Social inhibition

Social inhibition is a conscious or subconscious constraint by a person of behaviour of a social nature. The constraint may be in relation to behavior, appearance, or a subject matter for discussion, besides other matters. There are a number of reasons for social inhibitions, including that the person fears that the activity, appearance or discussion will meet with social disapproval. For example, a person with a low level of social inhibition might focus their conversation on subjects that others feel uncomfortable about or which are not commonly discussed in that particular social group; while a person with a high level of social inhibition would avoid touching on such subjects.

Inhibitions can serve necessary social functions, reducing or preventing certain antisocial impulses from being acted on.

Inhibitions vary greatly from person to person, and are rooted in the perceived beliefs of being judged by others, stemming from childhood experience in social interaction. An extremely high level of social inhibition is known as Social Anxiety Disorder, though is usually falsely perceived to be the result of a lack of confidence or self esteem. Despite the variety of inhibitions people may carry, all inhibitions can be removed with practice, either through cognitive thought, acting the part, or a combination of both.

The consumption of alcohol or certain drugs may reduce inhibitions with effects varying from person to person. At low concentrations of blood alcohol, social inhibitions are reduced. However, some substances may actually strengthen these inhibitions: for instance abuse of stimulants may lead to anxiety and heightened inhibition. This is more common in drugs with dysphoric effects.

See also

• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Audience effect
• Sexual inhibition
• Social anxiety

References

This social psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Shyness Social psychology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Kazhimukan Munaitpasov Stadium (Shymkent) Keith Mwila Look at other dictionaries: Social death — is a term used to describe the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society. Used by sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman and historians of the holocaust to describe the part played governmental and social segregation in that… …   Wikipedia inhibition — /in i bish euhn, in hi /, n. 1. the act of inhibiting. 2. the state of being inhibited. 3. something that inhibits; constraint. 4. Psychol. a. the blocking or holding back of one psychological process by another. b. inappropriate conscious or… …   Universalium inhibition — 1. Depression or arrest of a function. SEE ALSO: inhibitor. 2. In psychoanalysis, the restraining of instinctual or unconscious drives or tendencies, especially if they conflict with one s conscience or with societal demands. 3. In psychology, a… …   Medical dictionary Social phobia — DiseaseDisorder infobox Name = Social phobias ICD10 = ICD10|F|40|1|f|40, ICD10|F|93|2|f|90 ICD9 = ICD9|300.23 Social phobia (DSM IV 300.23), also known as social anxiety disorder [ [http://www.webmd.com/anxiety panic/guide/mental health social… …   Wikipedia inhibition — n. 1) (in physiology) the prevention or reduction of the functioning of an organ, muscle, etc., by the action of certain nerve impulses. 2) (in psychoanalysis) an inner command that prevents one from doing something forbidden. Some inhibitions… …   The new mediacal dictionary Memory inhibition — In psychology, memory inhibition is the ability not to remember irrelevant information. Memory inhibition is a critical component of an effective memory system. For example, imagine if, when a person tried to remember where he had parked his car …   Wikipedia Latent inhibition — is a process by which exposure to a stimulus of little or no consequence prevents conditioned associations with that stimulus being formed. The ability to disregard or even inhibit formation of memory, by preventing associative learning of… …   Wikipedia Memory and social interactions — Memory underpins and enables social interactions in a variety of ways. In order to engage in successful social interaction, organisms must be able to remember how they should interact with one another, who they have interacted with previously,… …   Wikipedia Transmarginal inhibition — In psychology, Transmarginal inhibition, or TMI, is an organism s response to overwhelming stimuli.ResearchIvan Pavlov enumerated details of TMI on his work of conditioning animals to pain. He found that organisms responded had different levels… …   Wikipedia List of psychology topics — This page aims to list all topics related to psychology. This is so that those interested in the subject can monitor changes to the pages by clicking on Related changes in the sidebar. It is also to see the gaps in Wikipedia s coverage of the… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”