Term Paper on "Human Behavior and Relationships"

Term Paper 3 pages (1075 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Human Behavior and Relationships in Marriage

"Love and marriage/Love and Marriage/They go together like a horse and carriage." Within the refrain of the old Frank Sinatra song lies all of the contradictions between the different paradigmatic approaches to the relationship of marriage. How much of what we call a marriage is natural and how much is learned or due to cultural pressures? A horse may be a natural animal, but the carriage is man-made and artificially constructed, and serves the demand of culture. Likewise, the biological demands of the human species require reproduction, and human beings have a biologically ingrained sexual drive. Yet beyond this accepted need of physiology, many social and cultural psychologists would remind us the biological demands of reproduction do not explain monogamy, and the cultural containment of this drive through marriage -- nor can it fully explain, some might argue, homosexuality and even the union of heterosexual couples who choose not to have children.

Biological approaches to human relationships often seem to have an all-encompassing explanatory approach. For example, a biological evolutionist would argue that monogamy, which does not seem to spread around a man's genetic matter to its maximum degree, is a way of protecting gestating females or the young. Homosexuality might be seen as fulfilling the need of a tribe to have certain non-procreating members of the human race to teach and tend to the next generation. A cultural explanation would counter, however, that cultural and social influences dictate how we marry, and who we marry, and are not simply the product of our genes. For example, in our own contemporary culture, the 'wedding industry' hardly fulfills a biological need. It satisfies a need that culture has created. Family and friends attach importance to the collective celebration of a union, and the particular method generated by our own society has created a particularly large and costly variety of celebrating such a union. Culture even creates the Western ideal that dresses must be white, while in other cultures such as Japan and India, the bride wears red. The cultural associations and symbols attached to marriage, such variation argues, are not genetically or biologically encoded, but are societal products.

After the union has been formed, social pressures may generate expectations of how many children and who cares for the children. A society that depends upon the labor input of children such as a farm may require many children -- or a society where masculinity demands many children may encourage a man to pressure his wife to produce more children. Conversely, in society where birth control is widely available, and working outside the home is socially desirable and economically necessary to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, having more than two or three children may be regarded as unusual and result in the shrinking of the family numbers, regardless of a biological drive to procreate.

The ways that married couples negotiate the raising of children will vary as well from culture to culture. In some lands, the nuclear family raises the child, in other areas, an extended family such as the child's grandparents may have equal input into the baby's upbringing, where in traditional cultures a village raises the child and has an equal investiture… READ MORE

How to Reference "Human Behavior and Relationships" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Human Behavior Psychopathology Term Paper

Human Behavior (psychopathology)

Human Behavior Theory

New Theory: Modified, Modernized Gestalt Theory

One of the challenges of modern theories of psychopathology is to take what neuroscientists have learned about the… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (949 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

Relationship of Internship to Course Term Paper

For this purpose I was required to create a presentation on the potential development opportunities that exist in Gulf countries.

In addition to that, this presentation also provided the clients… read more

Term Paper 22 pages (6066 words) Sources: 20 Topic: Israel / Palestine / Arab World

---

Understanding Reality and Human Behavior Research Proposal

reality and human behavior strictly rational approach to understanding reality usually is what we understand when supernatural forces, referred to as God or the Supreme Being from now on, are… read more

Research Proposal 4 pages (1105 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA Topic: Philosophy / Logic / Reason

---

Human Behavior Explored Thesis

Human Behavior Explored in the Works of John Milton

The English poet John Milton was born on December 9, 1608 in London, near St. Paul's Cathedral. This remarkable birthplace serves… read more

Thesis 10 pages (3087 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Human Interaction From a Psychology Perspective Thesis

Psychology - Human Interaction

THE EFFECTS of SOCIAL SITUATIONS on HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Human Behavior in Social Situations:

Human behavior reflects a complex interrelationship between elements of individual psychological development and… read more

Thesis 4 pages (1059 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>