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Factors Affecting Behavior.

Human behavior is influenced by both nature and nurture. Neuroscience has found that the brain has structures that give rise to empathy, sympathy, and quick moral judgments, showing morality may be rooted in human evolution. However, culture, family, religion, and society also shape moral development through teaching moral precepts. Different cultures can influence views of issues like gender roles but cannot justify practices that violate ethical values like female genital mutilation. Religion also plays a role by linking spiritual and moral foundations in developing an ideal human character.

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95 views2 pages

Factors Affecting Behavior.

Human behavior is influenced by both nature and nurture. Neuroscience has found that the brain has structures that give rise to empathy, sympathy, and quick moral judgments, showing morality may be rooted in human evolution. However, culture, family, religion, and society also shape moral development through teaching moral precepts. Different cultures can influence views of issues like gender roles but cannot justify practices that violate ethical values like female genital mutilation. Religion also plays a role by linking spiritual and moral foundations in developing an ideal human character.

Uploaded by

Kingangelie72
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BIG PICTURE in Focus

a. acknowledge factors affecting human behavior

◈ METALANGUAGE ◈

Nature – factors that are natural or biological


Nurture – factors that are shaped by eternals such as the society
Culture – the way of life of particular groups of people
Religion – a system of beliefs concerning the divine
◈ ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE ◈

Much of human behavior is brought about by his experiences. It is necessary,


therefore, take into consideration the doer’s rootedness when it comes analyzing and
evaluating his moral actions. Below are some of the factors in the development of
moral behavior.

Nature

Neuroscience is finding the brain structures and functioning that make for the "ethical
brain".  In Aristotle’s Zoon Politikon, man is a social animal, and as such, he has
evolved in part due to his capacity to be to others, and have empathy and sympathy
that serve as the bases for basic rules of conduct needed to live harmoniously with
others. Morality is a result of empathy and sympathy.1

Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, holds that man is born with a moral grammar
wired into his neural circuits as a product of evolution. This system in the brain
generates moral judgments. This was needed in part because often quick decisions
must be made in situations where life is threatened. In such predicaments, there is
no time for accessing the conscious mind. Most people appear to be unaware of this
deep moral processing because the left hemisphere of the brain has been adept at
producing interpretations of events and information and doing so rapidly thus
generating what may be accepted as rationalizations for the decision or impulse and
response. Morality may be rooted deep in the evolved workings of human brain.2

Nurture

Besides nature, nurture us also plays a big part in forming human behavior. Man
acquires moral precepts from a number of external factors. Man becomes moral from
his involvement with family, friends, and other social structures and institutions which
he belongs in, like culture, school, religion, and even the media.

1
O’Sullivan, Stephen and Pecorino, Philip. (2002) Ethics. Suffolk County and Queensborough
Community Colleges
2
Ibid.
Culture

Morality promotes individual and collective goodness, and man’s sense of wrong and
right may stem up from his cultural beliefs. Culture may affect our moral decisions
and dispositions. How we view and treat people, for example, can be heavily dictated
by culture. However, if we consider cultural beliefs and practices that militate against
ethical values, it becomes quite evident that culture alone could never be the arbiter
of what is ethical. We now take a dim view of people who, in the past, appealed to
their culture to justify slavery, or treating women as inferiors. In some cultures, in
parts of northern and west Africa, female genital mutilation (cutting) is still prevalent.
Customarily, an appeal is made to culture to justify this cruel and inhumane practice,
thus affirming male superiority over women. And there are some who justify tolerance
of corruption because their culture requires loyalty to their brothers.3

Religion

The concepts of morality and religiosity have been associated with each other in a
manner that these two co-exist and they are of equal importance for a human
person’s eventual ideal character. Accordingly, moral philosophy teaches that a
person’s moral foundation can be linked to his spiritual foundation and vice versa as
one of religions’ thrusts is construct the moral fibers necessary for man’s ethical
existence. A human person’s spirituality and morality are substantial parts of his
nature that he has to learn, nourish and value them so that he may develop into an
ideal human person that he is supposed to be.4

◈ SELF HELP ◈

You can also refer to the source/s below to help you further understand the
lesson.

Agaton, S. G.. (2015). Morality and Religiosity: A Filipino Experience.


http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?id=13190

Mansueto, M. P.. (2011). When Society Meets the Individual, Marx Contra Nietzsche:
Antipodal Views on Society, Morality, and Religion.
http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?id=7329

3
Landman, WA (2013). Ethics and Culture. The Ethics Institute. Retrieved from
https://www.tei.org.za/index.php/resources/articles/business-ethics/2249-ethics-and-culture
4
Agaton, S. G.. (2015). Morality and Religiosity: A Filipino Experience. Recoletos Multidisciplinary
Research Journal, 3(2). Retrieved from http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?id=13190

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