Quotes About Behavior

We are constantly being shaped by seemingly irrelevant stimuli, subliminal information, and internal forces we don't know a thing about.

Objects are characterized by three essential properties: state, identity, and behavior.

Just as predatory animals follow a similar general design and behave in similar ways, so organizations, especially those in competition with one another, must follow certain design principles if they are to succeed and prevail.

Basil Donovan was drunk again.

More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice.

It's so effective, in fact, that we often embrace the further shortcut of assuming that people who simply display symbols of authority should be listened to. Studies show that Americans are particularly susceptible to three types of authority symbols: titles, clothing, and luxury cars.1

In other words, when the need for reciprocity was aroused, it didn't matter whether they liked him or not. They "owed," and so they paid. Reciprocity can be a dictatorial force, and it can come in many shapes and sizes.3

In other words, the regressed individual either defers to authority or acts out a critical, parental role, neither of which represents a genuine adult response.

They may alternate between an extremely dependent posture on one hand, and an authoritarian stance when they are in the parental mode.

The patient is encouraged to behave in constructive ways that directly challenge the voice. These actions help the patient to separate from the negative traits and qualities in the parents or family.

The psychotic patient has beliefs that require little information to confirm them and are indeed very difficult to refute logically. They are appropriate only in the sense that they once did apply to the parents' behavior. These misconceptions cause overdramatic and totally inappropriate responses to present-day circumstances and interfere with an individual's ability to adapt. In

Traditional religion's dogma of selflessness is essentially an externalization of the individual's voice and therefore has a powerful negative influence on behavior. The haranguing voice of the fundamentalist minister castigating sinners and urging them to seek redemption directly resembles the self-critical "voices" of the members of his congregation.

To date, no study has found any long-term benefit of attention-deficit medication on academic performance, peer relationships, or behavior problems, the very things we want to improve…. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth.

from natural selection's point of view, status assistance is the main purpose of friendship.

Once you the forces that govern behavior,it's harder to blame the behaver

we deceive ourselves in order to deceive others better. This hypothesis was tossed out during the mid-1970s by both Richard Alexander and Robert Trivers.

Our entire notion of good and bad, our whole landscape of feelings—fear, lust, love, and the many other feelings, salient and subtle, that inform our everyday thoughts and perceptions—are products of the particular evolutionary history of our species.

A female in a high-MPI species may seek signs of generosity, trustworthiness, and, especially, an enduring commitment to her in particular.

Natural selection cannot directly 'see' an individual organism in a specific situation and cause behavior to be adaptively tailored.

emotions are just evolution's executioners.

After all, true brotherly love is unconditional compassion; it harbors utter doubt about the validity of harming anyone, however repugnant their behavior. And in a society where no one gets punished for anything, repugnant behavior will grow.

Some of our mental machinery is exquisitely geared to that function, including the essence-preservation machinery that makes our enemies more readily blameworthy for bad behavior than our allies and makes it easy to witness the suffering of our enemies with indifference.

We are not blank slates, as some behaviorists once imagined. We are organisms whose more egregious tendencies can be greatly, if arduously, subdued. And a primary reason for this tenuous optimism is the abject flexibility with which status is sought. We will do almost anything for respect, including not act like animals.

Human nature consists of knobs and of mechanisms for tuning the knobs, and both are invisible in their own way.