Theory of Human Behavior Part 1

Theory of Human Behavior Part 1

Why do we do the things we do? This is a basic question that relates to everything in our lives. Without thoughts and actions we cease to exist. People explain their motives by saying, "It makes me feel good" or "It's the right thing to do". I am asking why. Why does it make you feel good and why do you think it is right? Most people I’ve spoken to on this subject respond with either, "I don't know" or "just because". Many motives have been identified and given common names in literature and popular culture such as jealousy, love, hate, revenge, a sense of justice, pride; but these simple terms mask the true complexity of the motive. What is the origin of the motive? Why do people feel things like jealousy, guilt, desire? Many have told me there are no answers and these questions are pointless. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to partially deconstruct a few well-known motives with you in order to reveal my point more explicitly.

Revenge: This motive is very prevalent in popular culture. Basically the idea is that someone has injured you physically or emotionally, taken something from you; or done this to someone you care about. This desire for revenge is described as a need to "take back" what was lost. There is an idea that by inflicting shame, or some other type of harm on the person who caused the injury, it will restore our sense of how the world should be. I think a large part of this desire for revenge stems from fear. The fear is that the person who caused us harm will do it again. We reason that if we can hurt our offender enough, they will fear us and we will be safe from them. We also fear that if other people know that we have been injured, they will view us as weak and take what we value. This is fear of loss. We reason that if we inflict enough harm on the people we fear, others will fear us and this will give us the security we crave.

Guilt: This motive is what many people believe motivates us to do what is right. If we perceive that by some action, or lack of action on our part, we have caused harm to someone we love, or someone who is innocent, we feel guilty. When we feel guilty we lavish attention and gifts on the object of our guilt in order to restore our sense of how the world should be. We feel sorry and often punish ourselves. Feelings of guilt are difficult to predict, people feel different levels of guilt for similar actions, some people feel guilty for nearly everything in their lives and some feel guilty for almost nothing. A person feels guilt when they violate their own personal code of ethics.

Patriotism: To understand patriotism you have to recognize competition among species, then competition within species. There is a very strong genetically implanted instinct that motivates us to compete. The reason we have this drive is so the best-adapted member of a particular group can dominate and propagate their ideas and genetic code. Without conflict, without competition, the best-adapted organism will never emerge. And unless the best-adapted organism dominates, the species will not benefit. This phenomenon has been identified as survival of the fittest. Currently, the ideals of capitalism and democracy have placed us as Americans as the richest, most powerful society on the planet. We are conquering the world with our ideals because they are so well adapted. As members of this society we have a genetically implanted instinct to fight to protect our homes and the values of our society. This shows the principle of "survival of the fittest" working on multiple levels, first we protect ourselves, the individual, then genetically similar (family), ideologically similar, geographically similar (city, state, country), and then there is competition among the species. Our country is an organism, we are cells within it. Our country’s ideas and methods are in competition with the world’s. This competition benefits the species by allowing the best-adapted ideas and genetic code to dominate.

It is important to understand that we often displace our motives. For instance, someone who seeks revenge may feel powerless to confront their offender and instead will displace their desire for revenge on others, abusing a child or some other helpless person for instance. This tends to continue the cycle of revenge. In the same way, someone who feels guilty may lavish attention and gifts on a proxy if they fear it is inappropriate or impossible to express remorse in a direct fashion. They also may fear it would be an admission of guilt to openly display remorse. I would like to note that it is rare to have a single action that does not have multiple, complex motives.

If you wish to simplify, try looking at the motives of greed, laziness and fear. Greed would include desire for pleasure, recognition, and gain. Laziness is a desire to get as much benefit as possible for the effort expended, otherwise known as "value" or efficiency. Fear motivates us to protect ourselves from physical and emotional injury and to protect our possessions and the people we love. Human motives are a complex sea of factors and dictate our lives as individuals and subsequently as societies, then as histories of nations and then as the history of the world. Human motivation is the one constant thread throughout history; this is why a modern audience can relate to both Shakespeare and Star Wars. Human feelings and motives are universal.