[PDF] Behavioral psychology

Psychology of
Behaviour

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Range of psychological perspective and how they explain human behaviour.................3
M1. Similarities and difference between psychological perspective in explaining human
behaviour................................................................................................................................5
P2. Research into group influence, conformity and obedience and how human behaviour is
affected...................................................................................................................................6
M2. Consequences of prejudice and discrimination within public services..........................8
D1. Understanding and knowledge of psychological perspective and social influence is
relevant to public services. ....................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Psychology is defined as the science which deals with mental as well as emotional
process that help in summarising a person's characteristics which includes a manner in which an
individual feel, think or behave. It is basically used to understand the event, improve education,
employment, mental health issues and relationship (Pennington, 2014). This report includes a
detail description regarding range of psychological perspective and manner in which it influence
the human behaviour along with similarities and differences it holds. Apart from this it also
includes the description regarding group influence, obedience, conformity and its affect over
human behaviour. In addition to this it also contain information regarding the consequence of
prejudice and discrimination over public services.
TASK 1
P1. Range of psychological perspective and how they explain human behaviour
Psychological perspective is refers to the science of behaviour which study the way
people think as well as behave which getting into a particular situation. It is an outcome of
synthesis of cognitive as well as behavioural psychological theory which in turn provide several
techniques and tools available for studying the human thoughts and behaviour. The techniques
are known as psychological perspective and are basically of five types:

 The Psychodynamic Perspective:- This theory is an approach to psychology which
studies several forces that underlying the human behaviour, emotions as well as feelings
and manner in which they relate with early experience (Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi,
2014). This theory was founded by Sigmund Freud for determining the use of
unconscious mind, defence mechanism and ego influence the behaviour of individual.
From this study he founds human behaviour get motivated through an energy known as
Libido which is driving force between the parts of personality which is present from birth
and strives to fulfil the most basic urge. Among them a part of personality is ego which is
responsible for mediating between demand of id or identity and reality. This in turn strive
an individual to behave in moralistic way.
 The Behavioural Perspective:- As per this behavioural perspective, an individual
behaviour is explained by looking at the processes of reinforcement and conditioning.
There are two processes through which behaviour learned which is known as classical
conditioning and operant conditioning. The classical conditioning theory was given by
Ivan Pavlov in which he studied the behaviour of dog and found that dog salivate only
when it came in contact with white coat of lab assistant (Sniehotta, Presseau and Araújo-
Soares, 2014). On other side operant conditioning theory was given by BF Skinner, it
includes reinforcement or punishment as a consequences of behaviour. It has been found
that actions followed by reinforcement holds more chances to be repeated in future rather
then those which are followed by punishment.
 The humanist perspective:- This perspective focuses on looking human being in a
holistic way instead of focusing on humanists, dysfunction by taking view that people are
innately good and contains a actualizing tendency which leads them to pursue self-
actualisation. This approach put more emphasis on maximum human potential and
achievements rather then symptoms of disorder. It state that an individual is inherently
good and pays special attention to creativity and personal experience which influence
their behaviour.
 The Biological perspective:- This perspective is based on the process of applying the
principle of biology for studying the mental processes and behaviour. Under this
physiological, biological and genetic variables are attempt to relate with psychological or
behavioural variables, as all behaviour is controlled by central nervous system. This help

in understanding the way in which a brain functions for determining the behaviour it
includes key areas such as perception, sensation, motivated behaviour, learning &
memory, sleep and biological rhythms, emotions etc. This is basically used in medical
field to determine the reason behind particular disorder in a particular part of body,
nervous system or brain by performing MRI scans, PETs etc. for identifying how an
individual think or act.
 The cognitive perspective:- It refers to a perspective which examine the internal mental
process like memory, problem solving or language (Tarrier and Johnson, 2015).
Cognitive perspective contends that solution of a problem taken up the form of heuristics,
algorithms or insights. This is consider as one of the most prominent ways of assuming
the human mind as well as behaviour today.
These all are different perspective of psychology which have an great influence over the
manner in which a human behave or perform a particular action this can be better understood by
taking an example of student where a psychologist wants to investigate the anxiety and manner
in which have an impact over students or make it difficult to perform well in school exams. So in
such situation
 With the help of Psychodynamic Perspective, psycholist can look over how an
unconscious might leads to test anxiety.
 Using behavioural perspective, psychologist might assume how conditioning process
contribute toward anxious feeling (Paley, 2014).
 With the use of biological perspective, a psychologist might take a look over genetic
factor along with brain processes that may leads top feeling of anxiety.
 Using humanist perspective, psychologist might look for ways that help people in
focusing more over positive aspects of student's experience rather then dwelling on
negative emotions.
M1. Similarities and difference between psychological perspective in explaining human
behaviour
The psychological perspectives is generally used as a tool which help in identifying the
human behaviour and reason behind the action performed by an individual while getting in
contact with a particular situation. Their are mainly five type of perspective which individually

work differently for studying human behaviour. The differences between these perspectives are
mentioned below:-
Differences:-
 Psychodynamic approach state that experience in childhood have an influence throughout
our lives without our consciousness which provide an framework for judging one's
personality and behaviour (Hewstone, Stroebe and Jonas, 2016). On other side
Behavioural approach argue that human behaviour is mechanical and one's personality is
the product of responses.
 The humanistic theory describe the adherence on present instead of past as well as future
, this in turn avoid the negative actions that may affect an individual. On the other side
biological theory focuses over the feeling that an individual have or hold from past rather
then the personal worth.
 The cognitive psychology relies on the concept that an individual have the capacity to
organize and process information in their mind. It tries to understand concept such as
memory and then make up decision. On other side behavioural approach believes that a
behaviour performed by an individual is by associating certain events with consequences.
Similarities
 The main similarity between the psychodynamic and behavioural perspective is that both
approaches are deterministic in which behaviourist assumes that behaviour exert by an
individual is beyond one's free will. Psychodynamic believes that it is derived by
something about which one is not aware and that can't be controlled (De Groot, 2018).
 The biological as well as behavioural holds up some similarity as both the approaches are
consider as reductionist. The biological perspective is reductionist as it emphasis on
simple physiological attributes which influence human behaviour. The behavioural
approach is reductionist as it put emphases only on simple environmental factor which
influence human behaviour.
 There is a similarity between biological and cognitive approach as both are consider as
useful in treatment. The biological approach is used in Chemotherapy for treating a
patient suffering from mental illness and cognitive approach is used for treating the
individual suffering from depression.
TASK 2

P2. Research into group influence, conformity and obedience and how human behaviour is
affected
The behaviours of an individual greatly influence by the environment in which they
resides and with their reference group as it form in devloping the personality of an individual.
There are basically three main factors which greatly affect the human behaviour in a particular
situation such as group influence, conformity and obedience (Vernon, 2014). The relationship
between these factors and human behaviour can be better understood with the help of following
description:
Group influence:- An individual join up particular group for multitude of reasons
because membership help them in satisfying their need. In addition to this it also provide
security, survival, power, affiliation status, control and achievement. Hence, the individual
behaviour and decision making is usually get influence by the presence of others. It has both
positive as well as negative impact that a group have over an individual. This group influence
the decision making process of an individual in variety of ways such as group-shift, group-think
and de-individuation (Foxall, 2014). Among them the Group-think happens when a a person has
to make important choice and become so much focused on making decision that they stated
overlooking from others perspective for more fruitful option. On other side Group-shift is a
concept where initial position of an individual member within a group exaggerate toward an
extreme position. De-individuation occurs when an individual lets go of self-consciousness and
control or do whatever the group is doing usually with some negative outcomes or goals. Hence
it can be said that the group to which an individual belongs have an huge influence over the
decision making as well as action performed by a person.
Obedience:- It is define as the form of social influence which occurs when an individual
yield to explicit instruction from an authority figure. Usually individuals comply with request as
they are concerned about a consequences that they have to face when they don't comply. In order
to prove this phenomenon a research was conducted by Milgram which focuses over measuring
the willingness of study participant to obey the authority figure that instruct them to work in
particular manner which conflicted with their personal conscience. This experiment involves a
teacher(conducting experiment), a confederate(volunteer) and a participant. In this participant
was instructed that they have to shock an individual in room for each wrong answer performed
on learning task and shock will increase with intensity of each wrong response. This results in

make noises of pain, heart pain complaints and seizure-like behaviour from participant (White,
2015). By identifying this many of participants indicated their wish to stop the experiment and
check confederate, but some of them continue the process. From this it has been found that only
1% of participants continue over maximum voltage (450vlt) shock. But others get uncomfortable
and also paused the experiment at some point. This indicates that participants try to willingly
obey the authority figure and administer harmful shocks.
Conformity:- It refers to the act of matching belief, attitude as well as behaviour with
group norms. It is consider as most common as well as pervasive form of social influence which
is consider as tendency to think or act like group members. To proof this a research was
conducted by Soloman Asch's in which the participant have to enter in a room and sit at table
with larger number of people. In this the participants or confederate would been show with the
series of cards among them some are having reference line and another card which has three
comparison line. The participants and confederates were instructed to provide their answer and
confederate were told to sometimes give right or sometimes provide wrong answer. When Asch
had confederate all of them choose the obvious incorrect answer and participants has also chosen
the wrong line 37% of time. Asch has again perform the experiment for identifying the several
factors. It has been found that in presence of true partner who are real participants and give
correct answer, decreases the level of conformity. On other side removing this partner will
increase the level of conformity after their departure.
M2. Consequences of prejudice and discrimination within public services
Prejudice and discrimination is defined as the attitude as well as resulting actions which
causes people to be treated differently. These can be better understood using following
description:
Prejudice:- The prejudice refers to the preconceived opinion which is not based on
reason or actual experience it is basically formed when people dislike another group of people
that are not alike them. The everyday prejudice have several consequences as it leads to create
criminal behaviour among people, increase rate of violence and genocide (where one group try to
murder all members of another group). In addition to this it also leads to displacement of
persons where after facing prejudice people stated moving to another location. This also have an
influence within public services the violence or anger among service provider may harm the
society as well as people.

Discrimination:- It refers to the systematic denial of human rights of certain people
because of what they believe and who they are (Bethlehem, 2015). The discrimination activities
are being prohibited by several law but still very common in term of an individuals colour,
background, society and gender. It also have several consequence in public services as
discrimination leads only a group of people get developed and avail opportunity of growth while
others would not be able to get opportunities for further development at workplace. This in turn
results into corruption, war among groups or country etc.
D1. Understanding and knowledge of psychological perspective and social influence is relevant
to public services.
The psychological perspectives help in determining the reason behind a particular action
performed by an individual. On the other side social influence is consider as group of factor that
are present in surrounding of an individual which influence their behaviour. It is very essential in
public services to have an understanding regarding the social influence as well as psychological
perspective as it help in predicting the manner in which a particular customer will react who is
demanding for services (Bethlehem, 2015). Hence, it help a public service provider in handling a
customer more effectively. For instance, having an understanding regarding psychological
perspective a doctor can be able to fix the process through which it must treat a person who is
mentally ill.
CONCLUSION
From the above given information it can be summarized that psychology is consider as
most essential part of science which help in predicting the behaviour of an individual. There are
number of psychological perspective that are basically formed to understand the reason behind
particular action performed by an individual. It includes Psychodynamic Perspective,
Behavioural Perspective, humanist perspective, Biological perspective and cognitive perspective.
Despite of all these some factors such as group influence, Obedience and Conformity also has an
great influence over the behaviour as well as decision making of individuals.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Argyle, M. and Beit-Hallahmi, B., 2014. The psychology of religious behaviour, belief and
experience. Routledge.
Bethlehem, D. W., 2015. A social psychology of prejudice. Psychology Press.
De Groot, J. I., 2018. Environmental psychology: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Foxall, G., 2014. Consumer Behaviour (RLE Consumer Behaviour): A Practical Guide.
Routledge.
Gross, R. and McIlveen, R., 2016. Social psychology. Routledge.
Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W. and Jonas, K. eds., 2016. An introduction to social psychology. John
Wiley & Sons.
Paley, J., 2014. Cognition and the compassion deficit: the social psychology of helping behaviour
in nursing. Nursing Philosophy. 15(4). pp.274-287.
Pennington, D. C., 2014. The social psychology of behaviour in small groups. Routledge.
Sniehotta, F. F., Presseau, J. and Araújo-Soares, V., 2014. Time to retire the theory of planned
behaviour.
Tarrier, N. and Johnson, J. eds., 2015. Case formulation in cognitive behaviour therapy: The
treatment of challenging and complex cases. Routledge.
Vernon, P. E., 2014. Personality Tests and Assessments (Psychology Revivals). Routledge.
White, C. M., 2015. Consistency in cognitive social behaviour: an introduction to social
psychology. Psychology Press.