Dijksterhuis : The Niche Concept Of Social Delusion

This learning occurs from observation, imitation or modeling of another person or role model. Modeling is the process of imitating. We can also learn new behavior from individuals we meet or from the media. This is also known as observational learning developed by Albert Bandura. Individuals, groups and culture have an effect on the behavior of people in the society. A feature of a person/model that may influence us to imitate is; gender, similarity to ourselves, social status, fame, competence and prestige.

People, especially younger children, are learning daily from their role models and the environment. Any type of behavior display socially is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others. The social behavior is also influenced by being rewarded and/or punished for these actions.

“I mimicked his eyebrow thing.”(72) Connotative- copied Denotative- to imitate in a servile or unthinking way

Once in a life, we have been imitating a fashion and a behavior of an idol or someone. What if imitation is always occurring in everyday life to individuals? In the essay, “Strange Creatures” wrote by Susan Blackmore, she believes that whatever the way individuals act or think is claimed to be imitation. She claimed, to be imitating is what makes us different from animals or other living species. The reason for mimic is because this is privilege of being human nature. Then she gives an example of whenever someone smiles, other smiles back, but animals cannot. What animals can do is to show positive emotions like whipping a tail or actively move around. This phenomenon is called “meme”. The meme is like a copy machine or gene in Blackmore’s

Bandura conducted a series of experimental studies into children’s tendency to imitate. In these experiments, pre-school children watched adult models act either aggressively or non-aggressively towards an inflatable doll called a ‘Bobo Doll’[6]. The children were subsequently observed to see to what extent they imitated what they had seen. For Bandura the important point was that each group had learned the same behaviour through mere observation; observing the man being punished only affected the

Although the article proved some of the mains points, it does not back up its point from the evidence shown in the Actual paper “Born to Learn: What Infants Learn from Watching Us “ by Dr. Meltzoff. The whole idea behind this article was to confirm the idea that Babies learn from imitating others, which perhaps to parents is a common sense for the reasons that they spend numerous amount of time with their new born babies and until they are socially independent or fully grown. Anyone who is raising kids or perhaps working with kids acknowledges that kids are going to imitate whatever they are going to see. There are many research papers and experiments that provide the evidence that infants learn from watching us. For example one of the experiment’s by Dr.Meltzoff where A 14-month-old where infants were imitating a novel action of touching a panel with the forehead, and then they often react with a smile. The Article ““For Babies, Copy-Cat Games Provide a Social Compass” provides two other experiments run by Dr. Meltzoff to support the evidence but it fails to explain as how a new born who does not even know how he or she looks like, learns to the trick to know that it’s body have matching moving parts to someone’s

them. Imitation, whether intended or not, is involved in everything humans do. In “Strange Creatures”, Susan Blackmore defines memes to be everything passed on from person to person. To be a successful meme, it must not only be spread, but be beneficial towards those who spread them. The power of imitation keeps these memes spreading and alive. Memes themselves are benefits. As the information from the memes are spread, it can have effect on the people who spread and receive the memes. The people who spread and receive similar memes are affected in the same way which connects them into one large community. To further prove her point,

Imitation is “defined as a behavioral replication” executed by an observer after viewing the actions performed by the presenter (Wasielewski 162). Society as a whole, imitates fashion, cooking recipes, guidence and to master a subject, which facilitate humanity to adapt to the surrounding environment. For instance, in her article, Helen Wasielewski, a research scholar at Rutgers University, clarifies the “microsociety” study and its importance in the growth of humanity. The microsociety is a study to determine the importance of imitation behavior. The partakers were divided in four groups; each partaker had to build a weight bearing mechanism out of clay and a plastic weave. One group was allowed to observe the building and a view the end product of the mechanism. The second group did not observe others building or finish product of the mechanism. The third group observed the building of the product, but not the finished product. The final group only saw the finish product and not observed building of the product (Wasielewski

Imitation is copying someone else’s behavior, seems to be spontaneous in young children (Crawford). Children intimidate language and everyday behavior an example could be a child observing their mother cook and the child plays with cooking appliances and toy food.

What did research carried out by Herbert, Gross & Hayne in 2006 demonstrate regarding deferred imitation?

Conformist behaviors are present in humans and have also been reported in animals in recent years. Animals, such as primates, mice, and guinea pigs, which are often used for research that provides insight into human behavior, display identical conformist behaviors when foraging in groups and also possess significant biological similarities to humans. As these behaviors are present in both humans and non-human animals which share biological similarities, it is strongly suggested that there is an innate drive to conform and biological factors that influence modification of behavior. This investigation seeks to examine: Do biological factors constrain human behavior leading to the ability to match group

Human beings often observe their environment and view individual and group behaviors in ways that align with their specific understanding of the world around them. This point was deliberated on in the article by Frank and Gilovich (1988). The article focused

The delusional disorder has progressed in the last decade and just brought to light in the late 70’s. Although it has a very short history it has had many cases and reports over the last hundred years before it was diagnosable. “The term of delusional disorder was only coined in 1977 (Bourgeois, 2013).” The lifetime prevalence of Delusional Disorder is 0.2%, and the most frequent subtype is persecutory. The male to female ratio is 1:1. This disorder is more prevalent in older individuals, but it can occur in younger age groups (Internet Mental Health). The most frequent subtype of this disorder is persecutory. The onset of DD may range from age 18 to late elderly years. It usually comes into factor at age 35-45. Psychologists support the clinical impression that delusional disorders are less common than mood disorders or schizophrenia. Once established, it is often a chronic and life long problem or affliction (O’Connor, 2007). The current understanding of the disorder is limited by scarce scientific data that mostly consist of individual case descriptions and small-uncontrolled case studies, which are therefore difficult or impossible to duplicate. In my paper I will be discussing the symptoms, diagnostics, treatments and effectiveness of treatments based on the delusional disorder.

Delusion has dependably been a focal subject for psychiatric exploration concerning etiology, pathogenesis, determination, treatment, and scientific importance. The different hypotheses and clarifications for delusion arrangement are checked on. The etiology, grouping and administration of delusion are quickly talked about. Late advances in the field are investigated.

Mimicry—the highest form of respect. Mimicry is the act of imitating one’s behaviors or voice in an effort to replicate another human or animal. Animals may use mimicry as camouflage so they can easily catch prey or escape their predator. For humans, mimicry is more than just flattering, it’s a style choice. When you imitate someone it’s because they’ve affected you personally and forced you into an unknown body; a substitute for the real you.