Just want to throw out the topic here. I would like to focus upon what the necessary preconditions are in order for us to form and maintain behavioral expectations of ourselves and others, in addition to inanimate objects as well.

One precondition, actually the most important one IMO, is to know yourself and be true to the person you believe yourself to be...The best way to tech behavioral expectations to others, especially our children, is to teach by example.....

As for inanimate objects, not sure what you mean.....But inanimate peeps, again set an example, liven them up, include them, expose them to an alternative way or "condition"......

Inanimate objects would be covered by our being innately rational creatures(we recognize and employ causality in thought/belief).

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I suppose more to the point, I'm looking at behavioral expectations of ourselves and others that we may all share.

highly subjective to each individual. that's why we have laws. accepted behavior varies among each of us.

I have a hard time grasping this question. Perhaps Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

1. We do not need to know ourselves in order to have behavioral expectations. That is clearly shown by very young children, who - in any reasonable use of the phrase - do not, cannot possibly, know themselves.

2. Behavioral expectations are subject to cultural relativity, especially after language acquisition becomes a dominant 'force' in thought/belief. It does not follow that there are no universally shared behavioral expectations, if by "universal" I mean belonging every thinking human subject.

3. I'm unfamiliar with Maslow. Could you lay it out?

quite conflicting statements. on the one hand, you say that behavioral expectations are subject to cultural relativity. in that i agree. but then you say, 'it does not follow that there are no universally shared behavioral expectations." in this i dissagree. name one UNIVERSALLY shared behavioral expectation.

A listener cannot take a speaker at their word unless trust in the truthfulness of the testimony is extant. This reflects a law of behavioral expectation that is initially engaged at thought/belief formation, again at language acquisition, and remains intact throughout our lifetime... without exception.

All cultures have a code of conduct... without exception.

When someone loses an item, the places where the item is looked for are only the places that it is expected that the item could be.

The statements are not conflicting. It can be both, that behavioral expectations, in specific forms, are subject to cultural relativity, and that expectations, in general forms, are universally shared. That holds good because of the fact that we live in a largely consistent and dependable world.

Revealing what it takes to form and maintain any and all behavioral expectations will yield universally shared ones.

so you cannot name one universally shared behavioral expectation i take it?

I gave three.

Ah, this has been an ongoing and greatly researched topic.
The first step is to make sure there are qualified I/O psychologists runnign the H/R department.

The next step is to perform a thorough job analysis.
Then every similar job requires a job description.
The job description is used in recruiting and hiring.

While that's going on, the qualified H/R people gather personal and graphical data on their employees while researching the lates peer reviewed studies about motivation.

Then the overworked and under appreciated H/R team determines which type of incentive programs will motivate the type of employees they tend to have.

Additionally, perfomance reviews, pay increases, and promotions are used as reinforcers to 'behaviors'.

As for " inanimate objects" if the plan had been well conceived, painstakenly designed, and produced with care, then a stapler would behave as expected - obviously the H/R department is not in charge of the producation of inanimate objects that falls under consumerism and is at the mercy of the corporate board of directors.

HI CREATIVE - hi all you would be philosophers and science types.

Sorry, class overload. My brain cells are too damn tired to synapse profusely enough to engage in deep conversations. Hope you all enjoy.

Good stuff.

Actually this is an intersting topic.

If we were strictly driven to act by instinct, then our behaviors could be quite predictable. Behaviorism developed into a science from more philosophical ideas.

Humans were once studied (behaviorally) at the same level as other animals. Wundt – Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Gutherie, and the very prominant B.F. skinner as well as a great many others played big roles in turning philosophy into a science.

We are driven by instinct but not necessarily controlled by it. Nurture entered the picture and it was thought that we learn behaviors through the tribes (family and culture). In the mean time, as scientific theories began to abound, so did philosophical theories of mind – enter the cognitive scientists and the social psychologists and the firestorm between philosophy and psychology continues.

Nature, nurture, mind, social, environment – these are the predictors of behavior; the level at which they interact, overlap, or even exist in any given individual is, so far, proven to be quite an elusive thing.

It has provided me with many years of good reading, thought provoking ideas, and a better understanding of myself and others, but only with a much greater emphasis on skepticism.

So, with skepticism, I would suggest that within 'Nature' are the origens of human development and it is generally nature that is the last threshhold of our human instinct, as when the end of life takes the route of degrading cognitive functions.

Therefore, I expect that behavior can best be predicted in more controlled envirnments.

There are different cognitive levels of behavioral expectation(s).

Prior to holding any expectation, one must first form thought/belief about the world, for that is what grounds them all. Shared thought/belief along with shared reasoning methods can produce shared behavioral expectations. Common/natural language facilitates this happenstance and is evidenced by cultural codes of conduct. It is interesting how codes have changed as our knowledge of the world has increased. That which was once accepted is no longer and vice-versa. These are ethical aspects/considerations regarding behavioral expectations.

Anyone who thows a ball into the air expects that it will fall back to earth. S/he who drinks a gallon of bleach expects that they would perish. When the relative temperature falls below 32f, we expect that water will change physical states. Being shot in the head with a gun will most likely kill you. These are other kinds of behavioral expectations.

I suppose I am wondering if they all converge upon a single one or perhaps a set thereof which gives rise to the rest.

guess i messed them. nevermind.