Good Critical Thinking About Reflexes And Fixed Action Patterns

Reflex is an important human quality in response to environmental stimuli that undergirds human action. Reflect as a behavioral reaction is significant for the fitness of people in a Darwinian vein with regards to natural selection. Indeed, some character traits are intrinsic, which reflexes demonstrate. While some people view reflexes as governed by biological traits, others perceive it as culturally conditioned. Change occurs rather slowly because of the evolutionary history that slowly affects the behavioral tendencies of the human race. Indeed, reflexes undergird the human condition are contingent on epochal trends. The psychological theory about reinforcers and punishers are intriguing especially within modern contexts within the framework proffered by social scientists. Food and sex are examples of culturally contingent reinforcers that play a role in one’s fitness and ability to punish certain behaviors. Indeed, someone who pets a dog that bites and harms them will not likely repeat their actions towards that dog. Operant learning is empirical in nature, and thus if someone is harmed an action, he or she will abstain from acting as such accordingly in the future. This point is interesting because reflexes and human behavior amplify fitness when necessary. It is interesting because many people question whether human beings do indeed possess personality patterns that are not intrinsic. Humans moreover are conditioned to be empirical in nature and thus learn behaviors from their experiences. One example of such behaviors is yawning, as yawning has emerged as a culturally conditions and thus an operant learning manifestation in which people take environmental from others in their own actions. The notion of the Pavlov reflect plays an integral role in such commentaries on conditioned reflexes in order to properly describe learning outcomes. Experience, or empirical knowledge, undergirds knowledge and human reflexes. Pavlov indeed studied various human reflexes to environmental stimuli Pavlov discovered that environmental stimuli such as light or tone were precursors to human behavior in certain situations
Conditional reflexes have been a hot topic of debate in public discourse and psychology circles as a result of Pavlov’s theories. One interesting example is behavior related to food and the external influences. In adolescent girls and boys, the experience of cultural values is communicated by an array of external forces: family, religion, schools, and by the media in modern Western culture (Keel, 2005, p. 59). This has propelled individuals to learn how to control their bodies in order to meet the high standards society imposes on them through disordered eating habits. Only recently has in depth research on disordered eating surfaced. In particular, bulimia has recently become increasingly popular amongst girls and boys in Western societies (Gordon 133). Dr. Hilde Bruch, a pioneer in the study of eating disorders, criticizes bulimic patients because they blame their “learned behavior on others,” suggesting external pressures influence cause bulimic behaviors. Research shows that psychological responses to social expectations communicated through the media have fostered bulimic behavior. In addition, much psychological research identifies certain family relationships as influencing and contributing to the psychological traits associated with bulimics. Bulimia represents an individual’s attempt to stabilize themselves in a demanding, chaotic society where shifting demands have led to a confused sexual identity in both males and females and have triggered conflicting views of how their body reflects their identity. Together, the psychological and sociological work on bulimia elucidates a complex mesh of influences on the development of bulimia, which puts both males and females equally at risk. Because bulimia has only recently been identified as a psychological disease that plagues male, sociologists and psychologists have engaged in a limited amount of research and studies regarding males. Therefore, much more information exists concerning women; however, from research available research, it seems that the etiology of bulimia in men and women share more similarities than differences. Contrary to the popular belief that bulimia represents solely a female disorder, research has shown that external influences such as one’s family, the media, and peer influence exercises a significant influence on the development of bulimic behaviors in both men and women alike. By comparing the psychopathologies of bulimic behaviors in both men and women as a result of such external influences, it becomes clear that bulimia is not gender-specific and threatens all individuals equally. Making the general US public aware of everyone’s susceptibility to bulimia could help take a step towards curing bulimia by ascertaining how to prevent its inception in the first place.

References

2 Texas school administrators on leave after students forced to drop pants over feces in gym. (2015, January 30). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/30/2-texas-school-administrators-on-leave-after-students-forced-to-drop-pants-over/?
Keel, Pamela K. Eating disorders. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc, 2005.
LeTrent, S. (2015, January 30). Disney introduces Elena, its first Latina princess - CNN.com. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/30/entertainment/first-latina-disney-princess-feat/index.html