Human Behavior: A Primer

© 2020 Dr. Anthony C. Hollander’. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/29/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6442-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6440-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6441-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020910740

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CONTENTS

Control

Chapter 1     Introduction And Overview

Control

Chapter 2     Determinants

Depolarization

The Self

Real versus Ideal

Meaningful versus Significant

Homeostasis

Conflict Vectors

Summary

Chapter 3     Behavior

Feelings and Thoughts

Brain-storming, Solution-seeking, and Problem-solving

Summary

Actions

Chapter 4     Measurement

Issues of Measurement

Chapter 5     More On Actions

Doing, Re-Doing, and Undoing

Personal, Political, and Professional

Chapter 6     Laws Of Association

Chapter 7     Feedback And Consequences

Chapter 8     Self Re-Visited

Chapter 9     Stress And Anxiety

Neuro-Plasticity

Chapter 10   Therapeutic Relationship

Chapter 11   Defense Mechanisms

Chapter 12   The Self In Groups

Chapter 13   Treatment

Data Sheets: Date Collection, Data Tabulation, and Data Analysis

Scoring System:

Chapter 14   Symbolism, Dreams, And Taboos

Symbolism

Dreams

Taboos

Chapter 15   Case Examples

Case One

Case Two

Case Three

Case Four

Chapter 16   Philosophy Of Approach And Frame Of Reference

Chapter 17   Example Of Best Practice Pertaining To Multi-Sensory Environments

Rationale for this Presentation:

The Purpose of Treatment:

The Difference between Anecdote and Outcomes Efficacy:

Underlying Treatment Assumptions:

How to Think More Objectively:

Differences Between Clinical Research Settings and Formal Research Settings:

Research Concepts:

Specific Research Designs:

Like It Or Not:

Conclusions:

References

Book References

CONTROL

Control is conceptualized as the ability to exert an influence over a desired outcome. If the self desires more heat, then the self can influence an outcome by turning up a thermostat to create more heat, or putting on additional clothing. If the self desires more food, then the self (if an infant) can cry due to being uncomfortable, which usually results in more food/drink/pacifier to satiate the need. If the self desires more food, then the self (child thru adult) can go to, open, select, and consume something from a food source - e.g. the refrigerator.

Control is also thought of as being part of a Chap. A contingency is basically a rule applying to a cause and effect outcome. Life is filled with contingencies every waking minute of every day of life there are contingencies. Contingencies, or rules, apply to either getting what the self wants, or avoiding what the self wants to avoid. In various situations each day of life there are individuals that exert more control over contingencies/rules than others. The Man, or government, tends to exert the most control over contingencies that impact every citizen. While work can equate with getting more money, so that you can buy more toys. Work can also equate to getting more money to pay more taxes. If you have a leaking pipe in your home you can hire a plumber, who exerts more control than you in terms of both skills and the opportunity to charge you money for fixing the pipe leak. The self can reject that plumber’s control/contingency by going to YouTube and learning how to fix the pipe without the plumber. If you have the misfortune of having to appear in a courtroom, the judge is the ultimate contingency controller in that room. The judge both sets the rules of order, and can enforce said rules by making additional decisions that directly impact everyone’s life. Unless the jury finds a verdict that contradicts the judge… So, the self is on a quest to control, and to become the best contingency controller possible in life.

If you think about control in terms of either comfort or discomfort, the lack of something (a desired level of comfort in terms of a need, or a state or condition known as deprivation) then control is the ability to bring about a change in that level of discomfort, or deprivation, by obtaining what is desired. Thus overcoming the state, or condition of deprivation. Similarly, if the self is in a state of discomfort, then the reducing of the level of discomfort is also a form of control. As in trying to get comfortable in bed so you can fall asleep.

Perhaps the simplest form of education of the self as to a variety of means to exert control, thereby reducing the level of discomfort, is just about any commercial produced for mass media. Every product advertised represents to the self a specific form of control to either enhance control over getting more comfort, or a means to reduce discomfort, thus approaching comfort.

An interesting side benefit of the self gaining control over one’s environment is the simultaneous amount of function that the self enjoys. Function, therefore, becomes the self’s ability to perform the various behaviors, or performance components in all aspects of life that are related to both age and stage of development. The more that the self can do at varying ages and stages of development, that fit into the typical developmental tasks/milestones required of the self, the more independent, autonomous, and self-reliant the self becomes. This should bring about a state or condition of more comfort, thus, gaining more and more control over time.

Lack of learning, or the inability to gain control over one’s environment causes a great deal of confusion, and frustration; discomfort. To a point, this discomfort is an excellent means of motivation and incentive for the self to then learn the functional tasks that lead to more control. (Xni Tolman, and negative reinforcement). To a point because the presence of a cognitive deficit that stops a person from learning how to gain this control can cause a great deal of stress for the self.

The basic truth about life and human behavior is that control is a fleeting state or condition. Just when you think you have mastered/learned a means of control over an event/situation, things change and your assumed control is lost, only to require the self to learn a newer method of trying to gain back that lost control. In the Behavioral Terminology, this is the classic example of intermittent reinforcement, and/or punishment.

Another way to conceptualize this control concept is to think in terms of a bird and a worm. A person in control is experiencing a bird’s eye view of the situation, and taking charge to exert that control and bring about the desired outcome. The worm’s eye view, however, does not have that expansive overview of the situation. The worm can only deal with the tiny aspect of the situation directly in front. Never having that wide spread perspective. So, control can be thought of as either a bird’s eye view or a worm’s eye view. You will see in later chapters that a vast majority of humans only have a worm’s eye view of the world, and subsequent control. Additionally, you can go on line and seek out the term Locus of Control. Each individual develops, or has as part of his/her genetic makeup, a type of locus of control. There are two types of locus of control: internal locus of control, and external locus of control. A person with an internal locus of control seeks to utilize control on his/her own. The person takes action, does not wait for events to unfold. The person sees life as a personal challenge to exert control over these day-to-day events that make us feel as though we have lost control. This person taking action not only to gain control, but to also maintain control, and to lead to more control over time (e.g. as in education leading to better jobs). Conversely, the other type of control, external locus of control, leaves the person at the whimsy of fate. This type of person will lament about the loss of control, but still wait for an external factor to intervene and help the person to regain control. There are some simple tests that you can take on line to help you to determine the type of locus of control that you have (Locus Of Control, Psychological Monographs, 80). Good luck.

With all of this cleared up, human behavior is characterized as the self always trying to control both the source and the amount of gratification (comfort) at any given time. This will be a constant thread throughout this book. This is not the same as Freud’s Pleasure Principle, but somewhat similar.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

Just what the world needs is a new book on human behavior. So this book has to be somehow quite different than all of the other books.

There are several aspects of this book that will make it very different from any other book that you’ve seen before. The first most important aspect is that this book presents a theoretical point of view that has a defined beginning, middle and an end. Another aspect of this book that’s very different is the emphasis on measurement of performance. A third aspect that makes this book different is a clear method for both the analysis of human behavior, and because you can analyze human behavior it makes treatment of aberrant or maladaptive human behavior that much easier. Another aspect that makes this book unique is that it provides a schematic representation that makes both the conceptual organization of the information, and subsequent use of said information much easier. So it is my sincere wish that this book represents something brand-new, and not simply a reiteration of other peoples work.

In order for the reader to realize all of these unique aspects of this book there are several key issues that the reader has to take into consideration. The first issue is you have to have a clear understanding of why behavior exists in the first place. Human behavior, not unlike the behavior of infra-humans, all has a purpose. For the purposes of this book all behavior serves a unique function. That function is to control both the source and the amount of gratification at any given point in time. On the surface this statement may appear to be solely behavioristic. However as we go through the book you will see that this is clearly not the case. The book basically is a combination of Behaviorism and Needs Systems analysis taken from the Humanistic theoretical point of view. It is my sincere desire to be able to show both of these theoretical points of view in a near perfect marriage - which is quite unique in-and-of-itself. This serves as another unique aspect of the book. And, to add the clarity of this marriage to be able to bring forth a very logical, and useful theoretical frame of reference that can be employed with a wide range of offspring, students, or clients, or patients.

If all behavior is an attempt to control both the source and the amount of gratification at a given point in time then it is imperative that we make the following clarification. All behavior can be analyzed when you think of behavior taking place in split second of time. It is my sincere belief that this entire book can be dedicated to only one second of time, and all of the machinations that take place during that one second to explain behavior. So it is imperative that the reader take into consideration both the theoretical orientation of control, and the speed at which human behavior takes place (processing of information by the individual). In order to conceptualize the speed at which behavior takes place think of a blink of an eye. This entire book is dedicated to explaining one split-second of time, just as quickly as the blink of an eye. Which, in turn, serves as another unique aspect of the book. If the reader can conceptualize this it will make the understanding of this book, and the eventual use of these theoretical constructs, very productive.

Control -

The reader can choose to conceptualize control in a variety of different ways. In utero, the fetus appears to have little to no understanding of exactly how much control they have. Yet, when the mother decides that she’s had enough for the day and wants to sit back and relax, all of a sudden the fetus begins to kick, elbow and move around. Likewise when the newborn finds it difficult to give up being awake and give in to sleep, the struggle to stay awake all results in a lot of crying and being quite upset. In order to calm the child parents often resort to a variety of methods, all of which seem to take advantage of some form of movement of the infant (e.g. bouncing, walking, car rides, etc.). So clearly we can say that even before birth the fetus is exerting a tremendous amount of control over mom, and possibly even dad. This control over mom and now dad, carries over to afterbirth as well. One can argue that the infant is at once trying to have as much vestibular input as possible. And after birth the infant still wants to exert the same degree of control to gain the same type of input - that’s why we bounce the baby, and take them for rides in the car. Control can be thought of as a factor of comfort versus lack of comfort. Since the fetus, or infant lacks the initial cognitive component of understanding how to get or gain comfort, one can postulate that the lack of comfort contributes to the learning of some form of movement that conveys to mom or dad uncomfortableness, or unhappiness, thus resulting in various types of attempts by the caretaker to convert the child from unhappy to happy. If the attempts on the part of the caretakers are successful and comforting, the child can then make the immediate learning paradigm that is one of discomfort, or lack of control, results in increased uncomfortableness and unhappiness, which then leads to attempts by the environment to comfort, which then makes the learning association of uncomfortableness leads to comfortableness. This association over time can eventually teach the child how to control his or her environment. So control can be conceptualized as a need to control one’s state of comfort, which, in turn, is the same principle behind controlling both the source and the amount of gratification at any given time. What is extremely important for the reader are the laws of association taken from theories of learning. Any action/behavior that is either thought about or manifested, or both, is always being associated with some sort of contiguous or follow up event. This contiguous or follow up event can easily be conceptualized as either feedback or a consequence to the thought or manifest behavior. For example, if you feel the urge to yawn in front of someone that you do not want to yawn in front of, and you give in to the yawn, and there is an immediate bolt of lightning and clap of thunder, you might feel as though you were punished for yawning. So, learning, laws of association from the behavioral model are taking place all of the time - whether these associations are accurate, or superstitious remains to be seen. More on this later.

Freud had his interpretation of the state of the human condition as well. His preference was for the use of the term pleasure principle. The pleasure principle states that all behavior (conscious or unconscious) is a form of trying to please oneself. The pleasure principle concept went a bit further however, in that pleasure to Freud meant anything sexual. This led to his discussion of the psycho-sexual aspect of all human behavior. Blocked Libido is one term that can explain the inability to gain control of the intrinsic form of motivation/incentive of the individual. I am not saying that this is not correct. What I am saying is that this is too limiting in scope due to the nature of human behavior since not everything springs forth from a psycho-sexual stirring within, or urge on the part of an individual. It is also noteworthy, that when control issues are blocked, this is consistent with Freud’s conceptualization of the basis of anxiety. This author, having studied Freud for many years, thinks that oral fixation is a necessary pre-requisite for meeting both survival and physiological needs, not just psycho-sexual needs. Enough said about this for the time being.

The Humanistic frame of reference (Maslow) went much further in talking about the nature of control, and the human state or condition. The construction of the Needs Systems Hierarchy explains that all of the movement to gain comfort, control, over oneself and his/her environment had a specific direction for each human being. The first level is that of Physiological/Survival Needs. If this individual does not learn how to take care of his/her self then survival becomes an issue. Survival pertains to the difference between need and want. I need to sleep, otherwise I will have severe problems with my survival. Maslow referred to these survival needs as physiological needs that had to be met. I need to eat, otherwise I will also have severe problems with survival. I want to sleep on a specific type of bed/mattress is more of a want. I want to eat only that lobster or filet mignon is another form of want. Wants come about after new learning takes place for one reason or another. So, we are born with the survival need that directs us to learn multiple options that can each become wants over time. The wants, however, never take the place of the need to eat or sleep. It should be quite clear at this point, that if we do not somehow meet these survival/physiological needs there will be no opportunity to move on to the higher level needs. Clearly, you are reading this because you have already taken care of your physiological/survival needs. If not, you would be spending your time hunting and gathering first. There are many other types of levels to these needs. Just to go thru them quickly and simply at this point, here they are. If I do a good job of meeting the survival needs, then I can engage in safety needs. Safety needs serve as the base for Social needs. If I am fed, and rested, and in a safe state/condition, then I can have time to consider being social. Social serves as the base for Esteem needs. How do I feel about myself in this social context? If I have some degree of control over each of these basic needs, I can now reflect over each of them in order to learn something about myself, and what I might need to work on to improve. Self-Actualization needs are the highest level of the needs system hierarchy. Not everyone makes it to this level. Some people learn that being a bully gets you some of what you want, and they stop learning there. More on this needs systems hierarchy at a later time. One can clearly see here how a person’s search to meet a particular need though some form of action/behavior can easily be associated with an outcome of that behavior. So, there is a very nice dove-tail between the motivation and incentive systems of