Psychology of Behaviour Essay

This essay explores the psychology of behaviour, examining five key perspectives and their impact on human behaviour. It analyzes the effects of group influence, conformity, and obedience, and investigates the consequences of prejudice and discrimination within public services.

PSYCHOLOGY OF BEHAVIOUR

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
P1. Description of psychological perspectives and effects on human behaviour........................1
M1. Assess the psychological perspectives in explaining human behaviour..............................2
P2. Define the research into group influence, conformity and obedience and how human
behaviour is affected....................................................................................................................4
M2. Analyse the consequences of prejudice and discrimination within the public services.......6
D1. Analyse why an understanding and knowledge of psychological perspectives and social
influence is relevant to the public services..................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Psychology of behaviour is the study of behaviourism which constructed on the basic
principles of human evolution and is connected with the types of human behaviours. It is clearly
outlined that the individuals are capable in learning the aspects at cumulative rate, however the
human learning assists in developing the behaviourism in order to deal with several behavioural
approaches like biological, cognitive and more (Green, 2016). Herein the individual's behaviour
is the functional unit to function the learning aspects through applying the psychological
behaviour. This assignment is going to discuss about five psychological perspectives and its
overall impact on the human behaviour. In addition, it emphasis on understanding the parameters
like Social loafing, Deindividuation, Conformity and Obedience. There is an analysis on the
MAIN BODY
P1. Description of psychological perspectives and effects on human behaviour
Psychological perspectives are defined as the scientific study of human's behavioural
patterns in order to think, behave and feel with respect to the ongoing activities to overcome the
challenges and tackle the situation from all the angles in terms of biological, psychodynamic,
behavioural, humanistic and cognitive perspectives.
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH: This is the only approach which shed light on the behavioral
changes and exploring thoughts, emotions of individuals with reference to the biological point of
view (Lea, 2015). This is considered as physiological and is the resultant of the combination
effects of genetics with physiological factors. For example, hormones are the secretions in the
human body which regulate the levels of neurotransmitter. It is one of the approaches that set the
targets on the hardware in regard with the mechanisms of body so that the entire metabolism
remains under good immunity levels.
PSYCHO-DYNAMIC APPROACH: This is one of those approaches which indicated towards
the human functionalities depending upon the interaction and segregation of different structures.
For instance, Freud's psychoanalysis is considered as both theory and therapy. This analysis
helped in understanding the individual's unconscious mind that gives insights about the several
layers of human mind and personality as well (Clarke, 2018). Herein, the ulterior purpose is to
release the repressed emotions and experience to make the unconscious frame into a conscious
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mind. Along with this, the differences between unconscious desires and conscious factors are
important in attaining knowledge.
BEHAVIORIST APPROACH: This is refereed as the psychological approach that emphasize on
understanding the dynamics of the associated investigation methods. Moreover, it lays the
foundation of marking the stimulus-response behaviors of people. This assists in learning about
the components to interact with the environment and bring modifications between the
measurable and observable aspects of human behavior (Schwartz, Lilienfeld and Sauvigné,
2016). Such approach focuses on learning the new behavioral patterns of human brain and
unlearning the accepted behavioral parameters. It mainly deals with classical conditioning and
operant conditioning to study about the humans' behavior. Therefore, this is related to the one
dimensional state of mind.
HUMANISM APPROACH: It is that perspective that stresses on the humanistic side in terms of
psychological needs of an individual. This gives an opportunity for understanding the self-
actualization of individual with respect to the treatment (Gross, 2015). This is one of the holistic
approaches that explain about the different levels of emergent properties of human mind. Thus, it
is also called as phenomenonological approach. It is a person centric approach on the person's
individualistic behavioral patterns, attitudes and beliefs system.
COGNITIVE APPROACH: This is one of the modern approaches that reflect upon the behavior
of individuals and their reasoning ability. Additionally, it assumes that cognition is determined
by the several components like remembering, learning, thinking on the basis of language and
external environment (Scott, 2015). There is a need to analyze the scientific study of all the
cognitive psychological processes to give proper attention in bringing radical changes in the
disordered personalities. Such approach would be able to deal with making decisions, resolving
conflicts and problems through though-process and logical reasoning.
M1. Assess the psychological perspectives in explaining human behaviour
Similarities: All the five perspectives have few similarities that give an advantage in
understanding the dynamics and exploring the different aspects of behavioural patterns of
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humans. These are useful for investigating the human behaviour for shaping the physiological
changes in an individual. It also highlighted the need for examining the sociocultural parameters
that influence the mental well being of people. In addition to the above, there are some practical
applications for treating the abnormalities or distorted behavioural approaches at individual
levels and organizational levels as well (Hosking and Anderson, 2018). Samples are collected
here to enquire the research studies and collect the experimental data to reach to conclusive
outcomes. Nevertheless, it uses controlled conditions and sometimes lack the validity factor
while conducting experiments and several studies. There is an assumption based determinants
and several authors critiqued about the scientific relevancy since the changes are related to
human's mind and is in need of mapping system.
Differences:
BIOLOGICAL
APPROACH
PSYCHO-
DYNAMIC
APPROACH
BEHAVIORIST
APPROACH
HUMANISM
APPROACH
COGNITIVE
APPROACH
The factors
include are the
genetics, structure
of the brain and
the
neurotransmitter
levels
It mainly uses
case studies
which are
longitudinal in
nature
Here two types of
conditioning
namely classical
and operant are
used
It focuses on the
differences
between the
people like
cultural factors
and gender
This accepts the
experimental
values and uses
the snap shot
research
This focuses on
the chemical and
biological
explanations of an
individual's
behaviour.
It includes a
social upbringing
during the
nurturing aspects
during the several
stages of life.
Moreover, it shed
light on the innate
This completely
dependent upon
the internal and
external
environmental
factors.
The focus is on
understanding the
socio cultural
influences that
reflects the self
conceptualization.
It consists of
innate mental
structures that
includes
perceptions,
memory and
schemas on the
basis of the
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drivers of
aggressive nature.
changed
surroundings.
P2. Define the research into group influence, conformity and obedience and how human
behaviour is affected
Group influence: This is the most important factor to analyse the components like social
loafing, bystander behaviour, deindividualism and more. It helps in providing an overview to
demonstrate an understanding for humans and their behaviours at both personal and professional
levels. Social loafing defines as the individualistic tendency which leads to lower participation
when working in a group. It refereed to the overall evaluation of putting efforts by all the
members while working in a group. This is considered as the conceptual framework which
reflects upon the idea of working in groups. This assists in improving the accomplishments and
optimising the available resources effectively. It is that phenomenon where motivational levels
are low and sometimes lead towards dissatisfaction among the team members due to low
contribution from a member to achieve common goals (Brannon, 2016).
In regard to the above, Pluralistic ignorance is that situation in which all the members are
in agreement with a certain legislation or policy, despite rejecting its application on personal
needs. This clearly demonstrate that it occurs when people are behaving normal to a certain
challenging situation which they do not want to follow, however due to lack of clarity and
transparency end up doing it. For instance, when working in a team for a project in a multi
national organization, if the other members are not taking initiative then it leads to accepting it
half heartedly thinking that everyone agrees with it. Such false assumptions take place due to
peer pressure which is common these days and mostly is refereed as the driving force for
pluralistic ignorance. Deindividuation is another concepts in the field of social psychology which
is the reflection of an individual's loss of self-awareness while working in groups or teams. Here
the entire emphasis is on the person's lack of responsible behaviour while performing tasks or
allotted project. It is the loss of an individualistic identity.
Conformity: This is defined as the influential factor that revolves around the social changes in
the behavioural or belief system at the societal levels. In short, it is the people acceptance
without any opposing limitations and are defied by following all the unspoken rules. In addition
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to this, there is a need to align the effect of majority influence. Any pressure due to presence of
group or peers is the social force that accelerate the working standards in terms of attitudes,
beliefs and behavioural approaches (Meyer, Schermuly and Kauffeld, 2016). It is understandable
that conformity is significant in accepting the instructions without any push or force. People
willingly accept it thinking that the entire group is in sync and is ready to comply with the
organisation's rules.
Consequently, compliance is an important accessory to act or think according to the
groups by accepting it externally and on the other hand, acceptance is that form which indicate
towards the actions conducted by believing the norms etc. Nonetheless there is also another
conceptual frameworks which is related to the normative social influence and informational
social influence. The normative social influence is that form of social influence where the person
is influenced from the peers and reach a conclusion with the help of self confidence and the level
of task difficulty.
Obedience: It is the type of social influence where an individual takes or receives orders from an
authoritative figure to complete a certain activity or task. This is mainly dependent on the
distinguishable features between compliance and conformity. It must be clear that conformity
refers to following rules without any defined instructions whereas compliance is the action of
following specified instructions (Lowry, Wang and Siponen, 2016). The prime groups which
comes under obedience are the following: older people, family, superiors and people with
common interests. For instance, at home, kids must listen to their elders which consists of family
and older people. At workplace, juniors or new joiners must listen to their seniors or managers at
professional levels.
In addition to this, there are factors that influence the obedience factor such as prestige,
authority, observation and personal responsibility. Authority leads to physical proximity towards
the figure where the response is towards exhibiting the cross-situational consistencies to
understand the personality traits. Here the cross-situational consistencies involves wide range of
parameters such as cultural factors, momentum of compliance, collectivist cultures etc. These are
related to the legitimacy of the authoritative figure so that the maintenance of organizational
culture and the following up of the rank structures. Along with this, use of buffers are important
in analysing the rank structures and their overall effectiveness.
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M2. Analyse the consequences of prejudice and discrimination within the public services
Prejudice is defined as the pre-determined or pre conceived notion in context to any
subject or topic. And discrimination is the social determinant which occurs due to the onset of
adopting to the prejudiced notions and orientations regarding any topic or subject. Public
services are those government services which come under the category of serving the public to
gain profits in both monetary and satisfactory levels. Here the focus is on to achieve the greater
goals in bringing radical changes at the societal levels through collective support and cooperation
(Williams and Medlock, 2017).
Reasons for prejudice and discrimination
In regard to the public services, there are several causes which has become the triggering
points of prejudice and discrimination at the workplace. There are several types of prejudice
which took forms of discrimination and contains sexism, racism, nationalism, ageism,
homophobia and religious prejudice (Moore Jr, 2016). It is prevalent that these two go hand in
hand since stereotyping is common and takes place due to the adoption of scapegoat theory.
There is a grave danger which happens due to the tendency to quickly make judgements
regarding people or any particular social issue. For instance, men and women are treated
differently in the corporate world and the major reason is due to sexism. Women have always
been objectified. This leads to discrimination in terms of promotion, wages, incentives etc. Such
instances clearly justified that discrimination on the basis of prejudice is very common and is
still in practising modes in mostly all the domains at both local level and global level as well.
Effects and impact of prejudice and discrimination on the victim and the organisation
The effects are disparities at the workplace which violate the rights and code of conduct
between employees while performing tasks at the same organisation (Corrigan, 2016). This
differences have risen due to the birth of pre conceived notions in context to mental capacities,
age, gender, religious beliefs and nationalism. When a woman is treated differently and is
mistreated to complete the tasks, she becomes a victim and the entire organisation become the
culprit in not raising their voices against such pathetic mindsets. Nevertheless, this is clear
discrimination of that individual's human rights and the effects ranged from the sexual, religious
or racial in nature which shed light on the overall mental well being of the victim. Furthermore,
its impact paves the path of the dark world which includes the negative emotions and rise of
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insecurities which in turn hamper their personal lives. It moreover affects their professional lives
and cost their careers. There is an overloaded mix of emotional baggage that involves wide range
of impact in the form of anger, fear and inferiority complex.
D1. Relevancy of Psychological perspectives and social influence
There is a great need of understand the five perspectives in relation to the
physiological behaviourism. It is needed to overcome the challenges faced at the organizational
levels in the forms of socio cultural concepts like stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination
(Chou, Wang and Tang, 2015). Moreover, it is essential and playing an imperative contribution
to improve the relevancy and validity components with reference to the public services.
Consequently, there is also need of evaluating the adoption of these approaches in one's lifestyle
patterns to bring concrete changes to maintain the well being of people. Thus, all the five
perspectives assisted in gaining insights to draw an outline to implement strategies to overcome
the barriers and challenges at societal levels. Along with this, public services are the most
impacted sector and must provide a fair and justiciable system to follow it effectively. Such
behaviour prevails harmony without prejudice and amiable environment at workplace.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that psychological perspectives such as biological,
psychodynamic, behaviorist, humanism, cognitive are useful in underpinning the overall impact
on the human's mind. In addition to this, it has highlighted the effects on human behaviour and
on the societal norms which sometimes tagged these approaches in discriminatory manner.
Furthermore, it has shed light on the understanding and the knowledge base for conducting the
research and led the demonstration in context to studying about the group influence, conformity
and obedience. Additionally, there has been analysis regarding the behavioural changes in the
pattern and the occurrence of situations in regard to the entire influence on the human behaviour.
Moreover, there is implementation of evaluation to examine the implications of prejudice and
discrimination in the domain of public services. Lastly, it has been found out that the
understanding regarding the psychological studies need wider understanding.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brannon, L., 2016. Gender: psychological perspectives. Routledge.
Chou, C.H., Wang, Y.S. and Tang, T.I., 2015. Exploring the determinants of knowledge
adoption in virtual communities: A social influence perspective. International Journal of
Information Management.35(3). pp.364-376.
Clarke, S., 2018. Researching beneath the surface: Psycho-social research methods in practice.
Routledge.
Corrigan, P.W., 2016. Lessons learned from unintended consequences about erasing the stigma
of mental illness. World Psychiatry. 15(1).pp.67-73.
Green, L., 2016. Understanding the life course: sociological and psychological perspectives.
John Wiley & Sons.
Gross, R., 2015. Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour 7th edition. Hodder Education.
Hosking, D.M. and Anderson, N., 2018. Organizational change and innovation: Psychological
perspectives and practices in Europe. Routledge.
Lea, S., 2015. Instinct, Environment and Behaviour (Psychology Revivals). Psychology Press.
Lowry, P.B., Zhang, J., Wang, C. and Siponen, M., 2016. Why do adults engage in
cyberbullying on social media? An integration of online disinhibition and deindividuation
effects with the social structure and social learning model. Information Systems
Research. 27(4).pp.962-986.
Meyer, B., Schermuly, C.C. and Kauffeld, S., 2016. That’s not my place: The interacting effects
of faultlines, subgroup size, and social competence on social loafing behaviour in work
groups. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.25(1). pp.31-49
Moore Jr, B., 2016. Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt: The Social Bases of
Obedience and Revolt. Routledge.
Schwartz, S.J., Lilienfeld, S.O., Meca, A. and Sauvigné, K.C., 2016. The role of neuroscience
within psychology: A call for inclusiveness over exclusiveness. American
Psychologist. 71(1). p.52.
Scott, M.J., 2015. A Cognitive-Behavioural Approach to Clients' Problems (Psychology
Revivals). Routledge.
Williams, D.R. and Medlock, M.M., 2017. Health effects of dramatic societal events—
ramifications of the recent presidential election.
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