Social Influences on Behavior free essay sample

An 1800’s novelist; Herman Merville wrote â€Å"We cannot live for ourselves alone, for our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads†. A social psychologist studies how the human behavior changes based on social situations. They closely analyze how people respond to the unexpected situations. As social beings we do this type of anyalizing everyday; questioning another persons actions, was that man flirting with me, did that woman just give me a dirty look? This essay will outline the basic concepts of the social influences on human behavior. People tend to follow the lead of others, if one person in a group stares out the window, soon others will follow this lead, or if there is one person yawning, laughing or even coughing, soon others will copy these actions. A bartender will put money in his own tip cup in order for it to appear that others have already tipped him, this â€Å"seed† money will elicite others to conform to giving a tip. Conformity is when we change our actions, thinking and behavior to match a group or individual. People comply for various reasons, such as to avoid rejection, to be accepted, or even to keep a job or social status. This type of behavior would be called normative social influences or the â€Å"social norm† expected normal social reactions and or behaviors directed by social influences. A person that refuses to conform to the social norms could face serious altercations, for example Rosa Parks a tired African American woman riding the bus refuses to give her seat to a white man. During that era this was unheard of and she was arrested and fined, ultimatly her actions gained followers and the Cival Rights Movement began. However, if it haden’t been for her brave actions to go against the social norm, society may have progressed in a much different direction. One person’s actions or behavior can have a tremendous impact on an entire culture or society as a whole. Another reason that people may conform is to learn, when working in a group if a person offers reasonable insight as to why something should be changed we may decided to conform to the change as we have accepted their information as being valuble. This type of informational social ifluences allow us to make intelligent choices to change our behavior based on social Influences. A great example is the amount of people that have stopped smoking. We were educated of the dangers associated with tobacco, and people wanted changes to be made after being educated, the changes in smoking has made our society as a whole healthier. Social influences can produce either constructive or destructive behaviors in people. A group of six teenagers are walking around the mall and two of them decide they are going to steal, and the otheer four comply because they want to be accepted and they are caught. This type of submissive conformity can be destructive. Visser believes that many traditions are as ancient as humanity and in many ways the foundation of our socially acceptable behaviors. An example are proper table manners are basically universal regardless of the culture the similarities are world wide. Laws are also a way in which social influences affect human behaviors. There are two types of laws, the ones that society creates and places in writing and are enforced by the police and court system, the second is natual laws or the laws of nature such as everything eventually dies, however death should not occur through the hands of another, this initially was a natural law that of course became a written law. Our current legal system consists of criminal law and cival law. Criminal laws cover crimes that are so harmful that they are punished by sever fines, imprisonment or even death, and upheld by government agencies. Civil laws are associted with lesser crimes and are in relation to individuals. These laws both natural and written infuence our behaviors and are set boundaries by society. Professional ethics and licensure is another area in which society has influences on our behaviors. Certain professions such as lawyers, physicians, psychologists, and others have formal codes of ethics with very specific responsibilities. These ethics may or may not match our personal morals, for example a doctor may have a faith that is against abortion, but has a patient that wants information regarding an abortion, ethically the doctor must supply the patient with the information regardless of their personal beliefs. Kohlberg’s seven stage theory of moral development consists of; preconventional morality consisting of, pleasure/pain, to avoid pain or not get caught, cost/ benefit, to get rewards, conventional morality consisting of, good child, to gain acceptance, law and order, follow rules. Principled morality which consists of, social contract to promote society’s welfare, ethical principle, to achieve justice, cosmic to be true to universal principles. Social influences on our behaviors start at birth and are developed end enforced through our caregivers. Media such as music, magazines and television can have a great influence on our behaviors from what we chose to wear, to where we buy our clothes, even who we vote for in an election. Depending on which media we watch will variey on the outcome of our behaviors, so for instance if one newpaper is supporting a certain canidate or has a bias against one, we may be purswayed to follow that lead. The most deliberate attempt to influence behavior is created within our educational system. There has been rapid advancement in child development and education. This advancement has allowed us to redirect our attention to solving problems of children in society, such as creating the program called Head Start. Head Start was created to assist low-income families giving their children a head start in education, behavior and social interactions. Another institute that makes the deliberate attempt to influence our behaviors is religion. Regardless of the particular type of faith that you chose they all have ethical and moral views that are expected to be followed. The catholic religion believes in monogomy, no abortions, abstannce until marriage. Many followers live by these beliefs and their behaviors revolve around their religious beliefs. Society accepts these behaviors and often respects the dediction to the individuals faith. Social facilitation is the phomomina of people prefoming at a higher level through the encouragement of an audience and or support of others. This of course is most influentian with people who hold high regards to what others percieve of them. I witness this type of behavior on a regular basis but in two very different settings. The first setting is at my daughter’s soccer games. When the team has played more than half the game and is losing badly, they often continue the second half of the game in one of two ways, however this is greatly influenced on the parents cheering and encouragment to not give up. If there are only a few parents in attendance and they are quiet the team will basically give up and put little to no effort into the second half of the game, however if there is a lot of cheering the girls will â€Å"fight† to the end putting their best efforts forward. The second setting that I see at work is when a child is consistantly told by family members that they are not able to do their school work, or follow the rules. These children receive little encouragement and often doubt themselves and their own abilities. However, I always ask them if they think they can do it, and then I say that I know they can. I tell them that if they try their hardest and do their best then they are not a failure. I take on the role of their personal cheerleader, and often their behaviors will change dramatically. Typically I would say that behaviors that warrant a theraputic intervention are behaviors that cause harm to individuals or others. Harm can be psyical, emotional, or jepordize a persons health. If the person is exhibiting behaviors that are not dangerous or harmful, but instead may just be out of the social norm, yet they are capable of functioning in society even if on a very basic level then there should be no need for any type of theraputic intervention. If the individual personally seeks out help on their own, then of course assistance should be given.