THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON

HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Luis Bernard Aplacador1, Xena De
Tomas2, Bea Irish Lubao3

Eight Theoretical Perspectives

Systems perspective
Conflict perspective
Rational choice perspective
Social constructionist perspective
Psychodynamic perspective
Developmental perspective
Social behavioral perspective
Humanistic perspective

Systems perspective
sees human behavior as the outcome of
reciprocal interactions of persons operating
within linked social systems

 Roots are interdisciplinary: mathematics,

biology, psychology, cultural anthropology and
sociology

 Social work adopted functionalist sociology:

in functionalism social systems are thought to be
orderly and remain in a relatively stable state or
homeostasis or equilibrium

 Roles: refers to the usual behaviors of persons

occupying a particular social position

 Chaos theory
emphasized negative feedback loops as
important processes in systems and
acknowledged their role in promoting systems
stability
Complexity theory
complex systems produce positive
feedback loops that feed back information about
deviations into the steady state

 Functionalist sociology assumes the interactions

take place in closed systems,
whereas dynamic systems theories assumes
a more open system as the healthy system

 Deep ecology emerged with an emphasis on

the total interconnectedness of all elements of
the natural and physical world
Globalizations theories emphasize open
systems calling attention to how job
opportunities are connected to the increasingly
globalized economy

Conflict perspective
draws attention to conflict, inequality,
dominance, and oppression in social life.

 Roots: George Hegel (German philosopher) and

Niccolo Machiavelli (Italian philosopher), and
others who draw attention to conflict,
dominance, and oppression

 In sociology the conflict perspective has two

traditions:
utopian tradition
tradition

 Marx argues that this system creates a false

consciousness wherein neither the capitalist or
the workers are aware that the system is based
on exploitation
Marx believed that workers could develop a class
consciousness, recognizing the exploitation, but
that the capitalists could not

 Wallerstein proposed three geographic areas

with greatly different levels of power in the
capitalist world system:
1) core
2) periphery
3) semiperiphery

 Coser proposed a pluralistic theory of social

conflict which recognized that more than one
social conflict is going on at all times and the
individuals hold cross-cutting and overlapping
memberships in status groups

 Empowerment: focuses on processes that

individuals and collectives can use to recognize
patters of inequality and injustice and take
action to increase their own power
Feminist theories: focus on male domination
of the major social institutions and present a
vision of a just world based on gender equity;
emphasize that people are socialized to see
themselves through the eyes of powerful actors

Rational choice perspective

sees human behavior as based on self-interest
and rational choices about effective ways to
accomplish goals; human interaction is seen as
exchange of resources, and people make
judgments about the fairness of the exchange

 Roots: interdisciplinary with roots in utilitarian

philosophy, economics, and social behaviorism

 Social exchange theory: sees social behavior

as based on the desire to maximize benefits and
minimize costs; social relationships occur in a
social marketplace in which people give in order
to get; persons with greater resources in a social
exchange hold power over other actors in the
exchange;

 Social network theory: members of the

network are represented as points or lines on a
sociogram

Social constructionist perspective: focuses

on how people learn, through their interactions
with each other, to understand the world and
their place in the world

 Rational choice theory: focuses on incentives

to encourage actors to behave in ways that are
beneficial
Popular theory in health field: health belief
model and the theory of reasoned action

 Comparison level
comparison level alternative
opportunity costs

Social constructionist perspective

focuses on how people learn, through their
interactions with each other, to understand the
world and their place in the world; people are
seen as social beings who interact with each
other and the physical world based on shared
meaning

Psychodynamic perspective
concerned with how internal processes such as
needs, drives, and emotions motivate human
behavior; several aspects of this theory:
Drive or instinct theory
Topographical theory of the mind
Structural model o the mind

 Drive or instinct theory: proposed that human

behavior is motivated by two basic instincts:
Thanatos
Eros

 Topographical theory of the mind; proposes

three states of mind:
conscious
preconscious
unconscious

 Structural model of the mind: proposes that

personality is structured around three parts:
the id
the ego
the superego

Developmental perspective
focuses on how human behavior unfolds across
the life course.; human behavior is seen to occur
in clearly defined stages based on a complex
interaction of biology, psychology, and social
processes

Two streams of thought: one based in

psychology and one based in sociology

 Life span or life cycle: based on psychology;

focuses on inner life during age related stages;
Eriksons epigenetic model of human
development influenced the development of this
model

Social behavioral perspective

suggests that human behavior is learned as
individuals interact with their environments
Classical conditioning theory
Operant conditioning theory
Cognitive social learning theory

 Classical conditioning theory: (respondent

conditioning)
sees behavior as learned through association,
when a naturally occurring stimulus
(unconditioned stimulus) is paired with a
neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus)

 Operant conditioning theory: (instrumental

conditioning)
sees behavior as the result of reinforcement

 Cognitive social learning theory: (cognitive

behavior theory or social cognitive theory)
based on the work of Alfred Bandura; suggests
that behavior is learned by imitation,
observations, beliefs, and expectation

 Self efficacy and efficacy expectation play an

important role in motivation and human
behavior

 Bandura has recently extended his theory of self

efficacy to propose three models of agency, which
are:
Personal agency of the individual actor
Proxy agency in which people reach goals by
influencing others to act on their behalf
Collective agency in which people act cooperatively to
reach a goal

Humanistic perspective
emphasizes the individuals inherent value,
freedom of action, and search for meaning

 Maslow: positive psychology which

undertakes the scientific study of peoples
strength and virtue and promote optimal
functioning of individuals and communities

-FIN-