human behavior topics research paper

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• 35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

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• When human behaviour became human?
• What traits we consider typically human we can meet in animals?
• Nature versus nurture. To what extentthe natural behaviour can be corrected?
• The phenomenon of “Mowgli kids” and their behavior
• The stages of human development and their impact on behaviour patterns
• The impact of the family or parental substitutes on behaviour
• Mating rituals or chivalrous romance? How do people court their love interests?
• Habits and their development
• How advertising uses our typical behaviour patterns?
• The importance of happiness
• Games and behaviour. Why do we like to play so much?
• Cults and sects. How do people get involved?
• The psychology of the crowd. What happens to person inside the crowd?
• Does natural morality exist or is it a social construct?
• Sex, gender and behaviour
• Is it good or bad?
• The typical responses to danger: run, fight, hide. Are they hardwired into us?
• Nonverbal communication: is it international?
• Depression and its impact on human behaviour
• Do LGBTQ+ people have typical behavioural patterns?
• The impact of social media and Internet on behaviour
• Porn and sexual attractions
• What is bipolar disorder in terms of behaviour?
• Social hierarchy and behaviour
• Are behavioural patterns connected to self-esteem?
• Elderly people and changes in their behaviour
• Drugs that change behaviour
• IQ and EQ and their impact on behaviour
• Religion and behavioural norms
• Culture clash and behaviour of people of mixed origins
• Correcting dysfunctional behaviour
• Propaganda and behaviour
• Artificially created social groups and their behaviour
• Trauma, PTSD and behaviour
• Defensive behaviour

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126 Human Behavior Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best human behavior topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ simple & easy human behavior essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on human behavior, 🔎 most interesting human behavior topics to write about, ❓ questions about human behavior.

• Culture in Human Behavior Essay The act of changing a culture can only be minimal because of the complexities of the study complexity Culture, serving as a categorical idea of people, is a school of thought that has anthropologists all […]
• The Influence of Nature and Nurture on Human Behavior This particular research challenged the views that were in support of nature as the sole determinant of human beings’ behavior and argued that nurture was a major contributing factor to ways in which human beings […]
• Human Behavior and Psychology in “The Good Will Hunting” by Gus Van Sant The second important person with him is his best friend Chukie, who he tells that he would love to be a laborer for the rest of his life.
• Sina’s Story: Multidimensional Approach to Understanding of Human Behavior An ideal case to analyze using multidimensional approach is the story of Sina, a woman who survived through the changing conditions of the time and the environment owing to her excellent personal characteristics.
• Sociology as a Way to Understanding Human Behavior and Society The examination of the individuals influenced by groups is the study of sociology whereas its main goal is to understand human behavior in the context of society and, after succeeding in this, trying to generalize […]
• The History Development of Psychology: The Understanding of Human Behavior The aim of the paper is to identify the reasons that have shaped and led to the development of the history of psychology.
• Observing Human Behavior in an Organization The meeting was about planning for a project to upgrade the information system in the organization, and the manager and the CEO of the organization was present along with 12 members of the team handling […]
• Influence of Heredity and Hormones on Human Behavior There are a lot of factors which influence the way human behavior develops, Some of this factors include hormones and heredity.
• Classical Conditioning as an Explanation of Human Behavior The main strategy used by advertisers is to associate their product and services with stimuli that evoke pleasurable feeling in general to the extent of trying to create a more specific association.
• Implications of Theological and Psychological Reflections on Human Behavior The Bible talks about the works of the human flesh which are evident in the commission of sins and also warns about the dire consequences of not inheriting the kingdom of God.
• Motivation and Human Behavior Internal motivation is the opposite, as it is not connected to the external conditions and is interlinked with the unique nature of the action and wants itself.
• Dimensions of Human Behavior In this theory, an individual has a single identity, which is assumed by people of the same gender, and with similar roles as the individual in the society.
• Particulars of Human Behavior As there is a limited and hard to get to amount of material objects, moral satisfactions and other acquisitions, people’s competition becomes more aggressive and in the end, violent.
• Brain Injury: Cognitive Models of Human Behavior For motor functions, sight, and hearing, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body.
• The Role of Emotion in Understanding Human Behavior The situation is complicated by the findings in the evolutionary psychology field, which show that the ultimate aim of both emotions and cognition processes are very similar and are evolutionary-based.
• Morality and Ethics: Religion Effect on Human Behavior The second objective is to articulate the effect of religions on the economy and the political establishments of a society. The existence of a lot of information on the impact of religion on society made […]
• Effects of Computer Programming and Technology on Human Behavior Phones transitioned from the basic feature phones people used to own for the sole purpose of calling and texting, to smart phones that have amazing capabilities and have adapted the concepts of computers.
• Empathy and Its Impact on Human Behavior In “The Baby in the Well” and “The Bad Things We Do Because of Empathy,” authors Paul Bloom and Fritz Breithaupt offer divergent perspectives on empathy and its impact on human behavior.
• Human Behavior: Theoretical Approaches In certain regions of the world, various cultures, such as Islamic Shariah law in Pakistan, permit the relatives of a murder victim to commute the sentence of a killer in the event of an honor […]
• Socialization and the Life Course: Human Behavior and Sociology This is a rather hyperbolized statement; however, it may be seen as a reference to how people are integrated into society and how it may form them as individuals.
• Environmentalism and Human Behavior: A Literature Review In particular, Dietz, whose scholarly interest lies in the field of human ecology and environmental policy, traced a history of environmentalism in his article and emphasized the importance of integrating social science in environmental research.
• Internet Technology and Impact on Human Behavior It was the Internet that allowed the phenomenon of cyberbullying to emerge, the essence of which is the harassment of someone on the Internet by large groups of users.
• Robbins’ “Contemporary Human Behavior Theory”: Overview At the beginning of the 20th century, a new idea has emerged that contradicted the scientific method and denied the objectivity or reality.
• “Contemporary Human Behavior Theory” by Robbins In the United States, all the cultural studies are based on the values of the researchers rather than on the norms of studied culture.
• Literature: Relationships and Human Behavior The story of the narrator from “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates the absence of one’s connection to his parents. This example adds to the role of relationships in one’s behavior and […]
• Gender as a Performance. Human Behavior Theory Thus, to be human is to accept the “unknowingness about the Other in the face of the Other that undoes us”. One such misconception is the innateness of gender and its immutability.
• Research With Animals Which Gives Information About Human Behavior However, to support the conclusions that parallels in human and animal conduct does exist, it is important to make a few assumptions about similarity between humans and animals.
• Non-Verbal Communication and Human Behavior It is also noteworthy to mention that people tend to avoid touching each other when maneuvering in the crowd. The presence of a friendly person also appears to make the other individual more prone to […]
• Streamlining Human Behavior and Perception They aim to explain the mathematics behind coincidences and the influence of processes in the human brain on our perception of coincidences.
• Ethical Absolutism and Human Behavior This essay seeks to highlight Stance’s argument that absolutism has and still is the backbone that provides the standard used to measure human behavior.
• Disaster Reaction in Human Behavior And despite the differences in the origins of diverse disasters, they have the common features of abruptness, a serious threat to health and welfare of individuals and communities, interference with a regular mode of life, […]
• Romantic Relationship: Human Behavior Perspectives The cognitive perspective is related to the biological/evolutionally perspective in terms of underlining the role of nature-nurture interactions in explaining behavior; however, it is different from learning and sociocultural perspectives as the latter underscore the […]
• Social Influences on Human Behavior Failure to notify the police or other authorities in the vicinity contributed to excessive prolonging of the rape, psychological and physical torture of the victim.
• Human Behavior Prediction It is important to understand that individuals may be tempted to act in a particular manner following their free choices; however, they have to restrain themselves, therefore acting according to the expectations of the society.
• Social Issues of Human Behavior: Nature and Nurture On the other hand, the nurture view asserts that behaviors are developed and persist according to the upbringing and the environment the individual grows up in.
• Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment Besides, the impact that cancer has on the development of a person in this stage and the realization of goals in life is devastating.
• Human Behavior and the Best Principles to Follow In his words, the cause and effect of everything in the world are so entangled that differentiation between the two is almost impossible.
• Human Behavior during Evacuations According to Fahy and Proulx, “the phases of disaster response will vary significantly depending on the targeted individuals, the nature of structure, and the aspects of the situation”.
• Contemporary Mathematical Model of Human Behavior Under Some Environmental Constraints Such a situation was seen in the Kozma, Harter & Achunala study wherein their model of human performance was able to show both the inherent adaptability of human performance in light of increasingly difficult tasks […]
• Human Behavior Effect on the Results of Organization’s Projects An understanding of human behavior is important in the interaction of members of a team to a project and the outcome of a project in general.
• Climate Change Needs Human Behavior Change The thesis of this essay is that human behavior change, including in diet and food production, must be undertaken to minimize climate change, and resulting misery.
• Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work In Malka’s response tries to elaborate further on the private companies and the domains of health care that are involved as well as the consequences of the private companies.
• Human Behavior: How Five General Perspectives Affect Marriage Social and cultural aspects also contribute to behavior of a person which is important in success of love marriage relationships. This is important to people in love as they can take time to observe and […]
• The Implications of Technology on Human Behavior As such it can be said that the use of technology creates cognitive and behavioral changes which in effect changes the way people perceive and interact behaviorally and socially due to the amount of time […]
• What Is Personality, and Is It Predictive Of Human Behavior? Personality, according to Harre & Lamb, is the entirety of feature and traits, as of manners or qualities that are particular per person.
• Human Behavior in Companies: When the Organizational Behavior Leaves Much to Be Desired The choices that the Lincoln electrics makes in its leadership strategies, however, also make it clear that the company managerial makes efficient use of the Theory Y, which claims that people have a “natural desire […]
• Full Moon Effect on Human Behavior From another perspective the full moon and the increase in violence are just a coincidence such that the moon happens to be present when people behave strangely but that’s not its intended purpose because the […]
• The Study of Human Behavior and Stress Article four In the article, “The Effects of Stress on Mental Health” by Paul Hata, the mental effects that stress can manifest in a person are seen to be the major underpinning for the article.
• Animal Studies Resurgence and Its Effects on Human Behavior
• Abnormal Behavior and Human Behavior
• Culture Regulates Human Behavior and Identity
• Comparing and Evaluating the Ways in Which Literature Help to Understand Human Behavior
• Cell Phones and Its Effect on Human Behavior
• Cognitive Ability and Human Behavior in Experimental Ultimatum Games
• Electronic Music and Its Effect on Human Behavior
• Dorothy Parker Exposes the Darker Side of Human Behavior
• Deception and Its Effects on Human Behavior and Mental
• Biological Factors That Affect Human Behavior
• Describing the type of human behavior problems
• Applying Human Behavior Theory of Everyday Situations and Cases
• Behavioral Geography and Its Impact on Human Behavior
• Researching Challenges and Opportunities for Human Behavior in the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic
• Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status
• Accounting for Human Behavior, Local Conditions and Organizational Constraints in Humanitarian Development Models
• Drugs, Society and Human Behavior by Ray and Ksir
• Analyzing Human Behavior Through Advertising
• Adolescent Behavior and Its Effects on Human Behavior
• Color and Its Effect on Human Behavior
• How Does Music Influence Sex and Human Behavior
• Hamlet and Shakespeare’s Perceptions of Human Behavior
• Frankenstein and RUR: Depiction Human Behavior
• Human Behavior and Sexual Desire
• Explaining How One Hormone Influences Human Behavior
• Ergonomics and Its Effect on Human Behavior
• Gorillas, Lemurs and Human Behavior
• Evolutionary Theory and Its Relation to Human Behavior
• How Has Film Influenced Lifestyles and Human Behavior in the 20th Century
• Historical Context Versus Human Behavior in “The Scarlet Letter”
• Human Behavior and the Effects of the Full Moon
• Gender Specificity and Human Behavior
• How Climate Change Influences Human Behavior
• How Stereotypes May Arise and Affect Human Behavior
• Human Behavior and Its Relations With Knowledge
• Ethnography About Human Behavior and Economics
• Eugenics and Its Impact on Human Behavior
• How Does Color Affect Human Behavior
• General Strain Theory and Its Effect on Human Behavior
• Exploring the Affect Society Has on the Shaping of Human Behavior
• What Are the Five Types of Human Behaviour?
• What Are Human Behavior and Examples?
• What Is the Importance of Human Behavior?
• What Is Good Human Behavior?
• What Are the Characteristics of Human Behaviour?
• How Does Human Behavior Develop?
• What Is Human Behaviour in Psychology?
• What Is Human Behavior in Sociology?
• What Affects Human Behaviour?
• How Does Media Affect Human Behaviour?
• How Does Climate Change Influences Human Behavior?
• How Does Authority Influence Human Behavior?
• How Does Color Affect Human Behavior?
• How Does Genetics Influence Human Behavior?
• How Does Music Influence Human Behavior?
• How Do Nature and Nurture Affect Human Behavior?
• How Does Oxytocin Affect Human Behavior?
• How Does Society Influence Individual Human Behavior?
• How Has Film Influenced Lifestyles and Human Behavior in the 20th Century?
• How Is Hardwired Human Behavior?
• How Does Human Behavior Change in Different Social Situations?
• How Human Behavior May Influence Health and Disease?
• How Psychodynamic Therapy Works and Its Manifestations on Human Behavior?
• How Do Psychologists Explain Human Behavior?
• How Has Psychology Changed Human Behavior?
• How Many Stereotypes Arise and Affect Human Behavior?
• How Does the Human Mind Operates and Controls Human Behavior?
• How Are Two Impulsivity Measures Used for Human Behavior?
• Why Can Sociologists Not Rely on Common Sense to Explain Human Behavior?
• Personal Values Ideas
• Organizational Behavior Research Topics
• Personality Psychology Research Topics
• Relationship Research Ideas
• Human Development Research Ideas
• Personal Identity Paper Topics
• Psychology Questions
• Research and Development Essay Topics
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128 Human Behavior Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Human behavior is a complex and fascinating subject that has intrigued scientists, philosophers, and psychologists for centuries. Understanding why we behave the way we do can provide valuable insights into the human mind and help us navigate our interactions with others. If you're looking for inspiration for your next essay on human behavior, here are 128 topic ideas and examples to get you started.

• The impact of social media on human behavior
• The psychology of decision-making
• The role of genetics in shaping behavior
• The influence of culture on behavior
• The psychology of addiction
• The effects of stress on behavior
• The relationship between personality and behavior
• The role of emotions in decision-making
• The psychology of conformity
• The impact of technology on human behavior
• The effects of social norms on behavior
• The psychology of motivation
• The relationship between genetics and behavior
• The impact of childhood experiences on behavior
• The role of peer pressure in shaping behavior
• The psychology of fear
• The effects of trauma on behavior
• The relationship between mental health and behavior
• The impact of parenting styles on behavior
• The psychology of aggression
• The effects of advertising on behavior
• The role of socialization in shaping behavior
• The psychology of attraction
• The relationship between gender and behavior
• The impact of stereotypes on behavior
• The effects of prejudice on behavior
• The psychology of empathy
• The role of self-awareness in behavior
• The impact of body language on behavior
• The effects of group dynamics on behavior
• The relationship between religion and behavior
• The impact of personality disorders on behavior
• The effects of cognitive biases on behavior
• The role of memory in shaping behavior
• The psychology of leadership
• The relationship between intelligence and behavior
• The impact of sleep on behavior
• The effects of nutrition on behavior
• The role of hormones in shaping behavior
• The relationship between socioeconomic status and behavior
• The impact of technology on behavior
• The effects of media on behavior
• The role of education in shaping behavior
• The impact of culture on behavior
• The impact of social norms on behavior
• The effects of peer pressure on behavior
• The role of parenting styles in shaping behavior
• The role of empathy in shaping behavior
• The psychology of self-awareness
• The relationship between body language and behavior
• The impact of group dynamics on behavior
• The effects of religion on behavior
• The role of motivation in shaping behavior
• The psychology of personality disorders
• The relationship between cognitive biases and behavior
• The impact of memory on behavior
• The effects of leadership on behavior
• The role of intelligence in shaping behavior
• The psychology of sleep
• The relationship between nutrition and behavior
• The impact of hormones on behavior
• The effects of addiction on behavior
• The role of socioeconomic status in shaping behavior
• The psychology of technology
• The relationship between media and behavior
• The impact of education on behavior
• The effects of decision-making on behavior
• The psychology of culture
• The relationship between stress and behavior
• The impact of emotions on behavior
• The effects of conformity on behavior
• The role of personality in shaping behavior
• The psychology of social norms
• The relationship between peer pressure and behavior
• The impact of socialization on behavior
• The effects of fear on behavior
• The role of mental health in shaping behavior
• The psychology of childhood experiences
• The relationship between trauma and behavior
• The effects of aggression on behavior
• The role of gender in shaping behavior
• The psychology of stereotypes
• The relationship between prejudice and behavior

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Joel E. Ringdahl University of Georgia, United States

Associate editors

Jonathan C. Baker, PhD, BCBA-D Western Michigan University, United States

Andrew R. Craig, PhD SUNY Upstate Medical University, United States

Kelly Schieltz, PhD University of Iowa, United States

Maria G. Valdovinos, PhD, BCBA-D Drake University, United States

Consulting editors

Keith D. Allen, PhD, BCBA-D Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation, United States

Cynthia M. Anderson, PhD, BCBA-D May Institute, United States

Scott P. Ardoin, PhD, BCBA-D University of Georgia, United States

Jennifer Austin, PhD, BCBA-D Georgia State University, United Kingdom

Judah Axe, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA Simmons University, United States

Jessica  Becraft, PhD Kennedy Krieger Institute, United States

Kevin Michael Ayres, PhD, BCBA-D The University of Georgia, United States

Jordan Belisle, PhD, BCBA, LBA Missouri State University, United States

Carrie S.W. Borrero, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA Kennedy Krieger Institute, United States

Rachel R. Cagliani, PhD, BCBA-D University of Georgia, United States

Regina Carroll, PhD University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States

Joseph D. Cautilli, PhD Behavior Analysis and Therapy Partners, United States

Linda J. Cooper-Brown, PhD University of Iowa, United States

Casey  Clay, PhD, BCBA-D Utah State University, United States

Mack  S. Costello, PhD, BCBA-D Rider University, United States

Neil Deochand, PhD University of Cincinnati, United States

Florence D. DiGennaro Reed, PhD, BCBA-D University of Kansas, United States

Mark R. Dixon, PhD, BCBA-D Southern Illinois University, United States

Jeanne M. Donaldson, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA Louisiana State University, United States

Claudia L. Dozier, PhD BCBA-D, LBA-KS University of Kansas, United States

Anuradha  Dutt, PhD Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Terry S. Falcomata, PhD University of Texas at Austin, United States

Margaret R. Gifford, PhD Louisiana State University Shreveport, United States

Shawn P. Gilroy, PhD NCSP BCBA-D LP Louisiana State University, United States

Kaitlin Gould, PhD, BCBA-D The College of St. Rose, United States

John Guercio, PhD, BCBA-D Benchmark Human Services, United States

Louis Hagopian, PhD Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Thomas S. Higbee, Ph.D., BCBA-D Utah State University,   United States

Joshua Jessel Queens College,   City University of New York,   United States

P. Raymond Joslyn, PhD West Virginia University, United States

Michael E. Kelley, PhD, BCBA-D, LP University of Scranton, United States

Carolynn S. Kohn, PhD University of the Pacific, United States

Michael P. Kranak, PhD, BCBA-D Oakland University Center for Autism, United States

Joseph M. Lambert, PhD, BCBA-D Vanderbilt University, United States

Robert LaRue, PhD Rutgers University, United States

Anita Li, PhD University of Massachusetts Lowell, United States

Joanna Lomas Mevers, PhD, BCBA-D Marcus Autism Center, United States

Odessa Luna, BCBA-D, PhD St. Cloud State University, United States

David B. McAdam, PhD University of Rochester, United States

Jennifer McComas, PhD University of Minnesota, United States

Brandon E. McCord, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA West Tennessee Community Homes, United States

Heather M. McGee, PhD Western Michigan University, United States

Raymond G. Miltenberger, PhD University of South Florida, United States

Daniel R. Mitteer, PhD, BCBA-D Children's Specialized Hospital and Rutgers University Center for Autism Research, Education, and Services, United States

Samuel L. Morris, PhD, BCBA Louisiana State University, United States

Matthew Normand, Ph.D., BCBA-D University of the Pacific, United States

Matthew J. O’Brien, PhD, BCBA-D University of Iowa, United States

Yaniz Padilla Dalmau, PhD, BCBA-D Seattle Children’s Hospital, United States

Steven W. Payne, PhD, BCBA-D University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States

Sacha T. Pence, PhD Western Michigan University, United States

Christopher A. Podlesnik, PhD, BCBA-D University of Florida, United States

Shawn Quigley, PhD, BCBA-D, CDE Melmark, United States

Allie E. Rader, PhD, BCBA-D May Institute, United States

Mark P. Reilly, PhD Central Michigan University, United States

Patrick W. Romani, PhD, BCBA-D University of Colorado School of Medicine, United States

Griffin Wesley Rooker, PhD, BCBA Mount St. Mary's University, United States

Valdeep Saini, PhD Brock University, Canada

Mindy Scheithauer, PhD, BCBA-D Emory University School of Medicine and Marcus Autism Center, United States

Daniel B. Shabani, PhD, BCBA-D Shabani Institute, United States

M. Alice Shillingsburg, PhD, BCBA-D University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States

Sarah Slocum Freeman, PhD, BCBA-D Emory University and Marcus Autism Center, United States

Julie M. Slowiak, PhD, BCBA-D University of Minnesota Duluth, United States

William E. Sullivan, PhD SUNY Upstate Medical University, United States

Jessica Torelli, PhD, BCBA-D University of Georgia, United States

Kristina K. Vargo, BCBA-D, LBA Sam Houston State University, United States

Jason Vladescu, PhD   Caldwell University, United States

Valerie M. Volkert, PhD, BCBA-D Emory University School of Medicine, United States

Timothy  R. Vollmer, PhD University of Florida, United States

Mary Jane Weiss, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA Endicott College, United States

Benjamin N. Witts, PhD, BCBA-D, IBA St. Cloud State University, United States

David  A. Wilder, PhD, BCBA-D Florida Institute of Technology, United States

Kara Wunderlich, PhD, BCBA-D Rollins College, United States

Karla A. Zabala-Snow, PhD, BCBA-D Emory University/Marcus Autism Center, United States

Amanda Zangrillo, PsyD, BCBA-D University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Instant insights, infinite possibilities

61 intriguing psychology research topics to explore

Last updated

11 January 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Psychology is an incredibly diverse, critical, and ever-changing area of study in the medical and health industries. Because of this, it’s a common area of study for students and healthcare professionals.

We’re walking you through picking the perfect topic for your upcoming paper or study. Keep reading for plenty of example topics to pique your interest and curiosity.

• How to choose a psychology research topic

Exploring a psychology-based topic for your research project? You need to pick a specific area of interest to collect compelling data. 

Use these tips to help you narrow down which psychology topics to research:

Focus on a particular area of psychology

The most effective psychological research focuses on a smaller, niche concept or disorder within the scope of a study. 

Psychology is a broad and fascinating area of science, including everything from diagnosed mental health disorders to sports performance mindset assessments. 

This gives you plenty of different avenues to explore. Having a hard time choosing? Check out our list of 61 ideas further down in this article to get started.

Read the latest clinical studies

Once you’ve picked a more niche topic to explore, you need to do your due diligence and explore other research projects on the same topic. 

This practice will help you learn more about your chosen topic, ask more specific questions, and avoid covering existing projects. 

For the best results, we recommend creating a research folder of associated published papers to reference throughout your project. This makes it much easier to cite direct references and find inspiration down the line.

Find a topic you enjoy and ask questions

Once you’ve spent time researching and collecting references for your study, you finally get to explore. 

Whether this research project is for work, school, or just for fun, having a passion for your research will make the project much more enjoyable. (Trust us, there will be times when that is the only thing that keeps you going.) 

Now you’ve decided on the topic, ask more nuanced questions you might want to explore. 

If you can, pick the direction that interests you the most to make the research process much more enjoyable.

• 61 psychology topics to research in 2024

Need some extra help starting your psychology research project on the right foot? Explore our list of 61 cutting-edge, in-demand psychology research topics to use as a starting point for your research journey.

• Psychology research topics for university students

As a university student, it can be hard to pick a research topic that fits the scope of your classes and is still compelling and unique. 

Here are a few exciting topics we recommend exploring for your next assigned research project:

Mental health in post-secondary students

Seeking post-secondary education is a stressful and overwhelming experience for most students, making this topic a great choice to explore for your in-class research paper. 

Examples of post-secondary mental health research topics include:

Student mental health status during exam season

Mental health disorder prevalence based on study major

The impact of chronic school stress on overall quality of life

The impacts of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can occur at all ages, starting as early as elementary school and carrying through into professional workplaces. 

Examples of cyberbullying-based research topics you can study include:

The impact of cyberbullying on self-esteem

Common reasons people engage in cyberbullying 

Cyberbullying themes and commonly used terms

Cyberbullying habits in children vs. adults

The long-term effects of cyberbullying

• Clinical psychology research topics

If you’re looking to take a more clinical approach to your next project, here are a few topics that involve direct patient assessment for you to consider:

Chronic pain and mental health

Living with chronic pain dramatically impacts every aspect of a person’s life, including their mental and emotional health. 

Here are a few examples of in-demand pain-related psychology research topics:

The connection between diabetic neuropathy and depression

Neurological pain and its connection to mental health disorders

Efficacy of meditation and mindfulness for pain management

The long-term effects of insomnia

Insomnia is where you have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s a common health concern that impacts millions of people worldwide. 

This is an excellent topic because insomnia can have a variety of causes, offering many research possibilities. 

Here are a few compelling psychology research topics about insomnia you could investigate:

The prevalence of insomnia based on age, gender, and ethnicity

Insomnia and its impact on workplace productivity

The connection between insomnia and mental health disorders

Efficacy and use of melatonin supplements for insomnia

The risks and benefits of prescription insomnia medications

Lifestyle options for managing insomnia symptoms

The efficacy of mental health treatment options

Management and treatment of mental health conditions is an ever-changing area of study. If you can witness or participate in mental health therapies, this can make a great research project. 

Examples of mental health treatment-related psychology research topics include:

The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with severe anxiety

The benefits and drawbacks of group vs. individual therapy sessions

Music therapy for mental health disorders

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for patients with depression 

• Controversial psychology research paper topics

If you are looking to explore a more cutting-edge or modern psychology topic, you can delve into a variety of controversial and topical options:

The impact of social media and digital platforms

Ever since access to internet forums and video games became more commonplace, there’s been growing concern about the impact these digital platforms have on mental health. 

Examples of social media and video game-related psychology research topics include:

The effect of edited images on self-confidence

How social media platforms impact social behavior

Video games and their impact on teenage anger and violence

Digital communication and the rapid spread of misinformation

The development of digital friendships

Psychotropic medications for mental health

In recent years, the interest in using psychoactive medications to treat and manage health conditions has increased despite their inherently controversial nature. 

Examples of psychotropic medication-related research topics include:

The risks and benefits of using psilocybin mushrooms for managing anxiety

The impact of marijuana on early-onset psychosis

Childhood marijuana use and related prevalence of mental health conditions

Ketamine and its use for complex PTSD (C-PTSD) symptom management

The effect of long-term psychedelic use and mental health conditions

• Mental health disorder research topics

As one of the most popular subsections of psychology, studying mental health disorders and how they impact quality of life is an essential and impactful area of research. 

While studies in these areas are common, there’s always room for additional exploration, including the following hot-button topics:

Anxiety and depression disorders

Anxiety and depression are well-known and heavily researched mental health disorders. 

Despite this, we still don’t know many things about these conditions, making them great candidates for psychology research projects:

Social anxiety and its connection to chronic loneliness

C-PTSD symptoms and causes

The development of phobias

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors and symptoms

Depression triggers and causes

Self-care tools and resources for depression

The prevalence of anxiety and depression in particular age groups or geographic areas

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a complex and multi-faceted area of psychology research. 

Use your research skills to learn more about this condition and its impact by choosing any of the following topics:

Early signs of bipolar disorder

The incidence of bipolar disorder in young adults

The efficacy of existing bipolar treatment options

Bipolar medication side effects

Cognitive behavioral therapy for people with bipolar 

Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is often stigmatized, and less common mental health disorders are a hotbed for new and exciting research. 

Here are a few examples of interesting research topics related to this mental health disorder:

The prevalence of schizoaffective disorder by certain age groups or geographic locations

Risk factors for developing schizoaffective disorder

The prevalence and content of auditory and visual hallucinations

Alternative therapies for schizoaffective disorder

• Societal and systematic psychology research topics

Modern society’s impact is deeply enmeshed in our mental and emotional health on a personal and community level. 

Here are a few examples of societal and systemic psychology research topics to explore in more detail:

Access to mental health services

While mental health awareness has risen over the past few decades, access to quality mental health treatment and resources is still not equitable. 

This can significantly impact the severity of a person’s mental health symptoms, which can result in worse health outcomes if left untreated. 

Explore this crucial issue and provide information about the need for improved mental health resource access by studying any of the following topics:

Rural vs. urban access to mental health resources

Access to crisis lines by location

Wait times for emergency mental health services

Inequities in mental health access based on income and location

Insurance coverage for mental health services

Systemic racism and mental health

Societal systems and the prevalence of systemic racism heavily impact every aspect of a person’s overall health.

Researching these topics draws attention to existing problems and contributes valuable insights into ways to improve access to care moving forward.

Examples of systemic racism-related psychology research topics include: 

Access to mental health resources based on race

The prevalence of BIPOC mental health therapists in a chosen area

The impact of systemic racism on mental health and self-worth

Racism training for mental health workers

The prevalence of mental health disorders in discriminated groups

LGBTQIA+ mental health concerns

Research about LGBTQIA+ people and their mental health needs is a unique area of study to explore for your next research project. It’s a commonly overlooked and underserved community.

Examples of LGBTQIA+ psychology research topics to consider include:

Mental health supports for queer teens and children

The impact of queer safe spaces on mental health

The prevalence of mental health disorders in the LGBTQIA+ community

The benefits of queer mentorship and found family

Substance misuse in LQBTQIA+ youth and adults

• Collect data and identify trends with Dovetail

Psychology research is an exciting and competitive study area, making it the perfect choice for projects or papers.

Take the headache out of analyzing your data and instantly access the insights you need to complete your next psychology research project by teaming up with Dovetail today.

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66 Human Behavior Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on human behavior, 👍 good human behavior research paper examples, 🎓 most interesting human behavior research paper topics, 📌 easy human behavior essay topics.

• Theories of Human Behavior: Three Main Schools of Thought
• Psychology as a Science About Human Behavior
• Human Behavior and Social Environment Relationship
• Motivations of Human Behavior
• Human Behavior: Netsilik Eskimo and Igbo Tribe
• Basic Emotions and Their Influence on Human Behavior
• Human Behavior and Social Work Theoretical Analysis: Adolescent Aggression
• How Human Behavior in the World Is Evolving Researchers theorize that human behavior is changing as the world evolves and these changes in behavior have been notable, with short differences in age.
• How the Main Theoretical Perspectives in Psychology Explain Human Behavior Examining psychological views on the nature of behavior in such approaches as Neuroscientific or Biological, Cognitive, Behavioral, Psychodynamic, and Humanistic.
• Spirituality and Its Influence on Human Behavior It is crucial for social workers to acknowledge the client’s spiritual beliefs and integrate them into care delivery for optimal patient outcomes.
• Human Behavior: Economists and Political Scientists’ Views Economists reasoning that people analyze what they see and subsequently make personal decisions. Political scientists opine that human behavior is dictated by politics and power.
• Human Behavior Modification: Circumstances That Lead to Behavioral Modification and Their Effects This paper seeks to briefly focus on the circumstances that may lead to behavioral modification and the effects.
• Merits and Rewards as Motives of Human Behavior Lous Pojman described merit as any positive quality which forms the basis for allocating positive ascription such as rewards and praise.
• Using Cognitive Theory in Human Behavior Cognitive theory is usually a learning theory that tries to explain human behavior based n their thought processes.
• Social Perspective on Human Behavior at Work The sociological perspective regards human behavior at work as a product of the employees’ interaction with the organizational environment.
• Human Behavior Depicted in Science Fiction Works The purpose of this paper is to analyze the situation described in the novels Fahrenheit 451, Night and Things Fall Apart and the changes in human behavior brought out in them.
• The Psychological Foundations of Human Behavior
• Behaviorism and the Humanistic Approach in Understanding Human Behavior
• Cultural Influences on Human Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Analysis
• Understanding Human Behavior in Social Settings
• The Evolutionary Roots of Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in the Workplace: Dynamics and Challenges
• The Role of Empathy in Shaping Human Behavior
• How Social Media Influences Human Behavior
• The Psychological Perspective of Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in Crisis: Responses and Coping Mechanisms
• Will Climate Change Impact Human Behavior?
• Analyzing Deviant Human Behavior: Causes and Interventions
• Human Behavior and Technology: Impacts on Social Interaction
• The Role of Genetics in Shaping Human Behavior
• Environmental Factors and Their Influence on Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in the Digital Age: Online Communication Patterns
• Exploring Human Behavior Through the Lens of Psychology
• Human Behavior: Classification, Characteristics and Causation
• Understanding Human Behavior: How Experiences Affect Us
• Social Norms and Their Impact on Human Behavior
• How the Pandemic Changed Human Behavior
• The Intersection of Biology and Culture in Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in Educational Settings: Motivation and Learning
• Behavioral Economics: Understanding Irrationalities in Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in Decision-Making: Cognitive Biases and Heuristics
• The Influence of Media on Human Behavior: A Critical Examination
• Human Behavior in Times of Crisis: Adaptive Strategies
• The Power of Positive Reinforcement in Shaping Human Behavior
• Human Behavior in the Time of COVID-19: Learning from Psychological Science
• Cultural Diversity and Its Effects on Human Behavior
• The Impact of Social Components on Human Behavior
• Can Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Behavior?
• Human Behavior in Relationships: Dynamics and Communication
• Analyzing the Negative Sides of Human Behavior
• The Role of Personality in Shaping Human Behavior
• Human Behavior: Negative and Positive Effects on the Environment
• Exploring the Relationship Between Physics and Human Behavior
• The Impact of Trauma on Human Behavior: Psychological Resilience
• Human Behavior and Environmental Conservation: Motivations and Barriers
• The Influence of Nurture on Human Behavior
• Exploring the Role of Emotions in Human Behavior
• The Societal Impact of Consumerism on Human Behavior
• Human Behavior and Health: Lifestyle Choices and Well-being
• The Importance of Understanding Human Behavior
• Understanding Aggressive Human Behavior: Causes and Prevention
• The Effect of Climate on Human Behavior in History
• Reflections on Mechanisms Influencing Human Behavior
• The Role of Neurotransmitters in Human Behavior and Experience
• Human Behavior in Public Spaces: Social Dynamics and Etiquette
• The Influence of Family Dynamics on Human Behavior

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Article Contents

Introduction, what is hbe, a systematic overview of current research, hbe: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and open questions, supplementary material, human behavioral ecology: current research and future prospects.

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Daniel Nettle, Mhairi A. Gibson, David W. Lawson, Rebecca Sear, Human behavioral ecology: current research and future prospects, Behavioral Ecology , Volume 24, Issue 5, September-October 2013, Pages 1031–1040, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars222

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Human behavioral ecology (HBE) is the study of human behavior from an adaptive perspective. It focuses in particular on how human behavior varies with ecological context. Although HBE is a thriving research area, there has not been a major review published in a journal for over a decade, and much has changed in that time. Here, we describe the main features of HBE as a paradigm and review HBE research published since the millennium. We find that the volume of HBE research is growing rapidly, and its composition is changing in terms of topics, study populations, methodology, and disciplinary affiliations of authors. We identify the major strengths of HBE research as its vitality, clear predictions, empirical fruitfulness, broad scope, conceptual coherence, ecological validity, increasing methodological rigor, and topical innovation. Its weaknesses include a relative isolation from the rest of behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology and a somewhat limited current topic base. As HBE continues to grow, there is a major opportunity for it to serve as a bridge between the natural and social sciences and help unify disparate disciplinary approaches to human behavior. HBE also faces a number of open questions, such as how understanding of proximate mechanisms is to be integrated with behavioral ecology’s traditional focus on optimal behavioral strategies, and the causes and extent of maladaptive behavior in humans.

Very soon after behavioral ecology (henceforth BE) emerged as a paradigm in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a tradition of applying behavioral ecological models to human behavior developed. This tradition, henceforth human behavioral ecology (HBE), quickly became an important voice in the human-related sciences, just as BE itself was becoming an established and recognized approach in biology more generally. HBE continues to be an active and innovative area of research. However, it tends not to receive the attention it might, perhaps in part because its adherents are dispersed across a number of different academic disciplines, spanning the life and social sciences. Although there were a number of influential earlier reviews, particularly by Cronk (1991) and Winterhalder and Smith (2000) , there has not been a major review of the HBE literature published in a journal for more than a decade. In this paper, we undertake such a review, with the aim of briefly but systematically characterizing current research activity in HBE, and drawing attention to prospects and issues for the future. The structure of our paper is as follows. In the section “What is HBE?”, we provide a brief overview of the HBE approach to human behavior. The section “A systematic overview of current research” presents our review methodology and briefly describes what we found. We argue that the HBE research published in the period since 2000 represents a distinct phase in the paradigm’s development, with a number of novel trends that require comment. Finally, the section “HBE: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and open questions” presents our reflections on the current state and future prospects of HBE, which we structure in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and open questions.

BE is the investigation of how behavior evolves in relation to ecological conditions ( Davies et al. 2012 ). Empirically, there are 2 arms to this endeavor. One arm is the study of how measurable variation in ecological conditions predicts variation in the behavioral strategies that individuals display, be it at the between-species, between-population, between-individual, or even within-individual level. (Throughout this paper, “ecological conditions” is to be interpreted in its broadest sense, to include the physical and social aspects of the environment, as well as the state of the individual within that environment.). The other arm concerns the fitness consequences of the behavioral strategies that individuals adopt. Because fitness—the number of descendants left by individuals following a strategy at a point many generations in the future—cannot usually be measured within a study, this generally means measuring the consequences of behavioral strategies in some more immediate proxy currency related to fitness, such as survival, mating success, or energetic return. The 2 arms of BE are tightly linked to one another; the fitness consequences of some behavioral strategy will differ according to the prevailing ecological conditions. Moreover, central to BE is the adaptationist stance. That is, we expect to see, in the natural world, organisms whose behavior is close to optimal in terms of maximizing their fitness given the ecological conditions that they face. This expectation is used as a hypothesis-generating engine about which behaviors we will see under which ecological conditions. The justification for the adaptationist stance is the power of natural selection. Selection, other things being equal, favors genes that contribute to the development of individuals who are prone to behaving optimally across the kinds of environments in which they have to live ( Grafen 2006 ). Note that this does not imply that behavioral strategies are under direct genetic control. On the contrary, selection favors various mechanisms for plasticity, such as individual and social learning, exactly because they allow individuals to acquire locally adaptive behavioral strategies over a range of environments ( Scheiner 1993 ; Pigliucci 2005 ), and it is these plastic mechanisms that are often in immediate control of behavioral decisions. However, the capacity for plasticity is ultimately dependent on genotype, and plasticity is deployed in the service of genetic fitness maximization.

BE is also characterized by a typical approach, to which actual exemplars of research projects conform to varying degrees. This approach is to formulate simple a priori models of what the individual would gain, in fitness terms, by doing A rather than B, and using these models to make predictions either about how variation in ecological conditions will affect the prevalence of behaviors A and B, or about what the payoffs to individuals doing A and B will be, in some currency related to fitness. These models are usually characterized by the assumption that there are no important phylogenetic or developmental constraints on the range of strategies that individuals are able to adopt and also by a relative agnosticism about exactly how individuals arrive at particular behavioral strategies (i.e., about questions of proximate mechanism as opposed to ultimate function; Mayr 1961 ; Tinbergen 1963 ). The assumptions of no mechanistic constraints coming from the genetic architecture or the neural mechanisms are known, respectively, as the phenotypic gambit ( Grafen 1984 ) and the behavioral gambit ( Fawcett et al. 2012 ). To paraphrase Krebs and Davies (1981 ), “think of the strategies and let the mechanisms look after themselves.” We return to the issue of the validity of the behavioral gambit in particular in section “Open questions.” However, one of the remarkable features of early research in BE (what Owens 2006 calls “the romantic period of BE”) was just how well the observed behavior of animals of many different species was explained by very simple optimality models based on the gambits.

HBE is the study of human behavior from an adaptive perspective. Humans are remarkable for their ability to adapt to new niches much faster than the time required for genetic change ( Laland and Brown 2006 ; Wells and Stock 2007 ; Nettle 2009b ). HBE has been particularly concerned with explaining this rapid adaptation and diversity, and thus, the concept of adaptive phenotypic plasticity has been even more central to HBE than it is to BE in general. HBE represents a rejection of the notion that fundamentally different explanatory approaches are necessary for the study of human behavior as opposed to that of any other animal. Note that this does not imply that humans have no unique cognitive and behavioral mechanisms. On the contrary, they clearly do. Rather, it implies that the general scientific strategy for explaining behavior instantiated in BE remains similar for the human case: understand the fitness costs and benefits given the ecological context, make predictions based on the hypothesis of fitness maximization, and test them. There is a pleasing cyclicity to the development of HBE. BE showed that microeconomic models based on maximization, which had come from the human discipline of economics, could be used at least as a first approximation to predict the behavior of nonhuman animals. HBE imported these principles, enriched from their sojourn in biology by a focus on fitness as the relevant currency, back to humans again.

The first recognizably HBE papers appeared in the 1970s (e.g., Wilmsen 1973 ; Dyson-Hudson and Smith 1978 ). The pioneers were anthropologists, and to a lesser extent archaeologists. A major focus was on explaining foraging patterns in hunting and gathering populations ( Smith 1983 ), though other topics were also represented from the outset ( Cronk 1991 ). The focus on foragers was due to the evolutionary antiquity of this mode of subsistence, as well as these being the populations in which optimal foraging theory was most straightforwardly applicable. However, there is no reason in principle for HBE research to be restricted to such populations. The emphasis in HBE is on human adaptability; humans have mechanisms of adaptive learning and plasticity by virtue of which they can rapidly find adaptive solutions to living in many kinds of environments. Thus, we might expect their behavior to be adaptively patterned in societies of all kinds, not just the types of human society, which have existed for many millennia.

The first phase of HBE lasted through the 1980s ( Borgerhoff Mulder 1988 ). In the second phase, the 1990s, HBE grew rapidly, with Winterhalder and Smith (2000) estimating that there were nearly 300 studies published during the decade. Its focus broadened to encompass more studies from nonforaging subsistence populations, such as horticulturalists and pastoralists (e.g., Borgerhoff Mulder 1990 ), and the use of historical demographic data (e.g., Voland 2000 ; Clarke and Low 2001 ). There were also some pioneering forays into the BE of industrialized populations ( Kaplan 1996 ; Wilson and Daly 1997 ). The 1990s were characterized by an increasing emphasis on topics which fall under the general headings of distribution (cooperation and social structure) and particularly reproduction (mate choice, mating systems, reproductive decisions, parental investment), rather than production (foraging). Anthropologists continued to dominate HBE, and the methodologies of the studies reflect this: many of the studies represented the field observations of a single field researcher from a single population, usually a single site. Having briefly outlined what HBE is and where it came from, we now turn to reviewing the HBE research that has appeared in the years since the publication of Winterhalder and Smith (2000) .

Our objective was to ascertain what empirical research has been done within the HBE paradigm since 2000, and characterize its key features, quantitatively where possible. We thus conducted a systematic search of 17 key journals for papers published between the beginning of 2000 and late 2011, which clearly belong in the HBE tradition (see Supplementary material for full methodology). This involved some contentious decisions about how to draw the boundaries of HBE and in the end, we drew it narrowly, including only papers containing quantitative data on naturally occurring behavior in human populations and employing a clearly adaptive perspective. This excludes a large number of studies that take an adaptive perspective but measure hypothetical preferences or decisions in experimental scenarios. It also excludes many studies that focus on nonbehavioral traits such as stature or physical maturation. The sample is not exhaustive even of our chosen subset of HBE, given that some HBE research is published in edited volumes, books, or journals other than those we searched. However, we feel that our strategy provides a good transect through current research, which is prototypically HBE, and the sampling method is at least repeatable and self-consistent over time.

We used the full text of the papers identified to code a number of key variables relevant to our review, including year of publication, journal, first author country of affiliation, and first author academic discipline. We also adopted Winterhalder and Smith’s (2000) ternary classification of topics into production (foraging and other productive activity), distribution (resource sharing, cooperation, social structure), and reproduction (mate choice decisions, sexual selection, life-history decisions, parental and alloparental investment). Finally, we coded the presence of some key features we wished to examine: the presence of any data from foraging populations, the presence of any data from industrialized populations, the use of secondary data, and the use of comparative data from more than one population.

The search resulted in a database of 369 papers (see Supplementary material for reference list and formal statistical analysis; an endnote library of the references of the papers in the database is also available from the corresponding author). The distribution of papers across journals is shown in Table 1 , which also shows the median year of publication of a paper in that journal. The overall median year of publication for the full sample was 2007; thus, the table can be used to identify those journals that carried HBE papers disproportionately earlier in the study interval (e.g., American Anthropologist , median 2004), and those which carried them disproportionately more recently (e.g., American Journal of Human Biology , median 2009). The total number of papers found per year increased significantly over the 12 years sampled, from around 20 at the beginning to nearly 50 in 2011 ( Figure 1a ; regression analysis suggests an average increase of 2.4 papers per year). In the Supplementary material , we show that HBE papers also increased as a proportion of all papers published in our target journals. First authors were affiliated with institutions in 28 different countries, with 57.5% based in the United States and 20.1% in the United Kingdom. In terms of discipline, anthropology (including archaeology) was strongly represented (49.9% of papers), followed by psychology (19.5%) and biology (12.7%). The remaining papers came from demography (3.3%), medicine and public health (3.0%), sociology and social policy (2.4%), economics and political science (2.2%), or were for various reasons unclassifiable (7.0%). However, the growth in number of papers over time was due to increasing HBE activity outside anthropology ( Figure 1a ). In 2000–2003, 64.0% of papers were from anthropology departments, whereas by 2009–2011, this figure was 47.4%. Our search strategy may, if anything, have underestimated the growth in HBE research from outside anthropology, because our search strategy was based on the journals that had carried important BE or HBE research prior to 2000 and did not include any specialist journals from disciplines such as demography or public health.

Numbers and percentages of papers in the database by journal. Also shown is the median year of publication of an HBE paper in the sample in that journal

a Formerly Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology .

b Targeted search only; for all other journals, all abstracts read.

Number of published papers identified by year over the study period (a) by disciplinary affiliation of first author; (b) by type of study population (other = agriculturalist, pastoralist, horticulturalist, or multiple types); (c) by tripartite classification of topic.

In terms of type of population studied, 80 papers (21.7%) contained some data from foragers, broadly defined to include any subsistence population for whom foraging forms a substantial part of the diet. One hundred and forty-five papers (39.3%) contained data from industrialized populations. The remainder of papers studied either contemporary or historical agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral populations. As Figure 1b shows, the amount of work on industrialized populations has tended to increase over time, with 22 such papers in 2000–2002 (29.3% of total) and 58 in 2009–2011 (43.0%). By contrast, the amount of work on forager populations is much more stable (20 papers [26.7%] in 2000–2002, 27 papers [20.0%] in 2009–2011). As for topic, we classified 64.8% of our papers as concerning reproduction, with 9.5% concerning production and 13.3% distribution. The remaining 12.5% either spanned several topics or fit none of the 3 categories. Table 2 gives some examples of popular research questions addressed in each of the 3 topic areas. The preponderance of reproduction has increased over time ( Figure 1c ); in 2000–2002, 53.3% of the papers fell into this category, whereas by 2009–2011, it was 68.9%. In fact, the growth of HBE papers during the study period has been completely driven by an increase in papers on reproductive topics (see Supplementary material ). We classified papers according to whether they involved analysis of secondary data sets gathered for other purposes. The number of papers involving such secondary analysis increased sharply through the study period, whereas those involving primary data did not (see Supplementary material ). Comparative analyses also increased significantly over time, but not faster than the overall growth in paper numbers.

Some examples of popular research questions in our database of recent HBE papers

To summarize, the data suggest that HBE has changed measurably in the period since 2000. Some of the changes in this period represent continuations of trends already incipient before, such as the expansion away from foraging and foragers toward reproduction and other types of population ( Winterhalder and Smith 2000 ). Our analysis suggests that it is primarily research into the BE of industrialized societies, which has expanded in the subsequent years, such that over 40% of HBE research published in the most recent 3-year period was conducted on such populations. More “traditional” HBE studies of foraging and small-scale food producing societies have continued, but only at a modestly increased rate compared with the 1990s. An unexpected feature of HBE post-2000 is the expansion of HBE in disciplines outside anthropology. Much of the growth has come from the adoption of HBE ideas by researchers based in departments of psychology, and, to a modest extent, other social sciences such as demography, public health, economics, and sociology. This is concomitant with the increasing focus on large-scale industrialized societies, as well as changes in methodology. Anthropologists often work alone or in small teams to gather special-purpose, opportunistic data sets from a particular field site, and many of the pioneering HBE studies were done in this way. In demography, public health, and sociology, by contrast, research tends to be based on very large, systematically collected, representative data sets, such as censuses, cohort, and panel studies, which are designed with multiple purposes in mind. Particular researchers can then interrogate them secondarily to address their particular questions. As HBE has welcomed more researchers from these other social sciences, it has also adopted these secondary methods more strongly (see section “Strengths” for further discussion). We also note the increase in the number of comparative studies. Comparative methods (albeit usually comparing related species rather than populations of the same species) have been a strong feature of BE since the outset (or before, Cullen 1957 ), and thus this is a natural development for HBE. HBE comparative studies use existing cross-cultural databases ( Quinlan 2007 ), integrate multiple ethnographic or historical sources ( Brown et al. 2009 ), or, increasingly, coordinate researchers to collect or derive standardized measures across multiple populations ( Walker et al. 2006 ; Borgerhoff Mulder et al. 2009 ). Comparative studies have become more powerful in their analytical strategies (see section “Strengths”).

The literature review in section “A systematic overview of current research” allowed us to characterize current HBE research and show some of the ways it has changed in the last decade. In this section, we discuss what we see as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and open questions for HBE as a paradigm. This is inevitably more of a personal assessment than the preceding sections, and we appreciate that not everyone in the field will share our views.

The first obvious strength of HBE is vitality . As Darwinians, it comes naturally to us to assume that something that is increasing in frequency has some beneficial features. Thus, the fact that the number of recognizably HBE papers per year found by our search strategy has doubled in a decade, and that there are more and more adopters outside of anthropology, indicates that a range of people find an HBE approach useful. Where does this utility spring from? In part, it is that HBE models tend to make very clear, a priori predictions motivated by theory. The same cannot be said of all other approaches in the human sciences, and, arguably, the more we complicate behavioral ecological models by including details about how proximate mechanisms work, the more this clarity tends to disappear. We return in section “Open questions” to the issue of whether agnosticism about mechanism can be justified, but we note here that a great strength of (and defense for) simple HBE models is that they so often turn out to be empirically fruitful, despite their simplicity. Whether we are considering when to have a first baby ( Nettle 2011 ), what the effects of having an extra child will be in different ecologies ( Lawson and Mace 2011 ), whether to marry polygynously, polyandrously, or monogamously ( Fortunato and Archetti 2010 ; Starkweather and Hames 2012 ), or which relatives to invest time and resources in ( Fox et al. 2010 ), predictions using simple behavioral ecological principles turn out to be useful in making sense of empirically observed diversity in behavior. HBE has also demonstrated the generality of certain principles, such as the fact that male culturally defined social success is positively associated with reproductive success in many different types of society, albeit that the slope of the relationship differs according to features of the social system ( Irons 1979 ; Kaplan and Hill 1985 ; Borgerhoff Mulder 1987 ; Hopcroft 2006 ; Fieder and Huber 2007 ; Nettle and Pollet 2008 ).

A related strength of HBE is its broad scope . HBE models can apply to many kinds of behavioral decision (in principle, all kinds) and in all kinds of society. It is relatively rare in the human sciences for the same set of predictive principles to apply to variation both within and between societies and to societies ranging from small-scale subsistence populations to large-scale industrial states, but HBE thinking about, for example, reproductive decisions has exactly this scope ( Nettle 2011 ; Sear and Coall 2011 ). This would be a strength indeed, even without the crucial additional feature that the explanatory principles invoked are closely related to those that can be applied to species other than our own. Thus, HBE brings a relative conceptual coherence to the study of human behavior, a study that has traditionally been spread across a number of different disciplines each with different conceptual starting points.

Another strength of HBE as we have defined it here is its relatively high ecological validity . Much psychological research into human behavior relies on hypothetical self-reports and self-descriptions, or contrived experimental situations ( Baumeister et al. 2007 ), and much of behavioral economics consists of artificial games whose relevance to actual allocation decisions outwith the laboratory has been questioned ( Levitt and List 2007 ; Bardsley 2008 ; Gurven and Winking 2008 ). Although human behavioral ecologists use such techniques as their purposes require, at the heart of HBE is still a commitment to looking at what people really do, in the environments in which they really live, as a central component of the endeavor. Furthermore, HBE’s focus on behavioral diversity means that it has studied a much wider range of populations than other approaches in the human sciences (see Henrich et al. 2010 ), and this has led to a healthy skepticism of simple generalizations about human universal preferences or motivations ( Brown et al. 2009 ). Measuring relationships between behavior and fitness-relevant outcomes across a broad range of environments, HBE has now amassed considerable evidence in favor of its core assumptions that context matters when studying the adaptive consequences of human behavior and that behavioral diversity arises because the payoffs to alternative behavioral strategies are ecologically contingent.

HBE is also characterized by increasing methodological rigor. The early phases of HBE were defined by exciting theoretical developments, as evolutionary hypotheses for human behavioral variation were first formulated and presented in the literature. However, conducting empirical studies capable of rigorously testing hypotheses derived from HBE theory presents a number of methodological challenges, not least because the human species is relatively long lived and rarely amenable to experimental manipulation. These challenges are now being increasingly overcome, as HBE expands its tool kit to include new sources of data, statistical methods, and study designs. As noted in the section “A systematic overview of current research,” recent years have witnessed an increased use of secondary demographic and social survey data sets, which often provide larger, more representative samples and a broader range of variables than afforded by field research. Some sources of secondary data have also enabled lineages to be tracked beyond the life span of any individual researcher, providing valuable new data on the correlates of long-term fitness (e.g., Lahdenpera et al. 2004 ; Goodman and Koupil 2009 ).

Statistical methods have also become more advanced. Multilevel analyses are now routinely used in HBE research to deal with hierarchically structured data and accurately partition sources of behavioral variance at different levels (e.g., within and between villages; Lamba and Mace 2011 ). Phylogenetic comparative methods, which utilize information on historical relationships between populations, have become popular for testing coevolutionary hypotheses since they were first applied to human populations in the early 1990s ( Mace and Pagel 1994 ; Mace and Holden 2005 ), though debate remains about their suitability for modeling behavioral transmission in humans ( Borgerhoff Mulder et al. 2006 ). Issues of causal inference are also being addressed with more sophisticated analytical techniques. For example, structural equation modeling and longitudinal methods such as event history analysis have enabled researchers to achieve greater confidence when controlling for potential cofounding relationships (e.g., Sear et al. 2002 ; Lawson and Mace 2009 ; Nettle et al. 2011 ). HBE researchers are also following wider trends in the social and natural sciences by exploring alternatives to classic significance testing, such as information-theoretic and Bayesian approaches for considering competing hypotheses ( Towner and Luttbeg 2007 ). Some researchers have also been able to harness “natural experiments” in situations where comparable populations or individuals are selectively exposed to socioecological change. For example, Gibson and Gurmu (2011) examined the effect of changes in land tenure (from family inheritance to government redistribution) on a population in rural Ethiopia, demonstrating that competition between siblings for marital and reproductive success only occurs when land is inherited across generations. These advancements represent an exciting and necessary step forward, as empirical methods “catch up” with the powerful theoretical framework set out in the early days of HBE.

Finally, HBE has shown itself capable of topical innovation. A pertinent recent example is cooperative breeding (typically loosely defined in HBE as the system whereby women receive help from other individuals in raising their offspring). The idea that human females might breed cooperatively had been around for several decades ( Williams 1957 ), and began to be tested empirically in the late 1980s and 1990s (e.g., Hill and Hurtado 1991 ), but it was the 21st century that saw a real upsurge in interest in this topic, leading to a revitalization of the study of kinship in humans ( Shenk and Mattison 2011 ). HBE has now mined many of the rich demographic databases available for our species to test empirically the hypothesis that the presence of other kin members is associated with reproductive outcomes such as child survival rates and fertility rates. These analyses typically find support for the hypothesis that women adopt a flexible cooperative breeding strategy where they corral help variously from the fathers of their children, other men, and pre- and postreproductive women ( Hrdy 2009 ).

Though we see HBE as a strong paradigm, there are some important weaknesses of its current research to be noted. The first is HBE’s relative isolation from the rest of BE. The core journals of BE are Behavioral Ecology and Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology . Our search revealed only 8 HBE papers in these journals (2.2% of the sample). The vast majority of papers in our sample appeared in journals which never carry studies of species other than humans, and we know of rather few human behavioral ecologists who also work on other systems. West et al. (2011) have recently argued that evolutionary concepts are widely misapplied (or outdated understandings are applied, a phenomenon colloquially dubbed “the disco problem”) in human research, due to insufficient active integration between HBE and the rest of evolutionary biology.

HBE is clearly not completely decoupled from the rest of BE (see Machery and Cohen 2012 for quantitative evidence on this point). For example, within BE, there has been a decline in interest in foraging theory and a rise in interest in sexual selection ( Owens 2006 ), which are mirrored in the changes in HBE described in section “A systematic overview of current research.” Behavioral ecologists have also become less concerned with simply showing that animals make adaptive decisions, and more concerned with the nature of the neurobiological and genetic mechanisms underlying this ( Owens 2006 ). Parallel developments have occurred in the human literature, with the rise of adaptive studies of psychological mechanisms (see e.g., Buss 1995 ). Our search strategy did not include these studies, because their methodologies are different from those of “classical” HBE, but there is no doubt that they have increased in number. Finally, we note that there has been a recent increase in interest in measuring natural selection directly in contemporary human populations ( Nettle and Pollet 2008 ; Byars et al. 2010 ; Stearns et al. 2010 ; Milot et al. 2011 ; Courtiol et al. 2012 ). This anchors HBE much more strongly to evolutionary biology in general. Despite these developments, we see the isolation of HBE from the rest of biology as a potential risk. We hope to see more behavioral ecologists start to work on humans, and more projects across taxonomic boundaries, in the future.

Finally, we note the rather restricted topic base. HBE has had a great deal to say recently about mating strategies, reproductive decisions, fertility, and reproductive success, but much less about diet, resource extraction, resource storage, navigation, spatial patterns of habitat use, hygiene, social coordination, or the many other elements involved in staying alive. In part, this is because, as HBE expands to focus more on large-scale populations, it discovers that there are already disciplines (economics, sociology, human geography, public health) that deal extensively with these topics. It is in the general area of reproduction that it is easiest to come up with predictions that are obviously Darwinian and differentiate HBE from existing social science approaches. Nonetheless, the explanatory strategy of HBE is of potential use for any topic where behavioral effort has to be allocated in one way rather than another, and thus we would hope to see a broadening of the range of questions addressed as HBE continues to grow.

Opportunities

As HBE continues to expand, we see a major opportunity for HBE to build bridges to the social sciences. At the moment, most HBE papers are published in journals that only carry papers that take an adaptive evolutionary perspective, not general social science journals. Thus, HBE is possibly as separated from other approaches to human behavior as it is from parallel approaches to the behavior of other species. This may be because early proponents of HBE saw it as radically different from existing social science approaches to the same problems, by virtue of its generalizing hypothetico-deductive framework and commitment to quantitative hypothesis testing ( Winterhalder and Smith 2000 ). However, the social science those authors came into closest contact with was sociocultural anthropology, which is perhaps not a very typical social science (see Irons 2000 for an account of the hostile reception of HBE within sociocultural anthropology). As HBE’s expansion brings it into closer proximity with disciplines like economics, sociology, demography, public health, development studies, and political science, there may be more common ground than was previously thought. Social scientists are united in the notion that human behavior is very variable and that context is extremely important in giving rise to this variation. These are commitments that HBE obviously shares. Indeed, although it is still common in the human sciences for authors to rhetorically oppose “evolutionary” to “nonevolutionary” (or “social” and “biological”) explanations of the same problem as if these were mutually exclusive endeavors ( Nettle 2009a ), HBE defies such dichotomies adeptly.

Much of social science is highly quantitative and, generally lacking the ability to perform true experiments, relies on multivariate statistical approaches applied to observational data sets to test between competing explanations for behavior patterns. HBE is just the same, and indeed, since the millennium, has become much more closely allied to other social sciences, adopting the large-scale data resources they provide, as well as methodological tools like multilevel modeling, which they have developed to deal with these. HBE employs a priori models based on the individual as maximizer, a position not shared explicitly by all social sciences. However, this approach is widespread in economics and political science. Indeed, it was economics that gave it to BE. The big difference between HBE and much of social science is the explicit invocation of inclusive fitness (or its proxies) as the end to which behavior is deployed. This does not necessarily make it a competing endeavor, especially because what is measured in HBE is not usually fitness itself, but more immediate proxies. Rather, HBE models can often be seen as adding an explicitly ultimate layer of explanation, giving rise to new predictions and unifying diverse empirical observations, without being incompatible with existing, more proximate theories.

Indeed, our perception is that a number of social science theories make assumptions about the ends of behavior, which are quite similar to those of HBE, just not explicitly expressed in Darwinian terms; basically, people’s sets of choices are constrained by the environment in which they have to live, and they make the best choices they can given these constraints, often with knock-on effects that behavioral ecologists would describe as trade-offs. Examples include the work of Geronimus on how African American women adjust their patterns of childbearing to the prevailing rates of mortality and morbidity in their neighborhoods ( Geronimus et al. 1999 ), the work of Drewnowski and colleagues on how people adjust the type of foodstuffs they consume to the budgets they have to spend ( Drewnowski and Specter 2004 ; Drewnowski et al. 2007 ), or Downey’s work on the effects of increasing family size on socioeconomic outcomes of the children ( Downey 2001 ). If the introductory sections of any of these papers were written from a more explicitly Darwinian perspective, they would look perfectly at home in a BE journal. The breaking down of the social science–natural science divide has long been held as desirable, but is not easy to achieve in practice. HBE’s boundary with the social sciences may be one frontier where some progress can occur. Social scientists have long lamented the fragmentation of their field into multiple disciplinary areas with little common ground (e.g., Davis 1994 ). Given HBE’s broad scope and general principles, it has the potential to serve as something of a lingua franca across social scientists working on different kinds of problems.

A related opportunity for HBE is the potential for applied impact . HBE models have the potential to provide new and practical insights into contemporary world issues, from natural resource management ( Tucker 2007 ) to the consequences of inequality within developed populations ( Nettle 2010 ). The causes and consequences of recent human behavioral and environmental changes (including urbanization, economic development, and population growth) are recurring themes in recent studies in HBE. The utility of an ecological approach is clearly demonstrated in studies exploring the effectiveness of public policies or intervention schemes seeking to change human behavior or environments. HBE models clarify that human behavior tends to be deployed in the service of reproductive success, not financial prudence, health, personal or societal wellbeing ( Hill 1993 ), an important insight that differs from some economic or psychological theories. By providing insights into ultimate motivations and proximate pathways to human behavioral change, HBE studies can sometimes offer direct recommendations for the design and implementation of future initiatives ( Gibson and Mace 2006 ; Shenk 2007 ; Gibson and Gurmu 2011 ). Addressing contemporary world issues does, however, present methodological and theoretical challenges for HBE, requiring more explicit consideration of how research insights may be translated into interventions and communicated to policymakers and users ( Tucker and Taylor 2007 ).

Open questions

An open question for HBE is how the study of mechanism can be integrated into functional enquiry. This is an issue for BE generally, not just the human case. As mentioned in the section “What is HBE?”, BE has tended to proceed by the behavioral gambit—the assumption that the nature of the proximate mechanisms underlying behavioral decisions is not important in theorizing about the functions of behavior. It is important to understand the status of the behavioral gambit because it has sometimes been unfairly criticized (see Parker and Maynard Smith 1990 ). In the natural world, individuals do not always behave optimally with respect to any particular decision because there are phylogenetic or mechanistic constraints on their ability to reach adaptive solutions. However, in general terms, the only way to discover the existence of such departures from optimality is to have a theoretical model that shows what the optimal behavior would be and to test empirically whether individual behavior shows the predicted pattern. Where it does not, this may point to unappreciated constraints or trade-offs and thus shed light on the biology of the organism under study. Thus, the use of the term gambit is entirely apt; the behavioral gambit is a way of opening the enquiry designed to gain some advantage in the quest to understand. It is not the end game.

Where there is no sizable departure from predicted optimality, the ultimate adaptive explanation does not depend critically on understanding the mechanisms. This does not mean the question of mechanism is unimportant, of course; mechanistic explanations must still be sought and integrated with functional ones. This is beginning to occur in some cases. In the field of human reproductive ecology, the physiological mechanisms involved in adaptive strategies are beginning to be understood ( Kuzawa et al. 2009 ; Flinn et al. 2011 ), and there is also increasing interchange between HBE researchers and experimentalists studying psychological mechanisms ( Sear et al. 2007 ), which is clearly a development to be welcomed.

Where there is a patterned departure from optimality, understanding the mechanism becomes more critical. Aspects of mechanism can then be modeled as additional constraints, which may explain the strategies individuals pursue. For example, Kacelnik and Bateson (1996) showed that the pattern of risk aversion for variability in food amount and risk proneness for variability in food delay is not predicted by optimal foraging theory, except when Weber’s law (the principle that perceptions of stimulus magnitude are logarithmically, not linearly, related to actual stimulus magnitude) is incorporated into models as a mechanistic constraint. At a deeper level, though, this just raises further questions. Why should Weber’s law have evolved, and once it has evolved, can selection relax it for any particular task? These are what McNamara and Houston call “evo-mecho” questions ( McNamara and Houston 2009 ). Departures from optimality in one particular context raise such questions pervasively. Issues such as the robustness, neural instantiability, efficiency, and developmental cost of different kinds of mechanisms become salient here, and many apparently irrational quirks of behavior become interpretable as side effects of evolved mechanisms whose overall benefits have exceeded their costs over evolutionary time ( Fawcett et al. 2012 ). However, we would still argue that the best first approximation in understanding a question is to employ the behavioral gambit to generate and test simple optimality predictions, even though an understanding of mechanism will be essential for explaining why these may fail.

Although the issue of how incorporation of mechanism changes the predictions of BE models is a general one, in the human case, it has been discussed in particular with reference to transmitted culture because this is a class of mechanism on which humans are reliant to a unique extent ( Richerson and Boyd 2005 ). Transmitted culture refers to the behavioral traditions that arise from repeated social learning. Social learning can be an evolutionarily adaptive strategy, and the equilibrium solutions reached by it will often be the fitness-maximizing ones under reasonable assumptions ( Henrich and McElreath 2003 ). After all, if reliance on culture on average led to maladaptive outcomes, there would be strong selection on humans to rely on it less. Indeed, there is evidence that humans tend to forage efficiently for socially acquired information, using it when it is adaptive to do so ( Morgan et al. 2012 ). Thus, we would argue that culture can be treated, to a first approximation, just like any other proximate mechanism: that is, it can be set aside in the initial formulation of functional explanations ( Scott-Phillips et al. 2011 , though see Laland et al. 2011 for a different view). As an example, we could take Henrich and Henrich’s (2010) data on food taboos for pregnant and lactating women in Fiji. These authors show that the taboos reduce women’s chances of fish poisoning by 30% during pregnancy and 60% during breastfeeding and thus are plausibly adaptive. The fact that in this case it is culture by which women acquire them, rather than genes or individual learning, does not affect this conclusion or the data needed to test it. However, the quirks of how human social learning works may well explain some nonadaptive taboos that are found alongside the adaptive ones, which are in effect carried along by the generally adaptive reliance on social learning. Thus, although the behavioral gambit can be used to explain the major adaptive features of these taboos, an understanding of the cultural mechanisms is required to explain the details of how the observed behavior departs in subtle ways from the optimal pattern. Culture may often lead to maladaptive side effects in this way ( Richerson and Boyd 2005 ). Although its general effect is to allow humans to rapidly reach adaptive equilibria, nonadaptive traits can be carried along by it, and, compared with other proximate mechanisms, it produces very different dynamics of adaptive change.

A final open question is the extent of human maladaptation. Humans have increased their absolute numbers by orders of magnitude and colonized all major habitats of the planet, so they are clearly adept at finding adaptive solutions to the problem of living. However, there are also some clear cases of quite systematic departures from adaptive behavior. Perhaps most pertinently, the low fertility rate typical of industrial populations still defies a convincing adaptive explanation, despite being a longstanding topic for HBE research (see Borgerhoff Mulder 1998 ; Kaplan et al. 2002 ; Shenk 2009 ). There are patterns in the fertility of modernizing populations, which can be readily understood from an HBE perspective: parents in industrialized populations who have large families suffer a cost to the quality of their offspring, particularly with regard to educational achievement and adult socioeconomic success, so there is a quality–quantity trade-off ( Lawson and Mace 2011 ). Moreover, the reduction in fertility rate is closely associated with improvement in the survival of offspring to breed themselves, so that, as the transition to small families proceeds, the probability of having at least one grandchild may remain roughly constant ( Liu and Lummaa 2011 ). However, despite all this, it remains the case that people in affluent societies could still have many more grandchildren and great-grandchildren by having more children, and yet they do not ( Goodman et al. 2012 ). Any explanation of the demographic transition must, therefore, invoke some kind of maladaptation or mismatch between the conditions under which decision-making mechanisms evolved and those under which they are now operating.

Our review has shown that HBE is a growing and rapidly developing research area. The weaknesses of HBE mostly amount to a need for more research activity, and the unresolved questions, though important, do not in our view undermine HBE’s core strengths of theoretical coherence and empirical utility. HBE is being applied to more questions in more human populations with better methods than ever before. Our hope is that HBE will inspire more behavioral biologists to work on humans, for whom a wealth of data is available, and more social scientists to adopt an adaptive, ecological perspective on their behavioral questions, thus adding a layer of deeper explanations, as well as generating new insights.

Supplementary material can be found at Supplementary Data

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OPINION article

Challenges and opportunities for human behavior research in the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic.

• 1 Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
• 2 Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health crisis that is causing major worldwide disruption. So far, the most widely deployed interventions have been non-pharmacological (NPI), such as various forms of social distancing, pervasive use of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as facemasks, shields, or gloves, and hand washing and disinfection of fomites. These measures will very likely continue to be mandated in the medium or even long term until an effective treatment or vaccine is found ( Leung et al., 2020 ). Even beyond that time frame, many of these public health recommendations will have become part of individual lifestyles and hence continue to be observed. Moreover, it is implausible that the disruption caused by COVID-19 will dissipate soon. Analysis of transmission dynamics suggests that the disease could persist into 2025, with prolonged or intermittent social distancing in place until 2022 ( Kissler et al., 2020 ).

Human behavior research will be profoundly impacted beyond the stagnation resulting from the closure of laboratories during government-mandated lockdowns. In this viewpoint article, we argue that disruption provides an important opportunity for accelerating structural reforms already underway to reduce waste in planning, conducting, and reporting research ( Cristea and Naudet, 2019 ). We discuss three aspects relevant to human behavior research: (1) unavoidable, extensive changes in data collection and ensuing untoward consequences; (2) the possibility of shifting research priorities to aspects relevant to the pandemic; (3) recommendations to enhance adaptation to the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Data collection is very unlikely to return to the “old” normal for the foreseeable future. For example, neuroimaging studies usually involve placing participants in the confined space of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Studies measuring stress hormones, electroencephalography, or psychophysiology also involve close contact to collect saliva and blood samples or to place electrodes. Behavioral studies often involve interaction with persons who administer tasks or require that various surfaces and materials be touched. One immediate solution would be conducting “socially distant” experiments, for instance, by keeping a safe distance and making participants and research personnel wear PPE. Though data collection in this way would resemble pre-COVID times, it would come with a range of unintended consequences ( Table 1 ). First, it would significantly augment costs in terms of resources, training of personnel, and time spent preparing experiments. For laboratories or researchers with scarce resources, these costs could amount to a drastic reduction in the experiments performed, with an ensuing decrease in publication output, which might further affect the capacity to attract new funding and retain researchers. Secondly, even with the use of PPE, some participants might be reluctant or anxious to expose themselves to close and unnecessary physical interaction. Participants with particular vulnerabilities, like neuroticism, social anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive traits, might find the trade-off between risks, and gains unacceptable. Thirdly, some research topics (e.g., face processing, imitation, emotional expression, dyadic interaction) or study populations (e.g., autistic spectrum, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive) would become difficult to study with the current experimental paradigms ( Table 1 ). New paradigms can be developed, but they will need to first be assessed for reliability and validated, which will undoubtedly take time. Finally, generalized use of PPE by participants and personnel could alter the “usual” experimental setting, introducing additional biases, similarly to the experimenter effect ( Rosenthal, 1976 ).

Table 1 . Possible consequences of non-pharmacological interventions for COVID-19 on human behavior research.

Data collection could also adapt by leveraging technology, such as running experiments remotely via available platforms, like for instance Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), where any task that programmable with standard browser technology can be used ( Crump et al., 2013 ). Templates of already-programmed and easily customizable experimental tasks, such as the Stroop or Balloon Analog Risk Task, are also available on platforms like Pavlovia. Ecological momentary assessment is another feasible option, since it was conceived from the beginning for remote use, with participants logging in to fill in scales or activity journals in a naturalistic environment ( Shiffman et al., 2008 ). Increasingly affordable wearables can be used for collecting physiological data ( Javelot et al., 2014 ). Web-based research was already expanding before the pandemic, and the quality of the data collected in this way is comparable with that of laboratory studies ( Germine et al., 2012 ). Still, there are lingering issues. For instance, for some MTurk experiments, disparities have been evidenced between laboratory and online data collection ( Crump et al., 2013 ). Further clarifications about quality, such as consistency or interpretability ( Abdolkhani et al., 2020 ), are also needed for data collected using wearables.

Beyond updating data collection practices, a significant portion of human behavior research might change course to focus on the effects of the pandemic. For example, the incidence of mental disorders or of negative effects on psychological and physical well-being, particularly across populations of interest (e.g., recovered patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers), are crucial areas of inquiry. Many researchers might feel hard-pressed to not miss out on studying this critical period and embark on hastily planned and conducted studies. Multiplication and fragmentation of efforts are likely, for instance, by conducting highly overlapping surveys in widely accessible and oversampled populations (e.g., university students). Moreover, rushed planning is bound to lead to taking shortcuts and cutting corners in study design and conduct, e.g., skipping pre-registration or even ethical committee approval or using not validated measurement tools, like ad hoc surveys. Surveys using non-probability and convenience samples, especially for social and mental health problems, frequently produce biased and misleading findings, particularly for estimates of prevalence ( Pierce et al., 2020 ). A significant portion of human behavior research that re-oriented itself to study the pandemic could result in to a heap of non-reproducible, unreliable, or overlapping findings.

Human behavior studies could also aim to inform the planning and enforcement of public health responses in the pandemic. Behavioral scientists might focus on finding and testing ways to increase adherence to NPIs or to lessen the negative effects of isolation, particularly in vulnerable groups, e.g., the elderly or the chronically ill and their caretakers. Studies could also attempt to elucidate factors that make individuals uncollaborative with recommendations from public health authorities. Though all of these topics are important, important caveats must be considered. Psychology and neuroscience have been affected by a crisis in reproducibility and credibility, with several established findings proving unreliable and even non-reproducible ( Button et al., 2013 ; Open Science Collaboration, 2015 ). It is crucial to ensure that only robust and reproducible results are applied or even proposed in the context of a serious public health crisis. For instance, the possible influence of psychological factors on susceptibility to infection and potential psychological interventions to address them could be interesting topics. However, the existing literature is marked by inconsistency, heterogeneity, reverse causality, or other biases ( Falagas et al., 2010 ). Even for robust and reproducible findings, translation is doubtful, particularly when these are based on convenience samples or on simplified and largely artificial experimental contexts. For example, the scarcity of medical resources (e.g., N-95 masks, drugs, or ventilators) in a pandemic with its unavoidable ethical conundrum about allocation principles and triage might appeal to moral reasoning researchers. Even assuming, implausibly, that most of the existent research in this area is robust, translation to dramatic real-life situations and highly specialized contexts, such as intensive care, would be difficult and error-prone. Translation might not even be useful, given that comprehensive ethical guidance and decision rules to support medical professionals already exist ( Emanuel et al., 2020 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding global public health response pose significant and lasting difficulties for human behavior research. In many contexts, such as laboratories with limited resources and uncertain funding, challenges will lead to a reduced research output, which might have further domino effects on securing funding and retaining researchers. As a remedy, modifying data collection practices is useful but insufficient. Conversely, adaptation might require the implementation of radical changes—producing less research but of higher quality and more utility ( Cristea and Naudet, 2019 ). To this purpose, we advocate for the acceleration and generalization of proposed structural reforms (i.e., “open science”) in how research is planned, conducted, and reported ( Munafò et al., 2017 ; Cristea and Naudet, 2019 ) and summarize six key recommendations.

First, a definitive move from atomized and fragmented experimental research to large-scale collaboration should be encouraged through incentives from funders and academic institutions alike. In the current status quo, interdisciplinary research has systematically lower odds of being funded ( Bromham et al., 2016 ). Conversely, funders could favor top-down funding on topics of prominent interest and encourage large consortia with international representativity and interdisciplinarity over bottom-up funding for a select number of excellent individual investigators. Second, particularly for research focused on the pandemic, relevant priorities need to be identified before conducting studies. This can be achieved through assessing the concrete needs of the populations targeted (e.g., healthcare workers, families of victims, individuals suffering from isolation, disabilities, pre-existing physical and mental health issues, and the economically vulnerable) and subsequently conducting systematic reviews so as to avoid fragmentation and overlap. To this purpose, journals could require that some reports of primary research also include rapid reviews ( Tricco et al., 2015 ), a simplified form of systematic reviews. For instance, The Lancet journals require a “Research in context” box, which needs to be based on a systematic search. Study formats like Registered Reports, in which a study is accepted in principle after peer review of its rationale and methods ( Hardwicke and Ioannidis, 2018 ), are uniquely suited for this change. Third, methodological rigor and reproducibility in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting should move to the forefront of the human behavior research agenda ( Cristea and Naudet, 2019 ). For example, preregistration of studies ( Nosek et al., 2019 ) in a public repository should be widely employed to support transparent reporting. Registered reports ( Hardwicke and Ioannidis, 2018 ) and study protocols are formats that ensure rigorous evaluation of the experimental design and statistical analysis plan before commencing data collection, thus making sure shortcuts and methodological shortcomings are eliminated. Fourth, data and code sharing, along with the use of publicly available datasets (e.g., 1000 Functional Connectomes Project, Human Connectome Project), should become the norm. These practices allow the use of already-collected data to be maximized, including in terms of assessing reproducibility, conducting re-analyses using different methods, and exploring new hypotheses on large collections of data ( Cristea and Naudet, 2019 ). Fifth, to reduce publication bias, submission of all unpublished studies, the so-called “file drawer,” should be encouraged and supported. Reporting findings in preprints can aid this desideratum, but stronger incentives are necessary to ensure that preprints also transparently and completely report conducted research. The Preprint Review at eLife ( Elife, 2020 ), in which the journal effectively takes into review manuscripts posted on the preprint server BioRxiv, is a promising initiative in this direction. Journals could also create study formats specifically designed for publishing studies that resulted in inconclusive findings, even when caused by procedural issues, e.g., unclear manipulation checks, insufficient stimulus presentation times, or other technical errors. This would both aid transparency and help other researchers better prepare their own experiments. Sixth, peer review of both articles and preprints should be regarded as on par with the production of new research. Platforms like Publons help track reviewing activity, which could be rewarded by funders and academic institutions involved in hiring, promotion, or tenure ( Moher et al., 2018 ). Researchers who manage to publish less during the pandemic could still be compensated for the onerous activity of peer review, to the benefit of the entire community.

Of course, individual researchers cannot implement such sweeping changes on their own, without decisive action from policymakers like funding bodies, academic institutions, and journals. For instance, decisions related to hiring, promotion, or tenure of academics could reward several of the behaviors described, such as complete and transparent publication regardless of the results, availability of data and code, or contributions to peer review ( Moher et al., 2018 ). Academic institutions and funders should acknowledge the slowdown of experimental research during the pandemic and hence accelerate the move toward more “responsible indicators” that would incentivize best publication practices over productivity and citations ( Moher et al., 2018 ). Funders could encourage submissions leveraging existing datasets or developing tools for data re-use, e.g., to track multiple uses of the same dataset. Journals could stimulate data sharing by assigning priority to manuscripts sharing or re-using data and code, like re-analyses, or individual participant data meta-analyses.

Author Contributions

CG and IC contributed equally to this manuscript in terms of its conceivement and preparation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out within the scope of the project “use-inspired basic research”, for which the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova has been recognized as “Dipartimento di eccellenza” by the Ministry of University and Research.

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Keywords: open science, data sharing, social distancing, preprint, preregistration, coronavirus disease, neuroimaging, experimental psychology

Citation: Gentili C and Cristea IA (2020) Challenges and Opportunities for Human Behavior Research in the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic. Front. Psychol. 11:1786. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01786

Received: 29 April 2020; Accepted: 29 June 2020; Published: 10 July 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Gentili and Cristea. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Claudio Gentili, c.gentili@unipd.it

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Organizational Behavior Research Paper Topics

This page provides a comprehensive list of 100 organizational behavior research paper topics that are divided into 10 categories, each containing 10 topics. These categories include communication and teamwork, organizational culture and climate, employee motivation and engagement, organizational leadership, diversity and inclusion, organizational communication, employee well-being and work-life balance, organizational change, human resource management, and organizational ethics and corporate social responsibility. In addition to the list of topics, the page also provides expert advice on how to choose a research topic and how to write an organizational behavior research paper. Finally, students can take advantage of iResearchNet’s writing services to order a custom organizational behavior research paper on any topic. With this page, students will be able to explore the wide range of topics in organizational behavior and excel in their academic pursuits.

Organizational Behavior Topics Guide

Organizational behavior is an important field of study that focuses on how individuals and groups behave in organizations. It is a multidisciplinary field that draws on insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and management. Understanding organizational behavior is crucial for individuals who are interested in careers in management, human resources, or organizational development. Research papers are an important aspect of studying organizational behavior, as they allow students to explore various aspects of this field in-depth.

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The purpose of this page is to provide students with a comprehensive list of organizational behavior research paper topics that will help them choose a topic for their research paper. The page is divided into 10 categories, each containing 10 topics. The categories include communication and teamwork, organizational culture and climate, employee motivation and engagement, organizational leadership, diversity and inclusion, organizational communication, employee well-being and work-life balance, organizational change, human resource management, and organizational ethics and corporate social responsibility. By providing a wide range of topics, students can find one that aligns with their interests and career goals.

100 Organizational Behavior Research Paper Topics

Communication and Teamwork

1. Communication barriers in the workplace 2. Interpersonal communication and conflict resolution 3. The effects of technology on communication and teamwork 4. Cultural diversity and communication in global organizations 5. Communication strategies for effective leadership 6. Group dynamics and team performance 7. Decision-making processes in teams 8. Motivation and satisfaction in team-based work environments 9. Leadership styles and their impact on team effectiveness 10. Team training and development programs

Organizational Culture and Climate

1. The impact of organizational culture on employee behavior 2. The role of leadership in shaping organizational culture 3. Organizational change and resistance to change 4. Organizational culture and innovation 5. Ethical climates in organizations 6. Managing cultural diversity in organizations 7. The impact of organizational culture on employee well-being 8. Measuring and assessing organizational culture 9. The relationship between organizational culture and performance 10. The impact of organizational climate on employee motivation and job satisfaction

Employee Motivation and Engagement

1. Theories of employee motivation and their application in the workplace 2. The role of incentives and rewards in employee motivation 3. The impact of job design on employee motivation and engagement 4. The relationship between job satisfaction and employee motivation 5. Employee engagement and its impact on organizational performance 6. Employee empowerment and motivation 7. The role of leadership in employee motivation and engagement 8. The impact of organizational culture on employee motivation 9. Employee motivation and retention strategies 10. Employee motivation and its impact on organizational change

Organizational Leadership

1. Theories of leadership and their application in the workplace 2. Transformational leadership and its impact on organizational performance 3. Authentic leadership and its impact on organizational culture 4. Situational leadership and its effectiveness in different contexts 5. Servant leadership and its impact on employee well-being 6. The relationship between leadership and employee motivation 7. The impact of gender and cultural diversity on leadership 8. The role of emotional intelligence in leadership 9. The impact of leadership on organizational change 10. Developing effective leadership skills

Diversity and Inclusion

1. Defining diversity and inclusion in the workplace 2. The business case for diversity and inclusion 3. The relationship between diversity and innovation 4. Overcoming diversity challenges in global organizations 5. Managing diversity and inclusion through leadership 6. The impact of cultural diversity on team performance 7. Addressing diversity and inclusion in performance evaluations 8. The role of diversity and inclusion in employee retention 9. The impact of diversity and inclusion on organizational culture 10. Strategies for developing and implementing effective diversity and inclusion initiatives

Organizational Communication

1. The impact of communication on organizational effectiveness 2. Organizational communication strategies 3. Internal communication and its impact on employee engagement 4. The role of communication in change management 5. The impact of technology on organizational communication 6. The relationship between communication and organizational culture 7. The impact of communication on employee motivation and satisfaction 8. The role of nonverbal communication in organizational behavior 9. The impact of communication on organizational reputation 10. The role of feedback in organizational communication

Employee Well-being and Work-Life Balance

1. The impact of work-life balance on employee well-being 2. The relationship between stress and employee performance 3. Mental health in the workplace 4. Workplace wellness programs 5. The role of leadership in promoting employee well-being 6. The impact of job demands and resources on employee well-being 7. The impact of work schedule flexibility on employee well-being 8. The impact of job security on employee well-being 9. Burnout and its impact on employee well-being 10. Developing effective work-life balance policies

  Organizational Change

1. Theories of organizational change 2. Managing resistance to change 3. The role of leadership in organizational change 4. The impact of organizational culture on change management 5. The role of communication in change management 6. The impact of technology on organizational change 7. The impact of organizational change on employee motivation and satisfaction 8. The role of employee involvement in change management 9. Change management strategies for global organizations 10. The impact of organizational change on organizational performance

Human Resource Management

1. Recruitment and selection strategies 2. Performance management and appraisal 3. Training and development programs 4. The impact of compensation and benefits on employee motivation 5. The role of HR in promoting diversity and inclusion 6. The impact of technology on HRM 7. The impact of employee turnover on organizational performance 8. Employee retention strategies 9. HR metrics and analytics 10. HR strategy and its impact on organizational performance

Organizational Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

1. The importance of ethical behavior in organizations 2. Ethical decision-making processes in organizations 3. The impact of corporate social responsibility on organizational performance 4. The relationship between ethics and organizational culture 5. Ethical leadership and its impact on employee behavior 6. The role of codes of ethics in organizations 7. The impact of social media on organizational ethics 8. The impact of globalization on organizational ethics 9. The role of stakeholders in promoting ethical behavior 10. Developing ethical organizational policies

Choosing an Organizational Behavior Topic

Choosing a research topic can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many organizational behavior research paper topics to choose from. The key to choosing a successful topic is to select one that is relevant, interesting, and manageable. In this section, we provide expert advice on how to choose an organizational behavior research paper topic that will help students succeed in their academic pursuits.

The importance of choosing a relevant and interesting topic

The first step in choosing an organizational behavior research paper topic is to select a relevant and interesting topic. A relevant topic is one that aligns with the course curriculum and the student’s area of interest. An interesting topic is one that is engaging and will hold the student’s attention throughout the research and writing process. Choosing a relevant and interesting topic is important because it will make the research and writing process more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Tips for choosing a topic that aligns with the student’s interests and career goals

To choose a topic that aligns with the student’s interests and career goals, it is important to consider what topics are relevant to the student’s area of study and future career aspirations. Students should consider their personal interests, as well as the interests of potential employers. They should also consider the latest trends and developments in the field of organizational behavior, and choose a topic that is timely and relevant.

How to narrow down a broad topic into a manageable research question

Once a broad topic has been selected, it is important to narrow it down into a manageable research question. This can be done by breaking the topic down into smaller, more manageable sub-topics. Students should consider the scope of the topic and the available resources, and choose a research question that is focused and manageable.

Examples of how to brainstorm ideas for research topics

Brainstorming is an effective way to generate ideas for research topics. Students can start by listing the topics that interest them and then narrowing down the list to the most relevant and interesting topics. They can also read academic journals and textbooks to identify current trends and issues in organizational behavior. Finally, they can talk to their instructors or peers to get ideas and feedback.

How to conduct preliminary research

Before choosing a research topic, it is important to conduct preliminary research to ensure that the topic is feasible and has enough available resources. Students can start by conducting a literature review to identify the latest research on the topic. They can also use online databases and search engines to find relevant articles and publications. Finally, they can consult with their instructors or academic advisors to get advice on the available resources and potential research topics.

Choosing the right organizational behavior research paper topic is essential for success in academic pursuits. By following these expert tips and advice, students can choose a relevant and interesting topic, narrow it down into a manageable research question, and conduct preliminary research to ensure the topic is feasible and has enough available resources.

How to Write an Organizational Behavior Research Paper

Once a research topic has been chosen, the next step is to write the research paper. Writing an organizational behavior research paper can be a challenging task, but with the right guidance and strategies, it can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. In this section, we provide expert advice on how to write an organizational behavior research paper.

The structure and format of a research paper

The structure and format of an organizational behavior research paper should follow the standard guidelines for academic research papers. It should include an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion sections. The introduction should provide an overview of the research topic and the purpose of the study. The literature review should summarize the relevant research on the topic. The methodology section should describe the research design, sample, and data collection methods. The results section should present the findings of the study, and the discussion section should interpret the results and provide conclusions and recommendations.

How to conduct research and gather sources

To conduct research and gather sources for an organizational behavior research paper, students should start by conducting a literature review. This involves searching for relevant articles and publications on the research topic. Students can use online databases, search engines, and academic journals to find relevant sources. They should also consider the credibility and relevance of the sources they choose, and use a variety of sources to support their arguments.

How to organize and outline the paper

Organizing and outlining an organizational behavior research paper is an important step in the writing process. Students should start by creating an outline that includes the major sections of the paper and the key points they want to make in each section. They should then organize their sources and research findings according to the outline. This will help them write a clear and coherent paper.

How to write an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion sections

Each section of an organizational behavior research paper has a specific purpose and format. The introduction should provide an overview of the research topic and the purpose of the study. The literature review should summarize the relevant research on the topic. The methodology section should describe the research design, sample, and data collection methods. The results section should present the findings of the study, and the discussion section should interpret the results and provide conclusions and recommendations. Students should use clear and concise language and support their arguments with relevant sources and research findings.

How to properly cite sources and format the paper

Properly citing sources and formatting the paper is essential for academic integrity and professionalism. Students should follow the guidelines for the appropriate citation style, such as APA or MLA. They should also ensure that the paper is formatted according to the guidelines provided by their instructor or academic institution. This includes proper margins, headings, and references.

How to revise and edit the paper for clarity and coherence

Revising and editing the organizational behavior research paper is an important step in the writing process. Students should read the paper carefully and revise it for clarity, coherence, and organization. They should also check for spelling and grammar errors and ensure that the paper meets the requirements and guidelines provided by their instructor or academic institution.

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421 Behavior Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 behavior research papers examples, 💡 essay ideas on behavior, 🎓 simple research topics about behavior, 👍 good behavior essay topics to write about.

• ⭐ Simple & Easy Behavior Essay Titles

🔎 Interesting Topics to Write about Behavior

🏆 best behavior essay titles, ✍️ behavior essay topics for college, 📣 discussion questions about behaviorism, ❓ behavior research questions.

• Hormones and Behavior Interaction Psychology essay sample: This paper focuses on demonstrating how the interaction between hormones and behavior affect sexual differentiation and gender identity.
• Children’s Behavioral and Family Problems Psychology essay sample: The family is the most important socialization institution in human society. This paper examines the family issues that contribute to the behavioral problems amongst children.
• Functional Behavior Assessment and Intervention Plan Psychology essay sample: Behavior is a way of communication. This paper discusses the assessment of problem behavior and explains the intervention procedures.
• Cognitive Dissonance Effects on Attitudes and Behavior Psychology essay sample: Since cognitive dissonance theory was proposed, psychologists have carried out number of studies to determine the relationship between human behavior and attitudes.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Various Diseases Psychology essay sample: Cognitive behavioural therapy is aimed at helping patients manage their problems with the help of changing the way in which they behave and think.
• Children Behavior Changes Psychology essay sample: This paper improves the understanding on family dynamics that help in understanding the model of transition and child adjustment.
• Human Behavior: Evolutionary Psychological Approach Psychology essay sample: Evolution psychology has attempted to provide an important framework for explaining the origin and development of human behavior.
• Cognitive Psychology Definition and Aspects Psychology essay sample: This paper will explore cognitive psychology, key milestones in its development and significance of behavioral observation.
• Behaviour Modification in the Educational Setting Psychology essay sample: Positive reinforcement can be discussed as one of the dominant methods according to the behaviour modification approach.
• Foundations of Psychology: Science of Mind and Behavior Psychology essay sample: The greatest minds of all times tried to understand human behavior. One of the main means of understanding this aspect is the consideration of the human behavior.
• Child's Behavior and Developmental Stage Psychology essay sample: The behavior of children at any developmental stage is similar across cultures. The paper analyzes the behavior and the developmental stage of a 9-years child.
• The Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy Concept Psychology essay sample: Cognitive behavioral family therapy (CBFT) is the most popular treatment modality among marriage and family therapists focusing on marital problems.
• Behavior Influence on Attitudes in Social Psychology Psychology essay sample: This paper explains how behaviors may change attitudes, discussing the theory of cognitive dissonance and the theory of self-perception.
• Psychology Theories and Their Influence on Future Psychology essay sample: This paper explores behavioral, cognitive, developmental, humanistic personality, and social psychology theories and establishes their influence on the future of psychology.
• Cognitive Dissonance in Leadership Behavior Psychology essay sample: Since its introduction by Festinger, the concept of cognitive dissonance has received widespread recognition in multiple fields that involve human behavior patterns.
• Behavior and Cultural, Genetic, Environmental Effects Psychology essay sample: Human beings exhibit different behaviors when exposed to culture. Apart from the environment, genetic endowment also influences the behavior of an individual.
• Learning Process and Behavior Theories at the Workplace Psychology essay sample: The learning process affects the behavior of individuals. This paper discusses some of these influences and their outcome by considering some of the behavioral theories.
• Behavior, Personality and Inventories Psychology essay sample: This paper defines the term "personality" and outlines the weaknesses and strengths of the approaches used to measure it.
• Self-Esteem, Behaviors, and Life Satisfaction Psychology essay sample: Self-esteem and autonomy correlate with life satisfaction. These traits eventually improve it and eliminate negative behaviours, making a person significantly happier.
• Psychology of Behavior: Motivation Theories Psychology essay sample: There are four early theories of motivation: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, McClelland’s Three Needs Theory, and McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y.
• Personality, Behaviours and Performance at Work Psychology essay sample: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of emotional intelligence and personal qualities in determining individual behaviours and performance at work.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior in Children Psychology essay sample: Analysis of OCD in children: Its causes, psychodynamic and biological causes, early signs and symptoms, consequences of OCD, treatment, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.
• Organizational Behavior of Individuals Psychology essay sample: This paper tries to bring out the effect of personality traits, ethnicity, geographic differences, and age on individual behaviors.
• Three Points of View on Behaviorism Psychology essay sample: Watson, Skinner, and Tolman are thought about as the originators of behaviorism as a psychology perspective. Their theories had a considerable impact on learning.
• Cognitive Behavioral Counseling Psychology essay sample: The aim of cognitive-behavioral therapy is to teach and elucidate a client how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and how to think positively.
• Consumer Behaviour: Models, Theories and Concepts Psychology essay sample: The analysis of the concept of consumer behavior shows that the decisions that the consumer make are shaped by a variety of elements.
• Social Influence and Its Effects in People’s Beliefs and Behavior Psychology essay sample: The social influence for the group's behavior and beliefs still remain adamant as it significantly contributes either positively or negatively to the group members.
• Motivation and Organizational Behavior Psychology essay sample: This essay aims to discuss motivation in the light of psychological contract, individuals’ roles, intrinsic motivation, theory X and Y, motivational drives, and locus of control.
• Theories of Human Learning: Reinforcement and Behaviorism Psychology essay sample: There is one issue about reinforcement schedules - people get used to their rewards or punishments and do not pay much attention to them after a little while.
• The Use of Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: Behavioral therapy is a type of treatment that focuses on an individual’s feelings and thought processes with the purpose of treating various psychological problems.
• Psychology of Humanism and Behaviorism Psychology essay sample: The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the theories of the psychology of humanism and behaviorism.
• Deviant Behavior Through the Social Norms' Concept Psychology essay sample: In the paper, deviant behavior is perceived as actions that do not comply with norms or standards officially or actually established in a particular society.
• Deviant Behaviors and Its Types and Examples Psychology essay sample: Society will seek to either understand that behavior or avoid the behavior. It is important to note either way: a person will always get negative views from society.
• Motivating for Appropriate Behavior Psychology essay sample: The theory of motivation is an important aspect in organizational behavior. It is an element that greatly affects the attitudes and levels of energy within a workforce in the workplace
• Behavioral Modification: Change Bedroom Cleaning Habit Psychology essay sample: The use of the shaping technique is necessary since integrating a new character within me is not an instant activity.
• The Essentials of Organizational Behavior Psychology essay sample: There are some shortcomings that I would correct if I were in the position of authority in the organization. Travelling is one of the most effective ways of motivation in any company.
• Human Behavior: Behavioral Models Psychology essay sample: By using individual concepts as examples, behavioral peculiarities will be examined and analyzed in the context of their implications and in relation to personal experience.
• The Brain and Human Behavior Psychology essay sample: Psychology studies the human mind and behavior; since the brain is people's main deciding organ, for both conscious and subconscious outcomes, it's essential for this field of science.
• Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment Psychology essay sample: One of the most severe and challenging problems that require an appropriate solution is suicidal behavior among teenagers and young adults.
• Human Behavior in Fires Psychology essay sample: Three research studies on human behavior in fires will be addressed with the purpose of comparing their methodologies and findings and making conclusions about their effectiveness.
• Phobias and Addictions Theories Psychology essay sample: Phobias and addictions are two behavioral theories that can be used to describe the development of phobias and addiction in people.
• On the Formation of Prosocial Behavior in Children Psychology essay sample: This article discusses the importance of the environment in shaping prosocial behavior and the impact of the environment on interactions between children.
• Attitudes as a Set of Behaviors, Emotions, and Beliefs Psychology essay sample: Development of different perceptions are referred to as attitudes defined as a set of behaviors, emotions, and beliefs about a particular person, event, or item.
• Getting Involved: Helping Behaviors vs. the Bystander Effect Psychology essay sample: The willingness to help depends on numerous factors, such as culture, group size, and personality traits, and manifests in situations people can easily encounter in real life.
• Behavioral and Social-Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits Psychology essay sample: Psychologists have been studying the mechanism of habits development for decades for was to find out the reason and the factors that affect this process.
• Behavior Problems of Middle Childhood by Peterson Psychology essay sample: This document is intended to provide a critical review of a journal article, Behavior problems of middle childhood, authored by Donald Peterson of the University of Illinois.
• Repetitive and Restrictive Behaviors Psychology essay sample: RRBs are atypical behaviors characterized by repetition or motor stereotypy. They are common in neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD and OCD.
• Interpreting the Body Behavior of Two Men Psychology essay sample: Observation of two young men's body language has allowed the author to evaluate how versatile non-verbal communication can be in relation to human interaction in everyday life.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Overview Psychology essay sample: Cognitive-behavioral therapy maintains strong empirical and scientific evidence of efficacy for the treatment of addiction.
• Nonverbal Behavior in Different Countries Psychology essay sample: The culture of each country develops according to its laws, and each state has its own characteristics of non-verbal communication.
• Personality and Behavior: Theory of Emotion Psychology essay sample: The article is devoted to the main theories that try to explain the behavior of humans and animals by their emotional state.
• Cultural Norms: Regulation of Human Behavior Psychology essay sample: Human behavior is regulated by cultural norms and stereotypes. The image of an ideal man is connected with such characteristics as power.
• Biological Basis of Behavior - Neuron Psychology essay sample: A neuron refers to a specialized cell of the nervous system that transmits sensory information in form of chemical and electrical signals across the body.
• Behaviorism: Origins, Theories, and Application Psychology essay sample: Behaviorism is often considered to be a revolutionary idea because it changed the course of the development of psychology as a discipline.
• Accounting for Human Behavior in Psychology and Sociology Psychology essay sample: Study behavior, sociology looks beyond an individual or a small group through associations, to examine society while psychology delves into an individual’s or group’s mind.
• Cognitive-Behavioral and Rational Emotional Behavior Theory: Comparison Psychology essay sample: The purpose of the paper is to compare and contrast CBT and rational emotive behavioral therapy and report how varieties between the two practices can impact psychiatric practice.
• Integrated Behavioral Health Care Psychology essay sample: The integrated behavioral health services provide professional health care counselors with new opportunities and challenges in assuming their present roles and responsibilities.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: CBT stands out to be is a well-develop and proven therapy. The method is effective for the treatment of patients experiencing a combination of behavioral and cognitive issues.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Addiction Treatment Psychology essay sample: This paper presents an analysis of the available literature on the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance abusers.
• Classical Music in Children’s Development and Behavior Psychology essay sample: Western classical music, often referred to as simply classical music, is often considered highly beneficial to children’s education and associated with a variety of advantages.
• Cognitive Behavior and Depression in Adolescents Psychology essay sample: People of different ages are prone to various psychological and emotional issues, especially in the current world that is transforming at a high pace.
• The Applied Behavioural Analysis for Children Psychology essay sample: The Applied Behaviour Analysis describes a project meant to provide an opportunity to sharpen skills of observation and management of children by devising an intervention plan.
• Learning About Organizational Behavior as an Interior Consultant Psychology essay sample: The organizational environment represents a rather rigid structure where a specific hierarchy coexists with very rigid standards for employees’ behaviors and attitudes.
• Extinction Procedure and Misbehavior Psychology essay sample: This essay will discuss the concept of extinction and provide real-world examples that can be addressed by applying the extinction method of misbehavior treatment in various cases.
• Sally: A Fifteen-Year Old With Behavior Problems Psychology essay sample: In Sally’s case, the school contacted the parents before referring the matter to the Juvenile Office and provided a list of observed concerns regarding Sally’s behavior.
• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Rational emotive behavior therapy is a therapy approach that involves the identification and replacement of negative behaviors with positive ones.
• Kinesics as the Study of Body Motion or Body Behavior Psychology essay sample: Gestures are an essential component of typical communication. Conveying just as much information as speech, they serve as complementary sources of crucial insights about people.
• Gestalt Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Theory: Comparison Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to argue that based on the similarities and phenomenological attributes of Gestalt Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Theory.
• A Tier 3 Intervention Behaviour Model: What Works Clearinghouse Psychology essay sample: A focus on the tier 3 intervention will highlight the significant aspects surrounding behavior as the chosen academic content area from What Works Clearinghouse.
• How Joel Rifkin’s Behavior Can Be Explained Using Psychodynamic Theory Psychology essay sample: It's clear that Freud’s explanation of psychodynamic theory is relevant. By using the specifications in this theory, it is possible to explain a person’s future behavior.
• Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Behavioral Approach in Counseling and Psychotherapy Psychology essay sample: Psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral therapy differ in methods and strategies; they may also differ slightly in purpose.
• Planned Human Behavior Theory Psychology essay sample: Human behavior is based on many factors that affect people throughout life. Many patterns of behavior are learned, “planned,” and amenable to change.
• Biological Basis of Behavior - Divisions of the Brain Psychology essay sample: The brain is the control point of the nervous system in all vertebrates and most invertebrate animals. Vertebrates have complex brains as compared to invertebrates.
• The Student's Maladaptive Behavior Case Psychology essay sample: Jose Contreras is a third-grade student exhibiting traits of maladaptive behavior, thus disrupting the entire class. The main problem is a lack of respect for authority figures.
• Deviant Behavior: Workplace Bullying Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to explore workplace bullying in terms of conflict and labeling theories to better understand its causes and nature.
• Cognitive Dissonance and Behavioral Finance Psychology essay sample: The cognitive dissonance theory explains the phenomenon where a person experiences tension and anxiety when that person has two opposing thoughts in mind.
• The Children Abuse and Social Behavior Psychology essay sample: This research paper will define child abuse, review the statistics and other data on the topic and discuss the impact of abuse on the social behavior of children.
• Functionalism vs. Behavioral Theory: Mind/Body Problem Perception Psychology essay sample: The paper questions the mind/body problem and how does the nature of the mind relate to the brain and examines two critical theories of mind - behaviorism and functionalism.
• Family Analysis and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: It is important to identify what counts as a norm in order to locate problematic aspects of some of the relationships within a family and between its members.
• Myths of Sexual Assault as Effort to Excuse the Criminal’s Behavior Psychology essay sample: The general community's knowledge of sexual assault, stalking, and abuse should be promoted to reduce the effect of sexism and past social mindsets.
• Childhood Trauma: Disorders and Risky Behavior Psychology essay sample: Young people with a history of childhood abuse have a higher likelihood of participating in HIV risk behaviors such as having sex with multiple partners and having unprotected sex.
• The Theory of Behaviorism: Learning and Conditioning Psychology essay sample: The theory of behaviorism is based on the perception that all behaviors that an individual develops through life are acquired with the help of conditioning.
• Adolescent Risk Behaviors. Child Development Influences Psychology essay sample: Adolescence is one of the most challenging periods in the life of every individual because they go though in an understanding of life, establishing a personality.
• Discrimination and Prejudice Behavior towards the Minorities Psychology essay sample: It is essential to teach both children and adults on how to avoid discriminatory behavior in every sphere, making our society more accepting and amicable.
• Behaviorism: Ideas and Sub-Theories Psychology essay sample: Behaviorism theory suggests the following: people learn because of stimuli (rewards or punishments) in their environments. That is the central thought of the theory.
• Lower-Level Behavior of Employees Psychology essay sample: People who whine or demonstratively “tolerate” something are not good team players and consume energy from the team.
• Methodological and Radical Behaviorism Differences Psychology essay sample: The article focuses on the differences between Watson's methodological behaviorism and Skinner's radical behaviorism.
• "The Fuzzy Concept of Applied Behavior Analysis Research" Article by Critchfield & Reed Psychology essay sample: Critchfield & Reed’s “The Fuzzy Concept of Applied Behavior Analysis Research” studies the seven-dimension framework preventing socially important issues from receiving attention.
• Organizational Behavior and Big Five Personality Traits Psychology essay sample: Big Five personality tests, like any other psychological work, are subjected to errors making them have their weaknesses.
• "On the knife's edge" Term and the Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: "On the knife's edge" is a term used to describe how people make irreversible mistakes that are often regretted moments after they are made.
• Behaviorism as Psychological Theory Psychology essay sample: Behaviorism is a psychological theory that explains the actions of living creatures. It is also a part of developmental psychology.
• Environmental Effect on Antisocial Behavior Disorder Psychology essay sample: Antisocial Personality Disorder is one of the most troublesome character issues to treat, which transforms how the person thinks, processes, feels, and perceives events and words.
• Influence of Eating Disordered Mothers on Their Daughters’ Eating Behavior Psychology essay sample: The study seeks to examine the effect of mothers’ weight perceptions and eating behaviors on their daughters’ weight and eating behaviors.
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology Psychology essay sample: In an increasingly competitive world, many organizations are adopting methods aimed at maximizing all their available resources to effectively achieve their set goals.
• The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Cognitive behavior therapy puts more emphasis on transforming the way family members behave. The approach is also concerned with the family’s dysfunctional beliefs or attitudes.
• The Behavior Therapy Approach Psychology essay sample: The main characteristics of behavior therapy mainly focus on observable behavior, current determinants of behavior, change promoting learning experiences, and rigorous assessment.
• Skinner's Radical Behaviorism Theory Psychology essay sample: Skinner's radical behaviorism focuses on the links between environmental changes and a person's condition and can be valuable for diagnosing and treating different diseases.
• Assessment and Management of Challenging Behaviors Psychology essay sample: People with challenging behaviors need utmost care and understanding. When these individuals are not well taken care of they end up being a nuisance to the community.
• Is Herd Behavior Rational or Irrational? Psychology essay sample: The essay discusses the rationality or irrationality of the idea that people copy the actions of others in the field of finance, calling it herding.
• Destructive Behaviour Prevention Psychology essay sample: This essay seeks to briefly describe how to avoid destructive behaviours that affect human health in the short term or long-term.
• The Effects of Family Conflict Resolution on Children’s Classroom Behavior Psychology essay sample: The author pondered the possibility of family systems intervention minimizing the need for referral to tertiary-type special education programs in the community agency.
• The Deviant Behavior of Freshmen in College Psychology essay sample: Deviant behavior among freshmen is a serious problem which has to be handled. This behavior often leads to disease, pregnancy and fights that results in expulsion.
• Five Listening Behaviors Represented by the Acronym SOLER Psychology essay sample: SOLER is an acronym used to summarize a process of effective communication that impacts the way we deal and respond to clients.
• Biopsychosocial Analysis: Behavior and Social Environment Psychology essay sample: The development of a child through various milestones is dependent on various biological, psychological, and social factors.
• Behavioral. Style Perspective to Leadership Psychology essay sample: The behavioral perspective in the article is people-oriented. It focuses on the promotion of changes within the community that will eliminate the disparities and risk factors.
• Anxiety Disorders: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: This research paper will focus on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy as a treatment modality for anxiety disorders.
• Theories on Behaviour in Groups: Group Dynamics Psychology essay sample: The paper concerns formation of groups, group dynamics theories of Belbin, Tuckman, Woodcock, Gross, and McClelland.
• Naturalistic Observation of Children's Behavior Psychology essay sample: To receive more evidences related to the behavior of children, it is important to observe the definite age groups in the situation and surroundings which are typical and familiar for them.
• Behavioral Influences on Health Psychology essay sample: This paper explores a relationship that exists between behavioral, psychological, socio-cultural, and lifestyle factors to major causes of mortality.
• Health Behavior Change Psychology essay sample: The purpose of this article is to consider the determinants of individual health behavior and the barriers to change.
• Self-Help Group Simulations. Behaviour Change Psychology essay sample: Going through the experience is vital for mental health professionals to understand the complexities of issues of substance abuse and addiction that the clients are going through.
• Behavioral Science and Psychology: Analysis and Comparison of Research Methods Psychology essay sample: The paper discusses that both sociological and anthropological research methods help obtain credible and objective data.
• Managing Behaviour in Young Children Psychology essay sample: The paper discusses what tools and techniques are likely or unlikely to work in a particular case study. The strategy focuses on the family and interventions.
• Supervisory Model: Cognitive Behavior Psychology essay sample: The cognitive behavior supervisory model allows working with patients on two distinct elements - their cognition and behavior.
• Patient's Concentration: Applied Behavior Analysis Psychology essay sample: This paper explores how memories are created, stored, and recalled. The paper investigates how the perception of stress might have affected the patient’s ability to focus.
• Cognitive Strategies of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Automatic thoughts introduce the problems patients are not able to identify when they address to a therapist for help.
• The Behavioral, Humanistic, and Cognitive Approaches to Anxiety Psychology essay sample: The behavioral approach is stuck in the idea that the neighboring situation affects the victim, which can aid in knowing their decision.
• Child Care and Behavior Concerns Psychology essay sample: Early child care interaction is also associated with increased exposure to peers at a young age and potential effects on early peer qualifications.
• Behavioral Changes Related to Mate Attraction Psychology essay sample: This essay discusses what changes occur in the way people search for their partner when they age by comparing profiles of two different age groups on the site LoveAwake.
• Foster Care Effects on Early Adolescents' Behavior Psychology essay sample: Foster care places a child in an ideal environment similar to a family set up under the supervision of relatives, well-wishers, government institutions, and strangers.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Model Psychology essay sample: Modern psychology developed six patterns to differentiate and adequately treat abnormalities based on individuals’ physical and mental switches.
• Theories and Models of Individual Health Behavior Psychology essay sample: This paper discusses theories and models of individual health behavior, namely the health belief model, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, and others.
• The Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: The key concepts of the cognitive-behavioral therapy revolve around emotions, thoughts, and behavior, which are disputations and collaborative empiricism.
• John Watson and Child Behaviorism Psychology essay sample: To prove this point, Watson turned to studying the behavior of infants and came to the conclusion that children are capable of producing a small number of simple reactions.
• The Inefficiency of Punishment for Shaping Child Behaviour Psychology essay sample: This paper states that using punishment is completely inefficient for changing the behavior of children, and it is illustrated by several psychological statements.
• Organizational Behavior: Psychology Psychology essay sample: The article argues psychology focuses on the essence of the human mind and decision-making, without which there cannot be a plausible understanding of group-based dynamics.
• Why Do People Behave the Way They Do? Psychology essay sample: There are many ways to determine why people think and act in a particular manner. This paper discusses the psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive, and biological perspectives.
• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Rational emotive behavior therapy is a methodology that causes recognizing unreasonable convictions and negative idea designs that may prompt enthusiastic or social issues.
• Behavior and Aspects of Human Personality: Analysis of Three Articles Psychology essay sample: The articles focus on cognitive dissonance and how it affects the decision-making process, the evaluation of antisocial tendencies, the traits connected to criminal personality.
• Attribution Theory: Overview and Real-life Application Psychology essay sample: In terms of the present paper, an attempt will be made to dwell on the peculiarities of attribution theory and its real-life application examples.
• Becker’s Labeling Theory: Advantages and Disadvantages Psychology essay sample: This paper will examine and criticize Becker's labeling ideas in detail to demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: When Is It Useful? Psychology essay sample: The cognitive-behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the role of thinking in how we feel and behave.
• Psychology of Personal Behavior Change Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to discuss how to improve well-being based on the behavior change approaches, replacing soda with water as an example
• The Implicit Association Test: The Behavior of an Individual Psychology essay sample: The implicit Association Test is a test that aims to discover and measure the implicit bias of a person taking it. During the time taking the test, a person needs to react quickly.
• Communicative Function of Behavior Psychology essay sample: Behavioral issues in children and adolescents preventing them from successful socialization frequently derive from their inability to communicate their current needs.
• Television Programs and Children's Violent Behavior Psychology essay sample: This paper critically analyses various research that demonstrates the relationship between television programs and violent behavior in children.
• Child Psychology: Children's Behavior and Communication Style Psychology essay sample: The methods allow for identifying a child's communication style. This helps in finding a specific approach for each kid and indicating their weak spots.
• Fundamentals of Psychology: Changing Behavior Psychology essay sample: This behavior can be caused by fatigue, stress, and lack of sleep. Even though it is pretty standard, aggression still affects a person's daily life.
• Nightmares Case Conceptualization Through a Framework of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Psychology essay sample: The given case conceptualization focuses on a patient, Ms. Cruz, who is suffering from recurring nightmares of hurting her four-month-old son.
• Behavior Theory: Practice Model Overview Psychology essay sample: The model reflects how work surroundings affect change of behavior, ignoring the fact that the conduct of people is inherited from one group to another.
• Practices That Support Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Psychology essay sample: The paper discusses the ways to provide education for children at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders without detracting from the education quality.
• Observed Behaviors of 10-Year Old Children and Supporting Theories Psychology essay sample: This paper explains Erikson’s psychosocial, Freud’s psychosexual, Piaget’s cognitive developmental theories, Bandura’s social learning, Kohlberg’s moral development perspectives.
• The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Persons also fails to provide templates that would assist clinicians unfamiliar with CBT assessment processes to develop a standard for working with patients in pretreatment.
• How Emotions Motivate Human Behavior Psychology essay sample: Happiness is the greatest emotional motivator because it makes people behave in a particular manner they believe will result in happiness.
• Bullying Behavior in Children Psychology essay sample: The paper states that contributing factors to bullying behavior are family violence and media content that encourages victimization.
• Psychological and Behavioral Factors of Individual Terrorists Psychology essay sample: Individual terrorism is a combination of psychological and behavioral factors that lead to the gradual radicalization of a person.
• Introduction to Learning and Behavior Psychology essay sample: Experiments on animals usually make students bored and uninterested in studying them. Aspects derived from these experiments can improve studying habits and romantic relationships.
• Behavior Modification Strategies in Diverse Settings Psychology essay sample: There are multiple benefits to studying behavioral psychology at a professional level, including the opportunity to evaluate and even design behavior modification (BM) strategies.
• Case Conceptualization Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Psychology essay sample: Rational emotive behavior therapy can be used for treating different patients with various psychological ailments. It includes three therapeutic techniques.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Cultural Factors Psychology essay sample: Cognitive-behavioral therapy can offer multiple benefits in the context of cultural issues. It can be easily adapted to be responsive to the client’s cultural identity and beliefs.
• Motivation for Helping Behavior Psychology essay sample: While helping someone, it is easy to determine their own motives by realizing whether a person asks themselves additional questions regarding the affairs' purpose.
• Learning Theories and Their Practical Application to Behavior Change Psychology essay sample: The paper aims to study different learning theories and their practical application to behavior change: Albert Bandura's theory, Clark Hull's theory, etc.
• Factors That Affect Human Behavior Psychology essay sample: Human beings are inherently social beings, and they tend to interact with other people. Social connections and caring for others demonstrate the concept of relatedness.
• Deviant Behavior Characteristics and Examples Psychology essay sample: Deviant behavior (a violation of social norms) has become widespread in recent years and has become the center of attention of sociologists, social psychologists, and doctors.
• Positive Behavior Support Psychology essay sample: The paper states that deviant behavior is quite a big problem for teachers and students. This approach aims to develop a strategy for teachers.
• Behavior Issues of People with Disabilities Psychology essay sample: Individuals with developmental impairments have cognitive deficits in the following areas: self-care, receptive and expressive communication, academic learning, etc.
• Nature or Nurture: Which Impacts Human Behavior More? Psychology essay sample: Even though empirical data represent the dominance of nurture over nature in human behavior, it is vital to remember that human behavior and development are complex processes.
• Childhood Maltreatment and Behavior Problems Psychology essay sample: The research centers on examining whether or not early childhood maltreatment (before the age of four) affected the long-term behavioral deviations.
• Early-Life Stress and Behavioral Outcomes Psychology essay sample: The study aims to understand the mechanisms behind the long-lasting consequences of early-life stress exposure. It is accomplished by comparing the results of tests.
• Deviant Behavior, Crimes, and Justice: Perceptions and Reflections Psychology essay sample: The paper describes deviance as any conduct, trait, or belief that breaches social norms in a particular society or group.

⭐ Simple & Easy Behavior Essay Titles

• Importance of Stimulus Generalization
• Biological Theories Relating to Human Behavior and Criminality
• Behaviorism Learning Theory
• Deviant Behavior Related to Stress and Strain
• Advanced Preparation Standard 3: Behavioral Intervention Planning
• Person-Centered and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Psychological Perspectives Explaining Behavior
• MARS Individual Behavior Model
• Unconditional and Conditional Stimuli in Human Behavior
• Television Programs and Violent Behavior in Children
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Trauma
• The Dilute Ego’s Impact on a Person’s Behavior
• Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis and Prosocial Behaviour in Humans
• Suicidal Behavior Management: Values and Beliefs
• Behavior: Zimbardo and Moscovici Experiment
• Sustainable and Non-Sustainable Consumer Behavior in Young Adults
• Relationship of Proactive Personality, Financial Planning Behavior and Life Satisfaction
• Behavioral Perspective Theory: History and Critique
• Overcoming Stage Fright: Behavior Modification Techniques
• Separation of Children and Related Behavioral Disorders
• Temperament and Behavior in Young Children
• Care Workers' Knowledge of Psychological Theories
• How Psychological Principles Are Used in Everyday Life
• Competitive Social Behavior in Psychology
• Why Adolescents Engage in Risk-Taking Behaviors
• Health Belief and Transtheoretical Models
• Nature Versus Nurture: Impact on Human Behavior
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Theories of Change Within Human Behavior
• ADHD, Behavioral Issues, and Mental Health
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Family Violence Cases
• The Behavior Intervention Support Team's Goals
• Attitude-Behavior Relationship in Travel Behavior Modeling
• Weekly Routine and Stressors: Nutrition Education and Behavior
• Key Principles that Govern Human and Animal Behavior
• Speech on Self-Concept and Consumer Behavior
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depression
• The Collective Behavior Deviations
• Karl Denke's Psychopathic Behaviors Journey
• Americans’ Mental, Social and Behavioral Health
• What If Video Games Influence Behavior?
• Disruptive Behavior in Primary School
• Motive as a Predictor of Behavior
• Aspects of Personal Behavior Change
• Deviant Behavior and the Commitment of Crime
• Nature or Nurture: What Shapes the Human Behavior
• Common Patterns of Social Behaviors
• The Risk-Taking in Children: Reasons and Effects
• Human Behavior: Nature vs. Nurture
• Storybooks Promote Prosocial Behaviors in Children
• Aspects of Learning and Memory
• Milgram’s Study of Obedience
• Normal vs. Pathological Aging Differences
• Guiding Children’s Challenging Behaviors
• Fear and Freedom in Human Behavior
• Students’ Behaviors, Intellectual and Psychological Characteristics
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• The Influence of Nurture on Human Behavior
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• Nature and Nurture in Determining Human Behavior
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• An Example of Classical Conditioning
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• Abnormal Behavior and Its Effect on Society
• Abstinence and Human Sexual Behavior
• Marketing and Consumer Behavior in Healthcare The general idea of marketing is no different in the healthcare industry since it entails the strategic implementation of outreach and communication strategies.
• Abusive Behavior, Consequences, and Responsibility
• Academic Achievements of Children With Behavioral Disorders
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Health Behavior Change
• Political Views and Bureaucratic Behavior
• Behavior Problems in Preschool Children
• Issues in the Self-Regulation of Behavior
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• Behavior: The Control of Perception
• The Challenge of Increasing Proenvironment Behavior
• Behavior as a Function of the Situation
• Economic Concepts for the Analysis of Behavior
• The Economics of University Behavior
• Behavior in Public Places
• Understanding Culture’s Influence on Behavior
• Children’s Moral Motivation, Sympathy, and Prosocial Behavior
• The Role of Behavior in Evolution
• Social and Cognitive Correlates of Children’s Lying Behavior
• Teaching and Behavioral Theories
• Strategies for Promoting Proenvironmental Behavior
• Physiological and Functional Aspects of Stereotyped Behavior
• Educational Psychology: Behaviorism
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• Science and Human Behavior
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• The Emotional Intelligence of Adolescents and Their Risk-Taking Behavior
• The Role of Inheritance in Behavior
• Designing and Understanding Adaptive Group Behavior
• Individual Behavior, Culture, and Social Change
• Adaptive Behavior and Development of Infants and Toddlers
• Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior
• Unethical Behavior in Organizations
• What Is Behaviorism, and How Does It Define the Scope of Psychology?
• How Does Culture Influence Human Behavior?
• What Toxic Behavior Has Been Normalized by Society?
• How Did Behaviorism Emerge as a School of Thought in Psychology?
• What Subtle Behavior Makes a Person More Attractive?
• How Does Behaviorism View the Role of Consciousness and Mental Processes in Understanding Behavior?
• Is Human Behavior Genetic or Learned?
• What Type of Motivation Is Created by Behaviorism?
• How Does Behaviorism Influence Our Way of Thinking?
• What Are Some Classic Experiments or Studies That Illustrate the Principles of Behaviorism?
• How Does Behaviorism Approach the Study of Learning and Conditioning?
• What Are the Criticisms and Limitations of Behaviorism as a Psychological Framework?
• How Do Cultural Norms and Societal Expectations Influence Individual and Group Behaviors?
• What Is the Role of Reinforcement and Punishment in Shaping and Modifying Behavior?
• How Has Behaviorism Evolved Over Time, Including Developments Like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?
• How Does Behavior Serve as a Fundamental Aspect of Human and Animal Existence?
• How Do Behaviors Vary Across Cultures and Societies, and What Factors Contribute to These Variations?
• What Is the Relationship Between Behavior and Evolution, and How Does Behavior Aid in Survival and Reproduction?
• How Do Naturalistic Observations and Laboratory Experiments Contribute to Our Understanding of Behavior?
• How Do Individuals Learn and Acquire New Behaviors, and What Are the Mechanisms Involved?
• What Role Does Behaviorism Play in Understanding the Development of Social Behaviors and Cultural Norms?
• How Does Behavior Change Over the Lifespan, From Infancy to Old Age?
• Is Social Media Influencing Human Behavior?
• What Factors Influence Learning in Behaviorism?
• How Does Behaviorism Address Issues of Free Will and Determinism in Human Behavior?
• What Are the Benefits of Behaviorism in Education?
• How Does Behaviorism View Emotions and Their Relationship to Behavior?
• Who Is the Father of Behaviorism?
• How Does Behavior Contribute to the Formation of Social Bonds and Relationships Among Individuals?
• What Is the Relationship Between Memory and Behavior?
• What Is Behavior Modification?
• How Does the Environment of an Individual Affect His Behavior?
• What Is the Impact of Addictions on a Person’s Health, Behavior and Family?
• What Is the Effect of Administrative Leadership on Employee Behavior?
• Can Cognitive Behavior Therapy Overcome Depression?
• What Factors Influence the Behavior of a Teenager?
• How Does Advertising Affect Consumer Behavior?
• What Behavioral Changes Occur During a Pandemic?
• How Does Aggressive Behavior on Television Affect Children?
• Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Influence Behavior in Adulthood?
• What Is the Connection Between Cultural Values and Human Behavior?
• What Are the Motives of Altruistic Behavior?
• How Does Alcohol Affect Human Behavior?
• What Behavior Improves the Public Good?
• How Does Divorce Affect Children’s Behavior and Emotions?
• What Behavior in Ambiguous Situations Is Characteristic of Different Age Groups?
• Do Antisocial Personality Disorders Always Lead to Criminal Behavior?
• What Is Ethical Corporate Behavior?
• What Factors Influence Individual Behavior at Work?
• How Can Behavioral Disorders Affect a Person’s Life?
• What Is the Relationship Between Productive and Counterproductive Behavior?
• What Are the Problems of Adolescent Behavior That Parents Are Most Often Faced With?
• What Factors Affect Financial Literacy and Investment Behavior?
• Can Animals Exhibit Immoral Behavior?
• How to Respond to Antisocial Behavior on the Internet?
• Are There Really Autonomous “Unconscious” Goals That Drive Behavior?
• Do Violent Video Games Cause Bad Behavior in Children?
• How Does Constant Stress at Work Affect Employee Behavior?
• What Is Assertive Behavior?
• How Does Lack of Socialization Affect an Individual’s Behavior?

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Human Behavior Research: The Complete Guide

Bryn Farnsworth

Introduction to Human Behavior Research and Studies

Academic and commercial researchers alike are aiming toward a deeper understanding of how humans act, make decisions, plan, and feel. Advances in wearable sensor technology along with procedures for multi-modal data acquisition and analysis have lately been enabling researchers all across the globe to tap into previously unknown secrets of the human brain and mind.

Still, as emphasized by Makeig and colleagues (2009), the most pivotal challenge lies in the systematic observation and interpretation of how distributed brain processes support our natural, active, and flexibly changing behavior and cognition.

We all are active agents, continuously engaged in attempting to fulfill bodily needs and mental desires within complex and ever-changing surroundings while interacting with our environment. Brain structures have evolved that support cognitive processes targeted towards the optimization of outcomes for any of our body-based behaviors.

In this complete guide to understanding human behavior research, you’ll get a full run-down of how to get started with analyzing the systems, emotions and cognition that make humans tick, using scientifically credible methods such as biosensor research.

N.B. this post is an excerpt from our Human Behavior Guide. You can download your free copy below and get even more insights into human behavior.

Free 52-page Human Behavior Guide

For Beginners and Intermediates

• Get accessible and comprehensive walkthrough
• Valuable human behavior research insight
• Learn how to take your research to the next level

Table of Contents

So what exactly is behavior.

In scientific research, human behavior is a complex interplay of three components: actions, cognition, and emotions.

Sounds complicated? Let’s address them one by one.

Actions are Behavior

An action denotes everything that can be observed, either with bare eyes or measured by physiological sensors. Think of an action as an initiation or transition from one state to another – at a movie set, the director shouts “action” for the next scene to be filmed.

Behavioral actions can take place on various time scales, ranging from muscular activation to sweat gland activity, food consumption, or sleep.

Cognitions are Behavior

Cognitions describe thoughts and mental images you carry with you, and they can be both verbal and nonverbal. “I have to remember to buy groceries,” or “I’d be curious to know what she thinks of me,” can be considered verbal cognitions. In contrast, imagining how your house will look like after remodeling could be considered a nonverbal cognition.

Cognitions comprise skills and knowledge – knowing how to use tools in a meaningful manner (without hurting yourself), sing karaoke songs or being able to memorize the color of Marty McFly’s jacket in “Back to the Future” (it’s red).

Emotions are Behavior

Commonly, an emotion is any relatively brief conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity, and a feeling that is not characterized as resulting from either reasoning or knowledge. This usually exists on a scale, from positive (pleasurable) to negative (unpleasant).

Other aspects of physiology that are indicative of emotional processing – such as increased heart rate or respiration rate caused by increased arousal – are usually hidden to the eye. Similar to cognitions, emotions cannot be observed directly. They can only be inferred indirectly by tracking facial electromyographic activity (fEMG),  analyzing facial expressions , monitoring arousal using ECG, galvanic skin response (GSR) , respiration sensors, or self-reported measures, for example.

What is the Study of Human Behavior?

The study of human behavior is a fascinating and complex field that delves into the myriad ways individuals think, act, and interact. This multidisciplinary approach draws from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and even biology to provide comprehensive insights into human actions and societal dynamics.

Exploring Human Behavior Studies

Human behavior studies strive to understand the ‘why’ behind actions and reactions. This exploration involves examining both innate and learned behaviors, how environmental factors shape actions, and the impact of mental processes on decision-making. Researchers employ various methods, from controlled laboratory experiments to field observations, ensuring a holistic understanding of human behavior in diverse contexts.

Significance of Studying Humans

Understanding human behavior is crucial for numerous reasons. It aids in predicting responses in different situations, which is invaluable in areas like marketing, policy-making, and therapy. Additionally, studying behavior helps address social issues, improve educational approaches, and enhance interpersonal relationships. By understanding the underlying motivations and factors influencing actions, we can foster more empathetic and effective interactions within society.

Applying Insights from Human Behavior Studies

The practical applications of human behavior studies are vast and varied. In healthcare, these insights assist in developing better patient care strategies and public health initiatives. In business, understanding consumer behavior drives marketing and product development. In education, insights into learning patterns lead to more effective teaching methods. Furthermore, in the realm of public policy, this knowledge informs laws and regulations that consider the behavioral tendencies of the populace.

The study of human behavior is not just an academic pursuit but a tool that, when wielded wisely, can significantly enhance the quality of life and societal progress. This field continues to evolve, promising even greater insights and applications in the future.

Everything is Connected

Actions, cognitions and emotions do not run independently of each other – their proper interaction enables you to perceive the world around you, listen to your inner wishes and respond appropriately to people in your surroundings. However, it is hard to tell what exactly is cause and effect – turning your head (action) and seeing a familiar face might cause a sudden burst of joy (emotion) accompanied by an internal realization (cognition):

Action = emotion (joy) + cognition (“hey, there‘s Peter!”)

In other cases, the sequence of cause and effect might be reversed: Because you’re sad (emotion) and ruminating on relationship issues (cognition), you decide to go for a walk to clear your head (action).

Emotion (sadness) + cognition (“I should go for a walk“) = action

Takeaways: What You Should Know…

Humans are active consumers of sensory impressions.

You actively move your body to achieve cognitive goals and desires, or to get into positive (or out of negative) emotional states. In other words: While cognition and emotion cannot be observed directly, they certainly drive the execution of observable action. For example, through moving your body to achieve cognitive goals and desires, or to get into positive (or out of negative) emotional states.

Cognitions are specific to time and situations

The former is important as you have to couple responses dynamically to stimuli, dependent on intentions and instructions. This allows you to respond to one and the same stimulus in near-unlimited ways. Stability, by contrast, is crucial for maintaining lasting stimulus-response relationships, allowing you to respond consistently to similar stimuli.

Imagination and abstract cognition are body-based

Even abstract cognitions (devoid of direct physical interaction with the environment) are body-based. Imagining limb movements triggers the same brain areas involved when actually executing the movements. When you rehearse material in working memory, the same brain structures used for speech perception and production are activated (Wilson, 2001).

We’d love to learn more about you! Talk to a specialist about your research and business needs and get a live demo of the capabilities of the iMotions Research Platform.

Learning and Behavior

When we talk about behavior, we need to consider how it is acquired. Learning denotes any acquisition process of new skills and knowledge, preferences, attitudes and evaluations, social rules and normative considerations.

You surely have heard of the “nature – nurture” debate – in the past, there has been quite some fighting about whether behavior was solely driven by genetic predispositions (nature) or environmental factors (nurture).

Today, it’s no longer a question of either/or. There simply is too much evidence for the impact of nature and nurture alike – behavior is considered to be established by the interplay of both factors.

Current theoretical frameworks also emphasize the active role of of the agent in acquiring new skills and knowledge. You are able to develop and change yourself through ongoing skill acquisition throughout life, which can have an impact on a neurological level. Think of it as assigning neuroscientific processes to the phrase “practice makes perfect”.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning refers to a learning procedure in which stimulus-response pairings are learned – seeing tasty food typically triggers salivation (yummy!), for example. While food serves as unconditioned stimulus, salivation is the unconditioned response.

Unconditioned stimulus -> unconditioned response

Seeing food -> salivation

If encountering food is consistently accompanied by a (previously) neutral stimulus such as ringing a bell, a new stimulus-response pairing is learned.

unconditioned stimulus + conditioned stimulus -> unconditioned response

seeing food + hearing bell -> salivation

The bell becomes a conditioned stimulus and is potent enough to trigger salivation even in absence of the actual food.

conditioned stimulus – > response

hearing bell -> salivation

Described as generalization, this learning process was first studied by Ivan Pavlov and team (1927) through experiments with dogs, which is why classical conditioning is also referred to as Pavlovian conditioning.

Today, classical conditioning is one of the most widely understood basic learning processes.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, denotes a type of learning in which the strength of a behavior is modified by the consequences (reward or punishment), signaled via the preceding stimuli.

In both operant and classical conditioning behavior is controlled by environmental stimuli – however, they differ in nature. In operant conditioning, behavior is controlled by stimuli which are present when a behavior is rewarded or punished.

Operant conditioning was coined by B.F. Skinner. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that it was not really necessary to look at internal thoughts and motivations in order to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested to only take external, observable causes of human behavior into consideration.

According to Skinner, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated. In this regard, operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise: Behavior that is followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and is more likely to occur again in the future.

The key concepts of operant conditioning are:

• Positive reinforcement (otherwise known just as reinforcement) occurs when a behavior is rewarding, increasing the frequency of that behavior.
• Negative reinforcement (escape) occurs when a behavior is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus, increasing the frequency of the behavior.
• Punishment occurs when a behavior is followed by an aversive stimulus, causing a decrease in that behavior.
• Penalty occurs when a behavior is followed by the removal of a rewarding stimulus
• Extinction occurs when a behavior that had previously been reinforced is no longer effective.

These learning theories give guidance for knowing how we gather information about the world. The way in which we learn is both emotionally and physiologically appraised. This will have consequences for how we act, and carry out behaviors in the future – what we attend to, and how it makes us feel.

Decisions and Behavior

While behavior is acquired through learning, whether the acting individual decides to execute an action or withhold a certain behavior is dependent on the associated incentives, benefits and risks (“if Peter was penalized for doing this, I certainly won‘t do it!”).

But which are the factors driving our decisions? Theories such as social learning theory provide a base set of features, but one of the most influential psychological theories about decision-making actually has its origins in an economics journal.

In 1979, Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky published a paper proposing a theoretical framework called the Prospect Theory. This laid the foundations for Kahneman’s later thoughts and studies on human behavior, that was summarized in his bestselling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.

System 1 and System 2

Kahneman‘s theories were also concerned with how people process information. He proposed that there are two systems that determine how we make decisions: System 1 – which is fast but relatively inaccurate, and system 2 – which is slow but more accurate.

The theory suggests that our everyday decisions are carried out in one of these two ways, from buying our morning coffee, to making career choices. We will use different approaches depending on the circumstances.

Decision-making and Emotions

Human behavior and decision-making are heavily affected by emotions – even in subtle ways that we may not always recognize. After making an emotionally-fueled decision, we tend to continue to use the imperfect reasoning behind it, and “a mild incidental emotion in decision-making can live longer than the emotional experience itself” as pointed out by Andrade & Ariely (2009).

An example of mood manipulation affecting decision making was completed by researchers who wanted to know how a willingness to help could be affected by positive feelings.

To study their question, they placed a Quarter (25ct) clearly visible in a phone booth (yes, these things actually existed!) and waited for passers-by to find the coin. An actor working on behalf of the psychologist stepped in, asking to take an urgent phone call. Study participants who actually found the coin were significantly happier, allowing the confederate to take the call, while those who didn’t find the coin were unaffected, and more likely to say no (Isen & Levin, 1972).

Getting Started with Human Behavior Research

Research on human behavior addresses how and why people behave the way they do. However, as you have seen in the previous sections, human behavior is quite complex as it is influenced, modulated and shaped by multiple factors which are often unrecognized by the individual: Overt or covert, logical or illogical, voluntary or involuntary.

Conscious vs. unconscious behavior

Consciousness is a state of awareness for internal thoughts and feelings as well for proper perception for and uptake of information from your surroundings.

A huge amount of our behaviors are guided by unconscious processes. Just like an iceberg, there is a great amount of hidden information, and only some of it is visible with the naked eye.

Overt vs. covert behavior

Overt behavior describes any aspects of behavior that can be observed, for example body movements or (inter-)actions. Also, physiological processes such as blushing, facial expressions or pupil dilation might be subtle, but can still be obeserved. Covert processes are thoughts (cognition), feelings (emotion) or responses which are not easily seen. Subtle changes in bodily processes, for instance, are hidden to the observer‘s eye.

In this case, bio- or physiological sensors are used to aid the observation with quantitative measures as they uncover processes that are covert in the first place. Along this definition, EEG , MEG, fMRI and fNIRS all monitor physiological processes reflecting covert behavior.

Rational vs. irrational behavior

Rational behavior might be considered any action, emotion or cognition which is pertaining to, influenced or guided by reason. In contrast, irrational behavior describes actions that are not objectively logical.

Patients suffering from phobias often report an awareness for their thoughts and fears being irrational (“I know that the spider can‘t harm me”) – albeit they still cannot resist the urge to behave in a certain way.

Voluntary vs. involuntary behavior

Voluntary actions are self-determined and driven by your desires and decisions. By contrast, involuntary actions describe any action made without intent or carried out despite an attempt to prevent it. In cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, for example, patients are exposed to problematic scenarios, also referred to as flooding, such as spiders, social exhibition or a transatlantic plane ride.

Many of our behaviors appear to be voluntary, rational, overt, and conscious – yet they only represent the tip of the iceberg for normal human behavior. The majority of our actions are involuntary, potentially irrational, and are guided by our subconscious. The way to access this other side of behavior is to examine the covert behaviors that occur as a result.

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Measuring Human Behavior

In order to describe and interpret human behavior, academic and commercial researchers have developed intricate techniques allowing for the collection of data indicative of personality traits, cognitive-affective states and problem solving strategies.

In experimental setups , specific hypotheses about stimulus-response relationships can be clarified. Generally, research techniques employed by scientists can be classified into qualitative and quantitative procedures.

Qualitative studies  gather non-numerical insights, for example by analyzing diary entries, using open questionnaires, unstructured interviews or observations. Qualitative field / usability studies, for example, aim towards understanding how respondents see the world and why they react in a specific way rather than counting responses and analyzing the data statistically.

Quantitative studies characterize statistical, mathematical or computational techniques using numbers to describe and classify human behavior. Examples for quantitative techniques include structured surveys, tests as well as observations with dedicated coding schemes. Also, physiological measurements from EEG , EMG , ECG , GS R, and other sensors produce quantitative output, allowing researchers to translate behavioral observations into discrete numbers and statistical outputs.

Behavioral Observation

Behavioral observation is one of the oldest tools for psychological research on human behavior. Researchers either visit people in their natural surroundings (field study) or invite individuals or groups to the laboratory.

Observations in the field have several benefits. Participants are typically more relaxed and less self-conscious when observed at home, at school or at the workplace. Everything is familiar to them, permitting relatively unfiltered observation of behavior which is embedded into the natural surroundings of the individual or group of interest.

However, there’s always the risk of distraction – shouting neighbors or phones ringing. Field observations are an ideal starting point of any behavioral research study. Just sitting and watching people offers tremendous amounts of insights if you’re able to focus on a specific question or aspect of behavior.

Observation in the laboratory , by contrast, allows much more experimental control. You can exclude any unwanted aspects and completely ban smart phones, control the room layout and make sure to have everything prepared for optimal recording conditions (correct lighting conditions, ensuring a quiet environment, and so on).

You can create near-realistic laboratory environments – building a typical family living room, office space or creative zone, for example, to make respondents feel at ease and facilitating more natural behavior.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are an excellent tool to capture self-reported behaviors and skills, mental or emotional states or personality profiles of your respondents. However, questionnaires are always just momentary snapshots and capture only certain aspects of a person’s behavior, thoughts and emotions.

Surveys and questionnaires typically measure what Kahneman would describe as system 2 processes – thoughts that are carried out slowly and deliberately. System 1 processes – thoughts that are fast and automatic – can be measured by other methods that detect quick physiological changes.

Focus groups

In market research, focus groups typically consist of a small number of respondents (about 4–15) brought together with a moderator to focus on beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea or packaging. Focus groups are qualitative tools as their goal is to discuss in the group instead of coming to individual conclusions.

What are the benefits of a product, what are the drawbacks, where could it be optimized, who are ideal target populations? All of these questions can be addressed in a focus group.

Beyond Surveys and Focus Groups

While surveys and focus groups can be instrumental in understanding our conscious thoughts and emotions, there is more to human behavior than meets the eye. The subconscious mind determines how our behavior is ultimately carried out, and only a small fraction of that is accessible from traditional methodologies – using surveys and focus groups.

As some researchers have claimed, up to 90% of our actions are guided by the subconscious. While the other 10% is important, it is clear that there is much to gain by probing further than what is tested by traditional methods.

Modern approaches aim to explore the hidden and uncharted territory of the subconscious, by measuring reliable outputs that provide deeper information about what someone is really thinking.

Biosensors for Learning About Human Behaviour

In addition to observing overt behavior, you can use biosensors and measurement devices in order to understand how mind, brain and body interact.

Biosensors give access to otherwise hidden processes. These usually hidden processes (at least to an observer) can give indications about the thought processes that Daniel Kahneman would describe as belonging to System 1 – fast and largely emotionally driven reactions. These reactions are quick processes that underlie a large portion of our decision-making and our resulting behavior.

Eye tracking

offers incredible insights into visual attention above and beyond any other experimental method. While eye tracking is commonly used to monitor where we direct our eye movements at a certain point in time, it also tracks the dilation of the pupil.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

is a neuroimaging technique measuring electrical activity generated by the brain from the scalp surface using sensors (electrodes) and amplifier systems. It is ideal for assessing brain activity associated with perception, cognition, and emotional processes.

Among all biosensors, EEG has the highest time resolution , thereby revealing substantial insights into sub-second brain dynamics of engagement, motivation, frustration, cognitive workload, and further metrics associated with stimulus processing, action preparation, and execution.

functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

fNIRS records the diffusion of near-infrared light by human skull, scalp and brain tissue, allowing researchers to monitor cerebral blood flow in specified brain regions. While fNIRS is a relatively new technology, it has already proven to be a very promising tool in human behavior research.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Whenever you would like to accomplish brain imaging with excellent spatial resolution, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the method of choice. MRI can be used to generate structural scans of high spatial precision, representing an accurate and highly precise 3D rendering of the respondent’s brain.

For examining dynamic changes in the brain, functional MRI (fMRI) can be used. The scanner uses magnetic fields and radio frequencies to measure changes in oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood flow in specific regions of the brain, that can then be related to cognitive processes.

Electrodermal activity (EDA)

EDA also referred to as galvanic skin response (GSR) , reflects the amount of sweat secretion from sweat glands in our skin. Increased sweating results in higher skin conductivity. When exposed to emotional stimulation, we “sweat emotionally” – particularly on our forehead, hands and feet. Just as pupil dilation, skin conductance is controlled subconsciously, therefore offering tremendous insights into the unfiltered, unbiased emotional arousal of a person.

Facial Expressions

As facial expressions are tied to our inner emotions, and our emotions rule so much of our behavior, studying facial expressions gives an insight into the reasons for our actions .

Facial expression analysis is a non-intrusive method that assesses head position and orientation, micro-expressions (such as lifting of the eyebrows or opening of the mouth) and global facial expressions of basic emotions (joy, anger, surprise, etc.) using a webcam placed in front of the respondent. Facial data is extremely helpful to validate metrics of engagement, workload or drowsiness.

Electromyographic (EMG

Electromyographic (EMG) sensors monitor the electric energy generated by bodily movements of the face, hands or fingers, etc. You can use EMG to monitor muscular responses to any type of stimulus material to extract even subtle activation patterns associated with consciously controlled hand/finger movements (startle reflex). Also, facial EMG can be used to track smiles and frowns in order to infer one’s emotional valence.

Electorcardiography (EEG)

Track heart rate, or pulse, from electrocardiography (ECG) electrodes or optical sensors (Photoplethysmogram; PPG) to get insights into respondents’ physical state, anxiety and stress levels (arousal), and how changes in physiological state relate to their actions and decisions.

How to Put it Together for Human Behavior Psychology

While biosensor and imaging methods present unparalleled access into an individual‘s thoughts, feelings, and emotions, the best way to understand someone in entirety is to complement the measurements with more traditional methods, such as with surveys and focus groups.

By combining the measures, we‘re able to interpret both parts of what Kahneman described as System 1 and System 2 – both fast, emotionally driven decisions, as well as slow and deliberate decisions. Utilizing the insights offered by both routes of investigation gives a whole view of the thoughts and behaviors that an individual possesses.

The grid below summarizes the two methods in an overview, and shows how using both can answer a wide array of questions.

Human Behavior Metrics

Metrics are derived from observation or sensor data and reflect cognitive-affective processes underlying overt and covert actions. Typically, they are extracted using computer-based signal pre-processing techniques and statistics. In the following, we will describe the most important metrics in human behavior research.

Emotional valence

One of the most indicative aspects of emotional processing is your face. Facial expressions can be monitored either using facial electromyography (fEMG) sensors placed on certain facial muscles, or video-based facial expression analysis procedures. A very fine-tuned manual observation technique is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) primarily designed by Paul Ekman. Trained coders, and sophisticated software, can evaluate the amount of activation of modular Action Units (AU), which represent very brief and subtle facial expressions lasting up to half a second.

Based on the sub-millisecond changes in muscular activation patterns or changes in global facial features (lifting an eyebrow, frowning, lifting up the corners of the mouth), behavioral researchers infer universal emotional states such as joy, anger, surprise, fear, contempt, disgust, sadness or confusion.

Emotional arousal

While facial expressions can provide insights into the general direction of an emotional response (positive – negative), they cannot tell the intensity of the felt emotion as described by means of arousal. Arousal refers to the physiological and psychological state of being responsive to stimuli and is relevant for any kind of regulation of consciousness, attention and information processing.

The human arousal system is considered to comprise several different but heavily interconnected neural systems in the brainstem and cortex.

Physiological arousal and emotional valence can be thought of as taking place on a scale, in which both interact with each other. The intensity of arousal therefore influences the intensity of emotion. Capturing data about both of these processes can provide more information about an individual and their behavior.

Although all of these processes are taking place on the microscopic level and cannot be observed with the eye, arousal can be measured by using several psychphysiological methods such as eye tracking, EEG, GSR, ECG, respiration, and more.

Workload and cognitive load Decisions are often made under several constraints (with respect to time, space and resources), and there is obviously a threshold in how much information you can take into consideration. Working memory represents the cognitive system responsible for transient holding and processing of information, and human cognitive-behavioral research has a particular interest in this aspect due to its crucial role in the decision-making process.

The total amount of mental effort being used in working memory is typically referred to as cognitive load.

Perception and attention Do stimuli “pop out” and elicit our interest? Do we watch a movie clip or an advertisement because it is visually captivating? For cognitive-behavioral scientists it is highly relevant to determine the level of saliency of stimuli , and whether or not it captures our attention. Saliency detection is considered to be a key attentional mechanism that facilitates learning and survival. It enables us to focus our limited perceptual and cognitive resources on the most pertinent subset of the available sensory data.

Motivation and engagement Another metric relevant for cognitive-behavioral scientists is motivation, sometimes referred to as action motivation. It describes the drive for approaching/avoiding actions, objects and stimuli.

Shopping behavior is primarily driven by engagement and the underlying motivation to buy a product, therefore it would be beneficial to infer one’s motivation already during the initial exposure with an item. EEG experiments have provided rich evidence for certain brain activation patterns reflecting increased or decreased motivational states.

Besides EEG, one’s level of attention can be determined based on eye tracking , both in lab settings as well as in real-world environments. Remote eye trackers are mounted in front of a computer or TV screen and record the respondents’ gaze position on screen.

Eye tracking glasses are the optimal choice for monitoring attentional changes in freely moving subjects, allowing you to extract measures of attention in real-world environments such as in-store shopping or package testing scenarios.

Application Fields in Study of Human Behavior Psychology

Consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing.

There is no doubt about it: Evaluating consumer preferences and delivering persuasive communication are critical elements in marketing. While self-reports and questionnaires might be ideal tools to get insights into respondents’ attitudes and awareness, they might be limited in capturing emotional responses unbiased by self-awareness and social desirability.

As only so much of our overt, conscious behavior is captured by traditional methods such as surveys and focus groups, biosensors offer a way to fill that gap.

Psychological research

Psychologists analyze how we respond emotionally towards external and internal stimuli, how we think about ourselves and others, and how we behave. In systematic studies, researchers can measure and vary stimulus properties (color, shape, duration of presentation) and social expectations in order to evaluate how personality characteristics and individual learning histories impact emotional, cognitive and perceptual processing.

Media testing and advertising

In media research, individual respondents or focus groups can be exposed to TV advertisements, trailers and full-length pilots while monitoring their behavioral responses, for example, using facial expression analysis . Identifying scenes where emotional responses were expected but the audience just didn’t “get it” is crucial to refining the appeal of the TV-program. Facial expression analysis can also be used to find the key frames that result in the most extreme facial expressions – showing when the program really landed on target.

Software UI and website design

Ideally, handling software and navigating websites should be a pleasant experience – frustration and confusion levels should certainly be kept as low as possible. Monitoring user behavior, for example based on scrolling or click-ratio as well as facial expressions, while testers browse websites or software dialogs can provide insights into the emotional satisfaction of the desired target group.

Eye tracking is a particularly useful technology, as it helps pinpoint exactly what the person is looking at during their experience with the website. When combined with other measures, it gives an insight into what exactly gave them a positive or negative feeling during the interaction.

Human behavior is a multi-faceted and dynamic field of study, requiring many points of interrogation to yield insights. Learning processes lay the foundation for determining many of our behaviors, although we are constantly changing in response to our environment. Understanding our behaviors is a tricky task, but one that we are getting ever closer to accomplishing. Traditional methods of study have taught us many things, and now biosensors can lead the way.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this snippet from our Complete Pocket Guide to Human Behavior – if you’d like to learn even more and become a true expert in human behavior, then download our free guide below!

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