The issue under investigation
Human behavior is a product of various interrelated factors that walk alongside our lives starting with early childhood and is even thought to be closely related to genetics and predicted by it (Hartwell, 2014). The issue under investigation deals with the influence of such variables as music, media, and culture on the behavior of individuals, it is also evaluated whether the impact is positive, negative, or both. This issue is important, as the knowledge of the reasons for some kinds of people’s behavior provides individuals with the opportunity to reduce the impacts and become more independent in the decision-making and actions (Rost, 2002).
Dependent and independent variables
- The only dependent variable that is examined in the research project is people’s behavior.
- three independent variables are examined in connection with behavior. These are music, media, and culture.
Summaries of journal articles connected with the topic
Music
The article presented by Elina Tropeano focuses on the influence provided on people by the music they listen to and music videos they watch. Watching the violent music video containing violent lyrics, aggressive behavior, and degrading behaviors toward women did make an individual feel and react more violently with regards to responses to questions about fictitious scenarios (Tropeano, 2011). According to this research, it becomes obvious that even one’s musical tastes have a great impact on the personality and actions of a person.
Media
Hye-jin Paek, Albert Gunther, Douglas McLeod, and Thomas Hove focus on smoking decisions made by adolescence and how they are influenced by media. They distinguish how much peers are influenced by antismoking messages in predicting adolescent smoking attitudes and behavior (Paek, Gunther, McLeod, & Hove, 2011). After the evaluation of the gained data, the authors came up with a decision that media is a great tool for antismoking campaigns, which proves that it has an immense influence on people, as media surrounds them whenever and wherever they are.
Culture
In his article, David Matsumoto discusses how culture influences people’s behavior, thoughts, and actions. He claims that culture emerges from the connection between the ecological context and basic human nature and how social roles are determined by culture-specific psychological meanings attributed to situational contexts (Matsumoto, 2007). The author concludes that every day people play some specific roles that are expected of them by society; the performance of the roles differs due to various cultures, but the influence stays unchanged.
Reflection
After considering the information and data received from these articles, I came up to the conclusion that the behavior is more the thing we reflect based on our environment than perform due to our desires.
I suppose that not only the music we listen to regarding our own wanting influences the way we behave but also the music that we may listen to while having no opportunity to change it. Thus, if one is in a place where rap songs are played, his/her behavior will become more aggressive. As nowadays people face media several hours per day, it surely influences them. The things they perceive linger in their minds even though people seem to forget them. Culture is a set of attitudes and beliefs that are created due to the common thoughts of a group of people. Cultural values are propagated through generations; that is why they determine a great part of one’s behavior (Kierkus & Baer, 2002).
References
Culture And References
Hartwell, H. (2014). Behaviour change. Perspectives in Public Health, 134(1), 1-15.
Kierkus, C. & Baer, D. (2002). A social control explanation of the relationship between family structure and delinquent behaviour. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 44(4), 32-70.
Matsumoto, D. (2007). Culture, context, and behavior. Journal of Personality, 75(6), 1285-1320.
Paek, H., Gunther, A., McLeod, D., & Hove, T. (2011). How adolescents’ perceived media influence on peers affects smoking decisions. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 45(1), 123-146.
Rost, J. (2002). When personality questionnaires fail to be unidimensional. Psychologische Beiträge, 44(1), 108-125.
Tropeano, E. (2011). Does rap or rock music provoke violent behavior? Journal of Undergraduate Psychological Research, 1(1), 31-34.
Performance Culture. (n.d.). Sikorsky. Web.
Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2015). Organizational Behavior, 16th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.