Behaviour Modification Disaster

The disasters in behaviour modification happens due to following reasons:
1. Attempt to change a behavior despite of its indispensability. For example ruling out fat in our diet despite of the fact that it should be reduced but removing it from the menu is not at all desirable.
2. Try to Imitate Others- This type of  change never lasts long. There were many people who wanted to look like John Travolta in late seventies but I doubt if any of them tried to continue that look after 2 or 3 years.
3. Pretentious Behavior: There are many people who learn to hide their true emotions after going through some corporate training or self help book. Corporate Trainings are meant to teach you to look positive aspects of worse things in your life.  However, too much suppression of emotion trap such fools in the endless cycle of adversity where they even forget to talk negatively about the real negativeness of life. The only outbursts that these people have is abnormal blood pressure or depression.
4. Modification in Daily Routine: You read somewhere that you should sleep for 7 hours, get up early in the morning , take a long walk, visit religious place and other blah blah plans for improving the quality of life. You get impressed that once you introduce the behavioural changes things would improve but the very intent of these changes add extra burden in your daily life and that is of implementing these changes which never happen properly.
5. Inspiration or Infatuation: You hear the blah blah of your favorite politician or actor or celebrity and decided to follow the life of truthfulness, trust, wisdom, enlightenment. While getting impressed you even forget that the person might be speaking a well rehearsed script to impress others. But you know things happen , I would not be amazed if people want to follow and learn about fidelity and upbringing of children from the likes of Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, Narendra Modi etc.

Behaviour Modification- Fast Vs Slow

Behaviour Modification is the integral part of personal development. What ever be the aspect of life- social, financial, technological, health, thought we do need to modify ourselved to match up with the demands posed upon us by the contemporary society.

Temporary Change of Behavior of American Female Soldiers in Afghanistan

However, this modification process must be smooth, blindly jumping into each and every facet of modification is neither prudent nor necessary. While modifying your behaviour you must keep in your mind if you really want to persist with the modified behaviour. In case the modification is not required for long time and needed for instant then you must learn it through quick process without getting into too much reasoning and deep knowledge about the benefits of your modification. This type of modification is often required when we go on holiday tour to places where the culture is different from our own culture. For example wearing short skirts by girls in America will never raise an eye brow but the same attire can result in death sentence in several countries of the world. So behaviour modification would be a necessity for survival in those countries.

Slow process of behaviour modification is highly beneficial if you want to make changes in yourself for a long time. For example if you want to integrate exercise and physical work out as integral part of your life then for successful integration you should start slow and progress smoothly. The integration would be more concrete and long lasting if you also enjoy knowing about the benefits that you get from your new exercise regime. If you start fast with shallow attitude it is highly likely that the initial tempo of behaviour modification would be lost and real change in behaviour would not happen.

Living in New Culture

Five main strategies to avoid continuous conflict in the new culture:

Integration : It refers to an attitude in in which there is an interest in both, maintaining one’s original culture and identity, while staying in daily interaction with other cultural groups. In this case, there is some degree of cultural integrity maintained while interacting with other cultural groups.

Assimilation : It refers to an attitude, which people do not wish to maintain their cultural identity, and they move to become an integral part of the other culture. In this case, there is loss of one’s culture and identity.

Separation  : It refers to an attitude in which people seem to place a value on holding on to their original culture, and wish to avoid interaction with other cultural groups. In this case, people often tend to glorify their cultural identity.

Marginalisation : It refers to an attitude

in which there is little possibility or interest in one’s cultural maintenance, and little interest in having relations with other cultural groups. In this case, people generally remain undecided about what they should do, and continue to stay with a great deal of stress.

Genes and Behavior Pattern

Every chromosome stores thousands of genetic commands in the form of genes. These genes dictate much of the course of an organism’s development. They contain instructions for the production of specific proteins, which regulate the body’s physiological processes and the expression of phenotypic traits. The observable traits of an organism are called phenotype (e.g., body built, physical strength, intelligence, and

other behavioural traits). The traits, which can be passed on to the offspring through genetic material are called its genotype. All biological and psychological characteristics that a modern man possesses are the result of genotype inheritance with phenotypical variations.

A given gene can exist in several different forms. Change of a gene from one form to another is called mutation.  The type of mutation that occurs spontaneously in nature provides variation in genotypes and permits the evolution of new species. Mutation permits recombination of new genes with the genes already present. This new combination of genes structure is then put to test in the environment, which can select out those genotypes that turn out to be best fitted for the environment.

Chromosomes- How it influences Behavior

Chromosomes are the hereditary elements of the  body.  They  ar e  threadlike-pair ed structures in the nucleus of each cell. The number of chromosomes per nucleus isdistinctive, and is constant for each living organism. The gametic cells (sperm and ovum) have 23 chromosomes but not in pairs. A new generation results from the fusion of a sperm cell and an egg cell.

At the time of conception, the organism inherits 46 chromosomes from parents, 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. Each of these chromosomes contains thousands of genes. However, the sperm cell (fathers’) differs from the egg cell (mother’s) in one important respect. The 23rd chromosome of the sperm cell can be either the capital X or Y type of the english alphabet. If the X type sperm fertilises the egg cell, the fertilised egg will have an XX 23rd chromosome pair, and the child will be a female. On the other hand, if a Y type sperm fertilises the egg, the 23rd chromosome pair will be XY, and the child will be a male.

Chromosomes are composed mainly of a substance called Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Our genes are composed chiefly of DNA molecules. The two genes that control the development of each trait are situated at the same locus, one on each chromosome of a particular pair. The exception is the sex chromosomes, i.e. the pair of chromosomes that determines an individual’s sex.

Genetics of Behavior

We inherit characteristics from our parents in the form of genes. A

child at birth possesses a unique combination of genes received

from both parents. This inheritance provides a distinct biological blueprint and timetable for an individual’s development. The study of the inheritance of physical and psychological characteristics from ancestors is referred to as genetics.  The child begins life as a single zygote cell (mother’s ovum fertilised by father’s sperm). Zygote is a tiny cell with a nucleus in its center containing chromosomes. These chromosomes with all genes are inherited from each parent in equal numbers.

Gonads- Hormones of Reproduction

Gonads refer to testes in males and ovaries in females. The hormones secreted by these glands control and regulate sexual behaviours and reproductive functions of males and females. Secretion of hormones of these glands is initiated, maintained and regulated by a hormone, called gonadotrophic hormone (GTH) secreted by the anterior pituitary. The secretion of GTH starts at the age of puberty (10 to 14 years in human beings) and stimulates gonads to secrete hormones, which in turn stimulates development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics.

The ovaries in females produce estrogens and progesterone. Estrogens guide the sexual development of the female body. Primary sexual   characteristics   r elated   with reproduction, such as development of ovum or egg cell, appear on every 28 days or so in the  ovary of a sexually matur e female. Secondary sexual characteristics, such as breast development, rounded body contours, widened pelvis, etc., also depend on this hormone. Progesterone has no role in sexual development. Its function is related with

preparation of uterus for the possible reception of fertilised ovum.

The hormonal system for reproductive behaviour is much simpler in the male because there is no cyclic pattern. Testes in males produce sper m continuously and secrete male sex hormones called androgens. The  major  andr ogen  is  testoster one. Testosterone prompts secondary sexual changes such as physical changes, growth of facial and body hairs, deepening of voice, and increase in sexually oriented behaviour. Increased aggression and other behaviours are also linked with testosterone production.

The normal functioning of all hormones is crucial to our behavioural well-being. Without a balanced secretion of hormones, the body would be unable to maintain the state of internal equilibrium. Without the increased secretion of hormones during the times of stress, we would not be able to react effectively to  potential dangers in our environment. Finally, without the secretion of hormones at specific times in our lives, we would not be able to grow, mature and reproduce.