Psychological Analysis of Herbert's Complex Social Environment Case

This case study examines the complex social environment affecting Herbert, a 65-year-old man with chronic hypertension. It explores the challenges he faces in his marriage, his lifestyle choices, and his reluctance to seek medical help. The analysis incorporates psychological concepts such as locus of control, social influence, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand Herbert's behavior and motivations. The case study also addresses issues of inequality and cultural influences that contribute to Herbert's unique situation, highlighting the impact of his choices on his health and well-being. The solution provides insights into how these factors interact and shape Herbert's daily life, offering a comprehensive understanding of his psychological state within his social context.

Complex social environment of psychology refers to a condition when there is
complexity in the socio-environment that adversely affects the psychological health of a
person (Roehrle & Strouse, 2019) p. 1. Here, in the case-study, Herbert is facing many
complex environments such as the home environment, relationship with his wife, and playing
pokies at local hotel. His wife is planning to leave her as she is not happy with Herbert and
complaints on his behaviour. Herbert most of the time spends playing pokies at the local hotel
and as a consequence, they are suffering from some financial issues. In this context, the
concept of Locus of control can be discussed which is a degree of personality psychology in
which people believe they have control over every situation that affects their lives and also
blame outside force for any adverse outcomes (Cobb-Clark, Kassenboehmer & Sinning,
2016) p.1. Here, Herbert also complaints for everything as stated by his wife. Even, Herbert
is looking forward to lose some weight as his wife is nagging according to him. Again, he is
making own decision which reflects his internal locus of control attitude. Also, there are
some social influences associated with the case study. Social influence basically refers to the
ways in which all the external factors alter their behaviour (Taylor & Eckles, 2018) p. 2.
Some of the social influences are self esteem, life style, isolation, and withdrawal. In
Herbert’s life, life style and self esteem these two are social influences affecting his life. Due
to extreme amount of self-esteem, he avoids taking suggestions from physicians and he also
discussed with his neighbour that it is impossible for him to be bossed by the nurses or
doctors and this is the reason behind his refusal of staying in nursing homes or visit to a
doctor. He drinks red wine too much and does not follow any exercise. As a result he is
overweight and faces many challenges while working in the garden for not being fit. He also
consumes take away food and blames her wife’s lack of cooking skill due to this purpose.
Again, Herbert’s wife always stays in contact with their grandchildren and sends gifts but
Herbert is quite isolated from them. In order to deal with various kinds of social influences,

Maslow’s law of hierarchy can be elaborated and it includes belonging and love needs,
physiological needs, self-actualizing needs, safety as well as security needs, esteem need,
cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and transcendence needs (Lee & Hanna, 2015) p. 139. This
hierarchy model can be applied to motivate Herbert in this regard.
Here, concept of inequality arrives which basically refers to the quality of not being
equal like others which depicts the difference (Gimpelson & Treisman, 2018) p. 2. In his age,
Herbert can face many health issues, but unlike other people of his age, he is reluctant to visit
GP as much as possible or stay in nursing homes if required. Even he refuses to seek help for
his issues with vision. He is not willing to visit their family doctor in case of any health issue
and does not want to be controlled by nurses. All these qualities of Herbert make him less
than equal from the people of same age. Even, there are some inequalities in the culture of
Herbert which makes him different from the other people of his age. Culture is a social
behaviour found in human societies that reflects ideas, customs of a particular people or
society (Storey, 2018) p. 1. Herbert is 65 years old and in his age, it is quite obvious that he
might showcase temper, poor lifestyle, etc. People, suffering from hypertension might be
short-tempered, traumatized. Their behaviour can also change easily due to the feeling of
stress. Herbert is having excessive amount of self-esteem, due to which he refuses visiting
doctors. As a result he is taking decisions for his own health problems and which are harmful.
In this way, his culture is affecting his health decisions.

References
Cobb-Clark, D. A., Kassenboehmer, S. C., & Sinning, M. G. (2016). Locus of control and
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Gimpelson, V., & Treisman, D. (2018). Misperceiving inequality. Economics &
Politics, 30(1), 27-54.
Lee, J. M., & Hanna, S. D. (2015). Savings goals and saving behavior from a perspective of
Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 26(2).
Roehrle, B., & Strouse, J. (2019). Community psychological perspective of psychotherapy: A
contradiction?. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 5(1), 7-25.
Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.
Taylor, S. J., & Eckles, D. (2018). Randomized experiments to detect and estimate social
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