Human beings are social animals, which means that they exhibit social traits in addition to their biological needs and functions. Such a trait is unification and existence within a society where people are constantly interacting with each other. The necessity of this interaction leads to both positive and negative manifestations, as follows from the offered quotation. In reality, it is not possible to unequivocally identify the consequences of the social nature of human beings, so this should be considered from different angles. This essay proposes an examination of an individual’s sociality in terms of beneficial and destructive consequences. In particular, the discussion of the impossibility of a unified assessment of the social nature of the individual is proposed to be explored through the spectrum of themes such as terrorism, social support, violence and conflict, and social responses to them, including through creativity. All the evidence will reinforce the thesis that social nature cannot be viewed from only one perspective but must instead be understood critically.
One of the most obvious negative consequences of sociality on human nature is the existence of terrorism. According to the definition provided by Richards, terrorism should be seen as the deliberate use of violent methods by individuals or groups against civil society to achieve ideological or political goals (Richards, 2014). From this definition, terrorism aims to destroy the culture of security in a social community and thus undermine the civil liberties of society. It is not difficult to draw a parallel between terrorism and the social nature of the individual — if humans were not biosocial animals, there would be no clustering and, therefore, no terrorism. When there are no social structures to disrupt or frighten, there are no crimes against such structures. This is ideally in line with Hartig and Doherty’s (2021) statistical research on public opinion: after the 9/11 attacks, the American nation increased its feelings of cohesion and popular unity. In other words, the largest terrorist attack in history triggered a backlash in which a frightened population began to feel more insecure, leading to cohesion and unity. Such a response is highly anticipated and, indeed, cyclical as the destruction of social structures in a society leads to active resistance against this destruction. Consequently, the terrorism-society system will always exist as long as human social nature exists. Nevertheless, the sociality of individuals is not a strictly negative trait, and therefore there is a need to explore the positive qualities.
From the previous negative factor of human sociality, the positive aspect of this nature, namely the ability to interact with each other, directly follows. The emergence of the virtual environment and the global development of Internet technology is an essential milestone in human existence and reflects the need for communication. As Fullwood, Fox-Hamilton, and Elphick (2021) argue, the Internet helps to improve the psychological well-being of individuals. This is especially true in crises, where many people need emotional support. Understandably, not every individual has the opportunity to seek professional support, and often communication with others, including strangers, can cover the need for such help. Thus, online support is a vital communication resource that significantly increases the psychological well-being of individuals. In other words, after a terrorist attack, during a pandemic, or even in the absence of a good mood, an individual needs emotional support, and human social nature covers this with the available tools. In this sense, the Internet fully responds to this need and allows billions of people worldwide to exchange opinions and support each other daily, reflecting favourable social community features. It is hard to imagine where an individual would get support from if a human were not a biosocial animal; the incidence of mental illness, depression and even suicide would predictably increase. However, it is fair to recognise that integrating individuals into social structures also has destructive consequences for the individual if ethics are violated.
One such violation is sexual harassment, which damages the individual and has adverse consequences on well-being. A manifestation of human integration into communities is the work or student environment; such structures are formed when individuals share a common goal and are linked by resources and tools. In work and student communications, there is often a hierarchy of power in which the power of some individuals is greater: it is in disrupting the ethics of this hierarchy that the negative consequence of human social nature emerges. In particular, Donnelly (2021) explores sexual harassment as intentional behaviour of an unwanted sexual nature aimed at satisfying personal needs to the detriment of another person. In the context of the topic, sexual harassment means deliberately ignoring existing personal boundaries favouring personal sexual desires; understandably, a victim-predator system emerges in such a scenario. Often, victims of sexual harassment are coerced, with harassment not necessarily based on physical intimacy, but can also include verbal harassment (Bowman, 1993). The emotional stability and well-being of the victim are compromised, leading to many unfortunate outcomes. Therefore, the social nature of human beings involves the need to coexist in communities, and such communities often have a precise distribution of power. There is no guarantee that every individual in such a social community will have a vested interest in the observance of professional ethics, which means there will always be a violation of ethics. In other words, there will always be victims of inappropriate, undesirable behaviour, which is a negative consequence of the social nature of the individual. Nevertheless, this evidence shows that the problem of harassment is much broader than it first appears.
In discussing sexual harassment as a manifestation of the social nature of the individual, it is crucial to dwell on the reasons in light of the topic under discussion that cause this behaviour. Lazard (2021) cites three theories that cause people — particularly men — to misbehave towards their peers. Feminist social psychology is one such theory covering the historical distribution of gender as stronger (men) and weaker (women). The scope of this psychology is much broader, as gender is not seen as the biological sex of an individual but as a psychosocial construct that allows individuals to define their sexual or asexual identity. Harassment is just one manifestation of this social development of communities, which also includes bullying, homophobia and misogyny — such constructions are devastating for the human person. The conclusion that follows from this is not difficult to formulate: historically, the prevailing majority is often hostile towards the minority, leading to conflict, violence and acts of inappropriate behaviour. In other words, the social side of the individual cannot be considered outside the context of historical development, which means that some people will always be oppressed and feel injustice until the majority is replaced.
However, violence as a destructive manifestation of social life and hierarchy does not need a majority, as violence can also exist in personal relationships between individuals. Physical violence is a form of interaction between people, even strangers, in which one is the victim. Barker (2021) discusses the conflict in an intimate relationship as an aggravation of the social dynamic between two people. Conflict can be resolved verbally and constructively, but it is not uncommon for continuing conflict to involve violence. The lack of a positive exit from conflict can increase the risks of violence and thus increases the likelihood of sexual harassment, domestic and physical violence when the problem has not been resolved through constructive methods. In turn, this behaviour increases the aggressor’s likelihood of cognitive dissonance, contributing to both parties’ emotional instability (Barker, 2021). It follows from all the above that the existence of social groups of people entails problems of violence as long as the individuals involved do not have developed emotional intelligence or are not professionally supported. Since there are fewer people with such capacities, it is reasonable to extrapolate that the existence of social structures is inextricably linked to problems of aggression, conflict and violence, and thus the phenomenon of victims remains relevant. Meanwhile, sociality helps to manage undesirable behaviour and hence there is another positive consequence.
Social structures effectively respond to the problems associated with the above aggression and undesirable behaviour. There is no single opinion about whether genetic, socio-cultural, or other predictors cause individuals to be aggressive (Donnelly, 2021). Bronfenbrenner suggested that the problem of human interaction with the environment should be considered holistically, taking into account all possible aspects of the system; in the meantime, the problem of existence of the predictors of undesirable behaviour remains relevant (Frumkin, 2021). Understanding the need to address these problems is one of the challenges of social cohesion of people motivated by the desire to live in safety. Thus, Taylor and Turner (2021) discuss creative collaboration considering the desire for self-identity of each member of society. Creativity generates commitment to the group as follows from social identity theory, so each artist works within their domain: music, drawing, dance and other creative activities. In response to the problem, creativity is used to prevent undesirable behaviour in people. In particular, this applies to art therapy to manage aggression — it is a highly effective method that has been proven over time (Ahmad, Yusof, and Aman, 2020). In terms of the topic under discussion, a tool created by social structures — creativity — helps deal with individuals’ undesirable behavior. This increases security in society, but more importantly, it reflects the need to socialize individuals by instilling socially encouraged favorable behavior patterns. The social nature of the individual combats undesirable behavior and thus improves the quality of life of all involved. This is the positive feature of the sociality of individuals, in which resources and tools are used to create the comfort of life.
In conclusion, it is worth summarizing the idea of the research conducted, namely, to postulate the impossibility of viewing the social nature of the individual purely from one perspective. The sociality of the individual entails both positive and negative consequences, which have been discussed in this paper. On the positive side, emotional support and communication and a shared concern for safety are to be found in the available tools. In contrast, the negative consequences of human sociality should include the existence of conflict, terrorism and violence, including sexual harassment, as undesirable manifestations of social association. Thus, sociality is not a strictly positive or negative phenomenon and can be viewed from two perspectives.
Reference List
Ahmad, N.S., Yusof, S.M. and Aman, R.C. (2020) ‘Art therapy module in male adolescent anger management,’ Art Therapy, 14(8), pp. 363-372.
Barker, M. J. (2021) ‘Chapter 8: conflict in close relationships’, in Strathie, A., Turner, J. and Barker, M. J. (eds.) Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Barker, M. J. (2021) ‘Conflict in close relationships’. DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Web.
Bowman, C. G. (1993) ‘Street harassment and the informal ghettoization of women’, Harvard Law Review, 106, pp. 517–580.
Donnelly, L. (2021) ‘Sexual harassment’. DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Web.
Frumkin, L. (2021) ‘Chapter 6: community psychology’, in Turner, J., Hewson, C., Mahendran, K. and Strathie, A. (eds.) Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Fullwood, C., Fox-Hamilton, N. and Elphick, C. (2021) ‘Living online’. DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Web.
Hartig, H. and Doherty, C. (2021) Two decades later, the enduring legacy of 9/11. Web.
Lazard, L. (2021) ‘ Chapter 9: sexual harassment,’ in Strathie, A., Turner, J. and Barker, M. J. (eds.) Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Richards, A. (2014) ‘Conceptualizing terrorism,’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 37(3), pp.213-236.
Taylor, S. and Turner, J. (2021) ‘Creative collaborations’. DD210 Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Web.