Social Influences on Behavior - Essay Example

Running Head: Social Influences on Behavior Social Influences on Behavior Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Customer Inserts Tutor's Name18 October 2009 Generally, society and communication behavior influence what people do and how they behave. People accomplish actions which are publicly observable such as body movements, speaking, and so on. The first case is a real life example: the chosen person is my cousin Christopher who works for a growing FMCG company under large pressure of his management.

He has got used to work long hours and cannot imagine his life without the cell phone and its usage every minute everywhere. What is the reason for concern is his driving behavior while talking on the cell-phone. Christopher becomes inattentive; he fails to notice important road signs and even pedestrians. As far as it is impossible for him not to talk on the phone while driving (he works outside the office and thus is to be available and easy of access at all times) there is supposed to be some way to make him more attentive and careful (Knobloch and Solomon 2003).

Following the theory of social influences it is possible to say that this behavior is doing dissonance. This behavior is characterized by free choice of actions, no rewards and no excuse. The main focus is on behavior and practical outcomes. This is supposed to be such a principle as negative reinforcement. But Christopher's behavior (if changed) will be difficult to control. So this variant of influence can be used as additional and a kind of a safety net. What is more likely to have its positive effect on Christopher's driving behavior is such principle as respondent conditioning.

This principle is supposed to be used in order to establish certain response based on methods developed and described by Ivan Pavlov and his disciples. There are some possibilities of making Christopher be more careful on the way while talking on his cell-phone. First of all, it is possible to engage his close relatives (and even friends) into the process and ask them to constantly remind Christopher to be careful. as soon as he begins to be more attentive and drives more safely their constant reminders will stop.

In this type of conditioning some kind of an initially neutral stimulus is supposed to eventually cause a conditioned response. I believe this principle to be the most appropriate and effective in this situation as it is supposed to cause a long-term reaction which will protect Christopher from meeting with an accident on the road while driving and talking on the cell-phone (Ray, 1996). The second example of social influences which cause changes in behavior patterns is gay relations. In this case, art reflects visual reality and emotions, unique feelings and relations between people and social attitudes towards these relations.

Still, many gay people are frightened and anxious speaking openly with colleagues about sexual orientation so they tend to use conflict styles of communication. Conflict styles tend to be reciprocal for fairly obvious reasons. Generally, inconsistent styles do not fit together comfortably. It is more difficult and less plausible to deny the presence of conflict, for example, after the partner has disclosed deep-seated feelings of anxiety and fear. There are also straightforward affective linkages between some styles (Ferch, 2001).

Compliments provoke positive feelings and lead to return compliments. In actuality, fear is bound to differ dramatically, depending on such factors as (a) how serious the fear is, (b) how motivated the person is to avoid it, (c) how serious the consequences, and (d) whether the actor has had time to change the situation. Consequently, when anxiety and fear take place, leakage may be far less apparent and the fear may be far less likely to draw suspicion. Moreover, internally experienced fear need not always yield overt indicators of it (Ray, 1996).

Social judgment theory states that social attitude is important for people, so negative attitude towards a person leads to a conflict. The cognitive-behavioral model can help these people to change thinking patterns of their personalities and manage negative attitudes and communication patterns. The aim of cognitive-behavioral therapy is to teach and elucidate a client how to maintain healthy life style and how to think positively. The task of the counselor is o determine symptoms, and most likely, an inability of a client to reappraise these misinterpretations realisticallyReferencesKnobloch, L.K., Solomon, D.H. (2003).

Responses to Changes in Relational Uncertainty within Dating Relationships: Emotions and Communication Strategies. Communication Studies, 54 (3), 282. Ferch, Ch. R. (2001). Relational Conversation: Meaningful Communication as a Therapeutic Intervention. Counseling and Values, 45 (2), 118. Ray, E. B. (1996). Communication and Disenfranchisement: Social Health Issues and Implications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.