Group Social Influence Group Orientation and Social Essay

Group Social Influence

Group Orientation and Social Influence

Human behaviors are not always guided by personal feelings or internal urges. To the contrary, human behavior is inextricably linked to the context with in which it is committed. In other words, we often behave according to certain standards, norms, expectations and ideals that have originated outside of us and typically in broader systems like families, cultural identities, communities, ethnicities and nationalities. These social systems are often directly at the root of behavioral patterns and tendencies, and may help us to explain human behaviors as they occur en masse.

In the field of behavioral psychology, B.F. Skinner stands above others for the insight which he would provide on the relationship between individual behaviors and their broader social contexts. B.F. Skinner's ideas regarding operant behavior are crucial to understanding the way that group orientation causes individuals to behave. Human beings, Skinner would surmise, could be understood by way of behavioral observation, which would reveal much about the psychological relationship between inward disposition and external context. Specifically, Skinner would argue that most intelligent animals can be understood quite simply by way of their responses to external circumstances. His theoretical construct depended upon the principle of behavior modification, which he believed demonstrated a quality of human response instinct that could be channeled into a better understanding of the impact of social influences. Skinner would note that in any interaction between an animal and his external environment, a "behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future." (Boeree, 2006, p.1) This idea would, though seemingly simple, become a crucial paradigm for identifying causes to certain collective…