CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 8 Psychology and Life Notes

FACTS THAT MATTER

The environment influences individuals Physical health, Psychological processes and behaviour, and some of these effects are demonstrated in stress producing environmental conditions such as noise pollution and crowding.
Social problems like aggression, violence health and poverty are also major concern for present day Psychologists.
The Psychological understanding of these issues can be applied practically to aspects such as pro-environment behaviour, reduction of violence and discrimination and promotion of
positive, health, positive attitudes and well being of people.

Human-Environment Relationship:

1. There is a growing awareness that environmental problems such as sound, air, water and soil pollution, and unsatisfactory ways of garbage disposal have damaging effects on physical health.
2. Less known is the fact that these forms of pollution influence psychological health and functioning as well.
3. A branch of psychology called environmental psychology deals with various psychological issues pertaining to the human-environment interaction in a very broad sense of the term.
4. The word ‘environment’ refers to all that is around us, including the physical, social, work, and cultural environment.
5. ‘Ecology’ is the study of the relationship between living beings and their environment.
6. In psychology, the focus is on the interdependence between the environment and people, as the environment becomes meaningful with reference to the human beings who live in it.
(a) Natural environment: That part of nature which remains untouched by human hand is the ‘natural environment’.
(b) On the other hand, whatever has been created by human beings within the natural environment is the built environment. Cities, houses, offices, factories, bridges, shopping malls, railway tracks, road, dams, and even artificial created parks and ponds are some examples of the built environment which show how human beings have made changes in the environment given by nature.
The built environment usually involves the concept of environment design. The idea of ‘design’ contains some psychological features, such as:
• The creativity of the human mind, as expressed in the work of architects, town planners and civil engineers.
• The sense of human control over the natural environment, as shown in the building of dams to regulate the natural flows of rivers.
• The influence on the kind of social interaction that takes place in the designed environment.

Different Views of the Human-Environment Relationship:

1. A psychologist named Stokols (1990) describes three approaches that may be adopted to describe the human-environment relationship.
(a) The minimalist perspective assumes that the physical environment has minimal or negligible influence on human behaviour, health and well-being. The physical environment and human being exist as parallel components.
(b) The instrumental perspective suggests that the physical environment exists mainly for use by human beings for their comfort and well-being. Most of the human influences on the environment reflect the instrumental perspective.
(c) The spiritual perspective refers to the view of the environment as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited. It implies that human beings will exist and will be happy only as long as the environment is kept healthy and natural.

2. Traditional Indian view about the environment supports the spiritual perspective. e.g.; the customs of the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan, and the Chipko movement in the Uttarakhand region. By contrast, we also find examples of people damaging or destroying the environment, which is a negative instance of the instrumental, which is a negative instance of the instrumental perspective.

Environmental Effects of Human Behaviour:
Some of the effects pointed out by psychologists are described below:

1. Perception: For example, a tribal society of Africa lives in circular huts, that is, in houses without angular walls. They show less error in a geometric illusion (the Muller-Lyer illusion) than people from cities, who lives in houses with angular walls.

2. Emotions: The environment affects our emotional reactions as well. Watching nature in any form provides a kind of joy that cannot be matched by any other experience. In natural disasters, They experience deep depression and sorrow, a sense of complete helplessness and lack of control over their lives. They can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

3. Ecological Influences in Occupation, Living Style and Attitudes: The occupation determines the life-style and attitudes of the residents of a co-operativeness. They are also closer to nature, more Dependent on natural events and limited supply. On the other hand, highly industrialized societies feel less close to and less dependent on nature. Members of industrialized societies may value independent thinking, develop an attitude of competitiveness, and cultivate a valued personal control over what happens to them.

Human Influence on the Environment:
• Human beings also exert their influence on the natural environment for fulfilling their physical needs and other purposes.
• Some of these human actions harm and damage the environment, and ultimately harm themselves, in numerous ways.

Examples:
→ Refrigerators and air-conditioners that generate CFS that pollute the air.
→ Smoking is known to pollute the air around us, and the carbon-cycle and the watercycle.
→ Industries that discharge effluents, and pump this untreated sewage into rivers, seem to be unconcerned about the dangerous physical and psychological consequences of this kind of pollution.

• Noise, pollution, crowding and natural disasters are some examples of environmental stressors, which are stimuli or conditions in the environment that create a stress for human beings.
Noise:
(a) Any sound that is annoying or irritating, and felt to be unpleasant is said to be noise.
(b) Noise, especially for long periods of time, is uncomfortable, and puts people in an unpleasant mood.
(c) It may lead to hearing loss.
(d) It reduces concentration.
Three characteristics of noise have been found to determine its effect on task performance, namely, intensity, predictability, and controllability of noise.

Effects of Noise: Systematic research on the effects of noise on human beings shows the following:
• When the task being performed is a simple mental task, such as addition to numbers, noise does not affect overall performance, whatever it is loud or soft.
• If the task being performed is very interesting, then, too, the presence of noise does not affect performance.
• When the noise comes at intervals, and in an unpredictable way, it is experienced as more disturbing than if the noise is continuously present.
• When the task being performed is difficult, or requires full concentration, then intense, unpredictable, and uncontrollable noise reduces the level of task performance.
• When tolerating or switching off the noise is within the control of the person, the number of errors in task performance decreases.
• In terms of emotional effects, noise above a certain level causes annoyance, and can also lead to sleep disturbance.

Pollution:

1. In the form of air, water and soil pollution.

2. Waste or garbage that comes from household or from industries are a big source of air,water and soil pollution.
There are some researches or studies that have shown direct or indirect psychological effects of these forms of pollution as well.
Effects of Air-pollution: Specific psychological effects of air-pollution have been reported by some researchers. For example,
(i) In one part of Kolkata, the psychological reactions to air-pollution. Those living in the industrial area reported greater tension and anxiety than those living in a nonindustrial residential area.
(ii) In study conducted in Germany, the presence of pollution such as sulphur dioxide in the air was found to decrease the ability to concentrate on a task, and lowering performance efficiency.
(iii) Pollution caused by leaks of dangerous chemical substances can cause other kinds of harm. For example, Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984, also left behind psychological effects because of the gas—disturbances in memory, attention and alertness.
(iv) Tobacco smoke pollution, that is, pollution through cigarette, cigar or beedi-smoking, can also cause psychological effects e.g., increase the aggression level of individuals.
(v) The presence of specific chemicals such as lead can cause mental retardation by affecting brain development.
(vi) Waste are plastics, tin or any metal container. This kind of waste material should be destroyed or burned through special techniques, and the smoke should not be allowed to escape into the air that people breathe.

Crowding:
1. Crowding refers to a feeling of discomfort because there are too many people or things around us, giving us the experiences of physical restriction, and something the lack of privacy.
2. Crowding is the person’s reaction to the presence of a large number of persons within a particular area or space. When this number goes beyond a certain level, it causes stress
to individuals caught in that situation.

Features of crowding: The experience of crowding has the following features:
• Feeling of discomfort,
• Loss or decrease in privacy,
• Negative view of the space around the person, and
• Feeling of loss of control over social interaction.
It should be understood that the experience of crowding is brought about not merely because
of the large number of persons as such, nor merely because of the shortage of space. It is
related to density, that is, the number of persons within the available space.

• Crowding and high density may lead to abnormal behaviour and aggression. e.g., study of rats. These animals were placed in an enclosure, initially in small numbers. As their population increased within this enclosed space, they started showing aggressive and unusual behaviour, such as biting the tails of other rats. This aggressive behaviour increased to such an extent that ultimately the animals died in large numbers, thus decreasing the population in the enclosure.

• Crowding leads to lowered performance on difficult tasks that involve cognitive
processes, and has adverse effects on memory and the emotional state.

• Children growing up in very crowded household show lower academic performance. They also show weaker tendency to continue working on a task if they are unsuccessful at it, compared to children growing up in non-crowded households. They experience greater conflict with their parents, and get less support from their familymembers.

• The nature of social interaction determines the degree to which an individual will react to crowding.

Crowding tolerance refers to the ability to mentally deal with a high density or crowded environment, such as a crowded residence (a large numbers of persons within a small room). Competition tolerance is the ability to put up with a situation in which individuals would have to compete with many others for even basic resources, including physical space. Cultural characteristics may determine the extent to which a particular environment is judged to be subjectively more crowded or less crowded.
Personal space, or the comfortable physical space one generally likes to maintain around oneself is affected by a high density environment. In a crowded context, there is a restriction on a personal space, and this can also be a cause of negative reactions to crowding. We find many examples of people responding to the physical environment in terms of space. In social situations, human beings like to maintain a certain physical distance from the person with whom they are interacting.
This is called interpersonal physical distance, and is a part of a broader concept called personal space, i.e., the physical space we like to have all around us. One reason for the negative reactions to crowding, as described earlier, is the decrease in personal space.

1. Intimate Distance (up to 18 inches): The distance you maintain when you are talking privately to someone, or interacting with a very close friend relative.

2. Personal Distance (18 inches to 4 feet): The distance you maintain when you are interacting one-to-one with a close friend, relative, or even with someone not very close to you in a work setting or other social situation.

3. Social Distance (4 to 10 feet): The distance you maintain when the interaction is formal, and not close.

4. Public Distance (10 feet to infinity): The distance you maintain in a formal setting,where there is a large number of persons. For example, the distance of an audience from
a public speaker, or a teacher in a classroom.

It may be noted that these distances are maintained voluntarily, keeping in mind the comfort experienced by the persons involved in the interaction.

The concept of personal space is important for the following reasons:
• First, it explains many of the negative effects of crowding as an environmental stressor.
• Second, it tells us about social relationships.
• Third, it gives us some idea about how physical space can be modified in order to reduce stress or discomfort in social situations, or to make social interaction more enjoyable and
fruitful.

Natural Disasters:
• Environmental stressors such as noise, various forms of pollution and crowding are the result of human behaviour.
• By contrast, natural disasters are stressful experiences that are the result of disturbances in the natural environment. e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, cyclones and volcanic eruptions.
• These events are called ‘disasters’ because they cannot be prevented, usually come without any warning, and result in immense damage to human lives and property.
• Sadly, they also lead to a psychological disorder, called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Science and technology have now progressed sufficiency to make it possible for human beings to predict these events, to some extent. Yet the psychological effects of natural disasters need to be understood and remedied.

What are the effects of natural disasters?
First, they leave people poverty-stricken, homeless, without any resources, usually along with a loss of everything they owned.
Second, the sudden loss of all their belongings as well as their dear ones leaves people shocked and stunned.
This is sufficient to create a deep-seated psychological disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychological problem that results from traumatic events such as natural disasters.

Features of Natural Disasters: This disorder has the following features:
The immediate reaction to a disaster is commonly one of disorientation. People take some time to understand the full meaning of what the disaster has done to them. They may actually deny to themselves that something terrible has happened. Following the immediate reaction are the physical reactions Physical reactions, such as bodily exhaustion even without physical activity, difficult in sleeping, change in the eating pattern, increased heart-beat and blood-pressure.
Emotional reactions, such as grief and fear, irritability, anger, helplessness, hopelessness, depression, something absolute lack of emotion.
Cognitive reactions, such as worry, difficulty in concentration, reduced span of attention, confusion, loss of memory, or vivid memories, that are unwanted (or nightmares of the event).
Social reactions, such as withdrawal from others, getting into conflict with others, having frequent arguments with even loved ones, and feeling rejected or left out.
These reactions may last for a long time, in some cases throughout life, with proper counselling and psychiatric treatment, PTSD can be remedied at least up to level where the victims can be motivated, and helped to start life afresh.

In general, the intensity, if reaction, is affected by:
• The severity of the disaster, and the loss incurred (both in terms of property and life),
• The individual’s general coping ability, and
• Other stressful experiences before the disaster.

Although we are aware that most natural disasters can be predicted only in a limited way, there are ways of being prepared to minimize their devastating consequences in the form of. Warnings: If you have been listening to the radio in the recent past, you might have heard advertisements that mention what people should do when it is announced that some natural disaster, such as a flood, is likely. When cyclones of high tides are predicted, fishermen are asked not to venture into the sea.

Safety measures that can be taken immediately after the event. Even if prediction is possible, the events come to suddenly for people to be warned or to be mentally prepared. Therefore, tips are given beforehand about what to do when there is an earthquake.
Treatment of psychological disorders: This includes self-help approaches as well as professional treatment. Counselling at the individual and group level is the next step.

Pro-environmental behaviour:

(i) Includes both actions that are meant to protect the environment from problems, and to promote a healthy environment.
Some promotive actions to protect the environment from pollution are:
Reducing air-pollution by keeping vehicles in good condition, or changing to non-fuel driven vehicles, stopping the practice of smoking.
Reducing noise-pollution (noise) by ensuring that noise levels are now. For example,discouraging needless honking on the road, or making rules regarding noisy music at certain hours.
Managing disposal of garbage sensible. For example, by encouraging separation of biodegradable garbage from non-biodegradable waste, or composting of kitchen waste.
Planting trees and ensuring their care, keeping in mind that those plants and trees should not be planted that have adverse health effects.
Saying ‘no’ to plastic in any form, thus reducing toxic wastes that pollute water, air and the soil.
Reducing the non-biodegradable packaging of consumer goods.
Laws related to construction (especially in urban areas) that violates optimal environment design.
Poverty and violence are two main problems in our society. Both of these phenomena have noticeable effects on the physical as well psychological health of people.
Poverty is not nearly an economic problem. It has social, emotional, Psychological perspectives also.
Violence is also not simply a question of breaking the law. It is related to societal conditions
Psychological perspective and economic conditions also.
Psychologists have actively exploring these issue to explain causes, consequences and strategies to deal with these phenomena effectively.

Poverty and Discrimination:

Some experts define poverty mainly in economic terms, and measure it in terms of incomes, nutrition (the daily caloric intake per person), and the amount spent on basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter.
From the socio-psychological point of view, the most commonly accepted definition of poverty is that it is a condition in which there is a lack of necessities of life in the context of unequal distribution of wealth in society.

A distinction between deprivation and poverty is that deprivation refers to the state in which a person feels that he/she has lost something valuable, and is not getting something what he/she deserves. In deprivation, it is more a question of perceiving or thinking that one has less than what one should have got.
Poverty refers to an actual shortage of the resources necessary for living, and thus can be somewhat objectively defined.
Thus, a poor person may experience deprivation, but poverty is not a necessary condition for experiencing deprivation.

Both poverty and deprivation are linked to social disadvantage. In our society, the caste system has been largely the source of social disadvantages, but poverty, irrespective of cast,has also played a role in creating social disadvantage.

In the context of poverty, discrimination refers to the behaviour that makes a distinction between the rich and the poor, favouring the rich and the advantaged over the poor and the disadvantaged. e.g., matters of social interaction, education and employment. Thus, even if the poor or disadvantaged have the capability, they are kept away from opportunities that are enjoyed by the rest of society.

The children of the poor do not get a chance to study in good school, or get good health facilities, and employment.

Disadvantage and discrimination prevent the poor from improving their socio-economic condition through their own efforts, and this makes the poor even poorer.
Psychological Characteristics and Effects of Poverty and Deprivation.
In terms of motivation, the poor have law aspirations and low achievement motivation, and high need for dependence. Eth explain their successes in terms of luck or fate rather than ability of hard work. In general, they believe that events in their lives are controlled by factors outside them, rather than within them.

With regard to personality, the poor and deprived have low self-esteem, high anxiety and introversion, and dwell on the immediate present rather than being future-oriented. They prefer smaller immediate rewards to larger rewards in the long run, because in their perception, the future is too uncertain. They live with a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, felt injustice, and experience a loss of identity.

With respect to social behaviour, the poor and deprived sections exhibit and attitude of resentment towards the rest of society.

Among the effects of prolonged deprivation on cognitive functioning, it has been found that intellectual functioning and performance on tasks (such as classification, verbal reasoning, time perception, and pictorial depth perception) is lower among the highly deprived compared to those who are less deprived. It has also been certified that the effect of deprivation is because the nature of the environment is cognitive task performance. With regard to mental health, there is an unquestionable relationship between mental disorders and poverty or deprivation. The poor are more likely to suffer from specific mental illness compared to the rich, possible due to constant worry about basic necessities, feelings of insecurity, or inability to get medical facilities, especially for mental illness. In fact, it has been suggested that depression may be a mental disorder largely of the poor.Major Causes of Poverty:

Poverty is sometimes caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and cyclones, or man-made disasters such as poisonous gas leaks. When such events take place, people suddenly lose all their possessions and have to face poverty.
Similarly, one generation of the poor may be unable to eradicate their poverty, and the next generation continues to remain in poverty.

Apart from these causes, other factors responsible for poverty have been mentioned below:

1. The poor themselves are responsible for their poverty. According to this view, the poor lack the ability and motivation to put in effort, and make use of available opportunities.
In general, such a view about the poor is rather negative, and does not help at all in making them better.

2. It is not the individual, but a belief system, a way of life, and values, in which he/ she is brought up, that is the cause of poverty. This belief system, called the ‘culture of poverty’, convinces the person that he/she will continue to remain poor, and the belief is carried over from one generation of the poor to the next.

3. Economic, social and political factors together account for poverty. Because of discrimination, certain sections of society are denied the opportunities needed for getting even the basic necessities of life.

4. The geographic region in which one lives is said to be a significant cause of poverty.This factor cannot be controlled by human beings.

5. The poverty cycle is another important cause of poverty that explains why poverty tends to continue among the same sections of society. Poverty begets poverty.
The only way to tackle the problems associated with poverty and deprivation is to work actively as well as earnestly towards the removal or reduction of poverty.

Measures for Poverty Alleviation

Several steps are being taken by the government and other groups to work towards alleviation or reduction of poverty and its negative consequences.

1. Breaking the poverty cycle, and helping the poor to attain self-sufficiency—initially, financial relief, medical and other facilities may have to be provided to the poor.

2. Creating a context for making the poor take responsibility instead of blame for their poverty.

3. Providing educational and employment opportunities, following the principles of social justice—this step may help the poor to discover their own abilities and skills, thus enabling them to come up to the level of other sections of society.

4. Measures for improved mental health—many of the poverty-reduction measures help to improve the physical health of the poor, but their mental health still remains a problem to be tackled effectively.

5. Steps for empowering the poor—through the measures mentioned above, the poor should be made more powerful, capable of living independently and with dignity, without depending on the help given by the government or by other groups.

6. The concept of ‘Antyodaya’, or the rise of the ‘last person’ in society, i.e., the poorest or the most disadvantaged, has helped a large section of the poor to get uplifted to a better economic condition than they have experienced earlier. Under Antyodaya programmes, there is provision for health facilities, nutrition.
Another way is through small loans or micro-credit facilities. The facility is similar to the idea of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Following the 73rd amendment of the Constitution, the aim is to give more power to people for their development through decentralized planning, and through people’s participation. Action Aid, an international group. Has goals of making the poor more sensitive to their rights, to equality and justice, and ensuring for them adequate nutrition, health, and facilities for education and employment.

Aggression, Violence and Peace:
Aggression and violence are among the major problems in today’s society, and they cover a wide range of behaviours—from ragging of newcomers in educational institutes, through child abuse ect.
Psychologists use the term ‘aggression’ to refer to any behaviour by one person/persons that intend to cause harm to another person/persons. It can be demonstrated in actual action or through the use of harsh words or criticism, or even hostile feelings against others. Forceful destructive behaviour towards another person or object is described as ‘violence’.
Some psychologists distinguish aggression from violence by pointing out that the aggressive behaviour involves the intention to harm or injure another person, whereas violence may or may not involve such an intention.
A distinction is also made between instrumental aggression and hostile aggression.In instrumental aggression, the act of aggression is meant to obtain a certain goal or object.
Hostile aggression is that which is shown as an expression of ranger towards the target, with the intention of harming him/her, even if the aggressor does not wish to obtain anything from the victim.

Causes of Aggression:

Inborn Tendency: Aggressiveness is an tendency among human being (as it is in animals).Biologically, this inborn tendency may be meant for self-defense.
Physiological Mechanism: Aggression could also be indirectly triggered by physiological mechanisms, especially by the activation of certain parts of the brain that play a role in
emotional experience. A general physiological state of arousal, or feeling activated, might often be expressed in the form of aggression.
Child-rearing: The way an individual is brought up often influences him/her aggressiveness.
It could also be because physical punishment makes the child angry and resentful; as the child grows up he/she expresses this anger through aggressive behaviour.

Frustration: Aggression is an expression, and consequence of frustration, i.e., an emotional state that arises when a person is prevented from reaching a goal, or attaining an object that he/she wants. The person may be very close to the goal, and yet does not attain it.An American psychologist, John Dollard, along with his collaborators, conducted research
specially to examine the frustration-aggression theory. Theory proposes that it is frustration that leads to aggression. As expected, frustrated persons did demonstrate more aggression than non-frustrated persons.
Moreover, such aggression was often shown towards a weaker person who was unlikely, or unable to react to aggression. This phenomenon has been called displacement.

Observations showed that:
Being frustrated does not necessarily make a person aggressive.
Many other situational factors may lead to aggression.

Learning: Among human beings, aggression is largely the result of learning than an expression of an inborn tendency. Learning of aggression can take place in more than one mode. Individuals may exhibit aggression because they have found it rewarding (for example, hostile aggression allows the aggressive person to get what he/she wants). This would be case of learning through direct reinforcement. Individuals also learn to be aggressive by observing others showing aggression. This is case of learning through modelling.

Observing an Aggressive Model: Many research studies conducted by psychologists such as
Albert Bandura and his collaborators shows the role of modelling in learning aggression. In studies that tested the frustration-aggression theory, provoking the person and making him/her angry was one way of including frustration.
Anger provoking action by others: Insults, threats, physical aggression, sarcasm, derogatory remarks or dishonesty by a person or persons may provoke an individual to react aggressively.
Frustration aggression theory by Dollard and Miller also confirm this phenomena.

Availability of Weapons of Aggression: Some researchers have found that observing violence leads to a greater likelihood of aggression on the part of the observation only if weapons of aggression are easily available.
Personality Factors: We may conclude that aggressiveness is thus a personal quality. It has been observed that the people, who have very low self-esteem and feel insecure, may behave aggressively in order to ‘boost their ego’.

Cultural Factors: The culture in which one grows up can teach its members to be aggressive or not by encouraging and praising aggressive behaviour, or discouraging and criticizing such behaviour.
Reducing Aggression and Violence.
Parents and teachers should especially be careful not to encourage or reward aggression in any form.
The use of punishment to bring about discipline also needs to be changed.
Opportunities to observe and imitate the behaviour of aggressive models should be reduced drastically.Poverty and social injustice may be a prominent cause of aggression, because they can cause frustration in certain section of society. Implementing social justice and equality in society may help in reducing frustration levels and thereby curb aggressive tendencies at least to some extent.

Question. What do you understand by the term ‘environment’? Explain the different perspectives to understand the human-environment relationship.
Answer. Word ‘environment’ refers to all that is around us. Literally, it means everything that surrounds us including the physical, Social world and cultural environment. In general, it includes all the forces outside the human beings to which they respond in some way. A psychologist named Stokols proposed three approaches to describe human-environment relationship:
(i) The Minimalist Perspective: This view assumes that physical environment has negligible influence on human behaviour. Both run parallel to each other.
(ii) The Instrumental Perspective: According to this approach, environment is simply provider. It is for the comfort of us. Human beings can use the environment
as per their needs.
(iii) The Spiritual Perspective: It refers to the view of the environment as something to be respected and valued rather than exploited. Physical environment and human relationship are interdependent. The traditional Indian view about the environment supports spiritual perspective, worshipping Pipal, respect for rivers and mountains. Chipko Aandolan and movement by Bisnoi Community are examples of Indian perspective.

Question. “Human beings affect and are affected by the environment.” Explain this statement with the help of example.
Answer. Environment significantly influences various physical and psychological aspects of human behaviour. Some are as follows:
(a) Environmental Influence on Perception: According to researches, our perception is influenced by the environment in which we live. For example. Tribal societies of Africa living in Circular huts show less error in a geometric illusion (the Muller Lyer illusion) than people from cities, living in houses with angular walls.
(b) Environmental Influence on Emotions: For example, watching quietly flowing river, a smiling flowers or a tranquil mountain top provides joy and happiness.
• Natural disasters, landslides can provide deep depression and sorrow, lack of control over their lives.
• Such an influence is traumatic, changes people’s lives forever, and can last for a long time after the actual event in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
(c) Ecological Influence on Occupation, Living style and Attitudes:
(i) The natural environment of a particular region determines the people living in that region will develop what type of societies—may be agricultural or may be industrial.
(ii) In turn, the occupation determines the life-style and attitudes of the residents of a particular geographical region.
Human behaviour particularly influencing on the environment in negative manner.
Following are the environmental stressors which effect human beings, although many are created by human beings themselves.
1. Pollution:
(a) Air-pollution: Emission of toxic gases due to automobile and industrial emissions cause adverse effect on the health.
– Air-pollution reduces visibility and leads to eye irritation, headache, fatigue, occurrence of cancer of respiratory system.
(b) Noise or sound pollution: Any sound which an individual finds unpleasant in a particular situation is considered noise or sound-pollution. Noise (sound pollution) leads to adverse psychological effects. It may leads to high level of stress, narrowing of attention, decrease in concentration, etc.
(c) Water-pollution: Various problems related to digestive system and gastrointestinal issues occur due to water-pollution.

2. Noise
Any unpleasant, irritating or interfering sound is called as Noise.
– Noise is an environmental stressor which may affect adversely depending on—
(a) Predictability (b) Controllability
(c) Intensity

3. Crowding and Density:
• Crowding is the subjective feeling of crampedness or being too close to each other. It has negative effects on task performance, personality, interpersonal relationship, general physical and mental health.
• Density is an objective geographical term which refers to number of persons living within the available space, or per square meter area.

4. Natural and Man-made Disasters:
Natural disasters are earthquake, volcanic eruption, windstorm, tornado, cyclone, famine etc.
— There are man-made disasters also; like Bhopal gas tragedy and nuclear bomb explosion in Japan, which not only caused extensive damage to property and physical environment but also had long-term effects on the lives of people.
— Man is largely responsible for regarding the quality of environment that surrounds us. Almost everything humans do has small but cumulative effects on the environment in which we live. e.g., driving a car, using a hair spray, use of refrigerator, etc.

Question. What is noise? Discuss the effects of noise on human behaviour.
Answer. Noise is defined as an unwanted sound or sounds that create an effective response. Some may not be disturbed by even a loud-speaker sound, on the other hand, some might even find whistle, tinkling of wind as noise. Thus, any sound “which an individual finds unwanted is noise.”
Noise (sound pollution) leads to adverse psychological effects. How the noise affect the individual depends on:
(a) its intensity (loudness), loud sound is often unpleasant and irritating.
(b) predictability, we can adapt more easily to a regular, predictable sound such as chirping of birds in the morning.
(c) Perceived Control: The negative effects of noise are reduced when individuals perceive that they have control over it.

Effects of noise (sound-pollution) on task performance:
(i) When the task being performed is a simple mental task, such as addition of numbers,noise does not affect overall performance whether it is loud or soft.
(ii) If the task being performed is very interesting, then, too, the presence of noise does not affect performance.
(iii) When the noise comes at intervals and in an unpredictable way, it is experienced as more disturbing than the noise being continuously present.
(iv) Difficult task performance requires full concentration, then intense, unpredictable and uncontrollable noise reduces the level of task performance.
(v) When switching off the noise is within the control of the person, the numbers of errors in task performance decrease.

Question. What are the salient features of crowding? Explain the major psychological consequences of crowding.
Answer. Crowding: It is psychological crampedness. It manifests following features:
(a) Feeling of discomfort because of too many people or things around us the experience of physical restriction and sometimes the lack of privacy.
(b) Crowding is the person’s reaction to the presence of a large number of persons within a particular area or space.

Features of Crowding: Crowding has the following features:
— Crowding gives feeling of discomfort.
— It gives a feeling that individual privacy is being threatened.
— It gives feeling that individual’s personal space is being invaded.
— It gives negative view of a space around the person.
— Crowding develops feelings of loss of control over social interaction.
Crowding is studied by various psychologists in India and abroad.
Crowding is not always experienced in high density setting nor all people experience its negative effects. For example, Mela has high density but still people enjoy it.

Effects of Crowding and High Density:
(a) Crowding and High density may lead to abnormal behaviour and aggression. e.g., an increase in population has sometimes been found to be accompanied by an increase in violent crime.
(b) Crowding leads to lowered performance on difficult tasks that involve cognitive processes and has adverse effects on memory and the emotional state.
(c) Children growing up in very crowded households show lower academic performance. They also show a weaker tendency to continue working on a task if they are unsuccessful at it, compared to children growing up in non-crowded households. They experience greater conflicts with parents and get less support from their family members.
(d) The nature of social interaction determines the degree to which an individual will react to crowding. For example, in parties, large number of persons may not cause stress rather it may lead to positive emotional reactions.
(e) Individuals differ in the degree to which they show negative effects of crowding and also in the nature of these reactions.
Two kinds of tolerance can be mentioned that may explain these individual differences:
(i) Crowding Tolerance
(ii) Competition Tolerance

(i) Crowding Tolerance: It refers to the ability of a person to mentally deal with the high density or crowding environment. e.g., crowded residence.
• It is developed because people can use to manage people around them.
• It is modifying ones perception one holds regarding high density/crowded situations.
• Indians in general have more crowding tolerance.

(ii) Competition Tolerance: It is the ability to put up with a situation in which individuals would have to compete with many others for even basic resources including physical space.
Since there is a greater possibility of competition for resources in a crowded setting, the reaction to that setting would be influenced by the extent of tolerance for competition for resources.
(f) Cultural Characteristics: It may determine the extent to which a particular environment is judged to be subjectively more crowded or less crowded

Question. Why is the concept of ‘personal space’ important for human beings? Justify your answer with the help of an example.
Answer. The concept of personal space refers to the personal physical distance that we maintain in our social interaction.
It is important for following reasons:
(i) It explains many of the negative effect of crowding as an environment stressor.
(ii) It tells us about social relations. For examples, two people sitting or standing close tighter are seen to be friends.
(iii) It gives us idea about how physical space can be modified in order to reduce stress or discomfort in real life situations.
Everyone has desire of personal space. Males generally have a larger personal space than females. Degree of personal space differ from culture to culture. Personal space can vary between people, between situations and settings and between cultures. Edward Hall, an anthropologist, mentioned four kinds of interpersonal physical distance—intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and public distance.

Question. What do you understand by the term ‘disaster’? List the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. How can it be remedied?
Answer. Natural disaster is an environmental hazard. It is known as disaster because—
• it is mostly unpredictable.
• it causes enormous loss of life and property.
In general, the intensity of reaction is affected by the following:
(i) The severity of the disaster, and the loss incurred both in terms of property and life.
(ii) The individual’s general coping ability.
(iii) Other stressful experiences before the disaster. For e.g., people, who have experienced stress before, may find it more difficult to deal with another difficult and stressful situation. But, there are ways to be prepared to minimize their decussating consequence in the form of:
1. Warning: when cyclones or high tides are predicted, fishermen are asked not to venture into the sea.
2. Safety Measure: Unfortunately, in the case of some natural disasters such as earthquakes, even if prediction is possible, the events came too suddenly for people to be mentally prepared. Therefore tips are given beforehand about to do when there is an earthquake.
3. Treatment of Psychological Disorder: This includes self-help approach as well as professional treatment. According to some experts who deal with PTSD, one of the key attitude to be developed in the survivors is that of ‘self-efficacy’ i.e. that the belief that “I can do it” or “I came out of this phase successfully”.

(a) Immediate Reaction: The immediate reaction after a disaster is commonly manifest in the form of disorientation. People take some time to understand the full meaning of what the disaster has done to them. They may deny to themselves that something terrible has happened.

(b) Physical Reaction:
There is bodily exhaustion even without physical activity such as—
• Sleep disturbances.
• Change in eating pattern.
• Increased heart-beat and blood-pressure.

(c) Emotional Reaction:
• Fear
• Grief
• Irritability
• Anger (why should this happen to me)
• Helplessness
• Hopelessness
• Depression
• Numbness (absolute lack of emotion)
• Guilt feelings for having survived while someone else died
• Lack of interest in routine jobs

(d) Cognitive Reaction:
• Worry
• Difficulty in concentration
• Reduced span of attention
• Confusion
• Loss of memory
• Nightmare of the event

(e) Social Reactions:
• Withdrawal from others
• Getting into conflict with others
• Having frequent arguments with even
• Feeling rejected or left out
Very often in the midst of severe emotional reaction to stress, some survivors may develop positive outlook on life with empathy.

Question. What is pro-environmental behaviour? How can the environment be protected from pollution? Suggest some strategies.
Answer. Pro-environmental behaviour is the friendly and caring attitude of people who help to prevent environmental degradation and conserve natural resources.
For instance, change in life-style and attitude of the people like conserving energy resources, planting trees, reduction in noise (sound-pollution) and air-pollution.
Some Strategies to Protect Environment are:
(i) Reducing air-pollution by keeping vehicle in good condition or changing to non-fuel driven vehicle, stopping the practice of smoking.
(ii) Reducing noise (sound pollution) by ensuring that noise levels are low. e.g., discouraging needless honking on the road, or making rule regarding noisy music at certain hours.
(iii) Planting trees and ensuring their care.
(iv) Reducing the non-biodegradable packing of consumer goods.
(v) Laws related to construction (especially in urban areas) that violate optimal environment design.
(vi) Saying ‘no’ to plastic use in any form, thus reducing toxic wastes that pollute water, air and the soil.

Question. How is ‘poverty’ related to ‘discrimination’? Explain the major psychological effects of poverty and deprivation.
Answer. Poverty is the economic deprivation, associated with low income, hunger, low caste and status.
• Illiteracy, poor housing, over-crowding, lack of public amenities, mal-and undernutrition, and increased susceptibility to diseases are main features.
• Poverty is an actual shortage of resources so it is objectively defined term.
• Deprivation is subjectively defined. It is more a question of perceiving or thinking that one has got less than what one should have got.
• Poverty is not a necessary condition for experiencing deprivation but a poor person may experience deprivation.
• Social disadvantage is a condition because of which some sections of society are not allowed the same privileges as the east society e.g. caste system.

Effects of Poverty and Deprivation:
(i) Low aspirations and low achievements, low motivation, and high need for dependence is the major effect of poverty and deprivation. They believe that events in their lives are controlled by factor outside them, rather within them.
(ii) With respect to social behaviour, the poor and deprived sections exhibit on attitude of resentment towards the rest of society.
(iii) With regard to personality:
• The poor and deprived low self-esteem, high anxiety, introversion, and live only in the immediate present rather than being future-oriented.
• The poor and deprived live with a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, feelings of injustice and experience a loss of identity.
(iv) Researches have proved that prolonged deprivation significantly impair the cognitive functioning of the individual.
(v) With regard to mental health, there is an unquestionable relationship between mental disorder and poverty or deprivation.
(vi) The poor are more likely to suffer from specific mental illness compared to the rich, possibly due to constant worries about basic necessities, feeling of insecurity or inability to get medical faculties especially for mental illness.

Question. Distinguish between ‘instrumental aggression’ and ‘hostile aggression’. Suggest some strategies to reduce aggression and violence.
Answer.
• Aggression: According to psychologists, aggression refers to any behaviour by a person that is intended to cause harm to another person or persons to take revenge.
For example, aggression It can be demonstrated in actual action or through the use of harsh words or criticism or even hostile feelings against others.
• Violence: Forceful destructive behaviour towards another person or persons to attain some material gain is violence.
Instrumental Aggression:
The act of aggression is meant to obtain a certain goal or get others, possessions forcefully. For example, A bully slaps a new student in school so that he can snatch the new comer’s chocolate. In violence, individual may or may not have the intention to harm others in terms of revenge. It is forceful destructive behaviour. e.g., hitting a person just to loot his money.

Hostile Aggression:
An expression of anger towards the target, with the intention of harming him/her even if the aggressor does not wish to obtain anything from the victim. For example, A criminal may beat up a person in the community for mentioning his name to the police. Aggression can be reduced by creating the appropriate attitude towards the general problem of growing aggression.
(a) Parenting:
• Parents and teacher should be specially careful not to encourage aggression in any form. The use of punishment to bring about discipline also needs to be changed.
(b) Modelling:
• Opportunities to observe and imitate the behaviour of aggressive models should be reduced drastically.
Portraying aggression as heroic behaviour should be particularly avoided because this may set the stage for learning through observation.
(c) Implementing social justice and equality in society:
• It will help in reducing frustration levels and thereby curb aggressive tendencies at least to some extent.
(d) Inculcating positive attitude towards peace at the level of community or society.
The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, gave the world a new view to peace that was not simply the absence of aggression. This was non-violence. It should be taught to the younger generation.

Question. Discuss the psychological impact of television viewing on human behaviour. How can its adverse consequences be reduced? Explain.
Answer. Television is one of the useful products of technological progress. It has both positive and negative effects. It has effects on cognitive processes and social behaviour.
1. T.V. provides large amount of information in an attractive form and in visual mode, for which it became a powerful medium of instructions.
2. Excellent programmes emphasise positive interpersonal attitudes and provide useful factual information, teaching children how to design and construct certain objects.
3. T.V. watching may have an adverse effect on children’s ability to concentrate on one target. Their creativity and ability to understand each other through social interaction is also significantly impaired.
4. Reduction in habit of reading and writing skills and also their outdoor activities such as playing is also reduced.
5. Watching violence on T.V. has been linked to greater aggressiveness in the viewers.
As children are not mature enough to think of consequences, they simply imitate.
• Some studies pointed out that merely watching violence on the television does not make children more aggressive. Other factors need to be present.
• Other research findings show that watching violence may actually reduce the natural aggressive tendency of the viewers: what is ‘bottled up’ gets an outlet, thus cleans the system. This process is called catharsis.
6. Due to T.V. watching, consumerist attitude has developed. Numerous products are advertised and it is very natural for the viewer to get carried away.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 8 Psychology and Life Learning Checks Multiple Choice Question

Question. ____________ environment denotes the person’s physical environment, climate conditions and regional area which play significant role in determining social habits, behavioural tendencies and general outlook towards life.
(a) Ecological
(b) Social
(c) Psycho-social
(d) None of the above
Answer. C

Question. Relationship between human environmental issues is called Ecology.
Answer. True

Question.The ‘minimalist’ perspective assumes little or no influence of environment on human behaviour. (True/False)
Answer. True

Question. Which perspective emphasizes that environment is something to be respected and valued?
(a) Ecology
(b) Instrumental perspective
(c) Spiritual perspective
(d) Minimalist perspective
Answer. C

Question. When a person feels that he or she is not getting something which he/she values, he/she may be experiencing—
(a) Deprivation
(b) Social disadvantage
(c) Poverty
(d) Destitution
Answer. A

Question. Crowding and high density may lead to be aggression. (True or False)
Answer. True

Question. Ability to deal with high density or crowded environment is called crowding tolerance.

Question. The concept of physical distance is given by Edward Hall.

Question. Frustration-Aggression hypotheses is give by Dollard and Miller.
 

 CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 8 Psychology and Life Very Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. What does environmental psychology deal with? Illustrate with an example.
Answer. A branch of psychology, called Environmental Psychology, deals with various psychological issues pertaining to the human—environment interaction in a very broad sense of the term. For example, many environmental problems such as sound/ noise, air, water, and soil pollution and unsatisfactory ways of garbage disposal have damaging effects on physical health and environmental psychology is to deal with the above problems.

Question. What is Ecology? What does it focus in reference to psychology?
Answer. Ecology is the study of the relationships between living beings and their environment. In psychology, the focus is on the interdependence between the environment and people. Whatever has been created by human beings within the natural environment is the built environment. The part of nature which remains untouched by human hand is the natural environment.

Question. Differentiate between natural and built environment with examples.
Answer. Natural Environment: That part of nature which remains untouched by human hand is the natural environment. e.g., plants, air, river, animals, etc. Built Environment: On the other hand, whatever has been created by human beings within the natural environment is the built environment. e.g., – cities, houses, bridges, malls, dam, roads, railways, tracks, etc.

Question. How is crowding related to density?
Answer. Density: Density is the actual number of people living in per square feet area.
Density is a physical situation, reflecting the number of persons within the available space.
Crowding: Crowding is the subjective feeling of being too close to each other. It is subjective crampedness.
Crowding is a psychological state, a subjective and experiential process.

Question. What do we mean by the term ‘personal space’? Illustrate with an example.
Answer. Personal space refers to the comfortable physical distance that we maintain in our social interaction. Studies indicate on the average, for strangers our physical space is roughly two feet around us.
If a stranger comes closer, we feel uncomfortable and move away to maintain space.Males generally have a larger personal space than females. Also personal space differ in different cultures.

Question. Explain the concept of ‘Antyodaya’.
Answer. The concept of ‘Antyodaya’ or the ‘rise of the last person in society’ i.e., the poorest or the most disadvantaged, has helped to a large section of the poor to get uplifted to a better economic conditions than they have experienced earlier.
In Antyodaya programmes, there is provision for health facilities, nutrition, education and training for employment—all the areas in which the poor need help.

Question. Explain the term ‘behavioural medicine’.
Answer. (i) People differ greatly in terms of behavioural risk factors such as smoking or tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, and unsafe sexual behaviour, diet and physical exercise.
(ii) A new discipline called ‘Behavioural Medicine” has emerged which seeks to alleviate stress due to disease through modification in behaviour by changing outlook and lifestyles.

Question. What is culture of poverty?
Answer. Culture of poverty is a belief of poor people that they were poor, they are poor and they will be poor. Nothing can be done. This belief develops from the environment in which they live and positively reinforced by neighbours and relatives.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 8 Psychology and Life Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Explain the concept of ‘Environmental design’.
Answer. The built environment usually involves the concept of ‘environment design’. The idea of ‘design’ contains some psychological features, such as.
• The creativity of the human mind as expressed in the work of architects, town planners and civil engineers.
• The sense of human control over the natural environment as shown in the building of dams to regulate the natural flow of rivers.
• The influence on the kind of social interaction that takes place in the designed environment. This feature is reflected, for instant, in the distance between houses in a colony, the location of rooms within a home or in the arrangement of work desks and seats in an official setting for formal or informal gathering.

Question. Define ‘interpersonal physical distance’. Explain its various types mentioned by Edward Hall.
Answer. In social situations, human beings like to maintain a certain physical distance from the person with whom they are interacting. This is called interpersonal physical distance.
There are four types of interpersonal physical distance.
(a) Intimate Distance (up to 18 inches): The distance we maintain when we are talking privately to someone, or interacting with a very close friend or relative.
(b) Personal Distance (18 inches –4 feet): The distance we maintain when we are interacting one-to-one with a close friend, relative or even with someone not very close to us in a work setting or other social situation.
(c) Social Distance (4 to 10 feet)
(d) Public distance (10feet to infinity): The distance we maintain when the interaction is formal and not close
The distance we maintain in a formal setting, where there is a large number of persons.
e.g., the distance of an audience from a public speaker or a teacher in a classroom.

Question. “Discrimination is both a cause and a consequence of poverty.” Explain.
Answer. No doubt discrimination is both cause and a consequence of poverty. Discrimination is often linked to prejudice. It refers to the behaviours that makes a distinction between the rich and the poor, favouring the rich and the advantaged over the poor and the disadvantaged. This distinction can be seen in matters of social interaction, education and employment. Thus, even if the poor or disadvantaged have the capability, they are kept away from the opportunities that are enjoyed by the rest of society. The children of the poor do not get a chance to study in good schools or get good health facilities and employment. Social disadvantage and discrimination prevent the poor from improving their socioeconomic condition through their own efforts and this makes the poor even more poor.
In short, poverty and discrimination are related in such a way that the discrimination becomes both a cause and a consequence of poverty.

Question. What is Environment Pollution? Highlight some of its impacts on psychological functioning of human beings.
Answer. Environmental pollution is in the form of air, water and soil pollutions.
The various affects are:
(a) It affects our Nervous system of the presence of toxic substance
(b) Its influence can be seen in the emotional reactions which create:
– Discomfort – Decreased work efficiency
– Lowered interest in the job – Increase in anxiety level
(c) Presence of dust-particles may give feeling of suffocation and respiratory disorders,attention problems.
(d) People living in industrial area report greater tension and anxiety than those living in non-industrial area.
(e) Presence of sulphur dioxide in the air decreases the ability to concentrate on a task and lowering performance efficiency.
(f) Pollution caused by leaker of dangerous chemical substances can cause other kinds of harm. For example, Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 showed disturbances in memory, attention and alterness.
(g) Tobacco smoke pollution. For example, cigar, cigarette cause psychological effects even the passive smokers can show increase in aggression level of individuals.
 (h) Polluting substances in water and soil are hazardous for physical health and psychological effects. For example, Fact can cause mental retardation by affecting brain development which can come from water, soil or negotiable grown in polluted soil.
(i) Non-biodegradable garbage or industrial waste such as tin, plastics affects in a negative manner. It should be burned by special techniques and smoke should not be allowed to escape into air.

Question. Highlight some major causes of poverty.
Answer. (a) Poverty may be due to natural disasters as people suddenly lose all their possessions
and have to face poverty.
(b) According to one group of psychologists, sociologists and economists, the poor
themselves are responsible for their poverty. The causes are:
– Lack of ability and skills.
– Lack motivation to put in effort.
– Not able to make use of available opportunities.
– Negative approach towards life.
• According to them, it is the individual’s belief system in which individual is brought up and that is the cause of poverty.
• The culture of poverty convinces the person that he was poor, is poor and will continue to remain poor and the belief is carried over from one generation to another.
(c) Other group of professionals believe that:
• Economic, social and political factors together account for poverty.
• Because of discrimination, certain sections of society are denied the opportunities needed for getting even the basic necessities of life.
• The economic system is made to grow in a disproportionate way through social and political exploitation.
(d) The geographic region in which one lives is said to be significant cause of poverty.
For example, desert region that have shortage of natural resources and harsh climate and up being poor.

Question. Discuss Poverty-cycle.
Answer. The poverty-cycle explains why poverty tends to continue among the same sections of society. Poverty begets poverty.
Poor (Low income and lack of resources)
Go through low health and nutrition
Lack of education
Lack of skills
Leading to
• Low employment opportunities
• Low income condition
• Low health
• Low nutrition status
• Lowered motivational level, hope, sense of control
The resulting lowered motivational level only makes the situation worse and cycles starts and continues again.

Question. What are the measures of poverty alleviation?
Answer. (a) Breaking the poverty-cycle providing financial relief, medical and other facilities to the poor in such a way that they should not develop habit of dependence.
(b) Creating the context for making the poor take responsibility instead of blame for their poverty. This will give them the sense of hope, control and identity.
(c) Providing educational and employment opportunities following the principles of social justice. Encouraging them to earn livelihood by legal meAnswer.
(i) It will help poor to discover their own abilities and skills:
(ii) Enabling them to come up to the level of other sections of society.
(iii) It will help in reducing crime and violence by reducing frustration.
(d) Measures for Improved Mental Health: Focus should be on improving their selfesteem, self-efficacy and motivational levels.
(e) Steps for empowering the poor: Poor’s should be made more powerful. Capable of living independently and with dignity without depending on the help given by the government or other groups.
(f) Implication of Antyodaya programmes (the rise of the last person) which provide provisions for health facilities, nutrition, education and training for employment in all the areas in which the poor need help.
(g) Poor are encouraged to start their own small scale businesses. Initial capital for these ventures is provided through small loans or micro-credited facilities.
(h) Making the poor more sensitive to their rights to equality and justice, and ensuring for them adequate nutrition, health and facilities for education and employment.

Question. What are the causes of aggression?
Answer. 
1. Inborn Tendency: Aggressiveness is an inborn tendency among human beings.Biologically, this inborn tendency may be meant for self-defence/survival.
2. Physiological Mechanisms: Aggression could also be indirectly functions due to physiological mechanism, especially by the activation of certain parts of the brain that play a role in emotional experience.
A general physiological state of arousal, or feeling activated might often be expressed in the form of aggression.
3. Child-rearing: The way an individual is brought up often influences his aggressiveness. e.g., parents using physical punishment.
4. Frustration: It is an emotional state that arises when a person is prevented from reaching a goal, or attaining an object he wants.Aggression is an expression and consequence of frustration. People in frustrated situations show more aggression than those who are not frustrated.
Experimental Evidence:
Children were prevented from getting some attractive toys that was visible through a screen.They were found to be more destructive in play. An American psychologist, John Dollard, gave Frustration-Aggression theory. According to this theory, it is frustration that leads to aggression.
5. Displacement: It refers to aggression shown towards the weaker person who is unlikely to react to aggression. Usually members of the majority group show aggressive behaviour towards minority group using abusive language or even assaulting the minority group.
6. Observing the Aggressive Model: Albert Bandura shows the role of modelling in learning aggression. For example, child observes aggression and violence on television and may start imitating that behaviour.
7. Provocation: Anger provoking action by others. For example, insults or threats, physical aggression or dishonesty may provoke aggression.
8. Availability of Weapons of Aggression: Observing violence leads to a greater likelihood of aggression on the part of the observer only if weapons of aggression like
a stick, pistol or knife are easily available.
9. Personality Factors: Aggressiveness is a personal quality. For example, there are people who are naturally more hot tempered. It has been observed that people, who have very low self-esteem, suffer from insecurity, may behave more aggressively, in order to ‘boost their ego’.
10. Cultural Factors: The culture in which one grows can teach its members to be aggressive or not to be aggressive by encouraging or praising aggressive behaviour or discouraging aggressive behaviour. eg. Some tribes are peace loving and some are very aggressive.

Question. What is Health?
Answer. WHO (World Health Organisation) focuses on Biological, Psychological and Social aspects of health. It covers Physical, Mental, Spiritual aspects.
• Health and illness are a matter of degree.
• One may be suffering from a physically disabling disease but may be quiet healthy otherwise. e.g., Baba Amte and Stephan Hawkins who suffer from crippling diseases but have made great contributions in their field.
• People differ across cultures in their thinking about when and how people fall ill and therefore in the models which they use in prevention of diseases and promotion of health. e.g., Chinese, Indian, Latin hold good health results from the harmonious balance of various elements in the body.
Western Cultures view health as a result of fully functioning machine which has no blockage.
The different systems of medicine developed in different cultures are based on various models.
WHO report says Asia, Africa, Latin America and other developing countries people die due to communicable diseases. e.g., HIV/AIDS and TB; whereas the people belonging to developed countries like US and UK people suffer more from cardiovascular diseases, cancer and psychiatric disorders.

Question. How concept of health varies at various cultural levels?
Answer. At the individual level, there are various factors which are associated with physical wellbeing or illness in different cultures.

1. Cognition:
(i) The variations in seeking help of doctors whether doctor is required or not is due to differences in beliefs people have relating to diseases.
(ii) The level of awareness of or information about disease, and beliefs about how it is caused also differ in cultures. e.g., small-pox is anger of MATA which needs not to be treated.

2. Behaviour:
(i) Evidence shows that behaviour we engage in and our life-style greatly influence health but different cultures perceive it differently. e.g., drug abuse, smoking and tobacco use, lack of physical exercise, etc. are associated with incidence of coronary heart disease, cancer, etc. but in villages even children are allowed to smoke.
(ii) A new discipline called behavioural medicine has emerged which seeks to alleviate stress through modification in behaviour, outlook and life-style. It is basically behavioural modification to attain good health.

3. Social and Cultural Factors:
(i) The relationship between hostility, anger and CHD is not found to be the same in all cultures. e.g., India and China.
(ii) Social and cultural norms associated with roles and gender etc. greatly influence our health behaviour. e.g., medical treatment for female is delayed because they are less valued, belief that they are hardy or the shame associated with the disease.

Question. “Sustaining peace in the society is the biggest challenge for the modern world.” Discuss.
Answer.
• Peace is a state in which various elements function in harmonious relationship and grow without interference in each other’s activities.
• At a societal level, peace is necessary for growth and development. Bringing in and sustaining peace in society demands many things in which the following are more important.
1. Education of Peace:
• Just as man learns to fight and go to war, he can also learn to live peacefully.
• It is necessary to educate the public and particularly the young men and women
to live in peace so that they may learn to look upon themselves as citizens to the world.
• The teaching of Gandhi ji’s truth and non-violence are very much relevant nowadays to teach peace.
2. Development of International Relations: The promoting conducive international relations, eliminating prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination will enhance international co-operation and people will get the opportunity of coming into contact with each other. Consequently, international objectives will be pursued and unity would improve.
3. Social and Economic Welfare: Social and economic inequalities constitute the greatest single enemy of permanent peace. In most of the places, where war and conflict are taking places, poverty is very common. Therefore it is important that steps be taken up to bridge the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.