Understanding Human Behavior and Its Relationship to Family Bonds - Essay Sample

Introduction

Having a mind in the right state is essential for the behavior of every person. Different factors affect how individuals behave. A proper family, for example, can be a source of motivation for an individual and play a role in personal development. Family bonds, identity change, personal growth, and acceptance are some of the issues related to human behavior. The relationship between these aspects will be known and how they are connected with disenfranchised grief and positive affect to understand human behavior.

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Relationship Between Family Bonds, Identity Change, Personal Growth and Acceptance

The family bond is the most obvious connection in the family. The bond bind brothers, sisters, and parents in love and care for each other. Despite the distance between individuals, a family bond is always compelling, making family members as the significant determinants of an individual's behavior. Due to the secure connection between family members, the relationship may affect any change in qualities, beliefs, and personality of an individual hence influencing identity change. Parents may encourage their children to change their behavior by discouraging negative behavior. Family bonds also determine personal development by determining how human beings grow mentally, emotionally, and socially to conform to societal expectations. Since family members are close to each other, they influence each other by telling each other what is expected of them (Galvin, Brathwaite & Bylund, 2015). Also, members can overcome problems like depression and low self-esteem because of the family bond, making it essential in our lives.

Acceptance and coping involves putting on individual effort to solve problems, both personal and interpersonal, to reduce stress and conflict and to master it. Family members can play a critical role by encouraging others to accept a situation or cope up with it because of the strong bond between members. However, acceptance and coping can increase the family bond as members support each other when the need arises. Also, identity change can see a depressed person learning new ways to cope up with stress and accepting his condition. Moreover, when an individual grows emotionally, socially, and mentally, they learn may acquire new beliefs and personalities that can lead them to handle their stress effectively (Gustems & Calderon, 2016). Acceptance and coping may change characters and ideas; hence, the issues are closely related.

Relationship Between Disenfranchised Grief and the Variables

Disenfranchised grief refers to a deprivation of grieving right by society. Societal beliefs and expectations discourage someone from grieving, maybe after moving from a house that someone liked. Disenfranchised grief may decrease the family bond because some members feel they have a right to mourn while others disagree (Doka, 2016). A parent may be grieving over infertility while the other does not care about infertility, decreasing the family bond. Also, a dead pet of the son may not be a big deal to the sister, while older siblings may term grieving over the loss of a house a childish thing, undermining the family bond.

When the societal regulations limit a person's right to grief, the person may end up changing his beliefs, qualities, and personality that made the person. The person may end adopting a new identity. For example, if parents discouraged a teenager over mourning over a close friend who committed suicide, the teenager may end up withdrawing from friends and families, losing the will to go on with life and viewing life as useless. Disenfranchised grief can, therefore, lead to identity change (Boss & Yeats, 2014).

Also, disenfranchised grief can affect the mental, physical, social, and emotional development of a person concerning the societies' regulations and customs. People may grow to be physically violent and rebellious because they feel the community did not allow them to grief over some issues. A person may also have low self-esteem and be unable to freely socialize with other members of the society since they feel weaker over grieving over 'petty' issues (Scholtes & Browne, 2015). Disenfranchised grief, therefore, impact on personal growth.

Acceptance may be impossible for a person who does not have the right to grief. To move on from a challenging issue from the past, one has to grief about it. Also, humans cannot cope with situations if they do not mourn them and accept that they had to happen. For a person whose best friend committed suicide, it may be difficult to move on when the society discourages mourning over such deaths, hence, affecting the coping process (Hall, 2014).

Relationship Between Positive Affect/Resilience and the Variables

Positive affect refers to a range of positive emotions and expressions such as joy, enthusiasm, and cheerfulness, while resilience shows the ability to recover from a difficult situation quickly. Strong family bonds enable to interact with other people in society positively and experience positive emotions like love. The family bond joins the members together in love, creating an opportunity to assist each other happily. People with strong family bonds are likely to experience more positive emotions than those with weaker family bonds (Olszewski-Kubilius, 2018).

When individuals change their beliefs, personalities, and qualities, the propensity to experience positive emotions may decrease. A person who was interactive and outgoing may change the conditions and prefer to spend time alone. The chances of experiencing positive emotions such as joy may go down when this happens. Also, a person who was determined and optimistic may experience negative affect when he becomes hopeless and pessimistic (Ruch et al., 2014). Identity change can, therefore, influence the probability of experiencing positive emotions.Positive affects determine the emotional, mental, and social development of an individual through acquiring better life skills. Individuals who experience positive emotions are likely to have better life skills and are not expected to have problems such as low self-esteem, depression, or anxiety. Positive affect also encourages a better relationship with other members of society, friends, and even families (Bleidorn, & Denissen, 2015). The positive effects, therefore, encourages personal growth by encouraging the development of life skills.

Also, positive affect influence acceptance and coping skills by allowing people to accept the situation or finding a solution quickly. People who continuously experience positive emotions are likely to move on first and forget about the issue. Positive affects encourage one to be happy always and know that only the future matters since the past cannot be changed. When dealing with a problem, a person with positive emotions will always look at the brighter side, unlike the one with negative emotions (Katz et al., 2014). Positive affectivity is usually associated with values such as joy and optimism despite the situation someone is in and hence affect the coping process.

Conclusion

Different factors affect the behavior of an individual. Some of the issues related to peoples' behavior include family bonds, identity change, personal development, and coping. These factors are associated with each other. Also, there exists a relationship between the elements and disenfranchised grieving and positive affect. Disenfranchised grief involves denying members of the society a right to mourn by using customs and regulations, and positive affect refers to the propensity to experience positive emotions. Understanding human behavior is fundamental.

References

Bleidorn, W., & Denissen, J. J. (2015). Virtues in action-the new look of character traits. British Journal of Psychology, 106(4), 700-723, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjop.12117

Boss, P., & Yeats, J. R. (2014). Ambiguous loss: a complicated type of grief when loved ones disappear. Bereavement Care, 33(2), 63-69, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02682621.2014.933573

Doka, K. J. (2016). Living with Grief: When illness is prolonged. Taylor & Francis.

Galvin, K. M., Braithwaite, D. O., & Bylund, C. L. (2015). Family communication: Cohesion and change. Routledge.

Gustems, C., J., & Calderon, C. (2016). Virtues and character strengths related to approach coping strategies of college students. Social Psychology of Education, 19(1), 77-95, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-015-9305-y

Hall, C. (2014). Bereavement theory: recent developments in our understanding of grief and bereavement. Bereavement Care, 33(1), 7-12, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02682621.2014.902610

Katz, L. F., Shortt, J. W., Allen, N. B., Davis, B., Hunter, E., Leve, C., & Sheeber, L. (2014). Parental emotion socialization in clinically depressed adolescents: Enhancing and dampening positive affect. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42(2), 205-215, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-013-9784-2

Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2018). The role of the family in talent development. In Handbook of giftedness in children (pp. 129-147). Springer, Cham, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-77004-8_9

Ruch, W., Weber, M., & Park, N. (2014). Character strengths in children and adolescents. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1015-5759/a000169?journalCode=jpa

Scholtes, D., & Browne, M. (2015). Internalized and externalized continuing bonds in bereaved parents: Their relationship with grief intensity and personal growth. Death Studies, 39(2), 75-83, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07481187.2014.890680