SOCPSY - 5 GENES, CULTURE, GENDER

Natural Selection

The evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to ensuing generations.

Evolutionary psychology

The study of the evolution of cognition and behavior using principles of natural selection.

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Epigenetics

A field of research exploring the expression of genes across different environments.

Norm

Standards for accepted and expected behavior. Prescribe a “proper” behavior.

Individual choices

Cultures vary in how much they emphasize the individual self (individualistic cultures) versus others and the society (collectivistic cultures).

Rule-breaking

Many collectivistic cultures promote the belief that human suffering—such as contracting a disease—is caused by violating social norms.

Personal space

A sort of portable bubble or buffer zone that we like to maintain between ourselves and others.

Universal friendship norms

Respect the friend’s privacy; make eye contact while talking; don’t divulge things said in confidence.

Universal trait dimensions

Evaluating others as good or bad appears across almost all cultures and languages. All cultures have norms, so all cultures evaluate how well others follow those norms.

Universal social belief dimensions

People’s adherence to these social beliefs appears to guide their living.

Cynics

Express lower life satisfaction and favor assertive influence tactics and right-wing politics.

Cynicism

“Powerful people tend to exploit others.”

Social complexity

“One has to deal with matters according to the specific circumstances.”

Reward for application

“One will succeed if he/she really tries.”

Spirituality

“Religious faith contributes to good mental health.”

Fate control

“Fate determines one’s success and failures.”

Universal status norms

Wherever people form status hierarchies, they also talk to higher-status people in the respectful way they often talk to strangers.

Incest taboo

Parents are not to have sexual relations with their children, nor siblings with one another.

Transgender

Whose sense of being male or female differs from their birth sex.

Gender

The characteristics, whether biological or socially influenced, by which people define male and female.

Sex

The different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones.

Aggression

Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone.

Sexuality

The gender difference in sexual attitudes carries over to behavior.

Androgynous

Capable of both assertiveness and nurturance (mixing both masculine and feminine characteristics).

Gender roles

A set of behavior expectations (norms) for males and females.

Nurture assumption

Parental nurture, the way parents bring their children up, governs who their children become.

Interaction

A relationship in which the effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another factor (such as environment).