BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE AND ETHICS

Introduction to Behavioral science and Ethics

Behavioral Science is as a new field of social scientific research that seeks to understand how

people actually behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas. It refers to behavior that is

judged according to generally accepted norms of behavior.

It tries to explain why people make the ethical and unethical decisions that they do.

Norms: appropriate and acceptable behavior such as table manners

Ethics in its self is defined as a branch of philosophy that deals with morality.

Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and

wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of people.

Ethical behavior simply means doing right or what is proper while unethical social behavior such

as showing favoritism in public, refusing to relate with other based on their sex, age and race.

What is behavior?

Behavior can be defined as: the reaction of an individual to a particular environment. The

environment exerts influence on individuals. That influence is called stimulus. The stimulus in

turn arouses an activity from the individual and this is called the response.

For example-A man may be admitted to a hospital for a surgical operation (stimulus) The man

feels frightened and worries because he is uncertain what may happen next (response) This

stimulus response combination constitutes the behavior of an individual

Example- Motor activities (Walking, speaking)

Cognitive activities (perceiving, remembering, thinking, reasoning)

Emotional activities (feeling happy, sad, angry, afraid)

Behavior is both mental and bodily.

•Mental behaviors are thinking, reasoning, imagination and other mental experiences or

processes.

• Bodily behavior refers to the movements and actions of the body in response to a situation.

The human behavior consists of:

 Physical responses, (feelings, emotions and tensions) and all

 Intellectual responses, (perceiving, thinking, recalling and reasoning).

Behavior shows growth and development from the early years of infancy to maturity upto old

age.

Psychology as a science studies how behavior grows and develops from infancy to old age and

also studies behavioral differences between people.

In general, there are four major facts proposed in relation to the nature of behavior.

These are:

1. Behavior has a bodily basis

2. Behavior is dynamic
 3. Behavior varies from person to person

4. Behavior is social.

In order to explain and understand behavior well, psychologists in the past have collect facts of

behavior by means of objective methods such as observation and experiment and predict human

behavior.

Example- a patient may react with anger if his movements are restricted in the ward. If the

health professional has knowledge of scientific psychology, it is possible to predict and control

the patient’s behavior. At times psychologists study animal behavior. The reasons are: The study

of animal behavior helps to develop general laws of behavior that apply to all organisms. The

study of animal behavior provides important clues to answering questions about human behavior.

For ethical reasons it is sometimes difficult to conduct psychological experiments on human

beings.

Research in behavioral ethics finds that people are far from completely rational. Most ethical

choices are made intuitively, by feeling, not after carefully analyzing a situation. Usually, people

who make unethical decisions are unconsciously influenced by internal biases, like the self-

serving bias, by outside pressures, like the pressure to conform, and by situational factors that

they do not even notice.

So, behavioral ethics seeks to understand why even people with the best intentions can make

poor ethical choices.

1. It helps to understand oneself such as helps to make rational decisions on becoming a health

professional; to fulfill the need for economic self-sufficiency; Helps to assess one’s own abilities

and limitations; enables to control situations in the college and attain goal through self-discipline.

2. It assists in understanding other people. The health professional works with patients, families,

other nurses, doctors and administrative staffs. Equipped with the knowledge of psychology, the

health professional stand to achieve greater success in interpersonal relationships. Psychology

helps the health professional to learn why others differ from him/her in their preferences,

customs and beliefs or cultural patterns.

3. It enlightens to appreciate the necessity of changing the environment and how to bring it

about. For instance: By changing the environment, the health professional can bring about

change in the patient’s life. Example: introducing eyeglasses and hearing devices into the

environment can help people with visual or auditory/hearing impairments.

PERSPECTIVES IN STUDYING OF BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL PROCESSES

The following are 6 main major area of focus when human behavior

Psychoanalytic perspective

This perspective was made by Freud (1936) he believed that our behavior is controlled by the

unconscious/subconscious needs/forces, which are biological in nature.

Behavioral perspective
This studies the mechanism by which observable responses are developed and modified in

specific environments. For examples, how incentives like gifts or punishments can influence

behavior.

Biological perspective

This help us to understand how the body and the brain work in unison to create emotions,

memories and sensory experiences

Humanistic perspective

Humanistic psychologists are against the psychoanalytic view that human beings are driven by

unconscious or subconscious internal forces. They emphasize that the human being has the

capacity to deliberately choose a meaningful life pattern, and therefore grow to greater maturity

and fulfillment.

The cognitive perspective

The term “cognition” refers to the ability to utilize the mind in terms of remembering, thinking,

problem solving and planning.

In this perspective, psychologists explore the way human beings process, store and retrieve

information and how this information can be used to reason and solve problems

The cross-cultural perspective

This perspective focuses on the influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on

both psychological and social functioning. it is assumed that each individual in a society has a

specific cultural and ethnic background and this influences behavior depending on the

environmental one is in.

 Is the study society, human social behaviour, patterns of social relationships, social

interaction and culture that surrounds everyday life

 Is the study of social life, social change and the social causes and consequences of human

behaviour.

 Sociologists investigate the structure of groups and how people interact within this

contexts

Importance of sociology

• The study of sociology has great value in modern complex society:

 Sociology studies society in a scientific way:

we need scientific knowledge about human society in order to achieve progress in various fields

Sociology improves our understanding of society: social institutions, social groups, their

functions and changes in trends etc.

 help us to lead an effective

 Meaningful social life.

Sociology helps us become broad minded: sociology has impressed upon its students

To overcome their prejudices, misconceptions, egoistic ambitions and class and religious hatred,

It makes our life richer, meaningful and fuller.

strength and weakness of the society.

• Institutions play a vital role in our social life.

 Sociology helps us to solve social problems: the study of sociology will help s identify

social problems and suggest

Measures to solve them.

Social planning-social planning has been made easier by sociology, it’s regarded as the vehicle

for social reform and re organization.

It is very useful for law makers need to know the background of informal and formal laws of the

Society through the study of sociology.

Use of sociology in the healthcare

Sociology helps the healthcare workers to know the culture and social life of patients.

It is important to know peoples culture and beliefs especially in a country with diverse tribes and

religions.

 Personal adjustments: knowledge in sociology helps the healthcare workers adjust to

situations in the hospital environment and enhances relations with colleagues and

patients.

• Healthcare services: medical sociology is extremely useful. For the entire healthcare

services.. recognition of social forces in health, change in cognitive process,

easier to offer disease prevention techniques.

Improve the quality of treatment-through the knowledge of social-psychological problems of

patients

• Support government in various schemes of social planning-eg family health, HIV aids

programmes, drug abuse rehabilatation.

• Care for special groups in the society

• Understand the relationship between various elements of social life

Important terminologies

• Norms-standards that govern behaviour in roles. Socially accepted patterns of behaviour

• Mores- the essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a society or

community. stronger social norms receiving severe punishment e.g. adultery

• Laws- written socially confirmed rules and regulations of conduct which are punishable

• Sanctions-form of direct social control that uses rewards and punishment to encourage

conformity to social norms

• Socialization-the process by which new members of a society are taught to participate in

that society learn their roles and develop a self-image.

• Stratification-a pattern where scarce resources such as wealth income, and power are

distributed unequally among the members of a society

previous socialization and teach an individual new and different beliefs and attitudes and

behavior pattern

• Anomie-a situation in which social norms either do not exist or have become ineffective

• Acculturation-a process in which immigrant minority group are expected to adopt the

dominant culture of the host county

• Sociology studies of social rules and processes (changes) that bind and separate people

not only as individuals, but as members of voluntary associations, professional bodies

(e.g. KCOA,NNAK), groups, and institutions.