BEHAVIOUR SCIENCES

FAISAL KHAN
DEMONSTRATOR (DENTAL)
INSTITUTE OF PARAMEDICAL SCIENCES
KHYBER MEDICAL UNIVERSITY PESHAWAR
 Behavioural sciences
•  A branch of science (as psychology, sociology, or anthropology) that
deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize
about human behavior in society

• Behavioural science is a branch of the sciences which is concerned

with the study of human and animal behavior

• The term behavioural sciences encompasses all the disciplines that

explore the activities of and interactions among organisms in the
natural world

• It involves the systematic analysis and investigation

of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic
observation, and disciplined scientific experimentation.
• Difference between behavioural sciences and social sciences
• The term behavioural sciences is often confused with the term social
sciences. Though these two broad areas are interrelated and study
systematic processes of behaviour, they differ on their level of
scientific analysis of various dimensions of behaviour.
• Behavioural sciences abstract empirical data to investigate the
decision processes and communication strategies within and
between organisms in a social system. This involves fields like
psychology, social neuroscience and cognitive science
• In contrast, social sciences provide a perceptive framework to study
the processes of a social system through impacts of social
organization on structural adjustment of the individual and of
groups. They typically include fields like sociology, economics, public
health, anthropology, demography and political science

• Categories of behavioural sciences Behavioural sciences includes

two broad categories: neural — Information sciences and social
— Relational sciences.
• Information processing 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, and social neurosciences

• On the other hand, Relational sciences deals 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 microsimulation
 Why study behavioral science?

• By studying this you will be able professionally explore the activities

of and interactions among organisms in the natural world.

• You will be involved in the systematic analysis and investigation of

human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic
observation.

•  Basically if you love to investigate human behaviour, and why they

do what they do, then this field is for you...
 Bio-Psycho-Social Model of Health Care
and the Systems Approach

• The biopsychosocial model (abbreviated "BPS") is a general model

or approach possessing that biological, psychological (which entails
thoughts, emotions, and behaviors), and social factors, all play a
significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or
illness.

• Indeed, health is best understood in terms of a combination of

biological, psychological, and social factors rather than purely in
biological terms.
• This is in contrast to the traditional, reductionist biomedical model of
medicine that suggests every disease process can be explained in
terms of an underlying deviation from normal function such as
a pathogen, genetic or developmental abnormality, or injury.

• The concept is used in fields such as medicine, nursing, health

psychology and sociology, and particularly in more specialist fields
such as psychiatry, health psychology, family therapy,clinical social
work, and clinical psychology
• The biopsychosocial paradigm is also a technical term for the popular
concept of the "mind–body connection", which addresses more
philosophical arguments between the biopsychosocial and
biomedical models, rather than their empirical exploration and
clinical application
• The biopsychosocial model of health is based in part on social
cognitive theory
• The biopsychosocial model implies that treatment of disease
processes, for example type two diabetes and cancer, requires that
the health care team
address biological, psychological and social influences upon a
patient's functioning
 Model description and application

• In a philosophical sense, the biopsychosocial model states that the

workings of the body can affect the mind, and the workings of the
mind can affect the body

• This means both a direct interaction between mind and body as well
as indirect effects through intermediate factors

• The biopsychosocial model presumes that it is important to handle

the three together
 Application in Medicine
 Biological component: understand the cause of illness stems from the
functioning of the individual's body
 Psychological component: seeks for potential psychological causes for a
health problem such lack of self-control, emotional turmoil, and negative
thinking.
 Social component: investigates how different social factors such as
socioeconomic status, culture, poverty, technology, and religion can
influence. Psychosocial factors can also cause a biological effect by
predisposing the patient to risk factors.
Ex. Person with depression will drink, that can effect to liver damages
 Implications

• Consider biological, psychological, and social factors

• Relationships are significant to health
• Patient and doctor
• Patient and family, friends, others

• Keep people healthy rather than wait to treat them when

they become ill.
 Challenges

• Poverty as underlying issue

• Lack of resources, education

• Behavior and/or lifestyle

• Misuse of antibiotics
• Gaps in immunizations
• Lack of access to healthcare
• New diseases and re-emerging strains
Biopsychosocial Model of Disease
Biology
• Age, sex Psychology
• Disease state • Attitudes/beliefs
• Genetics/heredity • Mood state
• Physical symptoms • Behaviors
• Meds/drugs/addiction • Religiosity/spirituality

Environment
• School/work place
• Church Social
• Social norms / cultural norms • Support: formal/informal
• Community / Health services • Roles: work/family/peers
• Neighborhoods / National • Physician-patient
economy relationship
• Mass media • Socioeconomic status
• Policy / laws