Psychology of Behaviour: Exploring Perspectives and Group Influence

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PSYCHOLOGY OF BEHAVIOUR
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
LO1..............................................................................................................................................................4
P1.............................................................................................................................................................4
MI............................................................................................................................................................7
LO2..............................................................................................................................................................8
P1.............................................................................................................................................................8
MI..........................................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
In this assignment, we will deal with the psychological behaviour of the individual. There are various
views of psychology that explained human behaviour. We will learn different terminology to explain the
behaviour of children to adulthood. Group influence can affect teamwork and group assignment. We
will discuss this topic in depth by providing various examples in order to understand the human mind
and behaviour.
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LO1
Psychology can be defined as a study of human behaviour and mind. Psychology is concerning various
sub-fields of studies such as human growth and development, social behaviour, emotion and cognitive
process (Gross, 2015). In this assignment, we will discuss the various perspective of psychology such as
cognitive, biological, psychodynamic, humanistic, socio-cultural and behaviourist. These perspective are
very useful in order to understand the different theories of psychology and related disorders.
P1
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The biological perspective of psychology deals with the human mind and behaviour based on the
biological process of a human. Many scientists explained the link between the human mind and the
brain (Gross, 2015). The main cause of thought, feeling and behaviour of human is neurotransmitter,
genes and hormones. Thy psychologist explained that the behaviour of people does not depend on their
choice but it is a result of the immune, nervous system and genetic background. The biological viewpoint
of individual obsessive behaviour can be described on the basis of genes that have been acquired from
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the parents (Gross, 2015). Charles Darwin is one of the famous supports of the biological perspective. He
explained that the behaviour of people has been transferred from one generation to another
generation. He explained that the behaviour of human is hereditary. And he assumed that there is a
strong connection between genes and behavior (Gross, 2015). The biological perspective includes sleep,
emotion, sexual behaviour, disorders, aggressive behaviour, memory and learning skills. This theory
explained that the behaviour of human is a result of changes in the nervous system.
HUMANISM PERSPECTIVE
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow give the idea of humanism perspective (Brown et al, 2017). The
humanism perspective explained that an individual is responsible for their own happiness and wellbeing.
Self-actualization is an inborn capacity in the people and hence people may have high potential to
achieve a unique desired in their life (Brown et al, 2017). The humanism perspective has explained the
philosophy of existentialism which means human survival or it's about life. This perspective deals with
the new set of values to determine the human condition and nature. It has main focus over the values
and belief of human, active nature of human beings and the worth of the individual. This perspective
also explained that human beings are different from others as they are more conscious than animals and
capable to generate thinking, reason and language (Brown et al, 2017). The behaviour of people is based
on the inborn feeling and it changes as subjected to the free will of the people. This perspective is being
used in psychotherapy for self-improvement and understanding.
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE
The perspective of psychodynamic theory state that the past affected the psychological condition of a
human. This perspective explains the behaviour of people in terms of the unconscious state. The
psychodynamic perspective is based on the idea of Sigmund Freud (Isler & Newland, 2017). He has
explained that the behaviour of human is driven by the unconscious mind. He explained that the
insentient mind drives the sentient mind of people. The people could not store sentient thought such as
emotion, experience, incidence, feeling and hence sentient mind can store such events. This perspective
strongly recommended that the behaviour of human is governed by the thought process (Isler &
Newland, 2017). He explained in his theory that the behaviour of children is influenced by the behaviour
of the adult. Adult behaviour may affect the growth and development of child behaviour. He clarified
that the childhood experience has been stored in the insentient stage and it has been reflected in the
adult life in the forms of difficulties. The viewpoint of the psychodynamic theory is mainly based on the
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psychoanalytic theory (Isler & Newland, 2017). Sigmund Freud believes that the personality of the
people is mainly governed by the insentient mind. He believed that insentient and sentient mind conflict
each other and hence individual may feel anxiety and mental disorders.
BEHAVIOURIST PERSPECTIVE
The behaviourist perspective has the main focus on the aims and objective of the scientific method of
examination (Spear, 2016). This perspective explained that the behaviour of human is being affected by
environmental factors as the environment is playing a key role in transmitting human behaviour. People
can be trained due to various responses such as feedback, reward, punishment and praise. The
humanistic viewpoint is different from various other perspectives because these perspectives believe
that human behaviour is being controlled by the environment and hence it is a result of what is being
acquired by the environment (Spear, 2016). This theory explained human behaviour by the stimulus-
response relationship. It mainly focuses on the conspicuous event rather than believing on such event
that occurs inside the individual such as view, though, sense and belief. John Watson is the father of
behaviourist viewpoint (Spear, 2016). Ivan Pavlov is another scientist who has explained classical
conditioning theory. He had conducted a various experiment that is based on the stimulus and response
mechanism of the body. The theory is based on artificial and conditioned stimulus. Fears are also
explained by the classical conditioning theory. Another theory that explained the humanistic perspective
is operant conditioning (Spear, 2016). This theory was given by B.F. Skinner which state that the
behaviours of people are depends on the significance of their behaviour. He explained that behaviour
can be control by the positive as well as negative corroboration. He has conducted many experiments to
prove this. One such example of operant conditioning is when the kid is given chocolate when he cries,
then we would cry more to receive chocolates and hence the kid behaviours is increased because the
consequence is pleasurable (Spear, 2016). This perspective is to deal with the basic idea that has been
connected to an environmental factor. However, this perspective is being criticised by many
psychologists because it does not any attention to the complexity of behaviour of human being.
COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE
Cognitive viewpoint in psychology deals with the modern approach in order to understand the
behaviour of people. This theory addresses cognitive functions in order to analyse the behaviour of the
people (Rescorla, 2018). This theory believes that cognitive factors are the underlying cause of all the
behaviour of human being. It explains that there is a various internal process in the mind that may lead
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to behaviour change in the people. Wilhelm Wundt is a famous psychologist who explained that there is
a connecting link between mind and behaviour of the person (Rescorla, 2018). The cognitive viewpoint
explained that there is a various internal process such as learning, memory, intelligence, language,
problem-solving skills are the motivation to behaviour. The researchers use various technologies such as
PET scan, MRI, fMRI scan to view the certain image of the brain to identify the person humour. These
technologies are very useful in order for the active part of the human brain when certain behaviour is
performed. This perspective dealing with the understanding of the various mental process that may be
linked with the behaviour of human being (Rescorla, 2018) The specific behaviour of human lead to
achieving the goals and objective and establish aims.
MI
Various perspective of psychology has explained human behavior in their own way. The biological
perspective state gene, immune and nervous system are responsible for human behavior. Humanism
perspective states that people are itself responsible for their behavior (Rescorla, 2018). Psychodynamic
perspective explained that there are various unconscious events and thought that are responsible for
human behavior. Behaviorism viewpoint believed that environmental factor are the main cause of
behavior of people while cognitive perspective explained that there are various internal process that are
responsible for human behavior. The humanism perspective rejected psychodynamic perspective
because this theory is deterministic with insensible irrational that explained human mind and thought
(Brown et al, 2017).
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LO2
P1
GROUP INFLUENCE
Social loafing:- social loafing is a concept where people exert efforts and strength when they are carrying
out the task in the group. The people may perform better with great strength and effort when they are
during task individually (Pascual-Leone, Paivio & Harrington, 2016). This phenomenon may adversely
affect the people itself as well as a group. The people are generally often less motivation towards goals
when they are performing in the group. It may lead o negative impact of the group as well as on people
itself. Generally, people are not showing their interest in their goals when they are performing the task
in the group (Pascual-Leone, Paivio & Harrington, 2016).
DEINDIVIDUATION
Deindividuation is a concept in the identity and the responsibility of the people is diffuse when they
become part of the group. When people become a member of a group, they generally tend to lose their
identity and adopt the new identity of a group. This may lead to a diffusion of self-responsibility
(Guntrip, 2018). The people tend to lose the moral consequence of their own behaviour and this
responsibility is imposed on another group. This may lead to affect the identity and personality of the
individual.
BYSTANDER BEHAVIOUR
Bystander behaviour is shown by the person in the crowd. Person experience distribution of
responsibility when they are I the crowd. Every people in the crowd think that it is the responsibility of
other people to help the victim in an emergency (Dietrich, & List, 2016). The symptoms of bystander
effect are bystander apathy and it is so common. The bystander intervention is a good approach
wherein people exhibit positive behaviour to analyses the situation and to help the victim in the
emergency. In this person required to step up in the situation. It can be also explained with the help of
the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Bibb Latane and John Darley have conducted a variety of an
experiment which explained that time needs to react in the situation is depends on the number of
people present in the given situation (Dietrich, & List, 2016). People generally imagine somebody to help
the victim which may give rise to selfless behaviour.
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PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE
Pluralistic behaviour comes when people do not agree on the given situation but has to become the part
of it and people often lead to sacrifice their thought and feeling due to various norm, behaviour and
attitude share and form the identity of a group (Vaartstra, Dunn, & Dunn, 2018).
The above discusses phenomenon can distress the teamwork and group assignment.
CONFORMITY
MAJORITY INFLUENCE AND PEER PRESSURE
Majority influence occurs when the person behaviour in the large group may affect the behaviour of the
person of a small group (Bègue et al, 2015). The psychology of human is changed with time. People are
generally more influence with the society, peer and colleague. Various studies reveal that the behaviour
of people affect with whom they have spent more time. Peer pressure can lead to the various change in
individual behaviour. It may have a negative or positive impact and these are commonly found in a
teenager (Bègue et al, 2015).
ACCEPTANCE AND COMPLIANCE
Compliance is a phenomenon in which a person obeys the rules and regulation but not in an isolated
zone while acceptance is when people hold their views and idea which is in agreement with the
behaviour of the group (Oppenheimer, 2015).
NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND INFORMATION SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Information social influence is a concept people change their view and opinion according to the view of
a group in order to obtain the correct conclusion. The normative social effect occurs when people follow
the order according to the group. It can be influenced by the group size and the support from the
community (Oppenheimer, 2015).
PERCEIVED EXPERTISE EFFECT AND EFFECT OF PERCEPTION IN EMERGENCY SITUATION
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The perceived-expertise effect depends on the strength of the advice and does not change due to a
change in setting (Whitley & Kite, 2016). The perceptions of emergency situation effect occur when
awareness of risk among the people increases.
The above-discussed phenomenon has a variable effect of conformity on the politician, prison which is
very sensitive to social influence.
OBEDIENCE
GROUP, WE OBEY
People obey their senior, elders, family member, professor and old people (Whitley & Kite, 2016).
People are generally obeyed their elder or family members due to cultural effect which demands
respect to elders. People obey their senior because of work ethics and they are higher experience
person than oneself.
FACTOR AFFECTING OBEDIENCE
There are various factors that influence obedience (McDonald & Crandall, 2015). authority is one of
them. People are likely to obey the person who has more power and authority. Milgram's conducted an
experiment that explains the effect of personal accountability on obedience. If the person is having less
accountability to the given condition he is more likely to obey. On the other side if he acquired more
accountability the level of obedience falls.
The idea of obedience has implied on the prison and organization culture to follow the rules and
instruction in the workplace (McDonald & Crandall, 2015).
MI
DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE
PREJUDICE AND ITS FORM
Prejudice can be explained as an unreasoned belief to a particular group in the community that are
lower to others (Knoll et al, 2015). There are various types of prejudice such as class, gender, sexual,
disability, age, ethnic minority and caste prejudice. Prejudice depends on the various situation like
migrant people from the nation can be treated as biased from the other person of the nation (Knoll et al,
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2015). Discrimination is defined as the negative behaviour or action adopted by the people to other
people on the bases of age, sex, caste, disability, race, colour and social culture (Reicher et al, 2016).
REASONS FOR PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION
The main reason behind the prejudice due to personal frustration of people, inadequate knowledge and
experience, the threat to self-esteem and competition pressure among the person within the society in
order to accomplish the goals and objective (Law et al, 2017). Partiality among the group is another
cause of prejudice and discrimination because people are adopting the new and different culture and
prejudice their own culture. Socialization can also be the cause of prejudice in which people pass their
idea from one to another (Law et al, 2017).
INDIVIDUAL CONTROL OF OWN BEHAVIOUR
People should take responsibility to control their behaviour. There are three main functions that
explained self-control behaviour of the individual (Suleiman, & Deardorff, 2015). Redressive is first in
which people tend to control their pain and anxiety. The people learn to cope up with the stress and
pressure. Reformative is the second one that simplifies in order to accept new behaviour but may have
fewer chances of occurrence. The third is experimental self-control (Suleiman, & Deardorff, 2015). These
help the people to experience and enjoy the new activities and should be conscious to balance in the
society in order to criticised discrimination and stereotype thinking.
IMPACT OF DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE ON ORGANISATION OR VICTIM
Poor performance
Bias condition may affect the performance of the individual (Wentzel, & Ramani, 2016). The stereotype
thinking may affect the growth and development of personality and people may become more
conscious which affect the performance of the people.
Mental health issue
This factor may lead to stress, anxiety and depression which may lead to disturbing the mental health of
the individual (Tonnies, 2017).
Physical health issue
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Due to poor performance and disturb mental issue, a person may not able to balance the health and
wellbeing in the society (Paull et al, 2016). People may become a reserve and not interact with anyone
which affects health status.
The prejudice and discrimination condition may lead to delivered bias treatment and support to the
patients.
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