The Psychology of Everyday Life

Have you ever found yourself in one of the following everyday situations?

a. you are walking down the street and towards you is heading someone you know and like.  The sight of the person triggers a desire to say hello or wave, but social convention dictates that you refrain from doing so until the correct social distance is attained.  During this period there is a conflict and you find your gaze shifting around a lot and possibly avoiding direct contact with person approaching as a means of mediating the impulse to greet and the need to repress it.

b. you are in your car and are in a hurry.  You come to a junction but are not sure whether to turn right or left.  Behind you someone is bumper to bumper and a decision must be made quickly.  Automatically, your hand rises to your chin and rubs it.  Alternatively, you may touch and rub your forehead as you must put on hold the need to travel forward and re-evaluate your environmental bearings prior to recommencing your journey.

c. you are playing football and you are odds on to score.  The goal keeper has come out but you have rounded him and now the goal gapes.  If you score it will mean a lot.  The game is tied 0 - 0 and there is only 1 minute left to play.  You strike the ball but just before making contact it bobbles slightly on the uneven turf and the trajectory is skewed.  You watch on in the urgent hope of scoring and your body is set to celebrate wildy.  But the ball does not follow the course you want and just goes past the post.  This sudden thwarting of your intention produces a sudden automatic action: your hands rise to your head and your fingers comb back your hair and/or your hands in unison rest on the top of your head.

I would be very surprised if no one out there had ever experienced one of these situations.  In fact I would wager serious money against it.  Because automatic behaviours like these are key to our human experience and serve a very important function.  When a psychological or mental goal state (e.g. I'm hungry and I must eat;  I must find safety;  I want to bond or attach to someone etc.) is suddenly contradicated by social convention or incoming sensory data from the environment the human organism must recalibrate to bring the inner mental state and incoming external information into an adaptive relationship.  The brain of the football star who misses a goal must re-adjust his inner state of excitement that accompanies celebrating his goal in light of the changed situation of the wasted opportunity.  The driver must put on hold the project of moving towards his destination to reassess his current geographical location.  The person who sees his friend in the distance must contain his greeting performance through a displacement behaviour until the appropriate social proximity is attained and he can express his desire to renew a social bond.   So, at a point of social tension or stress a mismatch between an internal state (e.g. an intention, desire) and the environment leads to a displacment behaviour until the time when the moment of mismatch is passed and the desired (or undisturbed species specific) behaviour can recommence.  

   Problems for animals and people arise when this mismatch between inner state and external sensory data is prolonged.  An organism placed in an environment that limits behavioural possibilities so that certain goal states (a mental state that corresponds to a physical state of being e.g. happy - smile) cannot find expression is in a state of extended tension which can lead to stereotypical behaviours.  In humans the situation that prompted the behaviour may be forgotten in time but the action, such as hair pulling, may remain or be easily triggered when any frustration is felt.

   By relating abnormal behaviour to everyday behaviour it is possible to establish the existence of a mechanism that belies the whole spectrum.  What's more, it reveals that animals and humans are not poles apart in their biological and physiological make up.  This is important in improving our understanding of what we are and where we ultimately come from.