Psychological processes: what they are and how they affect behavior

What are psychological processes?

According to the book ” Psychological Processes” written by Enrique G. Fernandez-Abascal, Maria Dolores Martin Diaz and F. Javier Dominguez Sanchez, it is a fundamental element of psychology that seeks to know the behavior of individuals individually and collectively.

Therefore, psychological processes are the determinants for a person to reason, make decisions, act and above all define their behavioral and personality traits, all this according to the experiences and knowledge they acquire.

In addition, they help individuals adapt to a new environment or survive in which they already belong, being the determinants for the person to grow psychologically and develop like every human being.

Characteristics of psychological processes

The main psychological processes have a series of characteristics that define them, highlighting the high degree of importance they have for the analysis and understanding of human behavior.

They form the basis of human behavior

Behaviorism is linked to psychological processes, since through them the bases of personality, behaviors and psychological traits of each person are formed.

The perceptions of life that each individual has also determine their behavior in society, so psychological processes are the main elements of human behavior in a given environment.

They establish the personality

The personality of each human being is becoming according to their interests and the environment where they operate, however, psychological processes are responsible for establishing the personal traits of individuals separately.

An example of this are the different cultures that exist worldwide, it may be that in certain regions people are more sentimental than others and however, there may be exceptions.

Everything will always depend on psychological traits, mental agility and the social environment where each person develops, but inherited characteristics through their genetic load also influence.

All people develop them.

The elements that develop as the human being forms, are part of life from the moment of birth.

As they are evolutionary processes at the mental level, each one may show up in due time, however, they are strengthened and combined according to the life experiences that each individual is perceiving.

They relate to each other

Psychological processes are totally dependent on one another, from the collection of information, its analysis, understanding, the comparisons that may arise against stored memories and experiences, to the way in which they make you react and express yourself.

For these reasons, a disorder or malfunction of any of the psychological processes can trigger great consequences at the mental and cognitive level, interfering with the proper development of each individual.

They allow the person to become aware of himself and the environment

The relevance of this characteristic is due to the fact that the role played by psychological processes is important for the adaptability, survival and reaction that individuals have when experiencing both a positive and a negative situation.

Now, through this collected information, after processing and analyzing it, the individual becomes aware and begins to decide depending on what he is experiencing, which can be a determining factor in making important decisions or in adverse moments.

Process information from the senses

Psychological processes are closely linked to the senses, since they are the channel through which information is obtained that will later be processed by thought and trigger a reaction.

Sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing are responsible for collecting all kinds of stimuli, whether to acquire knowledge, to memorize information or simply as a means of receiving a fact to which it is being provided. attention.

Determine the individual’s reactions

This is mainly due to the emotions that originate from the thoughts that an individual generates, when going through a certain situation in particular or as a means of responding to a stimulus.

Once the information is processed, feelings and reactions flow instinctively according to the individual’s experience and perception of the action. It is important to note that reactions can be produced unconsciously.

Psychological processes

There are a series of psychological processes in charge of adapting individuals to society and that, in addition, are the fundamental pillar for the intellectual and psychological development of each person.

For this reason, below you will be able to know what they are about and what is the function of each one of them:

Perception

As described in the book ““Basic Psychological Processes” by Professor Adriana Hernández, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico , the term perception focuses on the way of interpreting the stimuli that human beings receive from abroad.

Therefore, it is about receiving information through the senses and processing it, taking into account that the stimulus can lead to different perceptions in the individual according to its degree of complexity.

Therefore, perception is the psychological process in charge of deciding which of the different interpretations carried by some stimulus is the correct one according to the context where it unfolds and the decision that merits making.

Learning

Learning is based on all knowledge that is acquired and stored in memory, to be used in the situation that is necessary.

It is about the behaviors, attitudes and skills that the human being is acquiring and modifying if necessary, to obtain better results or behave in a certain way.

In addition, learning can be defined as the experience and information that is stored to be later used by each individual.

Also, it is linked to the types of behavior that the human being acquires to survive, adapt to an environment or due to the influence of the environment in which it operates.

Language

Language is considered as the complex symbolic code that individuals use to communicate, being the language or language the means used to make their ideas, thoughts and any type of information known.

In this sense, language is derived from memory and the thoughts that the person is having at a certain moment, it is the way of expressing and making known, in some cases, the learning that has been acquired.

The particularity of language is focused on its ability to describe almost anything, thus facilitating the human process of socialization and adaptability to a different environment than usual.

Memory

According to an article published in the PsychothemeMagazineof theUniversity of Oviedo , Spain, memory is one of the most complex and important psychological processes for human beings.

This is because memory is the ability of every individual to store information in the form of memories, in addition, it is responsible for saving experience as a method of defense in specific situations.

In turn, the proper functioning of memory gives the person a better stimulus of verbal reaction, helps him to make decisions, to execute actions, strengthens the adaptation process of an individual in a society and is the means of response for the survival of each person.

Attention

Attention is the selection and organization of thoughts that the brain receives from different sources, in turn, it is an action that is generated automatically and is closely linked to perception.

Then, selecting the information, it is in charge of building a psychological experience according to the subject, also being considered one of the psychological processes that helps the individual to develop and filter the data it receives from the environment where it operates.

Emotion

In turn, emotions are responsible for making the person react to any stimulus, and in order for them to express themselves, the individual must experience changes at the physiological, behavioral and sentimental level.

The latter is often confused, therefore it is important to note that feelings are the responses that come after emotions, for example: emotion is surprise and feeling is the joy that you internalize after your body has analyzed the emotion.

Thought

Thought is the ability that every human being has to build ideas in their minds and then make them come true, in turn, it is a very complex issue due to the broad capacity to think and reason that the brain possesses.

In this sense, the American doctor Jon Kabat Zinn , describes an ancestral Buddhist relaxation technique called Mindfulness , which seeks, through meditation, to control and eliminate stress, frustration or anxiety, through full knowledge of emotions.

Therefore, this technique is based on transforming thoughts through meditation and thus being able to reach a state of positive thinking and awareness of the bad or wrong acts that lead the individual to suffer from certain diseases.

Motivation

Motivation is the state of mind that induces a person to carry out a certain activity or action, it is the one that is in charge of promoting it and keeping it in the correct state so that it feels the desire to execute something.

In turn, motivation is linked to the motives or reasons that people have for carrying out said action, so motivation is directly related to positivism, self-esteem and determination that individuals have to achieve a goal and achieve their objectives.

Importance of psychological processes in behavior

Thanks to the combination of psychological processes, the behavior and personality of all human beings are defined, this is largely due to the fact that they depend on each other so that the mind can make them work and fulfill the purpose of each one.

Therefore, people, being thinking, rational and social beings, depend on each psychological process to adapt, survive, communicate, acquire knowledge, have the motivation to execute it and make them known.

This is related to behavior because if the individual maintains negative thoughts or thoughts that are unrelated to the morality with which society operates, they will not have the ability to act correctly, this may be due to some alteration in the psychological processes or derives of a certain mental pathology.