Human Behavior

“Behavior is anything an individual does which can be observed in some way.”

Human behavior includes anything we do (our physical acts), anything we say (verbal behavior) and our facial expression and bodily gestures. Human behavior has a purpose either to perform a task or to convey a message. Human behaviors can be observed as we can see or hear these behaviors.

Human behavior can be divided into the following three categories:

1. Physical Actions
2. Verbal Behavior
3. Facial Expressions and Bodily Gestures

1. Physical Actions

These are the actions performed by us using our body or body’s parts such as shaking hand with a friend, helping someone in lifting a weight, slapping someone, walking, eating, writing a letter, filling a questionnaire, breaking glass and so on. These actions are aimed at performing certain tasks.   

2. Verbal Behavior

Verbal behavior includes anything we say. We utter words having specific meanings to communicate with others. This exchange of words, to interact with one another, constitutes a major portion of our behavior in daily life. For example, we greet others by saying ‘Hello and Hi’. We ask others by saying: ‘How are you? Where are you going? We command others by saying: Come here, go there, get out, etc. Similarly, we assert to others by saying ‘I was waiting for you, I was late for the meeting’. The purpose of verbal behavior is to interact with others by conveying the a message. The message of verbal behavior depends upon the words and tone of voice.

3. Facial Expression and Bodily Gestures

Interactions among individuals also take place through facial expressions and bodily gestures. For example, to display our approval or happiness, we give a smile which is a facial expression. Similarly, to display our disapproval or displeasure, we make a frowned face. This is how facial expressions give a signal of pleasure, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, excitement or confusion. These facial expressions are easily interpreted by the viewer.

Bodily gestures also exhibit certain behavior. For example, a little kid is playing with his father in a garden. If the father wants that his kid may come towards him, he just opens his hands with his palms facing the kid to signal him to come to his father. Seeing this, the kid runs to his father. Similarly, during a speech, the speaker may move his hand back and forth in order to add some meaning to his words. Similarly, the making V sign by a winner is easily interpreted by the viewers as a sign of victory. Our facial expressions and bodily gestures constitute a part of our behavior.

   OVERT AND COVERT BEHAVIOUR

Most behaviorists and psychologists believe that human behavior is an observable phenomenon. According to them, only those actions can be called behaviour which is observable. It includes physical actions, verbal behaviour, and facial or bodily gestures because they can be observed as they can be seen or heard. According to these behaviorists and psychologists, anything that is unobservable (e.g., processes in the mind) cannot be called behaviour.

However, some psychologists are of the view that human behaviour includes both the observable and unobservable behaviour (e.g., processes in the mind such as thoughts, memories, cognition and retrieving stored information in the brain). To distinguish between observable and unobservable behaviour, they use terminologies such as overt behaviour (observable behaviour) and covert behaviour (unobservable behaviour). The observable acts such as physical actions, verbal behaviour and facial or bodily gestures are known as overt behaviours. On the other hand, unobservable mental processes (such as thinking, processing memories in the mind, retrieving stored information in the brain) cannot be observed by others and are known as covert behaviour. It is important to understand that overt behaviour is generally based on covert mental processes. In other words, overt behaviour can be viewed as a product the covert behaviour. Anything we do or say is based on what is going on in our mind.