Abstract:

The effects of fundamental social motives in improving the system of public psychological services are examined in this work. Fundamental social motives are systems shaped by human evolutionary history to energize, organize, and select behaviors to manage recurrent social threats and opportunities for reproductive fitness. Such systems include self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status seeking, mate seeking, mate retention, and kin care. Evidence on the priming of fundamental social motives and the influence of such motives on social and economic behaviors are reviewed. How and why these motives influence social and economic public order as well as well-being, feelings of security, and perceived gains are likewise explored. Moreover, the potentialities of fundamental social motives to become indicators of public order as well as those of the needs and quality of public psychological services are highlighted.

Key words: fundamental social motives, social behaviors, social governance