Exam 1

What is Heine’s definition of culture?

• any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s specials through social learning that can influence an individual’s behaviors

• a group of people who are existing within some kind of shared context

Is culture unique to humans?

• no, humans and animals both have culture due to each of them having:

  • social networks + hierarchies

  • invent tools and transmit their use

  • communicate with sounds

  • symbolic language and reasoning

Universalism

the idea that the range of human experience— from basic needs and psychological processes to core values— is intrinsic and therefore similar across humans and cultures

Relativism

the belief that there’s no absolute truth, only the truths that a particular individual or culture happen to believe

Mind + Culture

• culture and mind can never be separated from one another because they make up each other

  • cultures emerge from the interaction of the various minds of the people that live within them, and cultures, in turn, shape how those minds operate

Taxi study

Driving a cab leads to better navigational skills and large posterior hippocampi compared to non-cab drivers

WEIRD societies

• aka western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic

• psychological studies typically focus on people that come from these societies

Imitative learning

a type of cultural learning in which the learner internalizes aspects of a model’s goals and behavioral strategies

Emulative learning

• a type of cultural learning focused on the environmental events involved with a model’s behavior, such as how the use of one object could also potentially cause changes in the state of the environment

• does not require imitating a model’s behavioral strategies

  • only focus on the events happening around the model

Theory of mind

• know others’ intentions and perspectives

• humans learn through imitation

Language

• allows ideas to be communicated without having to be visually demonstrated

• enables people to convey their beliefs, intentions, and complex thoughts, facilitating the coordination of behavior among individuals living in groups

• no other species besides humans created grammar or syntax

Imitation of prestigious others

• imitating people who have skills that are respected by others

  • downside: can cause people to be very invasive of prestigious others and may result in individuals copying a respectable person’s destructive habits

Rachet effect

the idea that a modified practice is learned by others, who then add their own modifications , and these modifications accumulate over time

Encephalization quotient

the ratio of the brain weight of an animal to the brain weight predicted for a comparable animals of the same body size

Clan people size of 150 people

humans typically evolve in groups that average around 150 members

Neocortex ratio

the ratio of the volume of the neocortex to the volume of the rest of the brain, which is used as a proxy measure of intelligence

Social Brain hypothesis

neocortex (the problem solving + intelligence part of the brain) is linked to cognitive demands in socializing and interactions

Jerungdu

• word for physical strength in the sambia society

• sambia view semen as the physical basis for jerungdu

  • no semen= no jerungdu= no masculinity

What is race?

often used to refer to biological, physical, or genetic characteristics

Is race an arbitrary concept?

• yes, race should be eliminated because gene variability less between than within groups

Is race a social construct?

race is a social construct about how people see, relate to and describe themselves

Ethnocentrism

evaluating people from other cultures by comparing them to the standards of one’s own culture

Enculturation

an individual learns the traditional content of a culture and assimilates its practices and values

Socialization

a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values. behavior, and social skills appropriate to their social position

Proximal causes

• a cause that has a direct and immediate relationship with its effects

  • ex: Spaniards more evolved technological so they were able to conquer the Incas

Distal causes

intial differences that lead to effects over long time periods, often through indirect relationships

Evoke culture

the idea that people, regardless of where they are from, have a biologically based repertoire of behaviors that are accessible to them, and that these behaviors are engaged for appropriate situations

Transmitted culture

the idea that people find out about certain cultural practices through social learning, or by modeling the behavior of others who live near them

Dynamic social impact theory

• individuals become like minded people through interactions

  • ultimately leads to clusters of like-minded people who are separated by geography— cultures

• can support the origin of culture

Contemporary Legends

fictional stories that are told in modern societies as though they are true

Minimally counterintuitive ideas

statements that are surprising and unusual in the sense that they violate our expectations but are not too outlandish

Are cultures becoming more intelligent?

Largest increase in Raven’s Matrices (culture free test) show average of 6 point per decade

Sensitive period for acquiring culture?

immigrants who move to a new culture after a sensitive period occurs would have a more difficult time adjusting to their new culture

Personal space

• European infants spent less time with their mothers while other ethnic groups spent most of their time with them

• European infants spent more time face-to-face with their mothers compared to the other ethnic groups

• Western mothers are more responsive to their infants’ vocalizations compared to non-western mothers

Sleeping arrangements

• Americans let their infants sleep in their own room

• African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans practice co-sleeping

Incest avoidance

a moral principle that postpubescent family members of the opposite sex should not sleep in the same room

Protection of the vulnerable

a moral principle that young children who are needy and vulnerable should not be left alone at night

Female chastity anxiety

a moral principle that unmarried adolescent women are vulnerable to shameful sexual activity, so they should always be chaperoned

Respect for hierarchy

adolescent boys acheive social status by not having to sleep with parents or young children

Sacred couple

a moral principle that married couples should have their own sleeping space for emotional intimacy and sexual privacy

Parenting styles

an accumulation of parents’ attitudes and behaviors toward children and an emotional climate in which the parent’s behaviors are expressed

Ainsworth’s attachment styles

• secure attachment: occasionally seek their mother’s presence when she is around and yearn to be close to their mother after she leaves

• avoidant attachment: show little distress at their mother’s absence and avoid their mother’s return

• anxious-ambivalent attachment: show frequent distress when their mother is either present/absent

  • sometimes want to be near their mother but then after being by their mother they resist

Strange situation

the experimental condition to see how children would react after their mother leaves the room and is left alone with a stranger

Are the attachment styles universal?

yes

What are the exceptions of attachment styles?

• the stranger situation might not have the same meaning everywhere

• despite secure attachment being the most common attachment style, the other attachment styles are still prevalent

  • meaning that they have a purpose and that secure attachment isn’t ideal

Terrible twos

• an important development milestone when the young toddler begins to establish their own individuality

• foundation for mature relationships

• increase in resistant, oppositional behavior

Adolescent rebellion

• age of disobedience (14-21)

• greater rebelliousness (anger, disobedience) in American adolescence

Assimilation

an acculturation strategy that involves effort to fit in and fully participate in the host culture, while making little or no effort to maintain the traditions of the heritage culture

Accommodation

an adjustment, adaptation or adjustment to make a better fit

What are Piaget’s four stages?

• sensorimotor (0-2 years)

• pre-operational (2-7 years)

• concrete operational (7-11 years)

• formal operation (11-16 years)

Sensorimotor

• coordinate sensory with motor responses

• master object permanence

  • the concept of knowing an object is still physically there despite not being in the child’s eye view

Preoperational

• development of symbolic thought

• characterized by

  • irreversibility: inability to undo a process; inverting an operation

  • centration: focusing single aspect of problem to the exclusion of others

  • egocentrism: inability to see things from another’s point of view/perspective

Concrete operational

• apply mental operations to concrete events

• master the above + conservation

  • conservation: physical qualities remain the same though shape can change

Formal operational

• apply mental operations to understand/solve abstract ideas

• ability to reason and think abstractly (ex. peace, justice)

Cross national math differences

numbers are harder to learn in English compared to Japanese, Korean, or Chinese due to to the English language having irregular number words

Reasons for cross national math differences

• Chinese preschoolers make fewer errors when learning to count compared to American children

• linguistic differences contribute to the differences in the ease of learning basic mathematical concepts

What are Kohlberg’s three major stages?

• preconventional level

• conventional level

• postconventional level

Preconventional level

• rewards + punishments

• what provides best retun

Conventional level

following rules, norms, and maintaining social order

Postconventional level

• consider abstract universal + ethical principles that emphasize individual rights that may supersede rules

Are Kohlberg’s stages universal?

yes, preconventional and conventional stages are universal

Are there any exceptions in regards to Kohlberg’s stages?

• postconventional stage is not universal due to moral judgements being based more on traditions

• duty + norms (honor/duty to help) than on individual rights, free will, personal choice

  • Children in China place more emphasis on interpersonal relations and to honor their parents

  • Indians are taught a sense of social responsibility/duty and that not helping is a moral transgression

What did Shweder propose in regards to moral ethics?

• ethic of autonomy

• ethic of community

• ethic of divinity

Ethic of autonomy

morality is that which protects justice, freedom, personal choice, and individual rights

Ethic of community

morality is tied to an individual’s interpersonal obligations within social order (honor, loyalty, betrayal, duty)

Ethic of divinity

concerned about sanctity and perceived “natural order” of things (belief in God, resect for the sacred world

Miller, Bersoff, and Harwood study

study of moral reasoning provide people with dilemmas in which neither option seems ideal, but the ethical principles of participants can be discerned by examining the trade-offs they’re willing to make

Orthodox religions

• religious believers committed to the idea of a transcendent authority that operates independently of people and is more knowledgeable and powerful than all of human experience

  • moral code was made by an authority, moral code holds across all time and should not be altered to accommodate social changes

Progressive religions

• religious believers who emphasize the importance of human agency in understanding and formulating a moral code

  • authority reveals its goals for humanity and society makes the moral code, moral code changes as social change occurs within a society

What are Haidt’s five universal foundations of moral rules?

• avoiding harm

• protecting fairness

• loyalty to ingroup

• respect authority

• achieve purity

Avoiding harm

value protecting others from harm, suffering, and pain

Protecting fairness

value equal and fair treatment for all

Respect authority

respect, obedience for authority figures, traditions

Achieve purity

respect for sanctity of life, being chaste/pure physically, mentally, and spiritually

What are Heine’s principles of fairness?

• principle of need

• principle of equality

• principle of equity

Principle of need

resources distributed by who needs them the most

Principle of equality

• resources distributed equally

  • welfare

  • social security

  • COVID stimulus checks

Principle of equity

resources distributed by contributions, production, merit

Meritocracy

a social system that rewards individuals on the basis of the equity principle

Seniority system

an organizational system that rewards individuals based on older age or a longer time spent with a company

Dictator game

an economic game designed to explore people’s motivations for fairness by testing the assumption that they will act solely out of self-interest; one person gets to decide how much sum of money to give to another person

Public goods game

an economic game designed to explore people’s motivations for fairness by testing their cooperation with anonymous strangers; a groups of people have the option to contribute some of their money to a common pool, the experimenter multiplies the amount and then redistributes it to all the members of the group

Altruistic punishment

incurring a cost to oneself in order to punish someone who is cooperating with the group

Antisocial punishment

incurring a cost to oneself in order to punish someone who is cooperating with the group; a form of revenge

Acculturation

the process in which people who have moved to a new, unfamiliar location learn, and adapt to, a culture that is different from their own

Heritage to host culture

original culture → new culture

Cultural distance

difference between two cultures in their overall ways of life

Blending

the tendency for bicultural people to show psychological characteristics in between those of their two cultures

Frame-switching

alternating between different cultural selves

Stereotype threat

the fear of behaving in a way that will inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group

Perception

process that organizes various sensations into meaningful patterns

Cognition

the mental processes by which information is transformed into knowledge

Nativism

perceptual phenomenon reveal inborn anatomical/psychological properties

Empiricism

• perceptions reveal our experience with the objects

  • context shapes perceptions

Front-horizontal foreshortening

• people in open vast open spaces perceive vertical lines to be longer than the horizontal ones

• line appears to recede into the distance

  • horizontal-vertical illusion

Analytical thinking

conceptualize objects by their attributes independent of experience/context

Holistic thinking

• objects (behaviors) are understood from their relationship/connection to context

  • focus on the whole context

• knowledge gained through experience and experience is evolving/changing, not fixed

Rule based

• principle of noncontradiction: no statement can be both true and false

• law of excluded middle: the statement is either true or false, no middle

Field independence

individuals can view/separate objects from the field