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Behavior vs Intention - What's the difference?

behavior | intention |

As nouns the difference between behavior and intention

is that behavior is (uncountable) human conduct relative to social norms while intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow.

behavior

English

Alternative forms

* behaviour (everywhere except US) * (l), (l), (l), (l)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) Human conduct relative to social norms.
  • (uncountable) The way a living creature behaves or acts generally.
  • (uncountable, informal) A state of probation about one's conduct.
  • He was on his best behavior when her family visited.
  • (countable) An instance of the way a living creature behaves.
  • (countable, uncountable, biology, psychology) Observable response produced by an organism.
  • (uncountable) The way a device or system operates.
  • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "behavior": human, animal, physical, chemical, mechanical, electrical, organizational, corporate, social, collective, parental, interpersonal, sexual, criminal, appropriate, inappropriate, correct, incorrect, right, wrong, good, bad, acceptable, unacceptable, poor, ethical, unethical, moral, immoral, responsible, irresponsible, normal, odd, deviant, abnormal, violent, abusive, aggressive, offensive, defensive, rude, stupid, undesirable, verbal, nonverbal, learned, professional, unprofessional, adaptive, compulsive, questionable, assertive, disgusting, self-destructive.

    intention

    Alternative forms

    * entention (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A course of action that a person intends to follow.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see Apocryhpha )
  • *:Hell is paved with good intentions .
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
  • The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
  • :
  • (lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
  • *, I.iii.3:
  • *:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  • A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
  • (lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  • *1732 , (John Arbuthnot), An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments … , Prop. II, p.159:
  • *:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
  • (lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  • (lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
  • *2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health , p.49:
  • *:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    * intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentioned