Human behavior
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 00:30, 28 August 2007
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Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behaviour can be conscious or unconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. In animals, behaviour is controlled by the endocrine system and the nervous system. The complexity of the behaviour of an organism is related to the complexity of its nervous system. Generally, organisms with complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behaviour. Human behavior (and that of other organisms and mechanisms) can be common, unusual, acceptable, or unacceptable. Humans evaluate the acceptability of behaviour using social norms and regulate behaviour by means of social control. In sociology, behaviour is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people and thus is the most basic human action. Animal behaviour is studied in comparative psychology, ethology, behavioral ecology and sociobiology.
Human behavior is the collection of behaviors exhibited by human beings and influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics.
The behavior of people (and other organisms or even mechanisms) falls within a range with some behavior being common, some unusual, some acceptable, and some outside acceptable limits. In sociology, behavior is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people and thus is the most basic human action. Behavior should not be mistaken with social behavior, which is more advanced action, as social behavior is behavior specifically directed at other people. The acceptability of behavior is evaluated relative to social norms and regulated by various means of social control.
The behavior of people is studied by the academic disciplines of psychology, sociology, economics, and anthropology.
