Relationships between Brain and Behavior
According to Samuel Wood, there is a very close relationship between brain and behavior. Meaning, they can not be divorced from the other because they work together. Most of the things which humans do are as a result of the coordination from the brain. Meaning, all the sorts of human behavior must pass through the brain. As the central organ of the body, brain acts as the engine of the body. As much as the human behavior heavily relies on the brain, scientific research has found out that human behavior also has ability to exercise certain degree of influence on the brain.
For example, when a person is scared; either by a snake, lion or enemy, the possible sets of behavior produced are flight, fight, or fright. Each of these behaviors will be formed in order to produce the most relevant reaction which will help the person to develop the most relevant behavior to help in escape the perceived danger. However, all these reactions happen because they are coordinated by the brain. Once the message is transmitted to the Pituitary Glands, the CNS immediately stimulates the secretion of adrenalin which provokes different kinds of emotional behaviors displayed by a person. This explains why people may develop specific behaviors which do not necessarily resemble that of other people.
The other important relationship between brain and behavior is seen when people learn their behaviors from the brain. Since it is the brain which stores memory, it directly influences the way people behave in response to specific circumstances. Once a certain behavior is experienced, it does not fade away. It is stored in the brain and is often relied upon whenever the circumstance dictates. In this case, a person will learn to repeat a good behavior which is associated with a positive reward and tends to shy away from a bad one which inflicts pain on them. On the other hand, behavior can also have a significant influence on the brain especially though its interactions to the social environment. The social information constructed from the immediate surrounding can be used by a person to influence the way their brain works. It is through such interactions that people get to learn various aspects of the societal way of living which is then adopted and stored in the brain. Thus, the brain and behavior can both influence one another.
In conclusion, it is evidenced that brain and behavior are directly related. As Wood suggests, brain has a dominant control over the people’s behavior. Since behavior depend memory and emotional level, it implies that it can not achieve anything without involving the brain. However, it may also influence the brain in a way because people often apply reasoning in most of their behaviors.
References
Wood, S. et al. (2010) The World of Psychology (7th Edition). Pearson Publishers.
