Introduction to Behavioral Science – Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through the study of the past, controlled and naturalistic observation of the present and disciplined scientific experimentation and modeling.
It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation. Generally, behavior science deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior as it relates to society.
Introduction to Behavioral Science
Definition of Behavioral Science:
Behavioral science is a branch of science (such as psychology, sociology, or anthropology) that deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior in society.
Or
Any of several studies, as sociology, psychology, or anthropology, that examine human activities in an attempt to discover recurrent patterns and to formulate rules about social behavior is known as behavioral science.
Or
A scientific discipline, such as sociology, anthropology, or psychology, in which the actions and reactions of humans and animals are studied through observational and experimental methods.
Categories of Behavioral Science
Behavioral sciences include two broad categories:
1. Neural-Information Sciences &
2. Social-Relational Sciences.
A. Information sciences: Information sciences deals with information processing of stimuli from the social environment by cognitive entities in order to engage in decision making, social judgment and social perception for individual functioning and survival of organism in a social environment. These include-
- Psychology,
- Cognitive science,
- Psychobiology,
- Neural networks,
- Social cognition,
- Social psychology,
- Semantic networks,
- Ethology, and
- Social neuroscience.
B. Relational sciences: Relational sciences deal with relationships, interaction, communication networks, associations and relational strategies or dynamics between organisms or cognitive entities in a social system. These include fields like –
- Sociological social psychology,
- Social networks,
- Dynamic network analysis,
- Agent-based model and
- Micro-simulation
Components/Core Disciplines of Behavioral Science:
Psychology: It is the study of human behavior on the basis of rational, demonstrable cause effective relationship.
Sociology: Sociology is the study of social systems which mean an operational social unit that is structured to serve a purpose.
Anthropology: The aim of anthropology is to acquire a better understanding of the relationship between the human being and the environment.
Components of Behavioral Science
Psychology –
- Is a discipline
- Emphasizes human mental process
- Gives a ‘I’ feeling
- Individual demands empirical evidence
Sociology –
- Is a discipline
- Emphasizes human society
- Gives a ‘we’ feeling
- Society demands empirical evidence that links sociological ideas to live experience
Anthropology –
- Is a discipline
- Emphasizes human society, & association in the pasted
- Empirical evidence that links with documents, tools, fossil…
Applications or Uses of Behavioral Science:
Insights from several pure disciplines across behavioral sciences are explored by various applied disciplines and practiced in the context of everyday life and business. These applied disciplines of behavioral science include: organizational behavior, operations research, consumer behavior, health, and media psychology.
Consumer Behavior is the study of the decision making process consumers make when purchasing goods or services. It studies the way consumers recognize problems and discover solutions. Behavioral Science is applied in this study by examining the patterns consumers make when making purchases, the factors that influenced that decision, and how to take advantage of these patterns.
Organizational Behavior is the application of Behavioral Science in a business setting. It studies what motivates employees, how to make them work more effectively, what influences this behavior, and how to use these patterns in order to achieve the company’s goals. Managers often use organizational behavior to better lead their employees.
Using insights from psychology and economics, behavioral-science can be leveraged to understand how individuals make decisions regarding their health and ultimately reduce disease burden through interventions such as loss aversion, framing, defaults, nudges, and more. The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Incentives & Behavioral Economics uses behavioral -science to inform health policy, improve health care delivery and increase healthy behavior in areas such as physical activity, vaccine uptake, medication adherence, smoking cessation, and food choice.
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