This content explores the complexities of human behavior by examining anomalies, paradoxes, and inconsistencies, providing tools to analyze these deviations from expected norms and motivations within literary texts.
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in our last lesson we took a look at
what human qualities and emotions are
and pondered how they can arise or come
to be associated with particular human experiences
experiences
to help identify the qualities and
emotions explored in our texts
we looked at some useful models
including the big five personality traits
traits
and robert plutchik's emotional colour wheel
wheel
today we'll be addressing the anomalies paradoxes
paradoxes
and inconsistencies within human behavior
behavior
let's start with the first sentence of
the second paragraph of the rubric
texts may give insight into the anomalies
anomalies
paradoxes and inconsistencies in human
behavior and motivations
we will explore each of these anomalies paradoxes
paradoxes
and then inconsistencies while asking
how and why they appear in human behavior
behavior
and motivation this lesson will help you
expand your vocabulary
and develop more sophisticated ideas in
your essays
so what are anomalies in human behavior
or motivation
basically an anomaly is something
different from what is normally expected
in every human society there are
standards of how we should
normally behave some of these standards
are written in law
for example in australia we have laws
against killing
or hurting other people stealing from
them and
defacing their property other standards
of acceptable behaviour
are less concrete and relate more to unspoken
unspoken
for example there's no law against
being a messy eater in a fancy
restaurant but we all follow the social
expectation to be
polite and many aboriginal and torres
strait islander people groups
have complex social norms about family relationships
relationships
social norms aren't just about behaviour
they also shape our motivations
and goals in life as we go through
school and
university we learn various skills that
gear us
towards taking up certain roles within
our communities
such as doctors lawyers accountants and
so on
we are also taught to value certain ideas
ideas
to try our best to act intelligently
to strive for success in our careers to
be kind
an anomaly however is any behavior or
motivation that somehow
differs or deviates from these sorts of
standards and expectations
while you read your text ask questions
like these
do your characters deviate from social norms
norms
are their actions and motives anomalous
this section of the rubric enables us to
look at deviant aspects of human behavior
behavior
and to contemplate why these behaviors occur
occur
think about crime why do people commit crimes
crimes
does crime arise from particular
negative human experiences
think about the nature versus nurture
debate which we discussed earlier in our lesson
lesson
on human qualities and emotions basically
basically
the nature versus nurture debate is the
disagreement about whether behaviour and motivations
motivations
are part of someone's inbuilt nature or
due to their nurture
that is their experiences throughout life
in your texts were the antagonists the
bad guys
born bad or did their past experiences
make them who they are maybe anomalous
behaviour and motivation
spring from a combination of nature and
nurture when you look at cultural deviancy
deviancy
ask what assumptions in our society make
a particular behaviour
anomalous in some cultures like in the west
west
people are quick to identify someone who
hears voices
as mentally ill or schizophrenic
the anomalous experience of hearing
voices is explained
however a recent study interviewed
people from america
ghana and india who all reported
hearing voices the ghanaians and indians
were much more likely to think about the
voices they heard in a positive light
while the americans had very negative experiences
experiences
so you can see that different cultures
often understand anomalies
when reading our texts sometimes
characters may act in ways that are anomalous
anomalous
with their prior characterization remember
remember
characterization is the way authors
represent the distinct
qualities of each character for example
a good character may impulsively perform an
an
act of evil if this occurs try to
account for this anomaly
did a particular situation trigger this
how does the character explain this
anomaly within their identity
does it change who they are these aren't
easy questions
but when you tackle them your teacher
next up is paradoxes in human behavior
and motivation
paradoxes are a bit different from anomalies
anomalies
while anomalies refer to deviant
behaviors that are hard to understand
paradoxes are contradictions that on the
surface may be
unexplainable but after careful investigation
investigation
may be resolvable or at least understandable
understandable
to understand paradoxes don't just
interpret a character's surface behavior
or intentions
instead we have to look for deeper or latent
latent
psychological drives let's work through
some examples together
try to spot the paradoxes as we go
let's meet john he is charismatic and confident
confident
he always shows off by boasting about
how great his life is
and spends a lot of time trying to
however when john spends time alone with
his thoughts
he feels miserable weak and inferior to
his peers
can you spot the paradox or contradiction
contradiction
how can john be confident and have low self-esteem
self-esteem
let's try to resolve the paradox in this case
case
john's showy self-confidence might be a
way to hide his inner feelings of worthlessness
worthlessness
next up we have sally she is pretty quiet
quiet
preferring to spend time by herself
rather than in the company of other people
people
instead of going to parties sally
prefers to spend her weekends by herself
lost within the pages of a book painting
or writing poetry
can you spot the paradox here despite
sally's quiet nature
she actually has a very loud inner life
her mind takes her on journeys full of
rich imagination and
what about oscar the class clown he spends
spends
all day making funny jokes and fooling
around to amuse his teacher and peers
however what his classmates don't know
is that oscar is using his humor
to disguise his grief his grandmother
has just died and they were very close
this paradox is often referred to as
gallows humor
which is the use of humor in a sad or hopeless
hopeless
situation another type of paradox
is cognitive dissonance this refers to
the psychological distress that comes
from simultaneously holding two
conflicting viewpoints
or when your beliefs don't match up with
for example many smokers admit to
actually hating smoking
because of all the associated health
risks but they
nevertheless continue to smoke and lots
of people know that we should be more
environmentally friendly
but we don't really make a huge effort
to change our lifestyles
we still drive a car to school instead
of riding a bike
forget to recycle our paper and use too
much electricity
even though we know that it would be
good to live more sustainably
can you identify any cognitive
dissonance in the characters in your
texts maybe the author demonstrates some
cognitive dissonance too
by expressing conflicting viewpoints
cognitive dissonance is a useful term to describe
describe
states of tension indecision and confliction
confliction
great job now you're ready to start
analyzing the paradoxes in your texts
perhaps the sweetest characters in your
text eventually reveal themselves to be
the most savage
maybe your character professes to care
about others well-being
but is actually very self-absorbed
when you identify paradoxes paradoxically
paradoxically
you often end up explaining them and
thus resolving them
always remember to supplement this with
similar to paradoxes are inconsistencies
so let's think about some
inconsistencies in the way people act
and think at the end of the day human beings
beings
aren't perfect even if we aspire to be
the perfect husband
daughter or student there are going to
be times
when we break out of those roles we slip
up or make mistakes
fail that exam or miss a practice session
session
sometimes despite ourselves we behave in ways
ways
that are the opposite of how we'd like to
to
inconsistencies in human behavior and motivation
motivation
refer to acts that differ from previous
patterns of action
do your characters ever behave in
unexpected ways
do they ever say one thing but do the opposite
opposite
is your character so all over the place
that you can never pin down who they are
or what they're up to in each of these cases
cases
your characters can be said to have
inconsistencies in their behavior
however inconsistencies also refer to
patterns of behavior or motivation
that are not compatible with reality
human beings have many biases which are
opinions that we form before we get all
the facts straight
biases make us act and think in ways
that are inconsistent
with the rest of the world let's review
some of these biases that might appear
in your characters
first up is confirmation bias
this is when you favor information that
fits with your point of view
so that you dismiss and ignore anything
that contradicts your opinion
this bias is more common than you might think
imagine that you are writing an essay on
the merchant of venice
and you're trying to create a paragraph
about the theme of gender
as you read the play you'll be looking
out for anything related to gender
but you might ignore all other
information like
some of the conversations about money or religion
religion
can you think of any examples in the
characters of your texts where they just
see what they want to see and ignore
next we have stereotyping this
is another super common bias which is
where you make
big assumptions about a person or a
group of people
lots of people aren't even aware that
they think about others according to stereotypes
stereotypes
for example our culture is full of
gender stereotypes
people might expect that you will act or
think a certain way
just because you are a guy or a girl
for example in her memoir i am malala
malala yousafzai talks about how when
she was growing up
lots of people didn't want her to
receive a good education
similarly your text might explore the
impact of racist
stereotypes in society in fact
characters in your text might have an
ethnocentric bias
which is where they think that their own
culture and ethnicity
is better than others perhaps you are
studying the text
go back to where you came from where
some participants make assumptions about
refugees and asylum seekers based on stereotypes
stereotypes
maybe the composer of your text is
trying to challenge
harmful stereotypes
another form of bias is illusory correlation
correlation
this is when you think two things are
related even when they're not
maybe one of your texts characters is a gambler
gambler
and believes that because he's wearing
his lucky socks
he's destined to win big today or maybe
your character has
survivor's guilt which is when he feels
responsible for someone else's death
when he actually played no part
is your character or author
happy-go-lucky all the time
believing that good things are just
bound to happen to them
maybe they have an optimism bias the
tendency to overestimate the likelihood
of positive or favorable events
some people have such a strong optimism bias
bias
that they completely ignore anything bad
this is called the ostrich effect
because ostriches sometimes
hide their heads in the ground and can't
see what's happening around them
alternatively maybe your character is
down in the dumps
and holds the belief that the world is
an uncaring and dangerous place
in this case your character could be
called a pessimist
someone who overestimates the likelihood
of negative events happening to them
and for things to turn out badly
while these are just a few of the many
thousands of different biases out there
reviewing some of these can be a great
way to think about the ways that human
beings can behave
and think in ways that are illogical and
we hope you enjoyed this schooling
online production
for more easy lessons on human
experiences check out our analysis
of the ways human experiences can
challenge assumptions
ignite new ideas or allow for personal [Music]
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