Abnormal Psychology - Assignment Example

ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY al Affiliation) The cognitive perspective that is used in social interaction mainly begins through assumptions that humans are intelligent creatures. The assumption makes human be considered as not behaving merely by instinct, reflex and conditional response. Rather the behavior that human have is due to stimulus and reflex, active cognitive processes of perceiving, communication through language, thinking, remembering and through learning. Behaviors that are portrayed by human are mainly due to the social situations that they encounter. There has been recognition made by psychologists that people behave in a way that is unusual when they are in crowds more than they do when they are alone. There are situations where there are instances of war, terrorism or other conditions such as bravery which are manifestations of social conduct. Each experience that humans have with their social environment raises a lot of questions. The questions that are raised include the sources and impact of kindness or cruelty, the driving force of people to be influenced by other and the development and maintenance of relationships with other individuals. Influences of culture that one is exposed to the behaviors of individual and how people come to grip with the meaning of social environment are other factors that are considered in social psychology. Social psychology addresses the questions with consideration of wide range of human behavior. The field has also been able to answer the main issues that underlie the social world. This has made the promise hold real improvements in human condition. Social sciences have been dedicated in enabling understanding different conditions of human to the extent to which collective or singular human behaviors can be understood and predicted. The sciences however differed in the way they view opinions and questions that they address. Social psychology has involved the ways through which both social and mental process is used in determining actions. There are factors that are considered in changes in behavior and social influence. Aggression as a concept refers to range of behaviors that can be as a result of physical or psychological harm to someone (Aronson & Helmreich, 2003). This is able to occur verbally or through physical actions. Altruism is factor that also influences the behavior of one. It involves acting in a way to promote the welfare of someone at any cost possible even when there is risk associated. This is mainly on the basis that people act to cooperate but not to compete (Aronson & Helmreich, 2003). Obedience however is different but also a factor use in influencing individual behavior. Obedience involve the situation in which one obeys all the orders and activities instructed to do without considering the effects that are associated to it. Obedience has changed several behaviors as one has no time refusing the influence. Conformity as a factor of social influence that involves changes in beliefs that one had on given practices and objects to well fit in a group. Examples on changes of human behavior When Mindy was 19, she was a normal girl who participated in her school swimming team and always looked forward to going to the zoo with her mother. Drug and substance abuse was not a problem to her but the story of her boyfriend was very different. Her boyfriend was involved in smoking heroin (Aronson & Helmreich, 2003). He attempted to take her in several times but she never got into it. After sometimes, the boyfriend injected her with heroin without her knowledge and after sometimes, she was an addict and started stealing money from her parents to buy drugs. The people that she associated with, most were fellow addicts where they could get time to tell stories and inject themselves. When her situation came to the knowledge of her parents, the parents decided to give her a job in her father’s business to keep her busy. She met new people in the business and made new friends. One of her friends who have been addicted to drugs but latter stopped helped her with tips that she could use in stopping the addiction. She left her boyfriend. This slowly changed her and she eventually stopped using drugs. She has remained sober for a long time. From the example, there is evidence on how different social interactions affect the behaviors of one. This is mainly on the environment that one is exposed and the people that one most socialize. In Mindy’s case, she was not aware of drugs before she had her boyfriend who was addicted to using drugs. Her behavior changes after getting addicted as she spent most of her time with those that were addicts. Her separation from the addicts makes her recover from the addiction. In another example, an adolescent who is always shy in school when invited to a party may feel that there is a group that has paid attention in her. When she observes everyone in the party drinking and partying, the girl who has never drank when asked if she would drink says yes and drinks. She later becomes an addict without considering the consequences she would attain latter but drinks to please the people she is partying with at the time. The situation also shows how the group and social class that one is engorged affect the behavior of the person. Associated phenomenon of the selected behaviors The phenomenon that is related to the behavior in the second scenario of a girl who has not been in drugs getting addicted is social facilitation. Social facilitation is considered the idea or activity that one wants to do better in situations when the others are watching and would tend to do less of activity without influence of a group (Myers, 2013). Social facilitation is a situation when the task assigned is that one knows will be observed by others that also match the same skills and participation. This is the case of the girls as she admits to drink in the party since everyone around was doing so. Social loafing is also a phenomenon that is associated to the examples that are described. This involves tendency of an individual to put less effort when they are in a group since all the members are pooling their efforts to achieve a given strategy (Myers, 2013). In the case of Mindy, she was not able to move out of drugs until she was separated from the group since she fell as part of the group. She became less responsible as she felt part of the group ad that she could not move away from the group. References Aronson, E., & Helmreich, R. (2003). Social psychology. New York: Van Nostrand. Myers, D. (2013). Social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Read More