Humans are impressionable; our interactions with others can influence and guide present and future behaviour, which is especially apparent in children. Psychologists attempt to understand the relationship between social context and behaviour to identify cause and effect.
We are particularly interested in specific aspects of social context and behaviour, such as:
Social influence
Language, thought, and communication
Brain and neuropsychology
Psychological problems
Psychologists attempt to understand behaviour through social context and behaviours, freepik.com/pch.vector
Meaning of social context
The social context meaning in psychology is research that investigates social phenomena. Some examples of things researched in this area include the social environment and interactions among people. Social context can focus on social interactions amongst specific people, such as people from different backgrounds or social situations in specific settings such as prisons.
Social interactions differ in nature between people.
Some people are shy and may have difficulties socially interacting and find social interactions difficult.
This is also the case for people diagnosed with certain mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. However, some people are on the opposite scale who thrive in social interactions.
Research investigating social context attempt to explain how this affects behaviour.
The importance of the social context on behaviour
The interactions humans have with one another guide and influence current and future thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. Research has found that people tend to accept the views of people they resonate with; Tajfel coined this term the in-group.
According to the theory, people are biased towards members of the in-group. They often have discriminative and prejudicial views of people they do not resonate with (the out-group), which shows the importance of social context, as to how we interact with others governs our behaviour and how people act with us.
Examples of social context in pschology
The social context and psychology topics covered are social influence, language, thought and communication, brain and neuropsychology, psychological problems, including sleep and dreaming, criminal psychology, and the self.
Social influence
Social influence investigates how people's views, attitudes and beliefs can change due to the presence of other people. This is an important aspect of psychology as it can help researchers understand why and how people's views can change. Research has found that conformity and obedience have negative effects, including prejudice and discrimination.
Some of the topics covered include:
- Conformity
- Obedience
- Prejudice
- Prosocial behaviour and crowd and collective behaviours
Language, thought, and communication
Language, thought, and communication explains communication, whether verbal or non-verbal and how this links to communicating with others. Language, thought, and communication also cover comparative research investigating differences between human and animal communication.
Some of the topics covered in this section include:
The relationship between language and thought
Differences between human and animal communication
Non-verbal communication
Pre-linguistic thought and pre-intellectual language
Brain and neuropsychology
Brain and neuropsychology cover the brain's structure, how it works, how the brain is researched, and neuropsychological illnesses. These topics are an important aspect of psychology because we need to learn how the brain functions to understand psychological illnesses.
The technology used to measure brain structure and activity has evolved throughout psychology, allowing us to learn more about the brain and how neurological damage in the brain can affect behaviour/ mental illnesses.
Some of the topics covered in this section are:
Structure and function of the nervous system
Neuron structure and function
Structure and function of the brain
An introduction to neuropsychology
Cognitive neuroscience
Use of scanning techniques
The effects of neurological damage on behaviour
Psychologists study various aspects of the brain, including issues with mental health, freepik.com/pch.vector
Sleep and dreaming
Sleep and dreaming discuss and explains sleep. Sleep is essential for human functioning and survival. Sleep is known to be the period when the body spends time recuperating. However, it is a little more complex than this. Characteristics and their role can differentiate several stages of sleep.
Psychologists have put forward theories to explain the purpose of sleeping and dreaming.
Some of the topics covered in this section include:
The social context of behaviour
As noted social interactions influence behaviour. Research into the social context of behaviour has found that social factors and others influence the onset and can be used to treat mental illnesses. Social-cognitive psychologists such as Bandura argue that cognitive processes and observing and imitating maladaptive modelled behaviour can cause the onset of mental illnesses.
However, it is important to note psychologists take different approaches to explaining mental illnesses.
Biological psychologists argue that the onset of mental illnesses is due to biological factors such as genetics, dysfunctional neurotransmitters, chemical imbalances in the brain and dysfunctional brain regions.
Psychological problems
Psychological problems build upon the brain and neuropsychology topic. It explains illnesses in terms of different psychological approaches and explanations of mental illnesses. In addition to this, treatment options for such mental illnesses are also discussed.
Some of the topics covered in this section include:
The influence of social context on behaviour
Research into social context attitudes and behaviour has shown that social factors such as sociodemographics (race, age, gender, social class) can influence attitudes, behaviour, and self-perception.
Beck called this the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy is when an individual is labelled as something by others, the individual then begins to accept the opinion/label.
The self-fulfilling prophecy reinforces the belief and causes the individual to act in that specific way. For instance, if someone is dubbed trouble because they come from a poor background. If the individual is constantly reacted to negatively, their behaviour starts to align with this negative view.
Research into social context attitudes and behaviour can affect behaviour, and research has attempted to use this to explain phenomena such as crime.
Criminal psychology
Crime is a prevalent problem in the world. Psychologists have researched why people commit crimes and if preventative measures can help reduce crime rates. In addition to this, researchers try to apply psychology theories to understand how retribution of crimes can be used to prevent people from committing crimes again.
Some of the topics covered in this section include:
- Understanding crime
- How crime is measured
- Learning theories of criminality
- Biological explanations of criminality
- Rehabilitation
The self
This section covers topics in psychology that are researched to help understand more about individuals. Such as factors that influence the type of person that someone becomes. Some of the topics covered in this section include:
Social Context of Behaviour - Key takeaways
- Humans are impressionable; our interactions with others can influence and guide present and future behaviour.
- Some examples of things researched in social context and behaviour include the social environment and social interactions amongst people, focusing on social interactions amongst specific people, such as people from different backgrounds or social situations in particular settings such as prisons.
- Some social context example research areas are: social influence, language, thought and communication, brain and neuropsychology, and sleep and dreaming.
- Research into the social context of behaviour has found that social factors, in addition to other factors, influence the onset and can be used to treat mental illnesses. A core topic that is covered in this section is psychological problems.
- Research into social context attitudes and behaviour has shown that social factors such as sociodemographics (race, age, gender, and social class) can influence attitudes and behaviour, which can influence how individuals see themself and behaviour toward others. The core topics covered in this section are:
Criminal psychology
The self.
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