midterm 2 - psyc 315

psychological essentialism

how we reason ab an object’s identity (like what kind of thing is it and this shapes how we reason ab it)

essentialism: 3 parts

1. ppl believe (intuitively) that certain categories r - real n discovered

2. belief that some unobservable property (essence) causes things to be the way they r

3. belief that everyday words reflect this real structure of the world

essentialism

about an individual’s identity - and leads to beliefs ab the stability of that identity

explicit

controllable and accessible via conscious thought

implicit

generally uncontrollable (automatic) and less accessible via introspection

explicit processing

deliberate, intentional, consciously accessible

implicit processing

automatic, unconscious, uncontrollable

sources of intergroup cognition 

• experience 

• peers, family

• media

• biology

• interaction (culture fills in content)

aboud

ingroup liking emerges before the dislike of outgroup (explicity

• ages 3/4 for ingroup liking, outgroup dislike after age 7

bigler

children seem to spontaneously form categories and prefer ingroup members (by age 6)

a paradox

a developmental decrease in negative attitudes toward the outgroup

a developmental increase in negative behavior toward the outgroup

limitations of explicit measures

• access

• social desirability

measuring implicit bias

• the implicit association test

• reaction time measure

  • measures strength of association between concepts

social categories

we carve up the social world into groups - often us & them (Kipling)

implications of labeling - noun labels

• highlight an important/central identity of the object

• identity seen as relatively enduring and permanent

• supports more inferences

symbols

arbitary pairings

generattivity

combining knowledge to experience new meaning - a critical feature of human language

recursion

convey ideas in simpler forms with losing the actual meaning => speaking ab same idea in diff words

parts of language

• phonemes

• morphemes

• semantics

• syntax

• pragmatics

• metalinguistics

phonemes

the smallest units fo sounds recognizable as speech rather than random noise

• that can change meaning of words

• helps us distinguish words from one another

morphemes

the smallest meaningful units of language

• not identical to a word

syntax

the rules governing how words are combined to form meaningful phrases and sentences

chomsky

principles and parameters approach

• all languages share some features in common, but differ in terms of word order

pragmatics

part of language that do not consist of spoken words, but can nonetheless change meaning

pragmatic development

children develop an understanding of pragmatics from early infancy, and it continues throughout the lifespan

phonological development

birth to adol, differntiate perceive sounds of native language, produce sounds

semantic development

birth thru life, high rates acquisition, segmenting speech, mostly nouns

syntactic development

‘telegraphic speech’ - often two word utterances

quinean reference problem

all labelling inherently ambiguous

mutual exclusivity

each label applies to one and only one object; each object has one and only one label

4 hypotheses for language development

• behaviorist account

• statistical learning account

• connectionsist account

• nativist account

several ways to approach thinking ab gender:

1. behaviour (preferecnes, play, activites…

2. conceptual understanding (gender identity)

3. biological level of analysis

gender-role intensificiation

heightened concerns with adhering to traditional gender roles

gender-role flexibility

allows adolescents (girls more than boys) to transcend traditional conventions and pursue a more flexible range of interests

gender & gender differences have been explained in terms of

socialization and biology

four key processes for social learning theories

• attention - to gender info

• memory - for that info

• motivation - to repeat gender typed behavior

• production - of gender behavior

parental behaviours - parents generally do

• reward & suport gender sterotupical behaviour

• buy gender ste toys

• talk differently to children

parental behaviours - parents generally do not

• display a difference in warmth

• differ in responsiveness

• restrict actities

enactive experience

experiencing the reactions one’s behaviour evokes in others

gender schemas

mental representations incorporating everything they know ab gender

gender self-socialization

child determines what other info they learn ab gender

confirmation bias

tendency to retain schema-consistent and ignore or distort schema-consistent info

gender schema theory

holds that the motivation to enact gender-typed behaviour begins soon after children can label other ppls and their own gender during toddlerhood

social role theory

• emphasize how cultural practices both reflect and perpeetuate gender divisions

• different expectations among genders stem from the division of labor in a given socieyty

kohlberg’s theory of gender role development

informed by piaget

understanding of gender involves 3 processes for children whose gender is binary

sources of gender socialization

parents

peers

media

culture

3 physiological categories at birth:

• female

• male

• intersex - both male female phsyciological traits

gender identity

internal sense of own gender

androgens

hormones that normally occur at higher levels in males than female - they effect phsycial development and functioning from prenatal period onward

• gender differences in behavior reflect different ratios of androgens and estrogens

biological gender difference in aggression

the body increases its production of testosterone in response to perceived threats and challenges, and this increase can lead to more aggressive behaviour

prosocial behaviours

1. intented to benefit another person

2. involves a risk or sacrifice ot the actor

3. is voluntary

the origins of altruistic prosocial behavior are rooted in the capacity to

feel empathy and sympathy

empathy

is an emotional reaction to anothers emotional state that is similar to that persons state

sympathy

is the feeling of concern for another person (or animal) in reaction to the others emotional state or condition

an important factor contributing to empathy and sympathy is

the ability to take another’s perspective

Eisenberg’s stages of prosocial behavior

prosocial judgement

level 1: hedonisitc, self-focused orientation

level 2: needs-based orientation

level 3: approval and/or sterotyped orientation

level 4a: self-reflective empathic orientation

level 4b: transitional level

level 5: strongly internalized stage

the development of prosocial behavior

all children are capable of prosocial behaviors, but differ in how often they engage in these behaviors and their reasons for doing so

3 primary ways parents can socialize prosocial behavior

1) modelling and teaching prosocial behavior

2) arranging opportunities for their children to engage in prosocial behavior

3) by eliciting prosocial behavior from them

domains of reasoning

• moral judgements

• social conventional judgements

• personal judgements

piagets theory of moral development

described how children’s moral resaoning changes from a rigid acceptance of the dictates and rules of authorities to an appreciation of the dictates and rules of authories to ………….

heternomous morality → transitional period → autonomous morality

heteronomous morality

characteriszes the moral reasoning of children who have not yet reached the congitive stage of concrete operations

the transitional period

from ab age 7 to 8 to age 10……….

autonomous morality

by 11 or 12, moral relativism emerges, with all typically developing children reaching this stage

kohlberg’s theory of moral judgement

• strongly influenced by piaget

• presented children with hypothetical moral dilemmas and then questioned them ab the issues involved in their moral judgements

kohlberg’s stages: proposed 3 levels of moral judgement

1. preconventional

2. conventional

3. postconventional

preconventional level

• punishment and obedience orientation

• instrumental and exchange orientation

conventional level

• mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity (good girl, nice boy) orientation

• social system and conscience (law n order) orientation

post conventional level

• social contract or indiviudal rights orientation

• universal ethical principles

warneken & tomasello (2009)

foundations of prosocial behaviour by examining continuities n discontinuites phylogenetically

• comparison of chimpanzees n young children

• helping, sharing n informing