Social Influence On Behavior

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Social influence is an occurrence where individual thinking, behaviors and ability to act is driven and influenced by their peers or a group of people that surrounds them. For an individual’s behaviors to be driven, it can take different perspective depending on the situation, environment and personality. A Harvard psychologist classified social influence into compliance, identification and internalization.

Compliance is a situation where a group of people come into agreement but in actual sense there is part of the group who has their own opinion which they don’t want to disclose. They keep these opinions to themselves because they are not for the prosperity but for the negative impact. Identification is a situation where people who are recognized because of their position, achievements, social class are involved. Because of the superior nature, they try to spearhead most of the events with minimal contradictions from their inferiors. They believe they are perfect and the inferiors also believe that they have nothing to offer.

This social influence is very common where you will find people who are respected, ...
... liked and famous. Internalization occur when people come in agreements openly but still have there private opinions. It takes both perspective of public and private concessions on belief or behavior. When people agree on a concept, certain group may still adhere to their long-term values, beliefs and attitude which are contrary to the actual agreement not because they are rebellious but because they are used to them and have been their lifestyle. I believe that how individual behaves is dependant on social influence.

How individual behavior changes based on social situations
Our society has the mechanisms to drive and influence our behaviors in many different ways. They can imposed laws governing people against any behavior not socially acceptable and any body who breaches will be punished based on the set laws. It can also restrict any unprofessional behavior in an organizations through setting up tough ethical code such that if any employee in an organization is found breaching, he or she is punished based on the codes and ethics rules and regulation. Our religious institutions can also influence our behaviors by developing ethics and morals which are punishable when committed .Let’s look at how these examples would influence individual behavior.

Law and Regulations
Laws laid down by society can change individual behaviors (Compton, 1994). These rules and regulations in terms of norms and values of which society member is expected to adhere to can affect his or her way of life either positively or negatively. Rules and norms governing drugs such as alcohol, bang, and cigarettes abuse can have positive influence on the youths in the society. Youths develop the habit of drug abuse in the early age due to peer group influence and curiosity. They are driven by the effect of groupthink. This may be because they want to avoid being seen as foolish, embarrassed or trying to please other group members. In some societies, rule that prohibit abuse of these drugs especially bang are imposed such that any individual found guilty will have to face the law. Most of the individual will have to shy away from such act because of the consequences. Intervention for the victim can be through support and educational group, family counseling and psychological therapies and any affected individual can be brought back to track.

In some societies, girl teenagers who get pregnant outside marriage are killed (France, 24). Others are disowned from the community and forced to marry old aged men as a form of punishment. Some traditional societies also have norms that have negative impact on individual. For instance the act of women inheritance which is a common practice in some Islamic and African communities has been a contributor to the spread of HIV&AIDS which is killing many people in the world today. Young boys and men take the advantage develop the habit and get involved without knowing the consequences. The vulnerable who are the women get affected as their men get involved with the infected widows. This problem has been reduced through educating members of the society on the adverse effect of upholding certain traditions which affect their people (NML, 2002).

Traditions are different in most of our society set up. What one society recognizes a tradition may not be recognized in another social set up. Tradition is another social situation that influences individual behavior. Visser (1991) argued that many traditions are also classified as rituals and are as old as humanity, and are conducted in order for everyone in that particular society to behave in socially acceptable ways.

Professional ethics
Most professional organizations have established code of ethics for their personnel (Herlihy, etal, 1996). These codes are set in an attempt to minimize chances of unethical and unprofessional behaviors among the employees in an organization For instance, in the personal attribute of an employee; the code of ethics may state clearly what is expected of an employee in terms of attires during the official working hours. If an individual who has not been used to office wear joins an institution requiring him or her to put on official attires, he will have to adapt and adhere to the rule and with time that will be his daily lifestyle. The organization may also have clear outline of what is expected of an employee in terms of personal and social ethics (Grolier, 1993).The way one relates to oneself and how one relates to other people may be stated clearly in the code of ethics. For instance, how an employee should relate to the boss and fellow employees. If an individual join an institution that has their own prescribed code of behavior, personal attributes and office etiquettes, he will be force to transform to that particular institution’s code of behaviors and recommended personal attribute. In general, an institution can have behavioral change in an individual.
Conclusion
Social situation affect individual behavior in different phenomenon. A person can keep his independent mind to enhance togetherness in a group. An individual can also get lifted to a level he cannot manage when a lone because of the audience effect. A person can also have the habit group loafing by putting less effort when in group work reducing the out put of the group and making it less productive. In general individual, who rebels against these law and regulations, mores, norms, and value always are faced with consequences where one can be imprisoned, killed, disowned and shunned from certain groups but at the same time he or she can be accepted in to other groups which upholds such habits. As they move along with their rebellious nature some of them regrets later after realizing their weakness and even feel worse about themselves and get transformed.

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