Environment and Behavior
Individuality, which includes human nature and characters, helps people distinguish themselves from others and the world around them. In the process of searching for individuality, one is shaped by his or her environment. We see this in Leslie Bell’s essay “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty–Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” where Bell shows young women who are trying to find their sexual identities. Also, in the essay “The Power of Context,” Malcolm Gladwell states that the characteristics of one’s environment will influence one’s behavior. In her essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” Martha Stout brings the idea of psychological dissociation, which refers to the mental disconnection …show more content…
In a modern world of fast-paced lifestyles, people are burdened and exhausted under great pressure. They do not have much time to pay attention to those details and little problems that exist in their environments. However, Gladwell brings the idea of “Tipping Point,” which means those little issues will ultimately go beyond the surface and become major problems. He uses the examples of graffiti and fare beating to show that how they can reach “Tipping Point.” This idea can be proved by “Broken Windows Theory”, which claims that “ If a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will conclude that no one cares, and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes” (Gladwell, 152). Graffiti and fare-beating are both equivalent of broken windows. When people do not care about graffiti and fare-beating right the first time, more and more criminals are going to do these things because they believe it is normal, and there is nothing wrong with that. People’s lack of concern to fix the problem creates more comfortable and acceptable atmosphere, which leads to dominant effect because it encourages the large population to act in this way and changes the entire social norms. On a deeper level, people’s …show more content…
It is true that surrounding environment most of time impacts human actions. Gladwell suggests that one’s characters can be driven out of him by powerful circumstance because “ Character…isn 't what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be... Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context” (Gladwell, 160). Actions that people conduct in response to the situation they are in define their true natures because they are adapting to the change of their surroundings. Their intentions do not impact them as much as the situation they are in since whatever their intentions and characters were, circumstances are changing them constantly. However, if environment plays a decisive role in guiding and changing human behaviors, there would be no difference between each one because everybody will ultimately conduct in the same manner under the general social context. Bell gives a different approach from Gladwell’s idea. She suggests that instead of the environment, human nature is the key to shaping their behaviors. This idea can be demonstrated in the example of Jayanthi in her essay. Jayanthi, an Indian American woman who lives in the expectation of being a good girl in her family and Indian cultural, turned out being an
Individuality, which includes human nature and characters, helps people distinguish themselves from others and the world around them. In the process of searching for individuality, one is shaped by his or her environment. We see this in Leslie Bell’s essay “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty–Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” where Bell shows young women who are trying to find their sexual identities. Also, in the essay “The Power of Context,” Malcolm Gladwell states that the characteristics of one’s environment will influence one’s behavior. In her essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” Martha Stout brings the idea of psychological dissociation, which refers to the mental disconnection …show more content…
In a modern world of fast-paced lifestyles, people are burdened and exhausted under great pressure. They do not have much time to pay attention to those details and little problems that exist in their environments. However, Gladwell brings the idea of “Tipping Point,” which means those little issues will ultimately go beyond the surface and become major problems. He uses the examples of graffiti and fare beating to show that how they can reach “Tipping Point.” This idea can be proved by “Broken Windows Theory”, which claims that “ If a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will conclude that no one cares, and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes” (Gladwell, 152). Graffiti and fare-beating are both equivalent of broken windows. When people do not care about graffiti and fare-beating right the first time, more and more criminals are going to do these things because they believe it is normal, and there is nothing wrong with that. People’s lack of concern to fix the problem creates more comfortable and acceptable atmosphere, which leads to dominant effect because it encourages the large population to act in this way and changes the entire social norms. On a deeper level, people’s …show more content…
It is true that surrounding environment most of time impacts human actions. Gladwell suggests that one’s characters can be driven out of him by powerful circumstance because “ Character…isn 't what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be... Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context” (Gladwell, 160). Actions that people conduct in response to the situation they are in define their true natures because they are adapting to the change of their surroundings. Their intentions do not impact them as much as the situation they are in since whatever their intentions and characters were, circumstances are changing them constantly. However, if environment plays a decisive role in guiding and changing human behaviors, there would be no difference between each one because everybody will ultimately conduct in the same manner under the general social context. Bell gives a different approach from Gladwell’s idea. She suggests that instead of the environment, human nature is the key to shaping their behaviors. This idea can be demonstrated in the example of Jayanthi in her essay. Jayanthi, an Indian American woman who lives in the expectation of being a good girl in her family and Indian cultural, turned out being an