Many years ago, the famous behaviorist B.F. Skinner wrote, "We run away not because we feel frightened, rather we feel frightened because we run away." It means that our behavior impacts our feelings and cognitive processes. According to French sociologists Gabriel Tarde, Gustave Le Bon and their followers, mechanisms of imitation, herd behavior and crowd psychology function in a society. It is difficult for a person to follow one's unique way and to be independent in one's behavior. As a rule, people wait for the reactions of others to their own actions and for the social approval of their behavior.
Socially Approved Behavior
Dedicate your thesis to socially approved behavior. Determine it and understand why it is socially approved. List those types of behavior that juxtapose to the socially approved one. Indicate how a notion of socially approved behavior evolved in time. Identify and describe the mechanisms of social approval and the social agents and agencies who approve human behavior of a certain type.
Conformism
Conformism is one of the most intriguing aspects of human behavior. In general, it is a mechanism of social adaptation, but it restricts personal freedom of self-expression. For studying conformism, you might need to conduct psychological experiments on human subjects. There is such an experiment conducted on children: a psychologist shows a red pencil to a group of children and asks them to insist that this pencil is green, when the child who is waiting in another room will be asked about its color. Usually, a person conforms to the opinion of the majority, although he can evaluate the evidence, for example, the fact that the pencil is red, not green.
Deviation
Deviant behavior is a broad field for studying. Deviations can include various types, ranging from sexual behavior to membership in a club of millionaires who wish to leave all their property to their favorite dogs or cats. Deviation takes many forms, so choose one appropriate for your thesis.
Leadership
Leadership is also a deviant type of behavior that makes for a prolific research topic. Compare behaviors of leaders in human groups with the behavior of leaders in animal associations like herds or communities of primates. Find out what the common features of leadership are for various types of associations, emphasizing the unique features of a leader in human associations. You may be interested in studying a biography of a famous political or business leader to understand which factors led him to his most significant actions.
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Writer Bio
Tatsiana Amosava has been writing professionally on culture, gender studies, education and philosophy since 2000. She also published her book "Linguistic Capital as a Source of Symbolic and Economic Profit." Amosava has Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Belarusian State University, a Master of Arts in regional studies from Moscow State University and a Master of Arts in Jewish history from University of Southampton.