Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior

Question: Discuss about the Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior. Answer: Introduction: Human behavior includes number of actions and reactions exhibit by human at different stages. Generally society expects from individual that he behave in good manner. In this paper we discuss the impact of social factors on individual behavior, and how these factors influence the personality and growing up of individual. Many factors affect the behavior of individual and some social factors are attitude, ability, gender, race, culture, norms and culture of society and many more (Dornsife, n.d.). In this we discuss effect of gender and sexuality on individual behavior, and how these factors affect the personality of individual. At last we conclude the essay with brief conclusion. Influence of gender and sexuality on individual behavior: A person is male or female that is completely rely on genes, and it is genetic in nature. This feature is considered as inherited. Research shows that there is lot of difference man and women, and society also treats both of them in very different ways. There are number of baseless assumptions which are made by the society from many years and it was expected from individual that they behave according to those assumptions such as there is a traditional assumption that men is tougher and womens are emotional and because of this society always expects that its not right for men to get emotional. Gender norms affect the personality of the person in same manner as other norms affect. We can notice the differences between the behavior of men and women at various places such as at workplace. One research proves that both men and women perform equally at their workplace, and they have equal mental abilities. Society not even considers all these research and proofs and treats both of them differently. We can see that difference in one area in organization that is absenteeism. This is the area where womens gets more preference and considered as important caregiver to childrens. In an organization allocation of work and evaluation is influenced by the personal values and behavior of manager (Caragillis, n.d.). There are number of ideas are developed by society which address the appropriate behavior of men and women in society. These ideas vary according to the culture of society and change according to the need of time. For example it is expected from women that they develop traits like submissiveness, caretaking and sensitive in their behavior while on the other hand men must be aggressive, ambitious and dominant. These factors not only influence the behavior of the person but also affect the language such as females must not have deep and husky voice, and they must speak softly and politely, whereas it is ok if men talk very loudly with high pitch voice (Giffron Nilson, 2014). These gender traits influence the behavior of child from the day he takes birth and the main source which gives shape to the child behavior on the basis of gender is its parents, teachers and culture. These sources are described below: Parents: parents are the first person who teach the child and give him understanding of his or her gender. Parents thoughts and understanding direct affect the individual and personality, and their own expectations from the men and women become the foundation of the childs behavior. They influence the personality of their childrens through their behavior towards men and women. Teachers: teachers are the person who shapes the personality of their student and they are the person who guides their student regarding gender roles after their parents. Research shows that teachers treat boys and girls differently in their classroom. Teachers teach their girls student to be calm, neat and quiet whereas boys are encouraged to speak and think. Media and culture: there is a great contribution of media in promoting gender roles. We can understand this with the help of example that is movie Meet the Parents. Starting scene of the movie was a person named Ben Stiller was in hospital room and treating the patient. Later on patient said thanks to stiller by assuming that he is a doctor because he is men. Ben replied on this thank you but I am not a doctor I am nurse. Later on in the same movie Stiller gets mocked to be nurse. This shows gender role in normal life. Society already made assumption that nurse job is suitable for women and men is not able to do this job (Krieger, n.d.). Gender roles are not given biologically, they are constructed by society. Society gives shape to the human behavior as per their culture. From the day child takes birth parents start treating them differently such as they dressed according to their gender, they get different household tasks and they play with different toys. Usually, teachers and parents discourage their childrens to do such task which are designed for other sex. Males are expected to behave in rigid and masculine behavior, and must not follow feminine traits and behavior. Whereas it was expected from girls that they develop feminine traits in their behavior and they must concentrate in finding a good mate and have children. It was found that number of girls develop traits that males found attractive instead of developing their own talent (Psychology, n.d.). Definition of gender roles vary according to time, and in modern period women have more expectation from their life such as career and childrens, and from men it was expected that they develop traits like sensibility, care in their behavior. Conclusion: In this we discuss the impact of gender on human behavior, and how this social factor shapes the personality of individual. While analyzing on this topic we found that it was expected from men to develop masculine traits in their behavior while on the other hand womens need to develop feminine traits in their behavior. At last, we conclude that from the changing era gender roles are also changing, and now womens have more expectations from their life and in case of men it is good if he behave sensibly and care for other rather being aggressive and dominant. References: Caragillis. Gender Roles. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://www.caragillis.com/LBCC/GenderRoles.htm. Krieger N. Genders, sexes, and health: What are the connectionsand why does it matter? International Journal of Epidemiology. 2003;32(4):652657. Giffron, R. Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology. DOI: 10.1002 Psychology, (2016). Social Factors Affecting Human Behavior. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://psychology.com.pk/social-factors-affecting-human-behavior/. Dornsife, D. Gender Differences in Social Behavior. Retrieved on 17th November from : https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendywood/gender-differences-in-social-behavior/.