Human Behavior and Relationships

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses and analyzes human behavior and relationships within the confines of marriage. It describes the biological approaches to human relationships and then analyzes a cultural explanation for human behavior in marriage. The paper then looks at the psychodynamic approach which examines the interaction between culture and biology, but from a more personal perspective.

From the Paper:

"On a more 'micro' scale, however, a couple in a relationship will likely see the constellation of influences upon their life as more of a learned or cognitive approach to human relationships, as each person models what they bring to the relationship based upon how they saw their parents behave, and how they see their friends and relatives behave towards their spouses. Such approaches portray learners as "active processors of information," suggesting that rather than being at the mercy of culture or biology alone, human beings engaged in the social relationship of marriage are in a creative dialogue between themselves, as well as with their social environments and with their genetic heritage (Hofstetter, 1997). This may ultimately be the more useful approach for a couple to view their own relationship, even if other explanations have a more convincing or rigorous scientific underlying basis."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hofstetter, Fred T. "Cognitive Versus Behavioral Psychology. Excerpts from Chapter Four of the McGraw-Hill textbook Multimedia Literacy. 1997. 23 Apr 2007. http://www.udel.edu/fth/pbs/webmodel.htm
• Rubin, Paul H. "Book Review--Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior by Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, Oxford University Press, 2002." Human Nature Review. Vol. 2: 279-282. 9 July 2002.23 Apr 2007. http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/rubin.html
• Stevenson, David B. "Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development." The Victorian Web. 1992. Added to the Victorian Web 6 December 2000. Last modified 27 May 2001. 22 Apr 2007 http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/develop.html

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