Me: “X did this”.
My friend: “I cannot believe they did that”.
Two other friends in conversation: “I wonder what could have caused this?!”
Me: “Could it be that they were not in their right senses at the time they did that?”
My friend: “Nnnooo…or maybe, many things could have caused this”.
Do you see that statement from my friend, that is pondering on the idea that what happened could have been caused by a number of things?
That is a very common phenomenon in the world of psychology.
And, it is one of those phenomena that many of us do not pay keen attention to!
This phenomenon is technically called, “multifactorial causation”.
It is a situation where a combination of events or causes influence the outcome of behaviour in somebody.
Photo credit: Pipeline Performance Group
Let us try out an example;
Pick out any awful incident that has happened in the recent past, wherever you are or whichever you can vividly remember.
Pick out the behaviour that was exhibited in the end.
Try pondering on what could have led to things turning out that way.
(We do not have any wrong answers; this is a learning exercise).
Can you ably say that the behaviour you saw or witnessed was brought up by only one thing?
Can you ably say that a group of things brought about the behaviour you saw or witnessed?
In psychology, we all know that multiple causes of things turning out the way they turned out is at play in shaping any behaviour.
However, even the best or most refined of us often fall into the trap of believing behaviour is caused by a single factor!
Photo credit: Wikidata
One thing is for sure
Multiple causes of behaviour best explain the biggest chunk of behaviours in the world today.
~What do you think of that? ~
There are all kinds of reasons that people do things. It can be so many different factors that cause any single act.
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It takes learning to appreciate causation.
Most times we just judge.
Thanks for the article
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Multiple causes and influences led us to do everything we do. We can make predictions on what someone might do, but we can never be 100 percent sure. Humans are complex creatures!
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They say that there’s your side, my side, and the truth. I believe there’s almost always more than one reason something happens.
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This is like you looking at the sea with many fishes. There could be any reason that causes it to happen and lets people to act.
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There are always reasons that lead to the actions and behaviors of a person. Anyway, human is complex, and I like that colorful flower.
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Brilliant post! A great way to rationalize and manage emotions, situations, and their resulting thoughts!
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Such a great post that is worth reading, plus it’s very informative and detailed. Definitely looks interesting how the world is affected by psychological behavior.
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Interesting read! It’s nice to see all these emotions really mapped out like that.
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I totally agree with this one! Humans are complicated and I guess we can’t really judge a person doing something until we know the full story. Most of the time, I’m still figuring myself out. haha
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I have to revisit this too. Psychology really is an interesting part of our daily lives. Every action has a meaning and it depends on the interpretation too.
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I appreciate your post. And I say that we have no right to judge a person by what we see because behind everything there is a reason that we don’t really know about
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