Talking, laughing, crying, reading, eating… all these words have in common that they are verbs. That they express action, and that they are carried out by something or someone. They are behaviours, and apart from those mentioned there are many more; in fact we are constantly performing some of them.

Throughout this article we will make a brief enumeration and explanation of the main categories or types of behaviour that are usually studied.

What do we call behavior?

Before starting to evaluate some of the different types of behaviour, and despite the fact that it can be deduced from the introduction, it is convenient to make a small comment regarding the concept we are talking about. Conduct is understood or defined as the set of actions carried out by a subject, which may be human or animal, and which is the expression of his or her behaviour in a given environment, situation or context .

Technically, all we do is conduct. This can be easy to see when we perform an action on a physical level: we pick up an object, sit down, run…

However, in order to be doing something, it is not necessary for it to be directly visible in the physical environment; even when we are completely still, we do something: thinking, imagining, dreaming, doubting or feeling are still actions that we carry out, even if they are mental .

The different types of behaviour

If we take into account that we understand as conduct any type of action or behavior performed, the truth is that we can realize the countless number of situations and activities that we can be talking about.

In this sense we can find a great number of possible classifications of types of behaviour, based on very diverse criteria . Here are just a few of the more common and well-known ones.

1. Innate or inherited behavior

Innate or reflex behaviors are some of the first types of behavior that we perform in our lives, and are characterized by being those that appear in the person or being in a natural way and derived from our genetics, without anyone having taught them to us before. An example of this can be found in reflexes such as thumb sucking or sucking when we are babies.

They can appear after birth or even before (some of these behaviours are already observed in the foetal stage).

2. Acquired or learned behavior

Another major type of behavior is acquired or learned behavior, which is defined as any type of action that does not occur naturally in the person or animal but is learned throughout life. This learning can be inculcated by one’s own experience or transmitted or modelled by observing the behaviour of others.

3. Observable/manifest behavior

Observable or manifest behavior is that which can be seen with the naked eye from the outside . These are behaviours that we carry out and that imply some kind of movement on our part in relation to the environment around us.

They are the type of behavior that is usually considered as such, since they lead us to physically “do” some action .

In this sense, currents such as early behaviorism were initially considered the only type of behavior that was observable and empirically demonstrable.

4. Latent/covert behaviour

As we have mentioned before, things like imagining, thinking, remembering or fantasizing are acts or behaviors that cannot be seen with the naked eye from the outside, but they are still acts that we carry out . These are the so-called covert behaviours.

5. Voluntary behaviour

Another type of classification of behaviours that can be applied has to do with the presence or absence of voluntariness in carrying them out . Voluntary behaviours are all those that the subject who carries them out in a conscious way and in accordance with his/her will.

6. Involuntary/gliding behaviour

On the other hand, involuntary behaviors are all those that are carried out unintentionally.

This usually includes mainly reflex behaviors: withdrawing the hand from a burning fire, breathing or the set of reflexes we have since birth.

7. Adaptive behaviors

We understand as adaptive behaviors all those that allow the one who performs them to adapt in a more or less efficient way to the environment that surrounds him , so that their performance is an advantage and facilitates the survival and the adjustment and welfare of the subject.

8. Misadaptive behaviors

There are also behaviours that make it difficult for the subject to adapt to the environment and that may make him/her feel uneasy or difficult to function in the environment in which he/she is .

These would be the so-called maladaptive behaviours, which tend to cause suffering and which it is generally desirable to modify (although sometimes it is difficult or the subject himself does not want to do so).

9. Appetitive behaviors

It is called appetitive behavior or approaching behavior to that set of actions carried out with approaching a certain objective , which motivates and activates the subject to act.

10. Consumer behaviour

This is the set of actions that we carry out in order to achieve the objective, goal or reward that moves us to act , and that allow us to end a pattern or series of actions or behaviours to achieve it.

11. Passive behaviour

Passive behaviour is understood as that set of behaviours linked to the way of relating to the environment that surrounds us and to the rest of our fellow human beings , characterised by a suppression or minimisation of our own desires and needs in favour of those of others.

They usually appear out of a need or desire to be appreciated or to avoid the conflict that the expression of one’s will might entail.

12. Aggressive behaviour

Aggressive behaviour is understood as that in which the obtaining of one’s own benefit or the gratification of one’s own needs is put before the well-being of others, with indifference to the fact that this implies a prejudice for the rest .

This is a dominant type of behaviour that can be expressed through violence. Although evolutionarily they had a purpose (to defend themselves from external aggressions), this type of behavior can become aversive to others.

13. Assertive behaviors

Assertive behavior is that which has a balance between aggressive and passive: the subject defends his point of view and his interests, but taking into account and valuing the opinion and needs of the rest .

It allows for negotiation and reaching a point of agreement, and integrates the reaffirmation and expression of needs and opinions with respect for those of others.

Conditioned/responsive behavior

This type of conduct refers to that which the subject carries out as a consequence of the association made between its emission and the presence or absence of another appetite or aversion stimulus.

This is a concept better known as conditioned response , studied by the behaviouralist current of psychology and used by authors such as Pavlov with his classical conditioning.

14. Unconditioned/unconditioned behavior

Better known as unconditioned response, this is the type of behaviour that the subject carries out in an innate and natural way when a stimulus that is already appetizing or aversive is presented, towards which there is a tendency to move closer or further away depending on the case.

15. Operating behaviour

It is called as such all that type of conduct that is carried out with the purpose of obtaining or achieving a certain good, objective or goal.

It is also related to behaviorism, in this case with that of Skinner’s operative conditioning : we carry out a behavior due to the anticipation that its realization allows us to receive reinforcement or to avoid punishment.

Bibliographic references:

  • Cao, L. (2010). In-depth Behavior Understanding and Use: the Behavior Informatics Approach. Information Science. 180 (17): 3067 – 3085.
  • Dockery, M. and Reiss, M. (1999): Behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.