Even now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, scholars have not come to the consensus as to the stimuli or factors, which shape human behavior. Overall, this issue has always been a subject of thorough sociological, psychological, and biological analysis. It seems that none of these approaches can be altogether rejected or accepted, because the supporters of each theory can draw examples, substantiating their arguments. Probably, it is necessary to compare these different interpretations. In order to do it, we may take such works as The Gender Blur by Deborah Blum and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. These two authors present their own versions of such complex question as human behavior. Deborah Blum advocates the biological approach, which means that the conduct of a person is primarily determined by his or her heredity, whereas Malcolm Gladwell believes that the underlying cause is the social environment, in which a human being lives. We need to show how these authors and maybe even scholars prove their points of view. Overall, the preference should be given to none of them, because, to a certain extent both of them put forward rather convincing evidence.
As regards Deborah Blums article, we should point out that that it is originally based on the authors observations of her son, who seems to be inclined to aggressiveness, at least in her opinion. She mostly speaks about his liking for carnivorous dinosaurs. Apart from that, Blum recollects similar cases, indicating boys propensity to aggression. The journalist argues that sociological or psychological theories cannot reflect all the complexity of this problem. She believes that some characteristic traits of a person are shaped by the genetics. It should be taken into consideration that Deborah Blum mostly focuses on the differences, which exist between men and women. She is firmly convinced that males are predisposed to violence or probably it would be better to say “predatory” instincts, as Deborah Blum puts it (Blum, p 2).
At first glance, such statement may appear outrageous to some men, because, in some way, it is quite offensive. However, the author draws several examples, proving that her argument is not groundless. First, she refers to statistical data, suggesting that men are more likely to commit violent crimes than women are. In addition to that, she mentions recent research findings in biology, according to which male fetuses are more active than female ones are. Naturally, it has to be admitted that some points, which Deborah Blum makes, are quite reasonable. Nonetheless, we should not forget the famous concept of tabula rasa, which was proposed Jean Jacques Rousseau, who believed that a personality of a human being is formed during the process of socialization or interactions with other people.
Among the underlying causes of males propensity to aggressive behavior, Deborah Blum marks out the surplus of testosterone, the androgen hormone, which stimulates the competitiveness, and the desire to struggle. It stands to reason that she does not reject social, or behavioral theories altogether. The journalist says that under certain circumstances parents may have a profound effect on their child and especially, his or her perception of gender, and appropriate gender behavior. Nonetheless, she firmly advocates the belief that our personal traits take their origins in heredity.
On the whole, we should say that such the opinion, expressed by Deborah Blum and other supporters of biological theory, has recently been heatedly debated, because, according to it, the abilities of a person, his or her abilities and qualities are predefined. Nevertheless, this view cannot be ignored for several reasons: first, at this moment, our knowledge of human body is far from being complete and probably, some further findings will either prove or refute Deborah Blums views on heredity, and the functions, which it performs.
In sharp contrast with her Malcolm Gladwell believes that human conduct is strongly influenced by other people. From her standpoint, we mostly act according to the stereotypical patterns of behavior. Perhaps, one may even speak about our tendency to imitate other people, at least, subconsciously. First, it should be noted that the famous Canadian sociologist and journalist does not focus on male or females. In her work The Tipping Point, she explores such phenomenon as social epidemics. The title of her book “tipping point” can be defined as a moment or stage, at which the process becomes irreversible (Gladwell, 23). Judging from that, one may infer that human behavior is not biologically predefined as Deborah Blum, argues.
While elaborating her theory, Malcolm Gladwell also refers to official statistics, he draws a very interesting example, which concerns the shoe company Hush Puppies, which became rather popular during a short period of time, though at the very beginning, no one could even predict such success of this trademark. The major point which Malcolm Gladwell makes is that people or for instance children are likely to emulate the behavior of their co-evils or any other people, surrounding them. In fact, such phenomenon has already been described in psychology; it is usually called “mass hysteria”.
Malcolm Gladwell states that the process of contamination takes place at a “geometrical pace”, which means that at every stage, the intensity is strongly enhanced (Gladwell, 175). The author often refers to the introduction of new technologies, such as for instance mobile phones or fax machines. The company Sharp produced fax machine in early eighties yet for sometime people looked at it with apprehension or distrust. As the quality of the product improved, its popularity steadily increased. However, the dynamic of this process drastically changed at the in 1987, when Sharp increased its sales almost thrice and every person was willing to purchase the fax machine. Malcolm ascribes it not only to the quality improvement, because under such scenario, the increase in sales would be more gradual, on the contrary, she mostly speaks about the so-called social epidemic, the desire to be in the forefront. The thing is many people are claiming to be original and thus they do not admit that their actions are motivated only by the subconscious imitation of others. If we try to draw parallels between the Tipping Point and The Gender Blur, we may conclude that the authors look at human behavior from different perspectives, but their beliefs are evidence-based.
To conclude, Deborah Blum and Malcolm Gladwell consider social behavior within different frameworks. Blum gives preference to biological approach, whereas Gladwell focuses on environmental aspect of the influence of other people. At this moment, it is very difficult to determine, whose position is the true one, because this issue still requires close examination.
Bibliography
Deborah Blum (2008). “The Gender Blur” Web.
Malcolm Gladwell. “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”. Little, Brown, 2002.