Introduction
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read or hear the term psychology? Do you envision therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, clinical and neuropsychologists? What about the study of mental disorders, big pharma, or addiction? Do names like Freud, Pavlov, Vygotsky, Jung, Piaget, Cattell or Allport come to mind? What about big comfy couches to stretch out on whilst revealing your deepest, darkest secrets? If any of this comes to mind, well, you're on the right track. For most, psychology conjures the concept of the mind and human behavior. Although psychology is a vast domain, within it resides many sub-fields that all harness different ideas and approaches to the overall study of human behavior and mental processes. However, even though sub-domains hold divergent theories and approaches, they can all be linked on a wide scale in the sense that when integrated, we gain a much broader depiction and understanding of the human condition. Each sub-domain has a particular set of guiding theories, and though different, there is some overlap seen among the diverse sub-fields. In this integrated literature review, the sub-domains of cognitive, physiological, personality, and social psychology will be examined in relation to how each explains aspects of human behavior and the human condition. Cognitive theories focus much attention on internal states, such as decision-making, thinking, attention, motivation, and problem-solving. Physiological methods focus much attention on self-preservation and reproduction. Personality theories look at the traits, thoughts, feelings, and patterns of behavior that make individuals unique, and social theories focus on social behavior but specifically look at things like love, group behavior, social influence, prosocial behavior, and more. Overall, these theories can be integrated to comprehend the natural world and human thought and behavior better. All resources for this literature review were identified, analyzed, and synthesized through key term searchers, such as "Cognitive Psychology and Behavior," "Physiological Psychology and Behavior," so on and so forth. From there, literature was chosen based on how recent the research was and based on explanations of individual components and aspects of human behavior. A wide variety of literature was selected within each domain to provide a relatively expansive view of human behavior from multiple viewpoints. All literature within each field, when integrated, aims to illuminate a more comprehensive look at the different elements that influence rational thought, behavior, and overall human condition.
Human behavior. How important is it, and how does understanding its dynamics help us understand the overall nature and complexity of the human condition? The study of human behavior is a primary topic of intrigue within the field of psychology. This study often involves trying to measure the immeasurable and then conferring meaning from assessment outcomes. It attempts to look at what humans do and why we do it. Human behavior is looked at through a variety of lenses. Such lenses include, but are not limited to: behavioral, cognitive, social, humanistic, psychoanalytic, personality, so on and so forth. In general, human behavior has been viewed as relatively predictable; however, it is important to note that though predictable, behavior is influenced by a number of components. Thus, in this literature review, the complexity of human behavior will be examined and explained through the domains of cognitive, physiological, personality, and social psychology. The findings from each area will then be integrated to illustrate the unique dynamics that influence the ways humans behave.
An important question to ask when studying human behavior is why is this quest for understanding so imperative. For starters, we humans are primarily social beings. What this means is that humans tend to flourish and survive longer when we establish strong interpersonal and social relationships with others. Analyzing human behavior and interpreting how distinct components can positively and/or adversely influence behaviors and actions can assist in creating and maintaining constructive social relations in an attempt to support a harmonious society. Moreover, understanding human behavior can assist with recognizing deviations in normal behavior and can subsequently help with identifying things like mental illness, neurodevelopmental disorders, cognitive and behavioral disabilities, etc. These kinds of insights can enable us to better comprehend motives behind the way people behave and act, and ultimately allow us to adopt more open and receptive attitudes towards others. When we look at different aspects and theories of how human behavior is influenced, such as cognitive, physiological, personality, and social elements, we stand to gain a more profound grasp, perception, and appreciation for the overall human condition.
Discussion
As aforementioned, a wide variety of literature was selected for this review in an effort to produce an inclusive look at how various factors within different apparatuses can help to explain the intricacies of human behavior. In this review, we will focus mainly on the cognitive, physiological, personality, and social domains. Cognitive psychology was born out of a certain dissatisfaction with behaviorism, wherein the behavioral approach only looks at observable behavior without really taking into consideration the inner processes that produce the behavior. Cognitive psychology by and large looks at humans as information processors, where our minds are similar to that of a computer's operations of input, output, and storage. Within cognitive psychology, it is understood that our thought practices directly influence our behavior, in which thoughts act as intercessional processes between stimulus and behavioral response(s). However, worth noting is how human cognition and intelligence, and its relation to behavior, has almost always attempted to be explicated on models of our most cutting-edge technology (Bennett and Hacker, 2015). Before describing the connection between body and mind through the computer analogy, it was explained by Plato as a charioteer (reason) attempting to control two horses (passion and appetite). From there, Descartes rationalized it regarding automata and water control systems and then when the twentieth century rolled around, cognition was likened to the central telephone exchange until the inception of the computer (Bennett and Hacker, 2015). Regardless of what model cognition and its relationship to human behavior are based on, it remains that our thought processes have the power to prompt a wide variety of behavioral reactions.
One study illustrates that even just thinking about a certain food item in vivid detail can make us crave that food so intensely, that we subsequently find ways to satiate the craving (Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2006). However, when there was an interference with the cognitive processes of these mental images, food cravings were largely reduced. What this ultimately signified was how there are specific connections between variables that produce different outcomes. When there is a vivid image and habitual craving for a food item, a person will find a way to satisfy the need. When there is a situational craving, yet little imagery to provoke a strong behavioral response, there is a reduction in the craving (Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2006). Such findings can be utilized to inform theories about the connection between cognition and behavior, with a particular emphasis on desire(s) and the link between cognition and emotions. For instance, research illustrates that even improving one's attitude and memory performance can have positive impacts. Roskos-Ewoldsen (2006) revealed that aging adults' attitudes regarding themselves could be influenced both positively and/or negatively merely through the subliminal presentation of either positive or negative words that are associated with stereotypes of aging. Memory performance and attitudes were significantly diminished when negative subliminal words (e.g., decrepit, senile) were presented, whereas memory performance and attitudes positively increased with positive words (e.g., accomplished, wise). What this represented was the unique correlation between cognitive performance and affect-relative processing. Another study reveals that self-talk, especially in the passive voice, plays an integral role in the control of our thoughts and behaviors. Senay, Usak, and Prokop (2015) conducted four experiments across two different languages and discovered that individuals who thought about their verbal or motor responses in a passive voice rather than an active voice, were better able to control certain behaviors. This has extraordinary implications concerning the overall success of things like task-performance.
Further, this study indicated that individuals who focus on the self in the first-person singular have a much more difficult time with emotional and behavioral regulation. However, when focusing on the self in second-person singular, or by concentrating on a task through passive self-talk, individuals have better control over their behavior and emotions (Senay, Usak, & Prokop, 2015). Adding to this, a study on body checking cognitions and behavior and the role they play in disordered eating revealed that emotions might play a huge part in the link between the two. Authors Haase, Mountford, and Waller (2007) explain how social physique anxiety is linked to disordered eating in that it mediates the connection between body checking cognitions and body checking behavior. Overall, the study revealed and further supports claims above, that cognition and emotion have the great potential to influence human behavior; albeit sometimes in adverse and/or destructive ways.
In a more recent study, a small group of children aged two-to-five years old were assessed on their propensity for reactive and proactive helping. This study was conducted under an experimental design. While most studies examining prosocial behavior in children typically take place in North America and predominantly European populations, this study took place in rural Vanuatu. The findings from this study have essential cultural implications in that they can be included in the generalizability of outcomes and add essential insights to cross-cultural studies. What the results from this unique study revealed was that even in the dearth of explicit behavioral prompts from a person in need of assistance, the children provided help. While there is a higher inclination to participate in reactive helping, children are highly capable and motivated by engaging in proactive helping (Aime, Broesch, Aknin & Warneken, 2017).
Further, the outcomes of the study illuminate the real capacity of children's cognitive abilities, because children must be able to conclusively infer another individual's need for assistance without depending on communicative or behavioral prompts to engage in authentic proactive helping. Such a study only further demonstrates how our cognitive abilities can impact our behavioral responses in a variety of contexts and situations. Another study on prosocial behavior, and keeping in line with emotions and how they subsequently influence cognition and behavior, authors Torstveit, Sutterlin, and Lugo (2006) conducted a study examining guilt proneness as a dispositional trait in relation to prosocial behavior. Not only were levels of guilt proneness measured, but the frequency of prosocial behavior and related cognitions like empathy were assessed. The outcomes of this study illustrated that guilt proneness, when coupled with empathy, explicates variances in prosocial behavior.
Additionally, gender divergences played a role in precursors of prosocial behavior, signifying that women are more influenced by the effects of guilt proneness on helping when compared to men. Guilt proneness was also linked to moral behaviors like conscientiousness, agreeableness, altruistic behavior, perspective taking, etc. Such qualities were viewed as elements to increase the likelihood of the helpful behavior.
Moving forward, the earlier study about thinking about food in intense detail and then developing an intense craving that leads to consuming behavior can be linked to another study within the physiological domain, wherein authors explicated how food enables humans to fulfill their biological essentials of surviving and passing down their genes; thus, when being confronted with food within a slew of environments, it prompts the behavioral response to consume the food (Bailey, 2015). This is especially true when the food is appealing to all our senses. Thus, it holds that physiological psychology works to understand the connections and exchanges between chemical and/or physical processes within the body and our mental states and behavior. When looking at behavior through the physiological lens, we come to understand that human behavior is often driven by primary biological motivators. Bailey (2015) explained that primary biological motivators include things like food, mate opportunities, threats, danger, so on and so forth. These motivators are said to stimulate a beings appetitive and aversive structures that influence the proper processing of information, as well as behavioral and emotional responses. The appetitive and aversive systems are triggered independently in response to environmental stimuli, not only in reaction to biological motivators but also to emotionally relevant data that is present in the environment (Bailey, 2015).
Another aspect to consider when endeavoring to understand human behavior is the actual biological structure and makeup of the human nervous system within the brain. The human nervous system is comprised of two parts; the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Understanding the neuroanatomical edifice of the brain is imperative because the brain's architecture lends valuable insights into how areas of the brain act together with the remainder of the nervous system, and impacts behavior, emotions, and functional expressions (Loucks, 1941; Patterson, 2016).
Additionally, many studies illustrate the role of genetics in the development and influence of both personality and human behavior. One such study was a meta-analysis conducted by Vukasovic and Bratko (2015), where they worked to synthesize existing literature in the area of personality heritability in an attempt to develop new knowledge through testing moderating effects of "personality model, study design, and gender on heritability estimates" (p. 770). The 45 prior studies that were synthesized revealed that 40% of a person's personality is contributed by genetics and hereditary (Vukasovic & Bratko, 2015). While environment also plays a significant role in the influence of personality and behavior, specific variables are more difficult to identify. However, we can assume that early development and construction of the nervous system plays a key role in later behavior responses.
Following the theme of development, one study examined developmental trajectories for social and physical aggression in children and adolescents aged 9 to 18. Results from this study indicated that social and physical aggression declined somewhat from middle childhood to adolescence. Children and adolescence who illustrated higher physical aggression typically came from single-parent families, and parents demonstrated high permissiveness. Additionally, the outcomes indicated that permissive parenting in middle childhood was a vast contributing factoring to higher trajectories of social aggression (Ehrenreich, Beron, Brinkley, & Underwood, 2014). Moreover, and worth noting, the research also revealed that marked types of aggression might be linked to psychological maladjustment. But why is this important? Well, understanding this unique dynamic to social and physical aggression may help in developing better early intervention programs, and may help provide insight into how aggression essentially unfolds over development. In another study looking at adolescent behavior, Hayatbakhsh et al. (2008) examined the relationship between adolescent psychopathology and problem behaviors with substance use disorder(s) in early adulthood, and whether or not these relations are thwarted by additional factors. What this study ultimately uncovered was that things like aggression, attention issues, and delinquency predict later substance use disorders; adolescent delinquent behavior had the strongest correlation with substance use. Explanations for findings include genetics, environment, and attachment issues (Hayatbakhsh et al., 2008). This takes us back to previous discussions on development, further signifying that things like genetics, environment, and how well one forms early attachments can have profound impacts on psychopathology and ultimately behavior.
A final study takes a look at developmental and environmental influences on physiology and behavior from the time a fetus is in utero. Life Science Research (2016) reports that environmental factors taking place during in utero development may impact a person's later disease and health vulnerability. Moreover, stressors like psychosocial stress, altered diet, and immune difficulty during the period of gestation can have potential adverse outcomes on the intrauterine environment, which could increase the vulnerability to disease for the developing fetus (Life Science Research, 2016). So what does this tell us? It reveals that perhaps some of our later behaviors, psychiatric diseases, as well as other health complications may stem from a stressful in utero environment, wherein optimal development was compromised by outside environmental, emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial factors.
Personality psychology looks at cognition, affect, behavior, and desire (Wilt & Revelle, 2015). Cognition is how we think, affect is how we feel, behavior is what we do, and desire is what we want and more times than not, the thing that assists in expounding human behavior. Personality psychology aims to look at the central ways in which individuals differ, primarily using taxonomies of traits, such as the Big Five, which covers five broad traits of extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability/neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness/intellect (Wilt & Revelle, 2015). Gaining a better grasp of traits like the abovementioned can bring about a more profound awareness and comprehension of matters of mental illness, mental health, relationships, and even job success. Further, in general, personality psychology can contribute to our understanding of not only behavior within a social context, but it moves research towards a direction that attempts to understand the whole person.
Additionally, and worth noting here due to the next section dealing with social psychology, is that personality psychology and social psychology are two chief domains of investigation that endeavor to gain a better awareness of human behavior. Because of this shared concentration, research suggests that interactionism might be a prospective conduit. However, instead of mechanical interactionism being a viable intersection between the two fields, dynamic interactionism is vital. As maintained by Reynolds et al. (2010), dynamic interactionism contends that human behavior is a product of unremitting and equal interface between an individual and the settings they come across. This is important and further supports the gravitation toward personality psychology looking at the whole person and the entire situation.
As previously mentioned, personality psychology often utilizes trait models to look at and understand unique links to human behavior. The Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality is broadly used in a wide variety of experiments and analyses. In a study conducted by Trobst et al. (2000), authors surveyed a program of inquiry in an underprivileged, high-risk population that demonstrated the usefulness of the five-factor model in comprehending health risk behavior, particularly in relation to the risk of HIV infection. What authors discovered was behaviors linked to risk of infection can be anticipated from personality characteristics of low conscientiousness and neuroticism. Moreover, openness to experience was also associated with the risk of HIV infection. Another study conducted by Slagt et al. (2015) utilizing the Big Five model, looked at whether certain traits make some adolescents more vulnerable than others to delinquent behavior of friends. The participants included 285 Dutch adolescents and their best friends. The vulnerability to both self-reported and perceived delinquent behavior of friends was assessed. Findings illustrated that perceived delinquency of friends foretold a more profound increase in adolescent delinquency one year later, particularly in adolescents with low or average conscientiousness (Slagt et al., 2015). Further, it was determined that low conscientiousness functions as a risk factor, enhancing susceptibility to the professed delinquent behavior of friends, whereas high conscientiousness acts as a protective element and improves resilience to the believed delinquent behavior of friends.
Also, this study revealed that adolescents are vulnerable to, and vary in vulnerability to, friends' delinquent behavior as they identify it. Adolescence is a particularly tumultuous time, as susceptibility to peer socialization effects are more noticeable due to this age group becoming more and more concerned with the way they are viewed by their peers. Because of this drive to make impressions upon peers, adolescence is a time where adolescents are more prone to changing their behavior, whether good or bad, to conform to that of their friends.
Personality psychology can also lend insight into things like predicting self-confident behavior and understanding factors that contribute to and/or reduce aggression/aggressive behaviors. In one (2016) study carried out by Krause, Back, Egloff and Schmukle, the authors evaluated the legitimacy of prevalent explicit and implicit measures of self-esteem in forecasting self-confident behavior in diverse social settings. In this study, explicit and implicit self-esteem was hypothesized to be connected to looking and seeming self-confident to unknown others. For this research, there were a total of 127 participants who each took part in a number of measures, to include the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Multidimensional Self-Esteem Scale, as well as an adjective scale whose purpose was to gauge direct/explicit self-esteem. There were also four additional indirect measures that assessed implicit self-esteem.
Additionally, self-confident behavior was examined in four diverse social situations. What this study uncovered was that seeming self-confident to unacquainted others was objectively projected by both explicit and implicit self-esteem. Further, indirect measures were not associated, and only the self-esteem affective priming tasks calculated self-confident behaviors. Additionally, the implicit association test and the name-letter test did NOT predict self-confident behaviors (Krause et al., 2016). Overall, the research illustrated that compared to people with low self-esteem, people with high self-esteem are more self-confident in situations where they must make a self-introduction, where they are experiencing being ostracized by unknown members of a group, in interviews going over the ostracism experience, and when being questioned about their personal life. Moreover, it was determined that individuals with high self-esteem not only anticipate to regarded and respected in new social settings and situations, but they also behave in more self-confident fashions when compared to those who harness low self-esteem.
When it comes to personality and aggressive behavior, most research concentrates on the factors that are linked to an elevation in aggression. Some factors include social rejection, violent media, trait anger, alcohol use, weapons, and provocation (Meier & Wilkowski, 2013). Although such research has made it possible to develop models of aggression, it is crucial to start examining factors that work to diminish aggression and harmful behavior. Meier and Wilkowski (2013) do just that in their study. Authors utilize a broad researched model of aggression to evaluate factors that are believed to lessen aggression. These variables included: pro-social experiences, self-control, and processes of appraisal. This research was relevant and important because it demonstrated the great need for psychologists to dig deeper into why aggressive behavior occurs and in what ways we can go about reducing it. Aggressive behavior is influenced by many variables, particularly individuals who harness anger traits like high neuroticism. With already predisposed anger traits, other factors like environments and social interactions play a key role in enhancing aggressive behavior. Now we need to determine what factors will be most beneficial and decreasing this behavior.
In contrast to personality psychology, social psychology undertakes the study of how behavior and thought processes are inspired by social situations. Whereas personality psychology concentrates principally on individualistic sides of human personality, social psychology places particular emphasis on the social aspects of personality. Indisputably, the two specialties can be connected in unique ways, such as explained through phenomena like positive and/or negative intergroup processes. In point of fact, authors Siem, Sturmer, Pittinsky, and Nadler (2016) enlighten how there has been a sort of resurrection of concentration in the role of personality in the analysis of intergroup behavior and attitudes. This not only has unique implications for interpersonal relationships, but within work, social, and political frameworks as well. For instance, things like globalization, opening up national borders, increasing rates of migration, and the exponential expansion of innovative communication technologies are worldwide phenomena. The U.S. alone is one of the most massive mixing bowls, wherein running into people from diverse ethnicities, religions, and cultural backgrounds are relatively commonplace. Because of this, one of the most prevailing questions of our times is how we can encourage and endorse characteristics of acceptance and tolerance to other social groups that are outside of our social in-groups. Understanding intergroup relations and the policies that promote them might provide insights into how to shift attitudes and behaviors to be more positive and welcoming to cross-group exploration and outgroup helping (Siem et al., 2016). This, in turn, could have future implications for things like public, political, work, school, and overall community policy.
Being a part of a community is a significant factor in developing and maintaining social and interpersonal relationships. Moreover, our communities and social interactions are intricately connected to our individual health and well-being. The behaviors and norms that are established within our communities can have a direct impact and influence on our behavior. In a (2016) study conducted by Anderson, Currie, Copeland, and Metz, the interaction between income and community belonging were examined in an effort to identify any link to influence on leisure inactive behavior amongst Indigenous adults. Data was collected from 1,304 First Nations adults in Canada, who each completed the Canadian Community Health Survey. The findings from this study suggested that amid average income earners, a powerful sense of belonging to the local community was tied to fewer sedentary behaviors, whereas low-income earners' compelling sense of belonging to their local communities was linked to more sedentary behaviors (Anderson et al., 2016). Each of these findings is somewhat consistent throughout novel literature. Why is this important? Sedentary behaviors, such as sitting for extended periods of time, has been linked to health issues like obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even mental health conditions like anxiety and depression (Anderson et al., 2016). Our sense of belonging to our distinct communities is theoretically separate from social support and is individually correlated with self-reports of health behavior, health behavior shifts, and just overall general health. Findings from this study reveal that perhaps future health policies should consider contextual factors, especially when creating prevention strategies to diminish inactive behaviors, and maybe these policies should consider incorporating strategies that promote increasing community belonging.
Social norms and attitudes also play a central role in things like mental illness and seeking help for mental health issues. Things like discrimination and stigma are paramount in adding to the burden of living with a mental illness. Stereotypes, prejudice, and overall negative attitudes from the general public in relation to mental illness are still seemingly widespread in many societies. These factors influence a number of factors and behaviors in those struggling with mental health conditions. For example, in their (2016) study, Hansson, Stjernsward, and Svensson explained that discrimination and stigma affect people with mental illness that results in things like low self-esteem/quality of life, diminished possibilities of work, finances, adequate housing, seeking help, and even triggers non-compliance and drop-outs to treatment. Because of this, authors felt it necessary to evaluate shifts in attitudes towards people with mental illness, mental health literacy and international behavior in the general population of Sweden and populations in campaign regions. It was held that there hadn't been much change in attitudes, behavior, and literacy regarding mental illness/mental health. Mental illness is still widely viewed in a negative light; however, the study did reveal that more positive attitudes and behaviors were more prominent in populations in campaign regions. The campaigns were designed to bring about better awareness in an effort to dramatically reduce adverse positions, stigma, and discrimination of those afflicted with mental health issues.
Additionally, media coverage plays a chief role in the continuation or lessening of mental health stigma. If there are positive shifts in media coverage, it is likely that this will produce a ripple effect and help encourage more positive and open attitudes towards mental illness not just in Swedish populations, but worldwide. These sort of positive changes can then be a reliable source for opening up avenues for more treatment seeking and treatment compliance behavior.
Furthermore, how we think and behave is also contingent upon the dominant class(es) within societies, and their ideas and beliefs. This sort of philosophy and way of life dates back as far as Ancient Greek philosophers. Because of this long-standing tradition, many scholars have questioned whether or not humans are gullible. Being gullible entails blindly accepting just about any kind of information that is fed to us. While it is indeed plausible that humans have gullible moments, one study illustrates that humans are primarily equipped with mechanisms of epistemic vigilance, wherein we are vigilant towards communicated information (Mercier, 2017). What this ultimately means is that through epistemic vigilance, humans can gauge the plausibility of disclosed information and determine whether or not to trust the information. Mercier (2017) reviewed data from a number of cultural domains, such as religion, politics, propaganda, demagoguery and so on, that have often been associated with strong gullibility to see if humans indeed are gullible by nature. What was found was that, no, we humans don't have a natural predisposition to be gullible; however, we do have a natural inclination to calibrate our trust through epistemic vigilance. But what does this have to do with social psychology? Well, epistemic vigilance enables humans to determine what information aligns with already established beliefs and those that don't. It allows us to evaluate arguments that are being presented to convince us to do something. It provides insights into things like voter behavior, consumer behavior, so on and so forth. Factors like these play a crucial part in understanding the way individuals think and behave, as well as how society as a whole thinks and behaves.
Expounding on the previous study about how certain behaviors are influenced by popular social and individual belief systems, social influence also applies to how people form, shift, and maintain judgments. Independent judgments are frequently mediated by the observation of others' judgments. This is especially true when it comes to things like which political party we vote for, buying products, and even as something as simple as donating blood. With the expansion in technology, research is now endeavoring to look at how online social influence affects human behavior. What is being looked at mostly is how behavior and information are expanded in online social networks (Vande Kerckhove et al., 2016). Social media is one of the leading online social networks that is influencing human behavior in current everyday society. Social media influences how we shop, what we shop for, our education, it even influences our relationships. Though we like to believe that we are, for the most part, in charge of our everyday lives, research is starting to illustrate how things like what we eat, where we go, what we do, who we engage in intimate relationships with, and even how we feel is considerably influenced by the people around us and those around them, and so forth. Our individual actions, beliefs, and behaviors have the power to influence others' actions, beliefs, and behaviors. This is even true for people we have never actually met (Kasteler, 2014). Social media networks seemingly breed and spread contagions. It is a social tool that can generate pandemics of substance abuse, disordered eating habits, changes in political and voter affiliation, body image issues, and overall general mental health. As we evolve more and more into a completely technological society, online social influences will continue to play a central role in human behavior. Thus, it is imperative to be conscientious about what sort of information we are putting out there into the online environment.
A final study considered for this literature review is one on play behavior in adult populations. While much research literature has documented the importance of play behavior in children for optimal and healthy development and well-being, there is less research on play behavior in adults and how this could impact overall health and well-being. Play has been linked to cognitive, emotional, and social development, as well as imagination, creativity, high self-esteem, and adaptability in children (Vleet & Feeney, 2015). In adults, play is often viewed as unproductive and petty. Vleet and Feeney (2015) point out how play is just as vital for adults as it is for kids. Our need for pleasure and innovation doesn't dissipate as we get older; thus, play is something central and necessary when it comes to relationships, creativity, and problem-solving. Play is something that has the unique ability to make a deep connection between strangers possible. It can also foster healing. Adult play has important implications not only concerning our social interactions and relationships, but it also provides another avenue for combating things like stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and myriad other health issues. Therefore, future research should be geared toward longitudinally exploring play behavior in adults in an effort to come up with strategies to improve both relational and personal well-being, and ultimately help create a society with less health and mental health ailments.
Before concluding this integrative literature review, it is essential to examine the overall reliability, validity, and generalizability of the studies utilized throughout each of the four content domains. The studies that were chosen within each field were selected based on their reliability, validity, and general generalizability. The studies each measured what they intended to measure and used past and current research to validate the claims and findings. Findings from ongoing studies were then able to be connected to prior research findings, effectively illustrating the generalizability of outcomes. Though there will always be limitations, authors within each of the articles outlined those limitations and then gave sound suggestions for future research to eliminate the weaknesses of the study. The American Psychological Association's ethical principles and code of conduct would have influenced the reliability and/or generalizability of findings by ensuring that the study was cognizant of things like multiculturalism. Authors went to great lengths to secure the rights and dignity of participants were upheld, and that unfair discrimination was avoided. Ethical considerations were mostly consistent across each of the selected domains and worked to validate further and substantiate research findings.
Additionally, throughout each of the four domains, research literature has been presented to illustrate different theories for why humans behave in the ways that we do. While each field harnesses its own distinct set of philosophies and theories, these individual theories can all be integrated to produce a more comprehensive view of what influences behavior and to provide a perspective that aims to look at the whole person, rather than just fragments. Through this deep integration of concepts, we understand that human cognition, biological/physiological makeup, personality traits, and predispositions, along with social influences all play central roles in how we think, act and behave like human beings. We see that more extensive research needs to be done to understand links between cognition and emotions, how our biological makeup can impact said cognition and emotions, and how each of these in-turn impact personality and our ability to function adequately with society and social networks. Each distinct domain is intricately connected to the next on some level. Together, they provide an inclusive view of the inner and outer mechanisms and systems of human behavior.
Conclusion
To conclude, the studies within each of the abovementioned domains work to assimilate conceptions, theories, and models from a multiplicity of spheres to not only rationalize individual behavior but overall human behavior in an array of contexts. The human condition is involved, and research has just started to graze the surface of its true depths. As humans, we have always seemed to evolve out of ignorance into other states of ignorance. What this means is that even when we amass knowledge, there is still going to be new situations that are going to present themselves and require us to dig for more understanding. Thus, for as long as the human condition evolves, so too will human behavior. What this essentially means, is that human behavior may never fully be understood.
Nevertheless, by examining behavior from myriad provinces and fields, we gain a better understanding of some of the intricacies attached to the human species and are better able to come up with practical ways to cope, manage, and treat people in a general effort to sustain a harmonious society. One question that remains, however, is the role of desire in the evolution of behavior. If desire is one of the foremost motivating factors for human behavior, and if human behavior is something that consistently evolves, does that mean our desires change over time as well? And to what extent and within what contexts does desire evolve and subsequently influence/impact behavior? Is there a consistency in types of desire? For instance, are there other factors related to desire outside of primitive needs for survival that are important in understanding human behavior and the overall condition? This could be an area of research for each domain to focus on in the future.
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