Regardless of my job title, there is one fundamental aspect that seems to be a through thread and that is understanding behavior. What is behavior exactly? Behavior is the observable and measurable things that an organism does, in this post we will be talking about people. Most behaviors that come to mind first are overt, or able to be easily observed by others, behaviors can also be covert and only easily observed by the individual doing them, such as thinking. Every behavior serves a purpose or function that can be linked back to our basic needs.
In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow theorized a hierarchy of needs in his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. He presented these needs as a tiered system and hypothesized that in order for higher level needs to be addressed, lower level needs must first be fulfilled. The most basic of needs include our physiological needs such as air, nutrition, hydration, rest, temperature regulation and waste removal. These basic needs are required to maintain life in general but as we begin to move up the hierarchy the needs increase the quality of life. The next level addresses our safety needs; these include access to resources, shelter, control, structure, etc. Once we feel safe and secure we can focus on our social needs like a sense of belonging, community, connection, friendships, and intimacy. With connection and a sense of love and belonging we begin to develop our self-esteem and everything beyond that which includes growth and self-actualization. It was initially theorized that these needs had to be met at each level before progress at the next level could occur, however, as we have learned progress is not linear and multiple levels can be addressed simultaneously or even compete with each other.
Behaviorists use the term function to describe the reason a behavior occurs so lets see how these needs fall into place with these functions. The four functions are access to resources, attention, escape, and sensory. When teaching animal trainers how behavior works many of them get stuck on access to resources and specifically nutrition. As we will be exploring, what drives our behavior is much more complex than just food, and we will start by unpacking what all access to resources includes.
When discussing access to resources as a function of behavior we are talking about tangible items that move us toward fulfilling some of those basic needs including physiological needs (nutrition, hydration, thermoregulation), social needs (other individuals or groups), self-care (bathing, clean clothes, comfortable place to rest) and even growth (entertainment and learning).
The next function we are going to explore is attention. Attention addresses the need for social connectedness and for people is most frequently desired from other people. Attention could be presented in various different ways, visual attention such as being observed or watched by others or interactions online, auditory attention like applause or cheering, and even social as in being included or sharing space.
Both attention and access to resources could also fulfill a sensory function. When we talk about sensory we mean pleasure and pain. This can occur through any of the senses; things we hear, see, taste, smell, and or touch.
The final function is escape. Escape can happen in opposition to any of the previous functions we discussed. Escape is when we are attempting to avoid something that we find aversive or to simply exert control.
When we understand these functions we are able to better analyze the reason(s) a behavior occurs and potentially identify ways in which we can modify our behavior. In the future I will be diving deeper into the science of behavior and attempting to make it accessible to anyone with an interest. My goal is not to teach you how to manipulate others but rather take control of yourself and work on modifying your own undesired behaviors or forming new positive habitats. I know that some of the science may be a dense read and if you have any questions or would like additional clarification feel free to leave a comment and I will work through it with you.
