Human Behavior THEORIES  Instinctual Theories 1. McDougall: Humans are driven by two instincts – (1) to survive and (2) to not die. 2. Maslow: Humans are driven by a basic hierarchy of needs. (separate handout) 3. Freud’s Psychoanalysis: Humans act according to the development of their Id, Ego, and Superego (separate handout)

 Socialization Theories (Skinner and Pavlov) - People can be conditioned and/or learn to act a certain way. Ex. Pavlov’s dog experiment.

 Philosophical Perspectives:  Religious Perspectives: There are numerous religious perspectives explaining why we act the way we do as well, including the idea of Humans are Inherently Humans are Neutral Humans are Inherently

Good 1. Pelagius (4 th century) Bad 1. Jacques Rousseau (1750s-70s) Humans in the state of nature are not tainted by 1. Thomas Hobbes (1600s) original sin, but are instead fully capable of “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in choosing good or evil. Humans in the state of nature are inherently in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, a "war of all against all," and life in that state and still remains a greater slave than they.” 2. Plato (ancient Greece) is ultimately "nasty, brutish, and short." *People are innately good. The “cultured” There is an “intellectual soul” in our head to We are naturally evil creatures and this state man learns to be degenerate by constraints of tame the “appetitive beast” resident in the belly of nature is remedied by good government. society. and genitals. We should welcome death as an escape from this uncomfortable co-habitation. 2. John Locke (1600s) *Our mind helps us sort out temptations and 2. Bernard Russell (early 1900s) desires. “TABULA RASA” – People are blank slates. Moral evil or sin is derived from the instincts Humans in the state of nature have perfect that have been transmitted to us from our 3. Karl Marx (mid 1800s) freedom to order their actions according to the ancestry of beasts of prey. The simple fact laws of nature, without having to ask “Who a person is, is determined by where and that we humans must eat other life or else permission to act from any other person. when he is…the beast is the past and its starve is probably the contemporary and burdens, while the mind awaits in the future.” historical moral evil. *Everyone is BORN equal.

creationism which states that man is sinful and redeemed only through confession. Human Behavior THEORIES