human condition

(noun)

The characteristics, key events, and situations which compose the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality.

Related Terms

Examples of human condition in the following topics:

  • Applications of Classical Conditioning to Human Behavior

  • What Does Art Do?

    • A fundamental purpose inherent to most artistic disciplines is the underlying intention to appeal to, and connect with, human emotion.
    • A fundamental purpose common to most art forms is the underlying intention to appeal to, and connect with, human emotion.
    • In its broadest form, art may be considered an exploration of the human condition, or a product of the human experience.
    • Historically, the fine arts were meant to appeal to the human intellect, though currently there are no true boundaries.
    • In general terms, the fine arts represent an exploration of the human condition and the attempt to experience a deeper understanding of life.

  • Applications of Classical Conditioning to Human Behavior

    • Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of classical conditioning in altering human behavior.
    • Since Ivan Pavlov's original experiments, many studies have examined the application of classical conditioning to human behavior.
    • Watson was interested in examining the effects of conditioning on the fear response in humans, and he introduced Little Albert to a number of items such as a white rat, a bunny, and a dog.
    • For example, sexual arousal has been conditioned in human subjects by pairing a stimulus like a picture of a jar of pennies with views of an erotic film clip.
    • Classical conditioning is used not only in therapeutic interventions, but in everyday life as well.

  • Social Regulation

    • Social policy refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare.
    • The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University describes it as "public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, inequality, education, and labor. "
    • Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare.
    • Social policy aims to improve human welfare and to meet human needs for education, health, housing and social security.
    • The term 'social policy' can also refer to policies which govern human behavior.

  • Human vs. Animal Language

    • While both animals and humans use systems of communication, the use of complex symbols and open vocal systems is unique to humans.
    • Communication in both animals and humans consists of signals.
    • Human communication consists of both signals and symbols.
    • There continues to be debate as to whether nonhuman primates, including bonobos, are actually learning and understanding languages or are simply demonstrating the effects of operant conditioning (learning to associate words and signs via reinforcement).
    • Critics claim that Chaser is not understanding language as humans can, but that he has been conditioned or trained to discriminate between certain phoneme sounds.

  • Basic Principles of Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

    • Classical conditioning is a form of learning whereby a conditioned stimulus (CS) becomes associated with an unrelated unconditioned stimulus (US) in order to produce a behavioral response known as a conditioned response (CR).
    • The conditioned stimulus is usually neutral and produces no particular response at first, but after conditioning it elicits the conditioned response.
    • In classical-conditioning terms, there is a gradual weakening and disappearance of the conditioned response.
    • Eysench then extended the research to human personality traits.
    • After conditioning, the neutral stimulus alone produces a conditioned response (salivation), thus becoming a conditioned stimulus.

  • Behaviorism Advocates

    • Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses.
    • Watson's basic premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior rather than speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes.
    • He discovered that when the bell was rung at repeated feedings, the sound of the bell alone (a conditioned stimulus) would cause the dogs to salivate (a conditioned response).
    • Expanding on Watson's basic stimulus-response model, Skinner developed a more comprehensive view of conditioning, known as operant conditioning.
    • This illustration illustrates operant conditioning.

  • The Evolution of Humans

    • Humans and chimps then separated about 7.5 million years ago.
    • There were four main stages of human evolution.
    • This idea was expanded in the aridity hypothesis, which posited that the savannah was expanding due to increasingly arid conditions, which then drove hominin adaptation.
    • The turnover pulse hypothesis states that extinctions due to environmental conditions hurt specialist species more than generalist ones.
    • Modern humans have a brain volume of 1250 cm3.

  • Special Culture Techniques

    • Many microbes have special growth conditions or require precautions to grow in a laboratory setting, leading to special culture techniques.
    • Some special culture conditions are relatively simple as demonstrated by microaerophile.
    • Also, a microbe growing on animal other than a human may behave very differently from how that same microbe will behave on a human.
    • Some human pathogens are grown directly on cells cultured from humans.
    • As Chlamydia trachomatis only grows in humans.

  • Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning

    • Much of this research informs current practices in human behavior and interaction.
    • Almost half a century after Thorndike's first publication of the principles of operant conditioning, Skinner attempted to prove an extension to this theory—that all behaviors were in some way a result of operant conditioning.
    • Operant conditioning can be viewed as a process of action and consequence.
    • Shaping is the conditioning paradigm of an experiment.
    • Much of this research has been replicated on humans, and now informs practices in various environments of human behavior.