Behavioral Science

Background

Behavioral science is the study of behavior developed in a formal way in the 19th century. The
causes of premature death and disability were changing during 20th century, because of this the behavioral
factors that influence these changes take an added importance. Behavioral science developed through
technological innovation, migration and civil strife. The term “behavioral science” began to be frequently
used United States in the early 1950s. The new field of the behavioral science can be considered as one of
the most important intellectual inventions of the twentieth century.

Behavioral science is an investigation of organism’s behavior in scientific, controlled, empirical

and critical way through naturalistic observation, descriptive scientific observation and strict
formulations. It deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior as
it relates to society. Psychology, sociology, politics, economics, history, law, philosophy, religion, art and
music are some of the disciplines which contribute in understanding human behavior.

Behavioral science includes two broad categories namely neural or information processing
sciences and social or relational sciences.

Information processing sciences include psychology, cognitive science, psychobiology, neural

networks, social cognition, social psychology, semantic networks, ethology, and social neuroscience. It
deals with information processing of stimuli from the social environment by cognitive entities in order to
engage in decision making, social judgment and social perception for individual functioning and survival
of organism in a social environment.

Relational sciences include fields like sociological social psychology, social networks, dynamic
network analysis, agent-based model and microsimulation. It deals with relationships, interaction,
communication networks, associations and relational strategies or dynamics between organisms or
cognitive entities in a social system.
https://www.slideshare.net/ahsyed1/history-of-behavior-sciences-15701302

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_sciences

http://glasnost.itcarlow.ie/~garveya/introduction_to_behavioural_science.pdf