‘Human behavior and performance are the result of multiple influences.’ Examine and assess this assertion, drawing on examples from Chapters 1, 6 and 7 of Discovering Psychology. How a human behaves and performs is influenced by a variety of internal and external influences. This essay will outline and assess influences that are related to the formation of language, personality and friendship. This will be achieved by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of evidence collated from studies and experiments. This essay will aim to conclude that the theory of influences does affect human behavior and performance.
Argument Summary The argument that is being discussed is portrayed in two parts. The first part is from social psychologist Leon Festinger and James Carlsmith. These social psychologists believe that when a person’s attitude changes after they act in a way that contradicts the person’s “true or normal” attitude it is called cognitive dissonance. The second argument is by social psychologist Daryl Bem who believes that the self-perception a person has can explain the difference in how a person acts and their “true or normal” attitude. Cognition The way an individual thinks, the way he or she makes decisions, chooses how to behave, what to believe, or personal attitudes, is all cognitive processes.
It follows that specific agglomerations of ‘reality’ and ‘knowledge’ pertain to specific social contexts, and that these relationships will have to be included in an adequate sociological analysis of these contexts.” (p15) Berger and Luckmann believe that the sociology of knowledge should be concerned with a society’s criteria of knowledge and how this is developed. Their postpositivist stance is clearly laid out when they write of how members of society arrange their world view around their ‘here and now’, both originating and maintaining their ideas of reality and knowledge from their own thoughts and actions (and other significants in their life) rather than anything truly objective. The world of everyday life is not only taken for granted as reality by the ordinary members of society in the subjectively meaningful conduct of their lives. It is a world that originates in their thoughts and actions, and is maintained as real by these. (p 33) Berger and Luckmann believe that semiotics or signification is the primary means by which human beings categorise their subjective view of the world.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that, the main reason behind how people behave in a certain manner is due to the way they perceive, think, learn and remember things. The behaviour of a person depends on these factors. In other words, a person’s behaviour depends on the cognitive process of the brain. The study of this cognitive process is known as cognitive psychology (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012). The process through which we make sense of the world around us can be understood by studying two different key concepts known as Sensation and Perception (Baron, 2001).
Allport, in an attempt to define social psychology said it scientifically tried to explain the cognitions of the individual (for example behaviours) and how they are “influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of human beings” (Allport, 1954). In this essay I intend to start with writing about a few different social psychologists and a couple of famous studies to give a bit of background, before the crisis in social psychology. I then aim to develop this into showing what brought about the crisis - its contributions; I will address the various critiques of early experimental social psychology. After the contributions I will write about what happen after the “crisis” and assess if it had a big outcome on the discipline of social psychology. Social psychology has in roots in the beginning of the 20th century in America.
The NLP Communication Model Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is about the ability to discover and change the way we communicate (internally, with ourselves, and externally, with others) in order to achieve our specific and desired outcomes. The NLP communication model is based on cognitive psychology and was developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. According to the NLP communication model, when someone behaves in a certain way (their external behaviour), a chain reaction is set up within you (your internal response), which in turn causes you to respond in some way (your external behaviour), which then creates a chain reaction within the other person (their internal response), and the cycle continues. The internal representations that we make about an outside event are not necessarilythe event itself.Typically, what happens is that there is an external event and we run that eventthrough our internal processing. We make an Internal Representation (I/R) of thatevent.
Discuss two errors in attribution Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behaviour. The attribution theory relates to the concept that people try to make sense of their surroundings on the basis of what they think is the cause and what the effect of the situation. There are two attributions. When people attribute cause of other people’s behaviour to their internal characteristics, they make a dispositional attribution. The term disposition refers to somebody’s beliefs, attitudes, and personality.
Such generalization can occur in both classical and operant conditioning (if a CS is used). However, a subject can be taught to discriminate among sounds and to respond only to a specific sound. Cognitive Theories- Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person's thought processes. It also looks at how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world. The foremost
Sociology and the Family SOC101: Introduction to Sociology (GSP1114A) Instructor: Abstract Sociology is an area of study based on reality. Its observations and applications are founded in reality, and its theories have been derived out of various experiences of reality and now affect common perception of the same reality. The three main theories of sociology are the theories of Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Interactionism. They give credibility to a different understanding of and toward the different sociological institutions that are in place. By understanding the concepts of the each theories a person can see how they can affect the social institution, such as the family, differently and can present a more much better understanding of the concepts as they apply to reality.
Although positivists prefer taking objective social facts into account, it is evident that they are subjective in the source of data they will use, or are bound to use. Interactionalists, on the other hand consider that the reality of social behaviour is to be found when individuals interact and create their own social experiences. They seek meaning, and probe into the beliefs of individuals acting together in groups. Interactionalists use qualitative data. This data deals with the quality of human experience.