Cultural Psychology: Development & Socialization

These flashcards cover key terms and concepts related to cultural psychology, focusing on development, socialization, and various parenting styles.

Evidence of Culture in Animals

Observed behaviors, traditions, or learned information transmitted among individuals within a species, such as tool use in chimpanzees or specific hunting techniques in killer whales.

Prestige Bias

A cognitive bias in cultural learning where individuals are more likely to imitate behaviors or adopt beliefs from those who are viewed as successful or prestigious.

Similarity Bias

A bias in cultural learning where individuals are more inclined to learn from or imitate others who are perceived as similar to themselves.

Conformist Transmission

A form of cultural learning in which individuals are disproportionately more likely to adopt beliefs or behaviors that are common within their group.

Credibility-Enhancing Displays (CEDs)

Actions or signals that increase the perceived reliability or trustworthiness of a communicator, making their information more likely to be adopted culturally.

Imitative Learning

A form of social learning where the learner internalizes and reproduces a model's goals and behavioral strategies, often including the specific actions used.

Emulative Learning

A form of social learning where the learner focuses on the environmental events involved and the end result of a model's actions, rather than the specific behavioral steps, often leading to independent discovery of means.

Role of Mentalizing in Cultural Learning

The ability to understand others' intentions, beliefs, and desires (theory of mind), which is crucial for interpreting and learning complex behaviors and symbolic communication in a cultural context.

Role of Language in Cultural Learning

Language facilitates the precise transmission of complex information, abstract concepts, and cultural norms across generations, enabling cumulative cultural evolution.

Role of Sharing Experiences and Goals in Cultural Learning

Collaborative engagement in activities and shared intentions foster joint attention and common ground, enhancing the efficiency and depth of cultural knowledge acquisition.

The Ratchet Effect

The process where cultural knowledge and technological innovations accumulate over time, with improvements and modifications building upon previous achievements without significant loss, leading to cumulative cultural evolution.

Effect of Large Group Size on Cultural Learning

Larger group sizes generally enhance cumulative cultural learning by increasing the pool of potential innovators and learners, thus more ideas are generated and retained.

Effect of Small Group Size on Cultural Learning

Smaller group sizes can limit cumulative cultural learning due to a reduced number of innovators and potential loss of knowledge if individuals with specialized skills are lost.

Brain Evolution & Cultural Learning

The evolution of larger and more complex brains in humans, particularly the prefrontal cortex, facilitated advanced cognitive capacities like mentalizing, language, and complex problem-solving, which are essential for cultural learning and transmission.

Benefits of Larger Brains

Enhanced cognitive abilities, including complex problem-solving, memory, language, and social intelligence, supporting adaptation to diverse environments and cumulative cultural evolution.

Costs of Larger Brains

High metabolic demands (consuming significant energy), prolonged periods of development and dependency in offspring, and increased risks during childbirth due to larger heads.

Ecological Hypothesis (Brain Size)

Posits that large primate brains evolved due to the cognitive demands of navigating complex environments and acquiring difficult-to-obtain food resources (e.g., extractive foraging).

Social Brain Hypothesis / Machiavellian Intelligence

Suggests that large primate brains evolved primarily to manage complex social relationships and navigate within large, dynamic social groups (e.g., tracking alliances, deception).

Ecological Dominance-Social Competition (EDSC) Hypothesis

Proposes that human brain expansion was driven by both ecological pressures (solving survival problems) and intensified social competition once ecological challenges were largely overcome by cultural means.

Influence of Population Size on Cultural Evolution

Larger population sizes provide a greater pool of cultural variants and innovators, increasing the rate of cultural accumulation and reducing the chance of knowledge loss. Smaller populations are more prone to cultural loss.

Influence of Interconnectedness on Cultural Evolution

Higher levels of interconnectedness (contact and exchange between groups) facilitate the diffusion of cultural innovations, prevent local knowledge loss, and foster faster rates of cultural adaptation and complexity.