repetition of behavior among relatives. None of these approaches can be considered completely right or wrong.
Brain chemistry
In modern psychology, three types of factors are distinguished: hereditary, cultural, and social. Hereditary factors associated with the characteristics of the brain are also called "physiological determinants." These are unique traits for each individual person, which determine how high the threshold of anxiety is, how concentrated and conservative a person is, or, on the contrary, diffused and impulsive.
Who will you lead ....
Cultural determinants of behavior are factors such as rituals, traditions, and norms. A French feminist and a woman brought up according to the canons of Muslim morality will behave differently in the same situation (for example, cheating on her husband).
The psychological determinants belonging to the cultural category can change under the influence of a changed situation, for example, when changing their place of residence, traditional peoples begin to imitate the Western way of life.
Soft influences
Social determinants are the impact of a microenvironment on a person. Their difference from the cultural ones is in the greater momentary and everyday impacts. Academician Pavlov called the result of such influences conditioned reflexes. It is these determinants of behavior that are easiest to change. However, even social devices are sometimes not easy. The more complex the psyche of a person, the more difficult it is to change his or her determinants. This is an axiom from systems theory.
So what is more important - nature or environment? Even the use of the method of researching separated twins does not always allow shedding light on this problem, since, fortunately, there are few examples of such families. It must be remembered that human behavior cannot be completely reduced to three types of determinants.
It is much more complex due to the fact that it is flexible and changeable. It cannot be predicted by the “given” - “result” model, at least complex forms, such as teaching, love, religious practices. “Given” is constantly changing: a person receives new information or previously forgotten information “pops up” from his memory. But what exactly comes to the head of a particular person is impossible to predict. Therefore, it is so difficult to deal with forecasts in behaviorism.