Accounting for human behavior Essay

In order to wear and interact with the other members of the society, it is crucial for us to understand what the other people argon thinking close and what the underlying factors that contribute to their behavior are. In our daily life, people are continuously interpreting and explaining others behavior, sometimes even without aware of it themselves. How does this knowledge of interpreting the others come about? And is it a reliable method? near people are using everyday sniff out commentary to interpret human behavior, while favorable scientists will explain our world by amicable experience theories.What are they? And which one can progress a much(prenominal) reliable and accurate account for human behavior?Common Sense Explanations are formed basing on individuals past experiences or were passed down from the last generations. It is the most raw material and simple form of knowledge that helps us to survive. For instance, people understand that it will be hurt when a b all is throwing at them and in result, they will run away from it. We use the commons whizz datum to savvy the world we are living in. It is unimaginable if a person does not possess any common sense at all.See more Old Age Problem essaySocial light Theories, like the theories in inherent science, are derived from scientific methods. They are either induced or deduced from unlike task or experiment. But since the subject matter in brotherly sciences is completely different from that of natural science, observation, survey and interview which sometimes involves a control group, are the methodology used to test the experimental hypotheses, instead of using laboratory experiments. Hence, social science theories are backed up by verifiable studies and data, and therefore should be more widely applicable, objective and reliability to explain human behavior.Unlike social science theories, common sense is held by everyone. Therefore, people can draw on this knowledge presently w hen they want to analysis behavior of the others and giving a faster response to the situation. However, the strength of common sense is also its greatest weakness. In many cases, common sense explanation cannot give us a satisfactory answer because it has oversimplified the circumstance. For instance, it is a general belief that the more violent movies a child watches, the more aggressive he will be. batch may neglect other factors,such as family backgrounds, in contributing to childrens aggressive behavior, which had proved to be an equally crucial by many social scientists.In addition, human behaviors are complex as well as unique to each individual. diverse culture, race, living environment and family history will lead to the formation of different behaviors. Similarly, common sense explanation varies in different culture, society and individual, and therefore, actually is not the same to everyone in our society. How can a extraterrestrial understand all the traditional attit udes and values of a Chinese? Likewise, it is not easy for us to labour all the behaviors of the foreigners. As a result, there will be bias if we rely on common sense explanation as it is too generalized and oversimplified without really investigating the underlying factors behind the scene.In contrast, social sciences theories can supplement the weakness of common sense explanation as each possibility is based on a numbers of hypotheses which in turn will be tested, though the methodology used is somewhat different from that of natural science. In other words, social science theories are more reliable and valid than that of common sense explanations. Moreover, social science theories are more widely applicable as they are derived from a great numbers of data which are collected from different carry and people. Some people may argue that some social sciences theories are similar to our common sense explanations, for which is a coincident that we cannot deny since many hypotheses are formed with the basis of common sense assumptions.People can use common sense to explain or judge most things we encounter in our daily life. However, when we come to analyze more complicated matters, such as human behaviors, common sense explanation alone would be insufficient. In these circumstances, social science theories, which set about been undergoing empirical researches and experiments, are more reliable.We cannot ignore the importance of common sense since it is a basic knowledge that people possessed, whereas social science theories may not beknown to most people. And in many cases common sense is the derriere of many hypotheses, and thus is the origin of a theory. But it is crucial to note that when people want to have an in-depth, comparatively reliable and valid explanation, social science theories should be employed.REFERENCERoth (1990), Introduction to Psychology, United kingdom The Open University.Gross (1992), Psychology The Science of Mind and Behaviour, p. 19-23, London Hodder & Stoughton