Human Behavior and The Social Environment
Introduction
Human behavior and social environment explore the mutual relationship between individuals and the social context. It explains how each of these two parties depends on each other for existence (Grignard et al., 2000). The environment provides an excellent habitat for humans and other organisms for stability, survivor, and adaptation. However, in the recent past, human activities have caused and are still causing significant distress in the form of direct and indirect negative impacts on the environment. The degradation of one side of this equilibrium, therefore, becomes a threat to the mutual relationship of the human and the social environment. At the same time, a human living in a significant way may be influenced by the social environment. Human health, for example, is greatly affected by social, environmental factors such as psychosocial circumstances. When the relationship of humans with the surrounding social environment is threatened, their mental and eventually physical and nutrition health is subjected to an unstable wave of stability. The cause of this imbalance is clearly understood by looking through the human’s behaviors and other dynamics that impose their action. To study the co-existence exhaustively, the use of theories and concepts on which the human behavior and social environment are based does an excellent job of explaining and give a piece of clear information about the matter. In this study, using two fundamental methods and ideas, we shall have a deep understanding of this human-environment conflict.
An unsupportive social environment significantly affects humans on a large scale. Looking through the life experience of a particular group of people, perhaps the minority community, especially those that are less society friendly, can help us understand how the social environment affects people’s leaving. Poor nutritional habits impact people, especially those going through the transgender process. The transgender community is a minority community of the entire society. This group of people often identify with the opposite sex to which they were associated with at birth. They usually have an intense discomfort towards their original gender, and they feel inappropriate associating themselves with the gender roles of their authentic gender, which propagates a huge disconnect to the surrounding society. The situation may lead to psychological problems such as stress. The case poses a challenge in their social life as well as other essential aspects of their lives. The social and mental difficulties people of this community face on top of the issues that most have with their body image may often lead them to develop poor nutritional habits. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
An unhealthy diet is a consequence triggered by the social environment of this kind of person who is seemingly misplaced due to the undefined gender position. Unhealthy eating habit comes up as a result of stress from insecurity and low self-esteem of the victim as a result of social isolation. Stress and anxiety are said to raise the levels of cortisol in the body, which in turn lowers our eating appetite (Donini, L. M. et al. 2003). On the other side, certain unhealthy eating habits can lead the involved human into a particular lifestyle. This kind can get the victim into unintended behaviors such as transgender confirming. It could be a result of overweight bodies resulting in losing confidence in one’s self when with the members of the opposite sex hence moving to a minority community of people that do not cares about physical appearance to leverage their feeling of appreciation. Either of the two effects can have a significant impact on personal behavior that would lead them to change their relationship with the social environment significantly. Several theories can give detailed information about how the dynamic affects the victim to explain the link in a more transparent manner. Psychological factors also play a significant role in poor eating habits, as we discussed earlier. Throughout this essay, we shall be looking at the best way of understanding this problem of human behavior and social environment disconnect, most importantly, concerning how they are connected with poor eating habits to the victims. The psychodynamic approach and behavioral theory are the best theories that perfectly demonstrate how being transgender effects one’s eating habits concerning HBSE.
Psychodynamic theory
The psychodynamic theory defines humans’ personalities according to their conscious and unconscious forces (Cilliers, F., & Koortzen, P. (2000). It tries to explain the line between ones’ IQ and Ego and how their function affects a person living. During human development right from a very tender age, children have a tremendous neural tag of war and challenge in learning and confirming to their gender. They grow up learning through every step of life and without knowing what lesson to expect next. At this young age, children find themselves attached so firmly to their parents of the opposite sex than they do those of the same sex. But then with time, cognition and consciousness realize the need to build a better connection with the parent of their sex as dependence in them grows with time. This would be relatively challenging to adjust to but technically very easy for children with distinct gender. However, when it comes to children with undefined gender or are gender non-conforming, it becomes tremendously hard to tell exactly which path to follow, who to learn from, and which gender to adapt. With this level of distress and confusion, it is possible for the child to feel isolated and misplaced from society by not having a place at all that can relate to their gender, which makes the victim feel so inferior in the culture at a very early age. The learning helplessness with time develops as the victim grows old to become chronic social insecurity and eventually resulting in low-self-esteem and depression. When people are depressed, they make a poor judgment, including unhealthy nutritional decisions, both consciously and unconsciously. Human diversity is a critical concept of survival and one that allows us to push through life’s radical shifts. Looking at the dynamic nature of society, however, and the environment propagated such people as the minority sexual status population, the human diversity aspect slowly loses touch because there are overwhelming forces against them forming their social environment. This makes them feel less competent to fit in and stand out against all the odds to protect their status and position.
Being transgender in terms of either gay, bisexual, or gender no-confirming also creates a significant challenge in the social compatibility context in whichever stage of life a person maybe. People who are transgender either by choice or default try as much as possible to keep their gender orientation private mostly because it could be embarrassing for some people, but also, the idea of being transgender does not get a warm reception from the general society. Sexual orientation is a personal choice, and one that does not have to be affirmed by what people say, however going by the odds, people who find themselves on the defensive side of the gender orientation debate in the society feel so much pressure from most communities and cultures. According to research and real-life experience, lesbian, bi, gay trans, and intersex LBGTI have increased risk of depression and anxiety since their exposure to physical, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse doubles that of heterosexual people. This antagonism becomes a definite trigger of insecurity to the victims on finding out that the social environment that is supposed to provide warm habitat for them and their desires does not conform to one of their greatest appeals. This shock becomes a very significant blow that suppresses their Id making them feel socially isolated and disconnected from society’s nature, almost entirely sending them to a perpetual war with it. Social insecurity, stress, and the feeling of isolation grow so much in them, affecting significantly their conscious decisions and, most importantly, making them end up with unhealthy nutritional habits decision.
Behavioral theory
The behavioral theory comes from behavioral psychology, which explains that a person’s behavior is acquired through mental conditioning, which is greatly influenced by the surrounding environment (Kuligowski, E. D., & Gwynne, S. M. (2010). Our society makes a considerable proportion of the situation, which is the social environment. As such, our behavior is significantly influenced by the culture that surrounds us, following the definition of behavioral psychology. It is accurate; therefore, do state that our eating habits are shaped and determined by the social environment we find ourselves. Looking at people in the transgender process or those with unusual sexual orientation, and following how their sexual status is affected by the society, it is imperative to say that their unhealthy nutritional habit is greatly affected by their social environment relative to their gender. In a typical context, this kind of person is in constant disagreement with their social atmosphere due to their orientation, which creates a gap between them and the healthy social life.
The context here is that people realize their interest in people of the same sex or whichever sexual orientation at their adolescence, which is a very critical stage. At this stage, kids are vulnerable and exposed to many dynamics of life since they are exposed to a spectrum of life information. It almost becomes unnoticeable to realize that their sexual orientation is a little odd until they are entirely into it. Mostly this will happen if single parents raise them all are exposed to an environment that allows them to subscribe to this particular orientation. The behavior is shaped in them gradually, and eventually, they become fully formed, even though society is not willing to allow them to feel entirely accepted. In the long run, when the victims are entirely into their sexual orientation, they are faced unaware by a shock of the wrath of the society for defying its law, which is social isolation, social abuse, and degradation. All this distress and trauma affect their general life, health, and, most importantly, their nutritional habit decisions.
We have seen how social environment can affect people’s leaving habits by causing stress and anxiety hence affecting their eating patterns. On the centrally, people’s poor eating habits can result in people engaging in activities and social lifestyles that would eventually change their social environment. Social distress as a result of social isolation and sexual orientation can result in weak and unhealthy nutrition habits, or even worse. Bad nutrition habits, to begin with, can lead people into a lifestyle decision of choosing to engage in LBGTI. It is two-way traffic, and either can lead to the other. However rare, there are incidences where people have had to change their sexual orientation only to fit in their social environment. When people have poor eating habits, for example, overeating, they start losing their shape and adding weight. Some people find a way to get back to their previous body shape and weight, others find a way to accept the result and live with it, but there are a few who are so insecure that they choose to allow their social environment to depict their next move. Obesity, which is a result of unfortunate eating habits, is today one of the major causes of premature and treatable death but also a significant cause of stress and anxiety, particularly to young adults. Such people, when they find themselves in that state where they are obis and out of shape, especially those with low self-esteem will tend to find a way or place to uphold their ego and regain control of their freedom. When this kind of person loses shape, they find themselves unattractive to members of their opposite sex and eventually become so insecure about their social life. They feel so unattached to the members that they could be attracted to initially and become venerable and desperate for any attention. As a way to find leverage and restore their meaning of life in terms of social connection, they try to find new people or communities to identify themselves with that they will feel comfortable around in their state. At this point, these kinds of people are easily persuaded by members of other sexual orientation to join their pool of a seemingly insecure community of LBGTI. At least in this society, they feel a little more valued and accepted since their new admirers do not seem to care about their looks, which makes them comfortable and feel loved. In this context, the personality and behavior of a person are shaped by the social environment to become transgender, a person that they never were before.
Proposed Intervention from Social Work Theory & Practice of the transgender population
Apart from poor dietary habits, transgender youths have been found to contract a high risk of health, mental, and even suicidal decisions as a result of anxiety and depression they are found drowned in due to social isolation and abuse. The issue of the transgender population, therefore, needs to be addressed and sorted remedy not only for a healthy eating habit purpose but mostly as a way of restoring the balance in human behavior and social environment HBSE. To repair this balance; therefore, there are several practice models in social work that are known to work the best depending on what grounds the remedy action taken is intended. In the case of the transgender community, for example, cognitive-behavioral therapy perhaps becomes the most suitable practice to remedy the imbalance so that this community can live with their sexual orientation and still be in harmony with their social environment. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a treatment aimed at treating mental health, and that aims at solving a person’s behaviors that are affecting their personal, social, or even professional life (Albert R. Roberts, Ph.D. & Allen J. Ottens, Ph.D. 2005). Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a therapeutic treatment that has been tested and proven and whose impact has far-reaching historical roots. It is an approach that helps individual behaviors fit a person back into society but, most importantly, reliving them off the trauma of leaving within a particular social environment.
After learning that psychological factors are the main factors that contribute to unfortunate eating habits and poor decisions in terms of people’s lifestyle, it is accurate to say that cognitive behavior-therapy is perhaps the best remedy to restoring the social balance between the transgender community and the society. In the context of our case, we can choose to treat people with poor nutrition habits as the cause of distress to the transgender population or to help the transgender community live with their sexual identity of choice without complicating their nutritional habits at the same time. The most significant concern, the one that has the most impact on the population in context, is probably not the nutrition issue but the sexual identity of the transgender community. Therefore, using cognitive behavioral therapy to remedy, I will propose to help solve the gender dysphoria aspect of the issue at hand using evidence-based justifications.
According to a study that involved youths in the united states by Grossman, A. H., & D’Augelli, A. R. (2007)Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teenagers between 15 and 24 years of age. Out of those youths, it was estimated that most of those suicide is a result of social insecurity stress and depression among adolescents. Minority sexual status doubles the cause of anxiety and depression in youths being the highest contributor to most of those deaths. This is to mean that, if stress caused by youths’ sexual identification were remedied, mortality and other bad decisions that are made by teens such as drug and substance abuse, as well as unhealthy eating habits would be reduced significantly. Grossman, A. H., & D’Augelli, A. R. (2007) in their study findings demonstrated that suicidal thoughts and life-threatening behaviors dominated the opinions of the victims as a result of the social, environmental distress, and rejection they faced from the society due to their sexual identity. The study also indicated that victims’ destress is highly influenced by the community around them and that it could be diluted if their social environment could match their expectations in terms of their behavior. Considering that it could be seemingly overwhelming to change the prevailing social situation completely, changing their behavior and mental perception of their sexual identity at the same time adjusting some specific parameters of their social environment proved to work effectively as a remedy.
According to the study, using cognitive behavioral therapy would make a profound difference to the youths to help them change their mental perception that cultivated the insecurity in their lives at the same time bridging their gape with their social environment. One of the cognitive behavioral therapy moves to remedy their problem was to help them understand the various ways of making their bodies pleasing to them and others as a way of boosting their self-esteem. The population of the study, according to Grossman, A. H., & D’Augelli, A. R. (2007) argued that they felt so insecure not so much about their urge for perfection in their sexual orientation but what people say and think about their body and looks The victim’s insecurity, according to the study, turned out to be among the causes of anxiety and one that had a very profound impact on their social life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy to young adults and minority groups, particularly this kind that is most venerable to social justifications, has, for a long time, proven to be a remedy for restoring personal self-esteem and reducing the anxiety significantly.
The study also showed that there was a need for society to show support and compassion to this group of people as a way of boosting their esteem and showing love and concern to help them accept themselves. When the threat, which is the social environment in this context, reaches out to show love, it becomes an instant therapy as a relive from social insecurity and also, physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse. According to the study, there was a need for the immediate society like family members of the transgender population to have regular interventions to try to understand how they feel about their sexual identity and support them as well. The aspect of breaking that gap between society and the group was shown to be great therapy and a way of making the population of study embrace their sexuality and live healthily.
To conclude, human behaviors and social environments create an ecosystem that has a mutual dependence for a survivor and that if altered, it will end up breaking the balance. In one way or another, within the course of adaptational adjustments, one or the other part of this equation is affected and, in turn, affects the state of equilibrium significantly. It is, therefore, essential to make sure that the comparison is kept and adjusted to stay at its constant now and then to ensure survivor. It is this equation that results in poor nutritional habits affecting the leaving of lesbian, bi, gay, transgender, and intersex as well as gender non-conforming communities that they can’t fit and comfortably feel accepted in the society. Through human behaviors and social environment theories and practice, we can find out some of the significant concerns and concepts that cause the imbalance of their equation with their social environment relative to their nutritional habit as well as remedies that could enhance in cubing the problem and help restore the balance to ensure proper and comfortable living for all humans.
Reference
Cilliers, F., & Koortzen, P. (2000). The psychodynamic view on organizational behavior. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 38(2), 59-67.
Donini, L. M., Savina, C., & Cannella, C. (2003). Eating habits and appetite control in the elderly: the anorexia of aging. International psychogeriatrics, 15(1), 73-87.
Grignard, L., Boissy, A., Boivin, X., Garel, J. P., & Le Neindre, P. (2000). The social environment influences the behavioral responses of beef cattle to handling. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 68(1), 1-11.
Grossman, A. H., & D’Augelli, A. R. (2007). Transgender youth and life‐threatening behaviors. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, 37(5), 527-537.
Kuligowski, E. D., & Gwynne, S. M. (2010). The need for behavioral theory in evacuation modeling. In Pedestrian and evacuation dynamics 2008 (pp. 721-732). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.