Examining the Role of Environment on Human Behaviour and Performance.

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Psychology predominately concentrates on the understanding of human behaviour and personality therefore understanding how much of an effect a person's environment has on his or her behaviour and performance is paramount. When discussing the possible environmental influences of behaviour and performance it is vital to define what environment, behaviour and performance means in this context. Environment is simply everything that surrounds and has an impact on or influences someone, something or a group. Behaviour is the way in which someone, something or a group reacts in situations. Performance is how well someone, something or a group execute or implement an operative task in particular situations. To understand the function that environment has on human behaviour and performance there have been many studies conducted on the influence of environment on behaviour. One such research was conducted by Albert Bandura and colleagues in 1963 on social learning, in particular the impact of media violence on young children (Oates, 2010). The results of Bandura's study claimed that children are influenced by watching violent acts and their aggressiveness or violent behaviour is increased shortly after exposure. To understand the function that environment has on human behaviour and performance using examples from the chapters above, this essay will consider these findings and other psychological research results to examine evidence whether environmental influences such as 'the media' or consequences of our behaviour, as the 'behaviourists' have claimed, have more of an impact than non-environmental influences. It will show that human behaviour is primarily influenced by a complex combination of environmental and internal cognitive processes. In 1963, when Bandura et al. conducted their landmark social learning experiments with young children, concerns about media violence

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