Social behavior
In physiology and sociology, social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between members of the same species. Behaviors such as predation—which involves members of different species—are not social. While many social behaviors are communication (i.e., they provoke a response—or a change in behavior—without acting directly on the receiver), communication between members of different species is not social behavior. The umbrella term behavioral sciences is also used to refer to sciences that study behavior.
Unlike the full scope of human behavior, which may or may not have a social component, in sociology, "social behavior" has both social meaning and social context. In a sociological hierarchy, social behavior is followed by social actions, which are directed at other people and are designed to induce a response. Further along this ascending scale are social interaction and social relation.
Specific social behaviors include aggression, altruism, scapegoating, and shyness.[1]
"Monosociality" describes social relations (or preference for such relations) with the same sex of a (putatively) nonsexual nature. "Bisociality" describes social relations (or preference for such relations) with both the same and opposite sexes, also of a (putatively) nonsexual nature.
See also
- Anti-social behavior
- Behavioral ecology
- Behavioral economics
- Dual inheritance theory
- Ethology
- Forms of activity and interpersonal relations
- Human behavioral ecology
- Parental care
- Peer group
- Social animal
- Sociobiology, the evolutionary study of social behavior