Getting mental with Psychology...

   Because this project is most likely going to be taking a rather deep and thought provoking route in cases, I believe it is best to find more detailed and conclusive research into behaviour.
The best place for this is to look at psychology.

   The basic theory held by most scientists and psychologists is that you behaviour is an output of your brain and nervous system. The brain and its mechanisms are so complex that even today, scientists still do not fully understand how it functions so differently for each individual.

 The brain and nervous system also absorb the environment in which an individual exists in and control its reactions to that environment. This produces memories, characteristics and most importantly, behaviour. This therefore means that the culture and environment one surrounds themselves in determines ones' behaviour.

"A culture defines habits, skills, morals, laws, customs, sports, arts, and any other learned behaviour practiced by members of a society... As such, culture has a powerful influence on how we perceive the world and the behaviour of others" (fig.1)

This is why it is difficult to determine abnormal behaviour  because every individual or specific groups of individuals have certain ideals of 'proper' or 'exact' behaviour, such as manners and etiquette.
This goes also for comparing cultures internationally.

"By studying people of other cultures we are able to determine exactly how we are similar and how we differ. Unfortunately, there has not been strong emphasis on cross-cultural research." (fig.2)

As most psychological and sociological experiments are performed on Northern American/ European citizens, their similarities and differences are taken as a generic norm.


 However, this misfortune in research only seems to apply to larger cultural similarities of behaviour. The basic process in which an individual goes through to acquire observations of their environment, memories and opinions is still a private and unique thing.

"Memories are stored through processes that are, for the most part, independent of the specific language being used...how we perceive our world through our sense organs is also largely independent of the cultural context." (fig.3)

Although this restores belief in the fact that 'everyone is different and unique', there still certain categories in which behaviour can be placed (as after all, behaviour is the reaction to a situation).

• Determinism- an assumption of causality; the belief that everything we do is caused by something.
• Free Will- the belief that human behaviour is not controlled by the environment, by past experiences, or by genetics, and that human are free to behave as they want.
• Behavioural genetics- the idea of heredity components affecting human behaviour.
• Hindsight bias- the tendency to believe the results were foreseeable, once the outcome of an event is given; AKA, the 'I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon'.
• Cultural bias- the belief that all human behaviour is a result of the culture and environment that the individual resides in.

(fig.4)

"It is important to understand that research findings and conclusions about human behaviour are greatly affected by cultural bias."

   This above statement proves that the most popular category of the behavioural groups is that of 'Cultural Bias'. This is because people are so keen to explore, expand learning and broaden experiences that they take great note of the world and environment around them.

 One can also say the 'Cultural Bias' is the mother category to 'Determinism', 'Hindsight Bias' and the theory of 'Behavioural Genetics'. It also gives way to 'Machiavellian' ideologies, which is the "term for individuals who are manipulative and obsessed with acquiring power." (fig.5)

Citations:

Book: Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002

fig.1  -Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002     page 14
fig.2  -Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002     page 15
fig.3  -Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002     page 15
fig.4  -Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002    page 21
fig.5  -Psychology Applied to Everyday Life, Gardner .R.M, Thomson Learning Inc., United States of America, 2002    page 15,21