Tag Archives: behavior

Naturalistic Observations

Leave a reply

As far as descriptive research goes, naturalistic observation should provide the truest results based on how that observation is conducted compared to the others such as laboratory observation, case studies, and surveying. Naturalistic observation has the huge advantage of gathering information from people in their natural settings; you are able to watch people’s real behavior for research.

Throughout high school I used to lifeguard at our city pool. In the beginning of each summer we would run some tests on the new swimmers who signed up for swim lessons.  Our goal was to separate the swimmers not by age but by ability. Since the population we observed was usually a group of younger kids ranging from 5-8 years old, we would observe how they swam with just the instructor there compared to swimming with the rest of the group with only the lifeguards watching.  One of the major disadvantages of naturalistic observation is that if people know they are being watched, they will change their behavior. So, by putting kids in the natural setting (the pool with the other kids in their age group with the lifeguard watching like normal) versus having the swimmer swim for the instructor (swim in front of someone they know is testing them for swim lessons), we were able to see their true abilities.

Our results consistently showed that without the pressure of the instructor watching them swim, they performed much better in a natural setting with their peers in front of the lifeguard as they normally would in the pool. If we would have solely went off the results of their swimming performance in front of the instructor, we wouldn’t have been able to split up the swimmers as much as we would have liked to based on ability. This goes to show that compared to laboratory observation, naturalistic observation provides the better result because it is based on someone’s normal behavior.

“Motivated to seek pleasure, not pain”

3 Replies

Behavior is truly a fascinating concept to try to understand. It has long been the topic of many heated discussions from even the “Pre-Greek” times. Humans are pleasure seeking individuals. It is sad to say it but humans are selfish in terms of their desires. Aristotle stated that concept perfectly and exposed it with his research. He noticed that humans are motivated to seek what feels good to them and place a long distance on what doesn’t. What is incredible about that is that what he thought, holds true even in our modern times. People hate to do what they don’t like doing and that is understandable but because of that, they tend to make extremely impulsive decisions based on what their own desires are. And what their desires aren’t always the best thing for them.

I used to have a friend, we will call him James for the purpose of this story. He was a very devoted Christian who went to church every Sunday, always made sure the things that he did never counteracted with his morals, what you would describe as the “perfect little church boy”. But that was when James was in his younger more naïve years. Once he reached high school, it seemed like a switch just went off in him that was causing him to act in ways that no one has ever seen him act before. Drugs, sex with almost anyone, disrespecting his parents and crazy parties became somewhat of a common lifestyle for James. And whenever someone would approach him about it, he always gave the same response, “I just feel like doing it. It makes me happy, don’t judge me.” I’ve even spoken to him and it is clear that he knows that what he is doing is wrong. He realizes and accepts that and continues to go against all that he is founded on and all that his religion asks of him…all because he “feels like it”.

It seems as though more and more people are just doing anything because they really believe that they should have that right and no one should take away that right. Aristotle’s take on how people behave was a brilliant one but also a blatant one. If you study any person, you can tell that it is their innate instinct to do what they want to do. They don’t want to be held down by rules or people telling them to do otherwise so they go out of their way to rebel and do whatever they were going to do in the first place. It is the way it has been, the way it is now and the way it will continue to be. I am not necessarily saying that there is something wrong with people following their own desires, but it is some of the decisions that people make that really raises the question of if following your desires is always the right thing. People like to be themselves and I get it, but being too vain and disregarding criticism sometimes can lead you to be something you never thought you would be.

Nature vs. Nurture

1 Reply

Aristotle believed that human beings gain everything they know through personal experiences. He developed this idea of empiricism, which most people will refer to as the nurture side of the Nature vs. Nurture debate. Besides looking nearly identical to my mom, I also act a lot like her. We share the same interests, ranging from what type of movies we want to watch to our favorite types of food to our views about the world. I believe that I adapted these preferences because that’s what I grew up around the most. We almost have the same clothing style. We have the same sense of humor.  We are both very interested in health and nutrition. We both enjoy cooking. We have the same love for shopping. We have similar tastes in music too. There are so many learned behaviors that I now possess because of the time I have spent with my mom.

On the other side of the spectrum, Plato and Socrates gave us the idea that behaviors and thoughts are inborn. They described this as nativism, which was the nature side of the debate. I believe this also has a strong effect on people. I think the way I handle my emotions is incredibly similar to the way my mom handles situations. We very rarely get angry. If we do, we just end up crying because we get so stressed out. However, my sister and my dad are both incredibly short-tempered. They are definitely yellers when they get frustrated. The two of them have also had to deal with depression, while my mom and I have never had to go through that. I believe that the ways my sister and I handle our emotions were completely genetic.

Obviously, both nativism and empiricism come into play with developing a person’s behavior. It’s difficult to pinpoint which traits are learned and which traits are innate. People change their behaviors daily. We don’t change drastically, but we are all constantly trying to be the person we aspire to be. We observe the people around us, and we may begin to pick up their admirable traits as our own. We can never completely alter who we were born as though because, as we all know, some things just can’t change.