Behavioral science draws from a number of different fields and theories including industrial psychology, organizational psychology, industrial sociology, communication, cultural anthropology, administrative theory, organizational behavior, and political science. Behavioral science uses research and the scientific method to determine and understand behavior in the workplace. Many of the theories in the behavioral perspective are included in the behavioral science approach to management. For example, the Hawthorne studies used the scientific method and are considered to be a part of the behavioral science approach.
An additional component of the behavioral science approach is determining how people process stimuli in their environment. This field is called information processing science and deals with the processing of stimuli from the social environment by cognitive entities in order to engage in decision making, social judgment, and social perception. The field is particularly concerned with information processing as it relates to individual functioning and the survival of an organism in a social environment.