What is Negative behavior?

Negative behavior

Negative behavior refers to undesirable behavior or bad attitude, one that is not acceptable in the society. Examples are stealing, cheating, lying, truancy, drug addiction, and drug trafficking.

Negative behavior also refers to the things people do but which the society does not approve of, such as dishonesty, examination malpractice, cultism, corruption, disregards for time, excessive love for money and ostentatious living. Bank workers attending to their customer.

List of Notable  Negative Behaviors

Dishonesty: this can be in the form of stealing (public or private money), cheating at work (by not being regular or punctual), getting involved in the examination malpractices, giving and optioning fake certificates and false results, etc.

Corruption: this is dishonest or illegal behavior, especially of people in authority (such as government, officials, rulers, managers, (hand heads of organizations). examples of corruption are bribery, embezzlement and immorality.

Examination malpractices: .this involves students going into the examination hall with various items to cheat. These include already answered question papers; answer writing as texts on phones, etc. examination. Malpractices are therefore what students do wrongly and illegally in order to get an undue advantage over other students.

Some forms of examination malpractices

1. Receiving the question in part or whole before the day and time of the examination.
2. Taking relevant documents, papers and text books into the examination hall and such to supply answer to question.
3. Obtaining the answers to the question from other candidates and supplying order candidate with answers. A boy cheating in an examination hall.
4. Writing inscription on the palms, thighs or other parts of the body or on the desks, with the hope that such inscription will turn out to be the answers to the examination questions.
5. Starting examination before schedule and writing on the answer scripts beyond the times giving.
6. Impersonating other students by writing the examination for them (perhaps for a fee).
7. Deliberated distracting the examiners or invigilators so you could cheat while their attention is focused elsewhere.
8. Disturbing yourself and other candidate during examinations (perhaps by smiling, shuffling your feet and whispering to yourself and to other peoples.

Examination malpractices has many negative consequence. It even leads people to prison.

Cultism: A secret cult is any organization whose activities are kept away from the knowledge of the public. Such activities are carried out at odd hours of the day and the often clash with the accepted norms and values of everyday life.

Features that is generally associated with secret cults

1. Exclusive membership: membership is not open to all persons. Those who are admitted have to pass tests and the go through the initiation rituals.
2. The use of and passwords signs: members are thought the cult sign of danger, friendship, war etc. also, there are passwords known only to members.
3. Shared experience of rituals: the members perform rituals at different times, such as when new members are to be initiated and when old members are to be promoted.
4. Exclusive group objectives: each cult has its owned special objective for existence and operation.
5. Shared oaths: members swear oaths of loyalty (oath group) and the oath of secrecy (of the group activities.)

Drug trafficking

Actually, the word trafficking refers to the selling and buying of illegal goods, especially hard drugs.Drug trafficking is the buying  and selling of hard drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana and amphetamines.

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Drug trafficking is a very serious offence all over the word. In some countries, the offence is punishable by death.

Some reason for drug trafficking  

The following are some reason for drug trafficking.

1. Poverty;
2. Unemployment;
3. Bad company or peer group influence;
4. Greed; and
5. Lack of personal discipline.

Poverty: poverty is the state of being poor. A poor person is someone who has very little money and possession. Many people who are poor cannot afford the basic things of life. Some are unable to pay bills. Some people become drug traffickers because they expect to become wealthy through such means.

Unemployment: this is a situation in which people that is willing to work and is capable of working, cannot fine work. Some people have become drug traffickers because they were unemployed for a long time.

Bad company: this is one of the greatest challenges encountered during audiences. Sometimes, young people get persuade to do things or behave in ways that will hurt them and affect their future.

Some people have become drug traffickers because they were lured into the trade by their friends. Some others still are drugs addict because they kept company with drug addicts. Evil communication certainly corrupts good manners.

Greed: this is a strong desire for more money, power, food or other possession than you really needs.

Some people choose to become drug traffickers because they believe the trade will fetch them huge sum of money very quickly.

Lack of personal discipline: someone who is discipline d has trained himself to control his behavior and obey rules. Those who lack personal discipline are very likely to behave negative, since they have not trained themselves to obey rules and behave properly. They can get into the drug trade in order to make extra money for one reason or the other.

Some other forms of negative behavior include;

Stealing: Some people steal the school’s property. Some employees steal their employer’s property, while some officials embezzle their organization’s money.

Sexual offences: These include rape, and other kinds of immoral behavior at school, in the offices and in neighborhoods. Sexual offences, many times result in worst forms of immorality, hatred, confusion, disease and unwanted pregnancy.

Disobedience: Some students disobey school rules, their teachers and their parents. Some adults too disobey the rules of the country and of the society at large; they do illegal things and this eventually gets them into trouble.

Truancy: This is simply staying away from school without permission. Truants will end up cheating during examinations. This will fetch them disgrace eventually.

Assault: Students who beat up weaker students are assaulting them and should be punished severely for doing so.

Insult: Insolent people say and do things that are rude to others. Some people insult their peers, their teachers and parents. This is very bad and no society accepts it.

Wickedness: this has many forms. For example, it can take the form of oppressing other students, destroying the school’s property and even the property of other students. Those who are wicked today will not amount to much in future because the society will notice their wickedness and eventually punish them for it.

Suicide: this is when a person kills himself. Some people attempt to commit suicide because their plans have not worked out. This is negative and in fact strange. Every society considers it negative. It could actually result from a mental condition. When someone commits suicide or attempt to do so, those around that person become terribly frightened and discouraged.

Disregard for time (African time): Some people cannot keep to time, simply because they think it is the way Africans should behave. If a meeting is scheduled to start at a certain time, those in charge should start the meeting at that time and end it on schedule too. Disregard for time is indiscipline. Those who refer to this behavior as “African time” mean that Africans have no respect for time. This is an insult to the continent. We must be time conscious and be punctual at all our engagements. For example, when we have to deliver any kind of speech, we must start on time and stop on time. Not only will the audience respect us for it, but it will prove that we respect the audience.

The love of money and ostentatious living: Money is anything that is generally acceptable as a medium of exchange for making payments, settlement of dept or other business obligations. Money as a means of exchange has power. It is wonderful. It can save but can also kill. Money can be good servant, but is often a bad master. Without money here in some parts of Nigeria, one’s words have no weight. Friends and brothers would desert you if you have no money. But once you have money, your friends and relations will multiply. Women and men will adore you. Because money can perform so many wonders and provide so much comfort, people now worship money. The lust for money has become the bane of our society. People want more money by all means.

Hence, the increase in crime in the society. Friends now betray, or even kill friends because of money. Wives betray their husbands and vice versa for money. Some even sell their children for money. Some husbands also kill their wives for money. Money has turn our society upside down. Some of our holy places of worship have become commercial or business houses, where money and not God is openly worshiped. In some communities, drug traffickers, armed robbers and those who embezzle government funds are rewarded with chieftaincy titles, or made to sit in front rows in places of worship.

Let us stop the worship of money. Let us begin to question and condemn all the dubious means of making money in our society. Money cannot buy happiness or peace of mind. Nigerians should develop values like a good name, the fear of God, honesty and probity, friendship, generosity, kindness, peace and love. These are the values we need to build a new Nigeria.

There are very many other forms of unacceptable behavior which we cannot mention in this book. However, it is important to note that excessive drinking; the use of tobacco, hard drugs and medicine without prescription is also forms of indiscipline and are in fact destructive.

EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR ON THE SOCIETY

Negative behaviors have very bad affects on the society. Here are some of the things which will happen in a society that tolerates negative behavior.

1. The society will become corrupt.
2. The people will generally be unruly. They will not obey rules and regulations and they will disrespect the elders.
3. The people will have bad and oppressive leaders.
4. Miscreant will freely torment the decent and law-abiding people.
5. The society will generally be chaotic and a civil war may be created.
6. The society or community will have a bad image. People from other societies will not want to have any dealing with it. Investors will avoid the place and this will affect the society politically and commercially.
7. The society will not develop and will eventually become backward.
8. The people will be afraid, anxious, confused and on unhappy.
9. The people’s values will be misplaced. For example, a man prefers to hold a lavish party, inserted of providing food and shelter for his family.
10. Productivity will be much lower than it should be.
11. The rate of crime will be high.
12. The rate of accident will be high, as the drivers will be generally be indiscipline and unruly. They may disobey traffic rules and some of them may be drunk or be under the influence of hard drugs.

A society that tolerates negative behaviors will eventually suffer. It will be confused, chaotic and unbearable. It will eventual disintegrate and the people will be worthless.

PROMOTING POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL CHANGES 

Every community has means of promoting positive behavior among its members.

1. The people should be educated on the consequences of negative behavior.
2. Those who violet laws should be brought to justice.
3. Those who behave well should be rewarded accordingly.
4. People in authority should lead by example.
5. Education materials should be made available in schools by the government and well-meaning members of the society to reduce the burden on parents. This will reduce the rate at which students drop out of school. If children complete their education, they will learn how to behave well and how to make their society civilized.
6. Moral instruction should be made compulsory and effective taught in schools in order to inculcate good behavior in children.
7. Adults (and even children) should be encouraged to value marriage and family relationship. Sometimes people grow up to develop anti-social behavior because they themselves are products of broken homes.
8. Rural-urban migration should be discouraged by making the rural areas of the nation more attractive and comfortable through the provision of good roads, electricity and pipe-borne water. This way the opportunity in such communities will increase. People there will remain there, work there and live responsible lives, instead of moving to the urban areas where they may get confused.
9. Nigerians should uphold their cultural values.
10. Development should be centered on the basic needs of the people. Prestigious projects, which will eventually failed should be avoided.

Government, schools, religious and other organizations should enlighten the public on the dangers of alcoholism and drugs addiction. This will reduce the rate and degree of crime, indiscipline and even insanity.

Revision activities/Study Questions on Negative Behaviors

1. Explain what it means to have the right attitude to work.
2. List the attribute of the right attitude to work and briefly write on any five of them.
3. State the importance/rewards of having the right attitude to work?
4. What are the consequences of not having the right attitude to work?
5. state the measures that should be taken to ensure that workers have the right attitude to work.
6. What is negative behavior?
7. Give five examples of negative behavior and write short notes on any 4 of the examples you have given.
8. Write short notes on any five of the following:poverty,unemployment, bad company, greed, stealing, lack of personal discipline, sexual offences,suicide, drug trafficking.
9. What is “African time”?
10. What do you understand by “the love of money or ostentatious living”?
11. State seven effects of negative behavior on the society.
12. How should we promote positive behavioral changes in our society?