Psychology: UGC The study of the human psyche was carried out two thousand years ago . True, then the doctrine was based on the philosophy of great thinkers. But psychology as independent science arose only at the beginning the 20th century. Scientists study various areas the human psyche, including behavior . How did this area of psychology develop and who worked on it? Find out from the article.
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Social norms: general concepts
Norms of human behavior in society are a rather multifaceted concept that reflects the forms of interaction of an individual with the world around him.
A person as a social unit must be guided by the rules and customs established in a particular society. Each specific situation has its own set of rules, which, however, are not fixed. Thus, actions that are acceptable in one society are categorically unacceptable in another. On the other hand, social norms of individual behavior can change depending on the situation and time. For example, imagine that you met with old friends with whom you have been friends for many years. You can allow yourself to be free, to wear what you think is necessary, not to be shy about expressions containing profanity, cheeky gestures and bad habits. Friends are used to you and perceive all your actions as the norm. Now imagine that you come to work for a large corporation and plan to achieve considerable career success here. Your image, actions and gestures in this situation will be radically different from the previous situation: your appearance corresponds to the dress code, your speech takes on a business-like tone, bad habits are veiled as much as possible. But a year or two later you go with your employees to a long-planned corporate party. In this situation, you can allow yourself to show a part of your true self. After all, despite the fact that the composition of society has not changed, the situation has changed, and too restrained behavior may be perceived by others as distrust or hostility on your part.
If norms of behavior can be mobile, then the fundamental principles that determine behavioral manners and outlook on life must have clearer boundaries.
Psychology of help. Altruism, egoism, empathy E. P. Ilyin, 2013
2.2. Internal factors, or Who provides help more often
When making a decision to provide a service or assistance, a person takes into account factors such as time spent, efforts made, monetary expenses, delay of his plans, unsatisfaction of his needs, danger to his health and life. In this case, the decisive factor is whether a person has acquired norms of social responsibility
(standards of moral behavior in relation to other people), or, as domestic psychologists write, the presence of a “sense of duty.” A person with high morality and a high “sense of duty,” despite the expenditure of time, money and effort, will help a person in trouble. At the same time, he will take responsibility for the results of assistance.
Ickes and co-authors (Ickes, Kidd, 1976; Ickes, Kidd, Berkowitz, 1976) showed that the “aura of success” in an activity or resources obtained by the person himself (due to his abilities, and not due to external reasons) increase readiness person to provide financial assistance. However, the influence of the “aura of success” turns out to be short-lived (Isen, Clark, Schwartz, 1976). It was also found that the state of elation instilled in the subjects in the experiment increased their readiness to provide help (Aderman, 1972; Cunningham et al., 1980).
Influence of living environment.
Compared with residents of small cities or rural areas, residents of metropolitan areas are less likely to provide services (Hedge and Yousif, 1992; Kort and Kerr, 1975; Steblay, 1987).
Residents of megacities rarely appear alone in public places, which explains their less responsiveness (compared to the responsiveness of residents of small cities).
“Compassion fatigue” and “sensory overload” that arise from communicating with a large number of people in need of help lead to the fact that in all countries of the world, residents of large cities are in no hurry to provide it (Yousif, Korte, 1995). Fatigue and overload explain the results of experiments conducted by Robert Levine and his colleagues in 36 cities involving several thousand people (Levine et al., 1995). When approaching different people, the experimenters either “accidentally” dropped a pen, or asked to change a banknote, or portrayed a blind man who needed to be taken across the road, etc. The larger the city and the higher the population density in it, the less inclined they were to help him. residents. Myers D., 2004
This is confirmed by Russian studies. T.V. Barlas and E.S. Ekimova (2012) found that self-esteem of kindness among residents of a large city (Muscovites) was lower than among residents of a small city. S. V. Kondrashenkova
(2012) indirectly confirms this trend: residents in a region with unfavorable living conditions have a strong desire for mutual support and an orientation towards helping others, with a decrease in the emphasis on their own interests.
The influence of age.
Researchers have not reached a clear conclusion regarding the influence of age on helping behavior. Murphy (1943) found that the need to selflessly help another child manifests itself in children as young as three years old. According to Harris (1967), verbal altruism (judgments based on altruistic norms) increases with age. Studying the behavior of children aged 5 to 14 years, Green and Shneider (1974) noted an increase with age in such qualities as the desire to selflessly sacrifice their time to help children in need and the desire to help the experimenter. However, Zinser et al. (1975) did not find a correlation between age and children's generosity. Krebs (1970), when reviewing eleven studies, found a correlation of altruism with the age of children in only seven.
T.V. Vogel (2011) noted an increase in the frequency of socially-helping activities with increasing age of adults. Thus, in the age group of 20–29 years old, non-helpful behavior is more often observed, and in the group of 50–59 years old, about half of the respondents practice social assistance. At the same time, older people, as noted by A. V. Alekseeva (2012), are characterized by a dominant desire to take care of the well-being of children and grandchildren.
Gender.
E. Eagly and M. Crowley (1986) showed in numerous experiments that men are more likely to help women in trouble. Women are equally responsive to both men and women.
The interaction of personality and situation was the subject of 172 studies that compared 50,000 male and female subjects in terms of willingness to help.
After analyzing the results, Alice Eagly and Maureen Crowley came to the following conclusion: men, when they find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation where a stranger needs help (for example, a punctured tire or a fall in a subway car), are more likely to help (Eagly, Crowley, 1986). But in situations in which it is not a matter of life and death (for example, you need to take part in an experiment or spend time with mentally retarded children), women are somewhat more responsive. Consequently, gender differences manifest themselves differently in different situations. Eagly and Crowley also suggested that if researchers studied helping behavior in long-term, close relationships rather than in occasional interactions with strangers, they would likely find that women are significantly more altruistic than men. Darren George and his colleagues agree, finding that women respond more empathetically to friends' requests and spend more time providing help (George et al., 1998). Myers D., 2004
A cross-cultural study by Johnson et al. (1989) found that women were more altruistic than men.
The same data were obtained by domestic researchers. The work of S.K. Nartova-Bochaver (1992) revealed that female adolescents are more responsive to the needs of other people than male adolescents (Fig. 2.1).
Rice. 2.1.
The ratio of “responsive” (1), “indifferent” (2) and “evasive” (3) among boys (A) and girls (B) as a
percentage
of the total number of respondents of each gender
T.V. Fogel, based on a survey of residents of the city of Yoshkar-Ola, stated that women are more active in socially-helping behavior and less active in men: 47% of women practice socially-helping behavior and this happens in 65% of possible cases. The age of greatest socially-helping activity for women is 50–59 years, for men – 40–49 years. The age of greatest inactivity in this regard for women is 20-29 years and 30-39 years, for men - 20-29 years and 40-49 years.
Women tend to exhibit more long-term prosocial behavior (e.g., caring for loved ones). According to L. E. Kireeva (2012), 40% of men and 65% of women noted the desire for mutual assistance between spouses in difficult times. For men, short-term helping actions bordering on heroism (for example, saving people in a fire) are more likely.
Personal characteristics.
The decision to provide assistance is influenced by a person’s personal qualities. Personality researchers have identified, first, that individual differences in helping behavior persist over time (Hampson, 1984; Rushton et al., 1981); secondly, they identified combinations of personality traits that make people predisposed to altruism - these are emotional, empathetic and active people (Bierhoff et al., 1991; Romer et al., 1986; Wilson, Petruska, 1984); thirdly, they found that personality traits influence how specific people react to specific situations (Carlo et al., 1991; Romer et al., 1986; Wilson, Petruska, 1984): individuals with a high level of self-control, sensitive to those around them are especially inclined to provide help if they believe that it will be socially rewarded (White, Gerstein, 1987).
A person's egocentrism prevents him from adequately assessing a situation that requires help .
Personal egocentrism is a deformation of a person’s scale of values, when he sees and evaluates the world only through the prism of his desires and individualistic, sometimes openly mercantile interests, and either considers the people around him as passive objects of his influence, or presents them as a convenient means for achieving his goals. goals.
In psychology, the following types of egocentrism are distinguished: cognitive, characterizing mainly the processes of perception and thinking; moral egocentrism, manifested in a lack of understanding of the moral foundations of other people’s behavior; communicative egocentrism, which complicates communication (primarily verbal) due to neglect of differences in the semantic content of concepts, etc. In general, egocentrism is in one way or another connected with the cognitive sphere.
When faced with information that contradicts ideas and past experience, the egocentric simply cannot perceive it due to a lack of understanding that there may be other points of view besides his own, and due to the belief that the psychological organization of other people is identical to his own.
One of the hypotheses about the nature of altruism follows from psychoanalytic concepts.
From this point of view, altruism is seen as the desire, through a selfless act, to reduce a person’s inherent “feeling of guilt” before others <...> An interesting study by Harris et al. (1975), conducted at the entrance to the Catholic Church; It turned out that believers going to confession give a much larger amount to a charitable fund than believers leaving after confession. The authors explain this phenomenon by a decrease in feelings of guilt after confession. Subbotsky E.V., 1977
It is important not to confuse egocentrism with selfishness. An egoist is able to clearly understand other people's positions, opinions and interests, but deliberately ignores them for his own benefit. In other words, he may not be self-centered. An egocentric person is simply unable to perceive them, since he views the whole world through a one-dimensional scale of his assessments. For example, when I told the Italian millionaire and psychologist A. Menighetti in a private conversation that Russian old people live poorly and need help, he said that it was their own fault - they did not want to work.
S. Schwartz and G. Clausen (Schwartz, Clausen, 1970) showed that readiness to provide help is more pronounced in people with an internal locus of control,
perceiving themselves as active subjects of action. A similar pattern was revealed by L.L. Abelite et al. (2011): the “altruistic orientation” attitude is positively related to the internal locus of control (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.323, p < 0.05), and the “egoism orientation” attitude is negatively related ( Spearman correlation coefficient - 0.482, p < 001).
Thus, individuals with an internal locus of control are characterized by strongly expressed social attitudes towards altruism and weakly expressed social attitudes towards egoism. Subjects with an external locus of control are characterized by weakly expressed social attitudes towards altruism and strongly expressed social attitudes towards egoism.
E. Staub (1974) notes the positive role of the level of moral development and the negative role of Machiavellianism (neglect of moral principles in order to achieve a goal) for willingness to help.
Having a feeling of guilt.
After committing an unseemly act and the appearance of a feeling of guilt, the need to do good increases. This is due to the need to restore damaged self-esteem and a positive public image. If others are aware of a person’s “sins,” then he will be more inclined to “atone for them” by doing good deeds (Carlsmith, Gross, 1969). D. Regan et al. (1972) demonstrated this in an experiment conducted in one of the shopping centers in New York. They convinced some customers that they had broken the camera. A few minutes later, a man appeared (this was also the experimenter’s assistant), in his hands he was holding a shopping bag, from which something sticky was dripping. He was warned about dripping from his bag by 15% of those who were not accused of breaking the camera, and 60% of those who were accused of it. Obviously, the latter had no reason to restore their reputation in the eyes of this man. Therefore, the explanation seems plausible that by helping him, they made amends for their own guilt and regained their self-respect. However, other ways of reducing guilt, such as confession, may reduce the need to perform good deeds (Carlsmith et al., 1968).
Similar experiments were carried out by Katzev and colleagues (Katzev et al., 1978). When members of a group of visitors to an art museum touched the exhibits with their hands, and at the zoo tried to feed the bears, the experimenters reprimanded some of them. In both cases, 58% of those who were reprimanded soon rushed to help another experimenter who had “accidentally” dropped something. Of those who did not receive comments, only about 30% of the subjects expressed a willingness to help.
Religiosity.
In nonlife-or-death situations, true believers are only slightly more responsive (Trimble, 1993). Religiosity more reliably predicts human behavior when it comes to providing long-term assistance, for example, volunteers with AIDS patients (Amato, 1990; Clary and Snyder, 1991, 1993; Omoto et al., 1993).
The results of a Gallup poll conducted in the late 1980s show: among those who believe that “religion does not play an important role in their lives” and among those who consider religion “very important” to them , social volunteers 28 and 59%, respectively (Colasanto, 1989). A more recent survey found that 37% of those who attend church once a year or less and 76% of those who attend weekly think frequently about their “responsibility to the poor” (Wuthnow, 1994).
Americans who never attend temples give 1.1% of their income to charity (Hodgkinson et al., 1990; Hodgkinson and Weitzman, 1990, 1992). Those who attend temples donate 2.5 times more weekly. However, other data are available (see box).
Atheists, agnostics and non-devout people are more likely to be motivated by compassion when helping strangers than believers, even though the call to love your neighbor is fundamental to Christianity and is regularly heard from church pulpits and pulpits. These are the results of a sociological study by American scientists.
In three experiments conducted by sociologists from the University of California at Berkeley, it was found that the less religious a person is, the more his generosity and selfless actions towards others are dictated by feelings of compassion. And vice versa: the more pious he is, the less they are dictated by sympathy.
The results of the experiments do not mean that religious people are less generous and merciful or less compassionate, but they do refute the commonly held belief that generosity and mercy are determined by feelings of compassion and pity, as well as piety, the authors note. The experiment showed that the connection between compassion and generosity is stronger among those who consider themselves non-religious or not very religious people.
“For those less religious, the strength of an emotional connection with another person is critical in deciding whether to help that person or not.
In turn, more religious people base their generosity less on emotions and more on factors such as religious doctrine, identifying themselves as a representative of the church community and considerations of reputation,” sociologist Rob Wheeler, one of the authors of the article, comments on the results of the study. The authors of the paper examined the relationship between religiosity, compassion and generosity, but the results of the experiments do not yet explain why pious people are less motivated to help others.
compassion. Sociologists hypothesize that for deeply religious people, the behavioral code associated with an internalized moral obligation (“we must help our neighbors”) plays a greater role than emotions. “We hypothesize that religion modifies the driver of generous behavior,” said lead author Laura Saslow.
The first part of the article is devoted to the analysis of a sociological survey in which 1,300 adult Americans took part, from which a group of people who were inclined to show mercy towards those who found themselves in a less advantageous position than those around them was first identified. Further study of this group showed that the majority of those who are ready to provide shelter to the homeless and give them money precisely out of a sense of compassion are people of little religion or non-religion.
“This shows that although compassion is associated with prosocial behavior in both less religious and more religious individuals, this association is strongest for those who are less religious,” the authors write. The second experiment involved a group of 101 adults. Each of them was shown separately two videos - one control, depicting neutral scenes, and one heartbreaking, depicting suffering beggar children. After each viewing, participants received $10 from the organizers with an offer to donate any part of this amount to a stranger in need.
As a result, less religious participants in the experiment turned out to be more generous. “The compassionate video did increase altruism, but had no significant effect on the generosity of more religious members of the group,” Wheeler said. Finally, in the third experiment, 200 students who first answered the survey question: “How compassionate are you?” played the classic “share with your neighbor” game. First, all participants were given money, which they could share with a stranger if they wished. Next, they were told that another player had shared part of the money with them and they, in turn, could donate part of the amount received to another stranger. At the end of the game, participants answered the survey question: “How religious are you?”
As it turned out, those who were more compassionate but less religious were also more generous. “As we can see, despite the fact that in the United States less pious people inspire less trust, they are more likely to help their fellow citizens out of compassion than pious people,” Rob Wheeler summarizes.
Since more devout people are guided in their altruism primarily by "doctrine" rather than by emotion, it is understandable why the orthodox sometimes demonstrate amazing cruelty and inhumanity in situations where they believe that their religion - the behavioral code with which they identify themselves - is something then threatens.
If the principle of the rule turns out to be stronger than a simple human feeling, the same compassion, then changing one rule (say, “love your neighbor”) to the diametrically opposite one (say, “I came not with peace, but with a sword”) for a religious orthodox is a routine procedure: religion would not be a religion if it did not immediately have the right answers to all questions. Dmitry Malyanov. Is an atheist more humane than a believer? (Based on Internet materials)
Religious college students devote more time to helping the underperforming and sick than non-religious college students (46% and 22%, respectively) (Benson et al., 1980; Hansen et al., 1995), (Figure 2.2).
Rice. 2.2.
Religiosity and long-term altruism (Myers D., 2004)
Interpersonal relationships.
As shown in the study by V. S. Mustafina (1998), the fulfillment of the moral norm of mutual assistance is already observed among preschoolers, but it strongly depends on the emotional attitude towards a peer.
V.V. Galanina (2001, 2003) revealed that junior schoolchildren demonstrate knowledge and acceptance of the moral norm of mutual assistance as socially significant and obligatory and are focused on its implementation in the situation of expected behavior. However, the nature of the emotional attitude towards a peer (sympathy or antipathy) influences the characteristics of fulfilling the norm of mutual assistance at primary school age. In a situation of expected behavior, children express their readiness to help a peer, regardless of their emotional attitude towards him. In a situation of real interaction, children help a sympathetic peer much more often than an antipathetic or neutral one. At the same time, the moral behavior of children in a real situation is characterized by instability and dependence on external circumstances.
Younger schoolchildren justify helping a sympathetic peer in a situation of expected behavior by the desire to maintain friendly relations, the need to fulfill friendly obligations, and the avoidance of social disapproval. They are driven by sympathy and a friendly attitude towards their peers. Younger schoolchildren justify helping an antipathetic peer with a sense of social responsibility and justice.
One study (Midlarsky, 1968) found that the desire to show altruism increases if a person receives recognition of his “high competence” in some activity.
According to Horowitz (1968), people are more willing to help other people when they do it voluntarily rather than out of obligation.
Emotional condition.
A number of studies (on children) have found that a person’s emotional state influences altruism. When recalling emotionally positive events, children showed significantly more altruism than children in the control group, and when recalling negative events, less altruism than in the control group (Moore et al., 1973).
People who are in a depressed mood (they have previously read or thought about something sad) sometimes show more altruism than usual, and sometimes less. However, upon closer examination, we notice that a certain pattern is visible in these contradictory data. First, studies reporting negative effects of negative mood on altruism were conducted primarily with children (Isen et al., 1973; Kenrick et al., 1979; Moore et al., 1973); they say the opposite - with the participation of adults (Aderman, Berkowitz, 1970; Apsler, 1975; Cialdini et al., 1973; Cialdini, Kenrick, 1976). Robert Cialdini, Douglas Kenrick and Donald Baumann believe that adults find satisfaction in the altruistic act itself, that is, it gives them an internal reward in the form of pleasure that they receive from it. People who have helped others begin to think better about themselves. This applies equally to the donor who gave his blood, and to the student who helped a stranger collect dropped papers (Williamson and Clark, 1989). Therefore, if an adult feels guilty, sad, or depressed for some other reason, any act of kindness (or any other positive experience that can improve his mood) helps him neutralize the negative feelings.
Why doesn’t this “mechanism” work in children? According to Cialdini, Kenrick, and Baumann, this is because children, unlike adults, do not consider altruism itself to be rewarding. They learn from children's literature that selfish people are always happier than those who help others, but as children grow older, their views change (Perry et al., 1986). Although young children tend to be empathic, helping others does not bring them much pleasure; such behavior is rather a consequence of socialization.
To test their hypothesis, Cialdini and his colleagues asked junior, senior, and middle school students to recall a sad or neutral event.
Children then had the opportunity to personally give prize coupons to other children (Cialdini & Kenrick, 1976). When children were in a sad mood, the youngest children donated the least amount of coupons, older children a little more, and teenagers even more. Apparently, only teenagers perceived altruism as a way to improve their own mood. Myers D., 2004
However, negative moods stimulate acts of kindness only in those adults whose attention is focused on others, that is, those who consider caring for others to be rewarding (Barnett et al., 1980; McMillen et al., 1977). People experiencing deep grief due to the loss of a loved one (death, departure, forced separation) are often so preoccupied with themselves and immersed in their own thoughts that they find it difficult to care for anyone (Aderman, Berkowitz, 1983; Gibbons, Wicklund, 1982 ).
William Thompson, Claudia Cowan, and David Rosehanhan recreated a laboratory situation in which subjects, Stanford University students, were completely immersed in their own sad thoughts: they listened alone to a tape-recorded description of a person with cancer and had to imagine that the speech is about their best friend of the opposite sex (Thompson, Cowan, Rosenhan, 1980). The text was designed so that the attention of one group of subjects was focused on their own anxieties and experiences: “He may die, and you will lose a friend. You will never be able to talk to him again. But something even worse could happen: he would die slowly. And every minute you will think that this may be the last moment in his life. For many months you will have to force yourself to smile, although your heart will break with grief. He will slowly fade away before your eyes, and this will continue until life finally leaves him and you are left alone.”
The text that the second group of subjects listened to made them think about the patient:
“He is bedridden and spends his days endlessly waiting. He is always waiting for something to happen. And he doesn’t know what exactly. He tells you that the hardest thing is the unknown.”
When, immediately after the end of the experiment, they were asked, on condition of anonymity, to help a graduate student conduct research, 25% of those listening to the first text and 83% of those who listened to the second text agreed.
Subjects in both groups were equally moved by what they heard, but only those whose attention was focused on the other person felt that providing help would bring them relief. In short, if people who are in a bad mood are not completely preoccupied with their own depression or grief, they tend to be empathetic and helpful. Myers D., 2004
It was also revealed (Barnett, Brian, 1974) that the experience of failure suppresses altruism. Severely punished children showed greater generosity than weakly punished children (De Palma, 1974).
S.K. Nartova-Bochaver (1992) found that involvement in a situation of achievement has virtually no effect on the motivation to help in boys and leads to its weakening in girls. In a situation of success, the motivation to help increases for both, and in case of failure, it decreases.
Psychologists say that happy people, both children and adults, are prone to altruism. Experiments have suggested several reasons for this (Carlson et al., 1988). Helping others improves bad moods and prolongs good ones.
A good mood, in turn, promotes positive thoughts and positive self-esteem, which predispose us to act well (Berkowitz, 1987; Cunningham et al., 1990; Isen et al., 1978). People who are in a good mood are more likely to have positive thoughts and positive associations that lead to good deeds. Those who think positively are likely to act positively too. It does not matter what exactly becomes the source of a good mood - success, thinking about something joyful, or some other positive experience (Salovey et al., 1991).
Polish scientists D. Dolinski and R. Nawrat found that the feeling of relief experienced by a person greatly influences the willingness to provide help (Dolinski, Nawrat, 1998).
The experiment, conducted by Alice Isen, Margaret Clark, and Mark Schwartz (Isen, Clark, Schwartz, 1976), consisted of the following: an experimenter's assistant called people who received a gift of office supplies no later than 20 minutes before his call. Saying that he had the wrong number and that he no longer had change for the machine, he asked the person who answered to be kind enough to call him back at the number he needed. As follows from the data presented in the figure, during the first five minutes after receiving a gift, the willingness to help grows, and then - as the good mood “evaporates” - it declines.
The percentage of people who agreed to call back by phone within 20 minutes after receiving a gift.
In the control group, which included subjects who did not receive gifts, the proportion of those who agreed to comply with the confederate’s request was only 10%.
Myers D., 2004
Components of social norms
Lifestyle and behavior are dictated by a combination of external and internal factors, which were influenced by both the surrounding society and the person himself. The system of norms of behavior includes the following concepts:
1. Social norms - indicate the necessary model of behavior in a particular society.
2. Habits are a set of personal behavioral models for a given situation, consolidated as a result of repeated repetition.
There are positive, neutral and bad habits. Positive habits are perceived with approval by society (greeting when meeting, using polite words), neutral habits often do not cause any reactions (drinking tea without sugar, keeping a diary), bad habits indicate bad manners and characterize a person from a negative side (smoking, slurping, talking with a mouth full, loud burping).
3. Manners are forms of behavior based on habits. They characterize a person’s upbringing and his belonging to a certain social stratum. A well-mannered person knows how to dress elegantly, knows the rules of etiquette at the table, clearly formulates his thoughts and expresses them in a form understandable to the interlocutor.
4. Etiquette is a set of norms of behavior (politeness, tact, tolerance), relevant for higher social strata.
5. Social values are the standard of ideas approved by the majority of social units: goodness, justice, patriotism.
6. Principles are especially important and unshakable beliefs that a person creates for himself. These are a kind of boundaries set for self-control. For example, for one person, family is the highest value, and he will never allow himself to be betrayed. For another, fidelity is not included in the list of principles; he can repeat betrayal repeatedly without remorse.
How an expensive product increases sales
Several years ago, the Williams-Sonoma retail store began offering bread machines that were far superior to the best they already had in stock. After the inclusion of a more expensive model in the range, the share of sales of the old one almost doubled.
Why? When consumers are given a range of options to choose from, they tend to favor a “trade-off” on the amount they can spend. When buyers choose between two products, they often make compromises and choose the cheaper options. However, if a third product is offered that is more expensive than the previous two, the choice will shift from the most economical to the moderately economical.
Let's say you are responsible for marketing a number of products and services. You should know that the company's highest quality and most expensive products provide two important potential benefits.
- First, they can meet the needs of a small group of existing or potential customers who are attracted to these particular offerings. Therefore, by purchasing expensive models, you satisfy their demand and increase income from your business.
- Second, less obvious and little known: the presence of a high-end variant of the product makes the price of the next-lowest model more attractive.
Let's look at an example from everyday life where this principle is often not used to its fullest. For example, the situation familiar to most of us with choosing a bottle of wine in a bar or restaurant. A significant number of wine bars and hotels list the prices of more expensive wines at the bottom of the wine list, which the customer's eye may simply not reach. As a result, mid-priced wines and champagnes do not become a compromise product and are less attractive to customers. By placing luxury wines at the top, you offer a powerful element of compromise.
This strategy can be effective in work relationships as well.
Let's say your organization has decided to pay you to attend a conference on a cruise ship, and you want to live in a cabin with a window. Instead of just asking your manager to book you such a stateroom, you can achieve this by showing him two other options - a stateroom that is not as nice (without a window), and a stateroom that is clearly better, but perhaps too expensive (with a balcony ).
By creating a range of alternatives around your desired goal, you increase the likelihood that the manager will choose your preferred option.
Anyone who offers a range of products or services can make a mid-range product more popular by offering a more expensive one first. You should also be aware that if your company operates with a high-top line, it may be that an unexpectedly sharp decline in sales of the highest-end option will be tempting to eliminate it from the range. However, the study suggests that removing this product without replacing it with another equally superior product will affect the next best product and reduce its sales.
Religion as a lever for controlling human behavior
Despite the achievements of science, progressive thinking and modern views on life, religion still remains one of the important factors in shaping the norms of individual behavior.
The priority importance of religion for a person is due to several factors:
1. Help from above. Sooner or later, every person faces troubles that become a real test for his will. Bankruptcy, loss of property, divorce, serious illness or death of a loved one... It is in such situations that people most often remember the presence of an invisible force in the sky. Their faith may be fickle, but at such moments they need someone to whom they can shift some of the responsibility, from whom they can expect help, even if illusory.
2. Setting up principles. It is religion that often becomes a dogmatic guide pointing to moral standards of behavior. The Bible's commandments are against murder, robbery, and adultery, and some people take these principles personally.
3. Search for the meaning of life. Another reason for turning to religion is the search for answers to eternal questions.
Is free always free?
Whether it's a free cup of coffee, voucher cash, discounted plane tickets or coupons for your next holiday, many companies try to increase customer loyalty by offering incentives. The research reveals how you can make people trust you more.
Researchers who studied consumer preferences thought: Customers participating in reward programs are more trusting and quicker to pay if the company gives them a head start—even without reducing the number of purchases needed to earn the reward.
In one study, savings cards were distributed to 300 car wash customers. But one type of card indicated that for a free car wash there must be eight stamps. Others were told that ten stamps were needed to get a free car wash, but two stamps were already stuck on. That is, to receive a reward on both cards, eight purchases were required, but the second group had the feeling that they had already taken their first steps.
Among cardholders with eight stamps, only 19 percent claimed a free car wash. In the group who received a head start - 34 percent.
When you ask another person to perform a favor, you must show them that they have already taken a number of steps towards completing the task. For example, if you need help with a project similar to one your coworker has worked on in the past, you could highlight how much he has already advanced in handling a difficult situation.
Teachers and parents can also benefit from this strategy. Imagine that your child absolutely does not want to do his homework. If you decide to give him one weekend of rest out of every five that he practices, you may find that he will be more motivated to comply with your demands if you start with one weekend of “credit” before the program officially begins.
The conclusion is clear: people are more committed to programs and tasks if you give them some confirmation that they have already taken the first steps.
Behavior patterns
Every action performed by a person is determined by a corresponding motive, which, in turn, dictates the order of reproducible actions.
All actions are divided into two categories:
1. Automatic - these are actions that are based on innate and acquired reflexes and skills that do not require mental awareness and are performed inertia. These include the ability to chew, breathe, walk upright, read, and speak their native language.
2. Conscious actions are more complex actions or a combination of them that require the use of human intellectual capabilities. This model of behavior is based on the choice of one or another pattern of actions in an unfamiliar situation.
For example, you are angry with a person and want to express your indignation to him, insult and humiliate him. But you understand that your desire is temporary and is connected not only with this person, but also with your bad mood and general failures. If you succumb to aggression, you will most likely lose contact with the person forever. It is consciousness that decides what to do in this situation, evaluating all the pros and cons. In addition, the predominance of the logical or emotional component in the character plays an important role.
What is social handwriting and what can it tell about the user?
— In 2012, Dunbar and his colleagues published a paper that proposed an interesting model at the intersection of anthropology and evolutionary psychology. This model was based on the fact that people have two limitations: Dunbar's number, according to which he can communicate with only 150-230 people, and the fact that a person distributes his attention unevenly. These two ideas became the basis of the model of functional layers in a person's social environment.
According to this model, a person’s entire environment is divided into several layers that differ in connection strength. There are close people and those to whom a person does not feel a strong emotional attachment: for example, he communicates once a year. The layering can be analyzed using big data: we are likely to communicate more on the phone with those close to us compared to those with whom we have a weak social connection.
In practical terms, knowledge about social signature makes it possible to predict, for example, the time when a person will quit - in this case, there is a sharp decrease in communications with people within the company, because new connections appear. This happens because every person has a communication limit (Dunbar number). And if a person is looking for another job, another party, or so on, some of his contacts change. This phenomenon was confirmed by studies conducted in the West, based on data on correspondence within the company and public comments on social networks.
There are already startups that offer analytics based on the volume of people's communications to improve the efficiency of organizations. They collect data on communication in their company, build communication networks and analyze the position of people in this network, the direction of communications, and so on. They make invisible human communication visible and analyze it, hoping to unlock the secrets of effective teams.
Youth behavior
Youth is the perspective of the nation. Therefore, it is very important how exactly the younger generation will be raised.
The norms of human behavior in society call on young people to:
- be active participants in society; - set life goals and strive to achieve them; - diversify your personality; - exercise; - get a decent education; - lead a healthy lifestyle without smoking and drinking alcohol; - do not use profanity and rude expressions in conversation; - treat the older generation with respect; - create a value system for yourself and stick to it; - know and follow the rules of etiquette.
But in the modern world, the behavior of young people in society often differs from established norms and is deviant in nature.
Thus, some young people aged 14 to 20 believe that smoking and drinking alcohol is fashionable, and attending lectures at the institute is an activity for cramming. They prefer discos to books, are rude in their statements and have promiscuous sex.
This behavior is most often formed under the influence of the company and requires immediate intervention from parents.
Why digital psychology is not available to all scientists
— The conversation about big data in psychology began about 10 years ago. Currently, few researchers are engaged in computational psychology, since it is quite complex and expensive: you need an interdisciplinary team with a data scientist, a laboratory and facilities, access to data, and it is also expensive. The paranoia around digital data makes it even more closed; it is increasingly available only to companies and services.
I distinguish two streams of research in computational psychology that rely on the emergence of large amounts of data.
The first line of research uses machine learning technologies and classical personality description models. This direction makes it possible to use psychology more widely, in applied solutions, for example, for personalization. The second direction uses big data and proposes to take into account the nature of new data and use a priori models to solve fundamental questions that did not exist before.
One of the results of research in the field of computational psychology is the social handwriting of a person. This is a pattern of a person's attention to his friends and acquaintances. Attention is measured in minutes of conversation or symbols transmitted, and a person is described by how much attention he pays to people close to him and people he barely knows. It turns out that the distribution of this attention is stable, even if a person’s contacts change, old friends leave and new friends come.
Interaction of youth with the older generation
The problem of interaction between different generations will always be relevant. The value system on which one age group is brought up partially loses its relevance by the time another age group grows up. Consequently, misunderstandings and disagreements arise.
Among the main causes of conflicts are incompatibility of interests, different social status, immoral behavior of one of the parties, lack of a culture of communication, struggle for superiority, and unwillingness to concede.
Nevertheless, the values and norms of behavior instilled in us from childhood say that the younger generation should yield to their elders in any situation, even if such a decision seems unfair. In addition, it is necessary to adhere to a certain pattern of behavior. When communicating, you need to use a respectful form of address - “you”, and also avoid slang. Ridiculing and making fun of elders is not allowed. And refusal to help is considered bad manners.
Standards of behavior between spouses
To build a stable house, you need to lay a solid foundation and build the walls brick by brick. So in family relationships - love is the foundation, moral standards of behavior are the building blocks.
Married life is not only about joyful moments, it is also about disappointment, irritation and resentment. In order to get through all the unpleasant moments with dignity and maintain the integrity of the marriage, you need to follow a few simple rules:
- treat your partner as an equal; - appreciate his personal qualities; — support in any endeavors and do not ridicule failures; — discuss important points and make decisions together; - do not resort to insults and insults; - do not allow yourself to be assaulted; - be faithful to your spouse.
Business Etiquette
If the general norms of human behavior in society can vary depending on the situation, then business etiquette is a set of behavioral models that have the most defined edge.
There are 5 rules of etiquette in the business world:
1. Punctuality. Arrive at all important meetings on time, this will show that you are organized.
2. Competence. Be knowledgeable about what you're talking about. Sometimes it is better to remain silent than to give false information.
3. Speech. Learn to speak competently and clearly. Even the most successful idea, presented in clumsy and uncertain language, is doomed to failure.
4. Appearance speaks volumes about your taste and status, so in your wardrobe, in addition to jeans and T-shirts, you must have a suit for an important meeting.
5. Interaction. Listen to the opinions of others and do not trust your idea to the first person you meet.
Compliance with these rules is very important, as it reflects the level of professionalism and seriousness of the approach to the matter.
Deviant behavior: deviation from the norm
Rules and norms of human behavior cannot always be expressed according to regulated standards. Some behavior patterns may deviate significantly from the norm. This manner is defined as deviant. It can have both positive and negative traits.
A striking example of opposite deviants are terrorists and national heroes. The actions of both of them deviate from the behavior of the “average masses”, but are perceived by society differently.
Thus, general norms of behavior can be placed on one axis, and deviant deviations at different poles.
Forms of abnormal behavior in society
Norms of human behavior in society, expressed as deviant, have four distinct forms:
- Crime. In recent years, this figure has increased by 17%. Crime is largely due to the transition to market relations and a high level of competition, unemployment and low living standards, as well as psychological deviations. In addition, corruption in the legal and judicial-executive sectors is of no small importance, which allows, if you have enough wealth, to avoid responsibility for violating the law.
- Alcoholism. Alcohol is an integral part of holiday feasts and ordinary friendly meetings. It is consumed to celebrate something, relieve pain, or simply relieve stress. People are accustomed to the fact that alcohol has become a part of their lives, and are not aware of its harmful effects on the individual and on society as a whole. According to statistics, 70% of crimes are committed while intoxicated, and drunk drivers are to blame for more than 20% of fatal accidents.
- Addiction. Dependence on a psychotropic substance, which depletes the body and leads to its degradation. Unfortunately, despite the official prohibition of narcotic drugs, every tenth teenager has tried one or more types of drugs.
- Suicide. Suicide is the deliberate desire to take one's own life because of problems that seem insoluble. According to world statistics, suicide is most common in highly developed countries, where there is high competition both in the business sphere and on the personal front. The age group most at risk is teenagers from 14 to 18 years old and people of retirement age.
What is digital psychology and how do they study people’s behavior on social networks?
— Social psychology (studies the patterns of behavior and activity of people in social groups, as well as the psychological characteristics of the groups themselves - note from “Paper”) has existed for more than 100 years. But only now is the opportunity opening up for us to use objective data in research.
Objective data is important to scientists, but it is not always possible to obtain it. Direct surveys, questionnaires, questionnaires, tests, observations and experiments provide mostly subjective data: people know that they are being studied, the researcher is also subjective - and distorted answers are obtained.
By analyzing large, dynamic, objective data about human behavior, we can obtain more accurate information: we study how a person behaves in everyday life - and exactly what actions he performs in his usual environment. This data is stored as a record of his digital activities and the content he creates. In this case, we can analyze not 100–200 people throughout the year, but hundreds of thousands and millions of people, information about which is collected over several years. This is all computational psychology.
With the help of big data, psychologists can study anything. Starting from how people influence each other, how they communicate, ending with how they think and feel in certain situations, and so on. Scientific research requires the consent of the respondent to participate, although there are studies using open, public data. However, having received consent to access social networks, smartphones and other digital space, we can collect data from there about their actions, interests, circle of acquaintances and much more. We can conduct a study that controls for factors or supplement the digital data with tools familiar to psychology, such as questionnaires.
At the same time, even in computational psychology subjective data is needed. Unlike political scientists and sociologists, it is important for us to receive more than just passive information. For example, we ask how close people are to the person they are chatting with on social media. This helps to better test the hypothesis in our field.
Nowadays, psychologists rarely manage to track a person’s digital footprint (what can be learned about our actions from the Internet and databases, digital services, smartphone logs). This data is very difficult to obtain within the academic environment; it is usually abundant from large companies that are not eager to share this information. Even worse, they can rarely be made open and accessible to other researchers.
Sanctions for non-compliance
Rules and norms of behavior are regulated by approved state laws and unspoken rules of society.
Sanctions for deviant behavior vary depending on the severity of the violation.
For example, murder or robbery falls under the article of violation of the criminal code, therefore, is punishable by imprisonment. Provocation or fight are administrative violations. As a punishment for the misdemeanor, the violator will be asked to pay a fine or perform civil work. Violations associated with habits (not washing the dishes after yourself, not cutting your nails, being late for an important meeting, lying) will cause social disapproval and further ignoring or contempt.
