Situational Behaviour.
I think it is good to consider facts that have a direct effect on one's behaviour. To make my point clear, this is an anecdote that highlights what happened to a young boy about the age of eight. He lived with his family in a row of houses and two doors down there lived a young girl that happened to have a persistent stutter. The young girl was about his age. They played together and got on well. The friendship grew from strength to strength when suddenly, and for no apparent reason the boy developed a stutter too.
At the age of about ten, after going to a speech therapist the boy’s stutter was cured. It was explained as a learned habit and probably copied, albeit subconsciously, from the young girl’s speech pattern. The boy managed to get over his obstacle in speaking, however he was after that experience said to be extremely nervous and easily influenced by any strongly defined traits surrounding him. It was of course problematic, as people and the environment had an influence on how anxious he felt and how he went on to behave.
The next example concerns how we behave when put under stress. If asked, under usual circumstances would we inflict unnecessary pain on other people? The answer of course for the majority, would be no. Given that conclusion, consider this scenario. You are invited to take part in a psychological experiment. There are twenty participants that are divided into sets of two. One will ask general knowledge questions and each time if the answer given is wrong, an electrical shock will be applied and its strength is increased every time. Unknown to you at the time, the participants receiving the shock are acting. Observing the distress, would you continue to ask the questions? This psychological experiment actually took place and however you might have responded to the above question, the majority of participants completed the task, although they were emotionally upset about proceeding with it. In fact, frequently those involved in the trial asked the overseer that was in charge, could they stop, but they were told that the task had to be completed.
The simple truth is even though participants felt what they were doing was wrong or morally conflicted with what they felt comfortable with doing, after asking for guidance they continued with the practical actions implied to be required of them.
Despite what we might ideally feel, it is unlikely that we know how we would exactly react given any range of environment and stress scenarios. It is thought provoking to contemplate when we would take control and think outside of the environment pressure and consider or even question the right thing to do.
It is not easy to control emotion and feelings, especially when it is the environment that is building up the stress. I find taking time to consider the situation and moving to a more peaceful position, in terms of thought process, can help to revise what is going on. Ultimately keeping in control is not always straightforward but it can be intriguing to find out what works best for us and how this can be improved upon.
At the age of about ten, after going to a speech therapist the boy’s stutter was cured. It was explained as a learned habit and probably copied, albeit subconsciously, from the young girl’s speech pattern. The boy managed to get over his obstacle in speaking, however he was after that experience said to be extremely nervous and easily influenced by any strongly defined traits surrounding him. It was of course problematic, as people and the environment had an influence on how anxious he felt and how he went on to behave.
The next example concerns how we behave when put under stress. If asked, under usual circumstances would we inflict unnecessary pain on other people? The answer of course for the majority, would be no. Given that conclusion, consider this scenario. You are invited to take part in a psychological experiment. There are twenty participants that are divided into sets of two. One will ask general knowledge questions and each time if the answer given is wrong, an electrical shock will be applied and its strength is increased every time. Unknown to you at the time, the participants receiving the shock are acting. Observing the distress, would you continue to ask the questions? This psychological experiment actually took place and however you might have responded to the above question, the majority of participants completed the task, although they were emotionally upset about proceeding with it. In fact, frequently those involved in the trial asked the overseer that was in charge, could they stop, but they were told that the task had to be completed.
The simple truth is even though participants felt what they were doing was wrong or morally conflicted with what they felt comfortable with doing, after asking for guidance they continued with the practical actions implied to be required of them.
Despite what we might ideally feel, it is unlikely that we know how we would exactly react given any range of environment and stress scenarios. It is thought provoking to contemplate when we would take control and think outside of the environment pressure and consider or even question the right thing to do.
It is not easy to control emotion and feelings, especially when it is the environment that is building up the stress. I find taking time to consider the situation and moving to a more peaceful position, in terms of thought process, can help to revise what is going on. Ultimately keeping in control is not always straightforward but it can be intriguing to find out what works best for us and how this can be improved upon.
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