Social Influence on Human Behaviour (pdf)

PSYCHOLOGY OF
BEHAVIOUR

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Ways Psychological perspective can explain human behaviour......................................................3
Social Influence on Human Behaviour............................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Psychology is a science of mind and behaviour which includes both conscious and
unconscious phenomena as well as thoughts and feeling of a person. It is an academic discipline
of diverse scope and interest that when taken together seeks understandings of emergent
properties of brain. Various kinds of studies have been carried out in order to understand human
behaviour.
Psychological perspectives are a kind of approach that involves certain assumptions or
beliefs about human behaviour. This essay will emphasis on various kinds of psychological
perspective in order to understand and explain human behaviour. Social influence is a change in
behaviour that one person causes to another either intentionally or unintentionally as a result of
the change in the person themselves in relation to the influencer (Arnold and Randall, 2016). In
this essay different kinds of social behaviour have also been explained and their effect on human
behaviour.
Ways Psychological perspective can explain human behaviour
Range of psychological perspectives and how they explain human behaviour.
Psychology can be defined as a perspective or a way human think, behave or feel.
According to psychology there are five main perspectives or approaches explaining different
human behaviour. Each approach is different from each other. According to some Psychologist
there is no perspective that is correct completely. Each perspective has its own strength as well
as weakness which explains something different in human behaviour. All these psychological
perspectives explain different aspects of human behaviour for example brain functions,
personality or socio-cultural influences etc. there are five main approaches that guides modern
psychological research such as:
Biological Approach: Bio-psychologists sees the way an individual nervous system, genetic
makeup and hormones affect their behaviour. These biological psychologist explored the
connection between mental state of an individual and their brain, nerves and hormones in order
to explore their moods, thoughts and actions. According to this approach an individual thinks the
way they do because of the way their brain is build and because of their body's needs. All the
choices of an individual are based on their physical body. This approach simply attempts in
understanding a healthy brain by examining the body and mind order to find out why disorder
like schizophrenia develop and what are its main root cause.

Psychologist in biological perspective studied behavioural genome by considering the way genes
affect behaviour. This biological approach says that most of the behaviour in an individual are
mostly inherited as evolutionary. Psychologists in neurological terms explains the behaviour as
the structure or psychology of the brain or the way it influences their behaviour (Chen, &
et.al.,2016). Many psychologists mainly concentrate on the abnormal behaviour of an individual
and have tried to explain it like schizophrenia is affected by the dopamine level which is a
neurotransmitter.
Psychodynamic approach: Sigmund Freud was the psychologist who promoted this
psychodynamic approach. He believes that many of an individuals impulses are driven by their
gender. According to some Psychologist early childhood experiences and unconscious derives
are one of the main reason of one's behaviour and sometimes conflict arises when societal
restrictions are placed on their urges. Most of the expressions in one's daily lives' comes from
Freud's theories of psychoanalysis for example: denial, subconscious, repression etc. In other
words, Freud says that all the events in one's childhood have a significant effect on an adult's
behaviour. This theory says that people have very little free will to make choices in life as
behaviour of a person is determined by their childhood experiences and by their unconscious
mind.
Freud used mainly three methods of accessing the unconscious mind: free association, slips of
tongue and dream analysis. However, this approach was criticized by saying that it over
emphasises the importance of sexuality and emphasis role of social relationships, in fact this
theory is not scientific and cannot be proved as it is circular. However, this theory has
contributed greatly to psychology as well as has encouraged many theorists to modify it by using
its basic principles but eliminating its major flaws.
Behavioural Approach: According to some behavioural psychologist there are various external
environmental stimuli that influences human behaviour and accordingly one can be trained to act
in a certain way (Coolican, 2017). Many behaviourist do not believe in free will infant they
believe that an individual can learn through a system of punishment and reinforcements. This
approach is extremely effective when an individual do not think about others i.e. what they think
as long as they get the desired behaviour.
Behaviourism is different from other approaches because they view people accordingly as
controlled by their environment especially as all the humans are a result of all the things they

have learned from their environment. It is simply concerned with the way environmental factors
affect others behaviours. This approach proposes mainly two processes where people learn from
their environment, which are: operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Where classical
conditioning involves association learning and operant conditioning involves learning from
behaviour consequences. Behaviourism believes in scientific methodology i.e. controlled
experiments. Only observable behaviour should be studied as it can objectively measured. It also
rejects that idea that people have free will and believes that environment determines all the
behaviours (Dovido & et.al., 2013). In simple words it is a scientific study of observable
behaviour which works on the basis that behaviour can be reduced to environment response unit.
Cognitive Approach: Cognitive psychologists beliefs in contrast with the behaviourists i.e. they
believe that behaviour of an individual is completely determined by their emotions and
expectations. Cognitive psychologist says that an individual remember things based on what they
already know. They even solve their problems based on the experience of their memory. So,
according to this approach humans turn away from people as machines without free will. That
way an individual act is based upon their internal processes as there is much more stress upon
individuals. According to this perspective expectation for an upcoming event affects that way an
individual feel and act and accordingly a picture is constructed.
Cognitive psychology revolves around one notation that is if an individual wants to know what
makes people tick that way they do is by figuring out the processes that are going on in their
mind. In other words it can be said that this theory focusses on the process or mental health by
which knowledge is acquired. This approach focusses on all the mental functions for example
perception, memory, attention etc. this approach view people similar to the computers in the way
they process information (Gross, 2015).
Humanistic Approach: Humanistic psychologist believes that an individual is essentially good
and is always motivated to realize their full potential. This approach focusses on the way an
individual feel about themselves when they fulfil their goals and needs. This approach works on
individual empowerment. All the choices' comes from trying to improve one's lives.
It is a psychological perspective that emphasis on the study of the whole person. Many
humanistic psychologists study human behaviour not only through the eyes of the observer, but
also through the eyes of a person who is doing the behaving. According to some psychologist
behaviour of an individual is connected to their self image and inner feelings. Humanistic

perspective centres around the view that all the persons are individual and unique and has a free
will to change at any time in their lives. This approach says that approach says that all the
individuals are responsible for their own well being and happiness as a human being. All the
people have an inborn capacity for self-actualization, which is one's desire in order to achieve
their highest potential as a human.
Similarity and differences
Cognitive
Approach
Behavioural
Approach
Psychodynam
ic approach
Biological
Approach
Humanistic
Approach
Similarity This approach
focuses on the
behaviour of
the human
beings.
This approach
also focusses
on the way an
individual
thinks and
behaves.
This also
focusses on
the behaviour
and free will
of a person
like cognitive
approach.
Even this
approach
focusses on
the way an
individual
thinks like
behavioural
approach.
This approach
also focuses
on the way an
individual
feels about
themselves.
Dis-similarity According to
this approach
humans turn
away from
people as
machines
without free
will.
This approach
is extremely
effective when
an individual
do not think
about others
i.e. what they
think as long
as they get the
desired
behaviour.
This theory
says that
people have
very little free
will to make
choices in life
as behaviour
of a person is
determined by
their
childhood
experiences
and by their
unconscious
According to
this approach
an individual
thinks the way
they do
because of the
way their
brain is build
and because of
their body's
needs.
This approach
focusses on
the way an
individual feel
about
themselves
when they
fulfil their
goals and
needs. This
approach
works on
individual
empowerment.

mind. All the
choices' comes
from trying to
improve one's
lives.
Social Influence on Human Behaviour
Social influence occurs when a persons thoughts, emotions or behaviour are affected by
others whether unintentionally or intentionally. It takes many forms and can be seen in many
ways such as conformity, obedience, group influence, peer pressure etc. there are three broad
varieties of social influence such as: Compliance is when people agree with others but keep their
opinions private. Identification is when people get influenced by others who is respected and
liked like family celebrity. Internalization is when accepts someone's behaviour, belief or agree
both publicly as well as privately (Hewstone, Stroebe and Jonas, 2016).
Group influence, conformity and obedience and ways human behaviour is affected
Group Influence: Group influences human behaviour or their decision making process in many
ways such as for example: social loafing, group shift, group think and de-individuation etc.
Human behaviour can be influenced by presence of others. This influence can be both positive
and negative on human behaviour. Like it can be useful in context of team sports, work settings
etc. however this influence of group on individuals can generate negative behaviour as well.
There are many ways group can influence human behaviour such as:
Social loafing: It is a simple phenomenon where a person extracts fewer efforts for
achieving a goal when they work in a group then working alone. It is one of the main reason
groups are sometimes less productive. Due to this social loafing becomes one of the main reason
human behaviour are influenced.
Group shift: It is a phenomena where initial position of all the individual members of as
group are moved towards a more extreme position. Within a group risk is assessed differently by
all the members individually when they are alone. In a group decisions taken are riskier than all
the individual risks are seen less.
Group think is a psychological prenominal that occurs within a group where desire of
conformity results in incorrect decision making outcome. It can be further defined as a mode of

thinking where people are deeply engaged within a group. Here all the members of a group try to
minimize conflicts in order to reach correct decision without evaluating alternative ideas or
viewpoints.
De individuation can be defined as loss of one's individuality. Instead of acting as an
individual they become lost in a group i.e. they go along with the group i.e. whatever they do.
Implication for public services: Group influence in public sector is much more as because of de
individuation behaviour of others if affected in many ways as an individual looses their own
thinking or individuality and get influenced by others.
Conformity: Conformity is a type of social influence that involves change in belief, behaviour
or thinking to align with normative standards or with others. It is one of the most common form
of social influence. In peer pressure a person is convinced to do something that they might not
want to do but sees it as necessary in order to keep positive relationship with others. But in
conformity, peer pressure is formed which generally results in identification with the group
members or form compliance with other members of the group to satisfy others(Kwasnicka &
et.al., 2016).
It can be in appearance or maybe more complete in nature, impacting an individual both
privately or publicly. It demonstrates a public conformity to a group majority or their norms
while an individual continuous to privately disagrees by holding their own original believes or by
holding their alternative set of believes that differs from majority. Compliance generally appears
in the form of conformity but there is a division between public and private self. In conversion
there is a private acceptance which is normally absent in compliance. An individuals thinking,
belief or behaviour normally changes or align with other both publicly or privately. In other
words conformity is when an individual attempts to match their attitude with group norms or
majority. It sometimes results in incorrect or deviated decision making outcome. Sometimes a
certain level of conformity is essential or normal even necessary for community to functions. It
results in unconscious influence or direct overt social pressure but does not require physical
pressure from others to occurs for example: knowledge of public opinion causes an individual to
confirm norms even if they are all alone. It is of two types: normative influence when a person
conforms in order to get social acceptance or for avoiding social rejection. Second is
informational influences when a person seeks out their own group members to accept and obtain
accurate information about reality.

Implication for public services: Law enforcement done by police influences majority of people
and sometimes puts a peer pressure on them like most of the people follow all the guideline
made by politicians just to maintain good relation and avoid negative publicity or image infront
of them.
Obedience: It is another type of social influence that occurs when a person yields clear order or
instructions from an authority. It is another kind of social influence inhuman behaviour. One of
the most popular experiments in obedience is the milgram experiment which concluded that all
the humans are surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures. In
this migram experiment willingness of all the participants in order to obey an authority figure
who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. This
experiment was conducted by teachers on participants and a volunteer. Volunteer was a person
who was a part of the experiment but pretended to be a participant in the study. All the other
participants believed that his role was randomly assigned. All the participants were instructed to
shock the person in another room for every wrong answer. Due to this fear of pain all the
participants obediently followed all the instructions clearly.
So, it can be said that obedience is a type of social influence where a person all the
instruction clearly given by an authority figure even if they are not confident or hesitate in doing
so.
Implication for public services: Today organizational culture of many organizations is defined in
such a way that all the employees and management follow that culture blindly.
Consequences of prejudice and discrimination
Prejudice and discrimination: Prejudice is an incorrect or unjustified negative attitude towards
an individual solely based on their membership of a social group like a person can hold a
prejudice view towards a certain gender or towards a group. Whereas discrimination is an action
or a behaviour (normally negative) towards a group of people or towards an individual based on
sex, social class or race etc. Prejudiced person might not act on their attitude therefore a
prejudiced person might be prejudiced towards a certain group but will not discriminate against
them. There are three components of attitude in prejudice i.e. behaviour, affective, cognitive
whereas in discrimination only behaviour of a person is involved.
There are various types of discrimination such as: racial discrimination where a person is
discriminated based on their race, age discrimination where a person or a group is discriminated

based on their age, gender discrimination where a group or a person is discriminated based on
their gender at workplace, family or home. Prejudice and discrimination can affect human
behaviour is many forms such as a person getting prejudiced or discriminated might feel angry or
depressed. Sometimes due to these conflicts are created within two individuals or two groups as
a result of prejudice and discrimination.
Implication for public services: Prejudice and discrimination is done in organization in many
ways. Like discrimination on the basis of gender is extremely common in organizations like in
the name of appraisals and salary men are paid extra salary and extra increment as compared to
salaries paid to women.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it has been concluded that there are various kinds of psychological
perspectives that can be used to understand human behaviour. All the approaches are different
from each other and no particular approach is completely correct or is completely wrong. Here
five main approaches have been explained for understanding human behaviour which are:
biological, psychodynamic, behavioural, humanism and cognitive approach. It is also clear that
the effect of social influence is much more on human behaviour. There are various kinds of
social behaviour that might affect human behaviour in different ways which are: group influence,
conformity, obedience, prejudice and discrimination. All these kinds of social influence affects
both the individual and group behaviour in various ways like it can either create conflicts
between two individuals or groups or depress or make someone angry.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Coolican, H. (2017). Research methods and statistics in psychology. Psychology Press.
Dovido, J.F., & et.al., (2013). The Sage Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and
Discrimination. London: Sage Publications.
Gross, R. (2015). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour. 7th edn. London: Hodder
Education.
Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W. and Jonas, K. eds. ( 2016). An introduction to social psychology.
John Wiley & Sons.
Kwasnicka, D. & et.al., (2016). Theoretical explanations for maintenance of behaviour change: a
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Online
Psychological Perspectives. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wsu-sandbox/chapter/psychological-perspectives/>