HSP3U - Exam Review (1)

Unit 1: Introduction to Social Sciences

• Social Sciences:
  • Focus on scientific investigations of human thought and behavior.
• Psychology:
  • Focuses on individuals and studying their mental processes and behaviors.
• Sociology:
  • Focuses on people in groups, the relationships between people, the social structures developed by people, and how these factors shape human behavior.
• Anthropology:
  • Focuses on human beings as a species and as members of different cultures.
    • Cultural anthropology: Focuses on the origin, development, and functioning of human cultures.
    • Clinical psychology: Diagnoses and treats behavioral problems and mental illnesses.
    • Experimental psychology: Conducts experiments designed to test responses or discover how the brain works to cause behaviors.
    • Physical anthropology: Focuses on the evolution of humans.

Steps in the Social Scientific Method of Inquiry

• Identify the problem or question
  • Provides reason for the research
  • Suggests a way to do the research
• Develop the hypothesis
  • Provides a possible answer to the question in the form of a statement
  • Forms the basis of the research
• Gather the data
  • Collect the information needed to test the hypothesis using research methods
• Interpret and analyze the data collected
  • Organizes the data so it means something (e.g., a graph)
• Draw the conclusions
  • Determines whether or not the hypothesis has been confirmed or must be changed or rejected
  • Summarizes the observations and analysis of the results and relates these to the question being examined

Research Methods

• Survey:
  • A researcher asks a representative sample of people a set of standard questions to find out the opinions, characteristics, and behaviors of a larger group of people
    • Questionnaire: Set of questions are given on paper or electronically to a large number of people.
• Interview:
  • A researcher asks a limited number of people questions in a face-to-face encounter or over the phone.
    • Random sample: Every nth person is asked (2nd, 5th, 40th, etc.).
    • Matched sample: Participants are chosen based on one or more shared characteristics.
• Observation:
  • A researcher watches and records behavior as it occurs naturally without attempting to change or influence it.
• Case Study:
  • A researcher conducts a detailed investigation of an individual, a situation, an event, a group, or a culture over a long period of time.
• Experiment:
  • A researcher changes at least one factor and observes the effect of its change on the other factors in order to understand the relationship between the factors.
    • Variable: The factor that is changed or affected by the change.
    • Control group: The group that is not exposed to the independent variable.
    • Experimental group: The group that is exposed to the independent variable.
    • Laboratory experiment: Conducted in a controlled setting where the subjects are aware of their participation in the experiment.
    • Field experiment: Conducted in an uncontrolled setting where subjects are unaware that they are participating in the experiment.

Unit 2: Physical Anthropology

• Creationism:
  • All matter and biological species were caused to exist by some power.
• Evolution:
  • The process by which species change over time through genetic variation, natural selection, and inheritance.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution

• All living things share common ancestors in the distant past.
• Species arise when differences among individuals within a group are gradually converted into differences between groups as the groups become separated in space and time.
• All populations (not just humans) are doomed to exceed their resources.
• Natural selection: The process of certain hereditary characteristics surviving and being reproduced through offspring, while other hereditary characteristics are eliminated.
• Variation: Differences found across individuals of any given species in terms of their biological and psychological characteristics.
  1. Variations occur by chance and appear at random in a population.
  2. Organisms with favorable variations are more likely to survive, thereby passing their characteristics to their offspring.

Evidence of Evolution:

• The large number and diversity of species
• The distribution of plants and animals in various regions of the world
• The fossil record
• The imperfection of many adaptations

Problems with Evolution:

• Contradicts literal interpretations of various religious teachings
• Diminishes human significance

Characteristics of Primates

• Chimpanzee and human DNA differ by a little more than 1%
  • Example: Jane Goodall’s Lecture - we could get blood transplants from chimpanzees and they can also get human diseases as their immune system is so similar to ours
• Forming close, long lasting relationships
  • Example: Jane Goodall’s Lecture - Spindle adopting the young orphaned chimpanzee (Mel) and played the role of a mother
    • Would share his food with him
    • Would let him ride on his back
  • Example: Lost film of Dian Fossey - the two gorillas were playing with Dian Fossey's dog and had a friendly relationship
• Feel emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, etc)
  • Example: Jane Goodall’s Lecture - Chimpanzees become heartbroken when their mother dies and often times when they’re young, they can’t survive without her
• Demonstrate curiosity and are capable of learning
  • Example: Lost film of Dian Fossey - When Dian was writing observations about the gorillas in her notebook, out of curiosity the gorillas would go towards her to see what she was doing
• Communicating using gestures and calls
  • Example: Lost film of Dian Fossey - gorillas were gesturing at each other to come forward when they were playing
• Having their own distinct personalities like people
  • Example - Lost film of Dian Fossey - some of the gorillas were more shy/gentle whereas others were more outgoing and playful

Major Milestones of Humans

• Becoming bipedal (6-7 million years ago)
• Making and using tools (2.4 million years ago)
• Making and using fire for cooking, hunting, and protection (800,000 years ago)
• Rapid increase in brain size (800,000 - 200,000 years ago)
• Connection to language development (homo heidelbergensis)
• Domestications of plant and animals (12,000 years ago)

Unit 3: Cultural Anthropology

• Society: A group of people who live in the same geographic location, who live by certain required rules
• Culture: Is comprised of the huge body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we learn throughout our lives and allows us to be accepted and survive in society.

Two Types of Culture

1. Material Culture: Consists of artifacts and physical objects that humans create and give meaning to (e.g., food, clothes, tools, industry, transportation, weapons, etc.).
2. Non-Material Culture: Consists of more abstract creations (e.g., customs, myths, values, government, laws, exchange of goods and services, communication, language, etc.).

Norms

• Specific rules which indicate appropriate behavior in a given situation.
• Defines how people should behave.
• Departure from norms is noticed more than conformity

Two Types of Norms

1. Folkways: the traditional, everyday customs and behaviors that are considered socially acceptable within a particular culture, though they are not strictly enforced by law or formal rules
2. Mores: strong social norms that dictate moral behavior and are considered essential for the welfare of society, often accompanied by formal sanctions for violations
   • Taboos - powerful social beliefs that make an act utterly loathsome (e.g., eating human flesh)

Values

• General beliefs that people share about what is good or best, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.
• Shape people's ideas about what they should think or act
• We are usually unaware about our own belief system until we discover someone else’s belief system
• Values influence the content of norms

Two Types of Social Control

1. Formal - police, government, religion, school, etc
2. Informal - reactions of other people in society and ourselves

Sanctions

• Positive - rewards for conformity (e.g., a nod or ceremony of public acclaim)
• Negative - punishments for nonconformity (e.g., disapproval, exclusion, imprisonment, execution)

Ethnocentrism

• The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one's own culture.
• People automatically assume that their belief and customs are the best
• People often act in an ethnocentric way because they have had little experience with people from other cultures
• Even with mass communication and formal education, ethnocentrism still prevails

Cultural Relativism

• The recognition that one’s own culture cannot be judged by the standards of another culture and vice versa.
• Cultural relativism does not mean that we can never pass judgment to another culture, it means that the practices of another culture can be understood only in the terms of its own norms and values

Human Characteristics and Capabilities that make Culture Possible

• Great brain capacity for learning to the extent that is required to learn culture (allows humans to make choices, change ideas and behaviors, and participate in activities)
• Ability to skillfully manipulate objects with hands (allows humans to change their environments)
• Ability to communicate through language and speech (allows humans to share ideas and pass cultural changes on to future generations)

Popular/Dominant Culture, Subculture, Counterculture

• Popular Culture
  • Definition: Mainstream ideas, beliefs, practices, and norms shared by the majority within a society
  • Characteristics:
    • Influenced by media, education, government, and dominant social groups
    • Represents what is widely accepted or considered "normal"
  • Influence: shapes societal values and behaviors; reinforces social cohesion and conformity
• Subculture
  • Definition: Smaller cultural groups within a larger society with distinct values, norms, or practices
  • Characteristics:
    • Exists harmoniously within the dominant culture but maintains its unique identity
    • Often revolves around shared interests, hobbies, or beliefs
    • Members may share specific symbols, language, dress styles, or rituals
  • Role: provides a sense of belonging and identity for its members
• Counterculture
  • Definition: A cultural group that actively opposes or rejects the norms and values of the dominant culture.
  • Characteristics:
    • Often seeks societal change or rebellion against mainstream norms
    • May challenge political, social, or moral ideologies
    • Sometimes viewed as radical or deviant by the dominant culture
  • Impact: can drive social change and innovation; also provoke tension or conflict with the mainstream

Body Ritual of the Nacirema

• Values
  • Obsession with physical flaws:
    • View the human body as inherently ugly, weak, and prone to disease, which fosters a compulsive need to "correct" these deficiencies
    • Encourages an obsession with body rituals to prevent decay and appear clean or attractive
  • Faith in magical thinking:
    • Place irrational trust in charms, potions, and rituals, believing that these will protect them from illness and evil
  • Sacrifice and suffering is necessary to be healthy and attractive:
    • They believe that enduring pain or discomfort is essential for health and moral worth
      • Eg. submitting to invasive and torturous rituals from the medicine-men (doctors) at the "latipso" (hospital) or the painful procedures of the "holy-mouth-men" (dentists)
• Norms
  • Conducting daily rituals of self-torment:
    • Rituals are time-consuming and often involve discomfort, such as scraping the face (shaving) or inserting hairs into the mouth (toothbrush)
  • Being reliant on expensive and mysterious specialists:
    • Visiting "medicine men" (doctors) requires offerings (payments) and unquestioning faith in their prescriptions, despite the often harmful or ineffective nature of their interventions
  • Rituals being secret and shameful:
    • These rituals are performed in private, as the Nacirema consider their bodies and their maintenance to be deeply personal and shameful topics
• Material Culture
  • Charms and potions:
    • The Nacirema use "charms" (medications) that they barely understand but continue to use based on the instructions of medicine-men
      • These are often stored in a shrine (bathroom) as symbols of protection
  • Shrines:
    • Small rooms in homes (bathrooms) containing charm-boxes (medicine cabinets) and ceremonial basins

Why Miner Adopted an Ethnocentric Point of View

• Purpose: to critique ethnocentrism and show how cultural practices deemed "normal" in one society can seem strange or irrational when described from an outsider’s perspective
• Satire of Western norms: Miner uses an anthropological lens to exaggerate the rituals of modern American culture (specifically healthcare and hygiene practices), making them appear exotic and primitive
• Reflection on anthropology: shows how cultural descriptions can be influenced by the observer's biases
  • Miner uses complex language and an outsider’s view to reveal how anthropologists sometimes make other cultures seem strange
• Key takeaway: Encourages cultural anthropologists to recognize their own cultural biases and adopt a more cultural relativistic approach to understanding different societies and not take elements of cultures out of context

Rites of Passage

• Ceremonies that mark a person’s progress from one role, phase of life, or social status to another
• Occur in similar patterns across cultures and overtime because they correspond to important events in the human life cycle (e.g., birth, puberty and initiation into society, mating and reproduction, and old age and death)
• Components of all Rites of Passage
  1. You are changed from what you were to something new
  2. You remove yourself from society temporarily
  3. You are readmitted to society as a “new” person
• Some rites demand mutilation (e.g., scarring, piercing, tattooing)
• Some rites demand endurance (e.g., beating, rigorous fasting, trials of pain, seclusion)

Unit 4: Psychology

• Cognition: The process of acquiring knowledge through learning, storing, and retrieving knowledge through memory, and using knowledge through memory and thinking

Memory

• Types
  • Episodic - the ability to remember events from the past (e.g., early memories from childhood)
  • Semantic - the ability to remember organized knowledge about language and the world
  • Procedural - the ability to remember how to do things (e.g., how to walk)
• Levels
  • Sensory
    • Records information from the senses for a few seconds
    • Enables you to hold information long enough to record what is necessary from the environment
    • Allows you to select what you think should be retained from all the sensory information that you are receiving
  • Short-term memory
    • Holds information for 15-20 seconds
    • Can store 7 separate, unorganized items
    • Items are stored in short term memory by sound, mental picture, or meaning
  • Long-term memory
    • Items that are important and has meaning are stored in long term memory
    • You can retain as much information as you want for as long as you want, but you cannot always recall everything at will

Developing Concepts

• A concept is a category of objects, ideas, or events that share characteristics
• Concepts allow us to group similar items together and to distinguish those that are different
• Thinking and generalizing would be impossible without concepts because everything would be unique

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation: the process by which sense receptors are activated so that signals are transmitted to the brain
• Perception: the process by which sensory signals are selected, organized, and interpreted in the brain
  • Perception is influenced by 3 factors:
    • The object itself (e.g., movie)
    • The background or surroundings (e.g., theatre, house)
    • The experiences of the person who is perceiving (e.g., an actor you can’t stand)

“The Wild World of the Teen Brain” (Jay Giedd)

1. Uses an MRI to look at kids' brains over the years and find psychological changes. Goal is to determine how the brain develops from childhood to adulthood
2. By age 6, the brain is 90-95% of its size
3. Long term studies document there is a second wave of neuron proliferation (rapid growth) in teens, and the final part of this second wave affects some of our highest mental functions
4. Development happens in stages, generally from back to front. The regions that mature the earliest (back) control sensory functions. Next are the areas that coordinate these functions. Last part is the prefrontal cortex.
5. Last stage (development of prefrontal cortex) does tasks such as planning, prioritizing, organizing thoughts, suppressing impulses, and weighing consequences
6. The part of the brain that is associated with motivation is the nucleus accumbens. If teens have a motivational deficit, it may mean they are prone to engaging in behaviors that have a high excitement or low effort factor
7. Hormones are very active in the brain, especially in the emotional center (the limbic system)

Theories of Learning

• Learning: a change in knowledge or behavior as a result of experience
  • Learning occurs through association
    • Association: making the mental connection between ideas, concepts, or experiences
• Conditioning: learning to respond to a certain stimulus in a particular way

Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)

• A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus, repeatedly paired with another stimulus (which elicits a reflexive response), eventually beings to elicit the reflexive response
• Unconditioned Response (UCR):
  • Natural, unlearned (e.g., no one taught the dog to salivate)
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS):
  • A stimulus that automatically and naturally triggers a response without prior learning
  • Eg. no one trained the dog to eat
• Neutral Stimulus (NS):
  • A stimulus which initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention
  • Eg. The bell to the dog initially has no meaning
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS):
  • Once the neutral stimulus has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus
  • Eg. If the bell is rung every time the dog is fed, it becomes a conditioned stimulus because the dog has linked the bell with food
• Conditioned Response (CR):
  • An automatic response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus
  • Eg. when the bell is rung, the dog will begin to salivate and look for food
• Generalization: using stimuli (to the conditioned stimulus) to elicit the same response (e.g., using bells, whistles, buzzes)
• Extinction: results when the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are no longer present (i.e. the response no longer occurs)

Mary Cover Jones Research

• Famous for: Her work in desensitization (reducing fear responses)
  • Similar to John Watson’s “Little Albert” study but with the opposite goal
    • Taught a baby (Albert) to fear a white rat by pairing the rat with a loud scary noise, resulting in Albert fearing the white rat (and similar objects) even without the noise
• Method:
  • Used gradual exposure to the feared object (rabbit) while giving positive experiences (like food)
  • Called counterconditioning — pairing feared stimulus with something pleasant

Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)

• Successive approximation: shaping behavior by breaking it down into small steps and reinforcing the small steps
• Superstitious behavior:
  • Produced by joint action of reinforcement and accidents
  • Odd motor reactions are likely to reoccur if they are reinforced
• Reinforcement: always involves increasing behavior
  • Positive reinforcement: delivery of pleasant consequences (e.g., good grades)
  • Negative reinforcement: removal or prevention of unpleasant consequences (e.g., removal of chores)
• Punishment: always involves decreasing or suppressing behavior
  • Presentation/positive punishment: delivery of unpleasant consequences (e.g., after school detention)
  • Removal/negative punishment: removal of pleasant consequences (e.g., no phone for a week)

Albert Bandura - Observational Learning (ARRM)

1. Attention: to learn through observation, people pay attention to the behavior of others
2. Retention: people store a mental representation of what they observe into their memory
3. Reproduction: people convert their stored memories into action
4. Motivation: people must be motivated in order to practice the skill

Our Social World (Bandura’s Experiment with Bobo Doll)

1. Why did the children imitate aggressive behavior toward the doll?
   • Because they observed an adult acting violently toward the doll and children learn from observational learning
   • They copy the actions of adults, especially when they see those actions performed without consequences
2. Sometimes adults were either rewarded or scolded for their behavior. Why did these consequences affect the children’s own behavior?
   • When they saw the adults being rewarded for aggression, they were more likely to act aggressive themselves because they thought it was acceptable
   • When they saw the adults were being scolded, they were less likely to imitate the behavior, learning that aggression leads to negative consequences
3. Summarize the implications of Bandura’s experiment have for our society.
   • The experiments suggest that exposure to violence in media, homes, and social environments can increase aggressive behavior in children
   • Highlights importance of responsible role modeling as children learn by observing adults

Personality

• Personality: the characteristics and behaviors that make a person unique
• Traits: a predisposition to behave in a certain way in various situations
• Bystander effect: is when people are less likely to help someone in need if there are other people around, because they think someone else will do it

Sigmund Freud - Theory of Personality

• The Id (unconscious)
  • The most primitive, impulsive, unsocialized side of a person
  • Contains animal urges that would not be accepted in civilized society (e.g., violent aggression, sexual impulses to forbidden people, delight in feces, etc.)
  • Follows the pleasure principle (seeks immediate satisfaction)
• The Ego (mostly conscious)
  • The most useful, rational, sensible side of a person
  • Follows the reality principle (tries to gain pleasure by satisfying the id according to the real world and real demands)
  • Pays attention to the urges of the id and decides which of them can be satisfied directly, which can be redirected to be more acceptable, and which must be denied entirely
• The Superego (mostly unconscious)
  • Tries to control behavior
  • Represents internalized rules, praises and punishes/guilts like a parent
  • Follows the morality principle; judges whether the ego has been “good” → pride, or “bad” → guilt
  • Main job is to say “NO!’ to the id; it represses the id’s impulses by punishing them out of awareness, but they still exist below the level of consciousness

Defense Mechanisms

• Unconscious mental devices used to distort reality and prevent the ego from feeling frustration, conflict, and failure when it fails to balance the demands of the id and superego

1. Rationalization:
   • Inventing an excuse to explain a failure, error, loss, or bad behavior
   • The excuse is considered reasonable to the person who invents it
2. Repression:
   • Pushing away unpleasant urges or thought of one’s mind
   • They can no longer be recalled and remembered but may surface
3. Displacement
   • Taking the desire to be aggressive out on some innocent person or thing
4. Projection
   • Projecting one’s inner feeling onto other people

Unconscious Conflict in Everyday Life

• Freud believed that inner conflicts often emerge through:
  • Memory lapses: momentarily forgetting, absent mindedness
  • Speech errors: “Freudian slip” of the tongue (may reveal underlying motive)
  • The content of dreams: dreams have meaning which can be deciphered if examined closely
• Fixation: a lingering attachment to an earlier stage of pleasure seeking behavior
• Regression: going back to an earlier stage if there is considerable conflict or frustration
• Oedipal Complex (males)
  • 1st Act - love of mother, hate of father
  • 2nd Act - Fear of castration and fear of father
  • 3rd Act - Boy identifies with his father, by becoming like his father he will eventually enjoy an erotic partnership of a similar kind
• Electra Complex (females)
  • Penis envy (feels like she is already castrated)
    • Love of father → jealousy/hate/fear of mother → increasing fear of mother → repression of entire complex → identification with mother

Carl Jung - Theory of Personality

• Believed that the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious formed the core of personality
  • Personal unconscious: contains memories and ideas from our own unique history
  • Collective unconscious: contains memories and ideas inherited from larger human community, established over centuries
  • 2 different attitudes that prepare people to approach the world:
    • Introversion: focuses on ones inner experiences
    • Extroversion: focuses on objects, people, and events in the environment
  • 4 different functions that people use to respond to stimuli:
    • Sensation: establishing something exists
    • Thinking: interpreting and understanding the stimuli
    • Feeling: establishing whether the stimuli is agreeable or not
    • Intuition: forming inexplicable conclusions about the stimuli without using any of the other functions

Abraham Maslow - Theory of Motivation

• Humans are basically good, rational thinking individuals who want to become better people
• Humans have a wide variety of needs ranging from basic survival to more complex psychological and social needs
• Behavior is motivated by the hierarchy of needs

Deficiency Needs:

• Possessed by all human beings
• Based on crucial lacks within us that must be fulfilled by external objects or people

1. Physiological needs:
   • The need for basic needs such as air, water, food, shelter, sleep, sex
2. Safety and security needs:
   • The need to feel safe, secure, and stable
   • The need to be protected from violence

Growth Needs:

• Based on the need to develop and fulfill one’s inner potentials and capacities
• Independent from the environment and unique to the individual
• Gain intensity through satisfaction

1. Belongingness and love needs:
   • The need for love and acceptance by family and friends
2. Esteem needs
   • The need for self-respect
   • The need for respect and recognition from others

Meta Needs

• Based on atypical needs of those rare individuals who strive to achieve self-actualization
• Gain intensity through satisfaction

1. Cognitive needs:
   • The need for knowledge and understanding of things
2. Aesthetic needs:
   • The need for order and beauty in one’s surroundings
3. Need for self-fulfillment
   • The need to live up to one's full potential

• All people are motivated to fulfill their needs in this order and they never stop striving to reach the next level
• Once people have met needs at a certain level, they may go back to a lower needs level (e.g., risk taking behavior)

Unit 5: Sociology

Human Communication

• A complex process that involves sending and receiving a message
  • Most effective when the message has the impact on the receiver that was intended by the sender
• Goals of Communication
  • Physical needs to survive (e.g., food, shelter, safety)
  • Social needs to belong (e.g., strengthening social bonds)
  • Emotional needs to feel good about self and behavior (e.g., acceptance and approval)

Types of Communication

1. Verbal communication (+/- 10%)
   • Spoken words
2. Non-verbal communication (+/- 90%)
   • Used to enhance a verbal message
   • Body language (posture, facial expressions, eye movements, gestures)5
   • Tone of voice
   • Physical space; a distance established for both casual and formal communication (2-5ft)
     • Depends on culture, situation, and the individual
   • Objects; used as cues or props (e.g., gifts)
   • Touch; can convey a great deal of information
   • Smell (i.e., different perfume scents)

Cultural Differences and Communication

• Language: a sophisticated communication system that includes vocabulary as well as a set of rules (e.g., grammar) outlining its proper usage
  • Symbols; objects, words, actions that represent something else
• Verbal Communication (Idioms)
  • Ways of saying things that are unique to a language or culture
  • Difficult for learners of a second language to master
  • Arise from a certain historical context that the language learner (and sometimes even native speakers) does not understand
• Non-Verbal
  • Culture influences almost every aspect of non-verbal communication
  • The use of non-verbal communication is a global phenomenon, so misinterpretation can result in miscommunication
  • Non-verbal communication is so essential to transmitting the proper message that it is even being used in electronic communication (e.g., emojis 🫩)

Stages Children Go through when Acquiring Language

1. 3 months to 1 year: Babbling, imitating sounds (no vocabulary or use of grammar)
2. End of 1 year: Short words, generally beginning with constants and demonstrate good comprehension even if they can’t express themselves
3. 1-3 years: Approximately know 50 words by age 2 (can be doubled 6 months later), can produce short telegraphic sentences, have overgeneralizations
4. 5 years: Basic rules of language but still lack vocabulary and the ability to apply all the grammatical rules

Importance of Language

• It allows us to give meaning to our world
• It is the keystone of culture because it allows a culture to share ideas, beliefs, etc. that could not be shared without language
• Can indicate a society's values and priorities

Theories of Language Learning

• Theory — Nurture/Environment (Ivan Pavlov)
  • Language is acquired through a conditioning process experienced by children as they grow up
  • Evidence of feral children who failed to develop language due to isolation supports this theory
  • Learning of grammatical rules is left unexplained by this theory
• Innate Acquisition Theory — Nature/Hereditary (Noam Chomsky)
  • Children are born with a natural ability to acquire language and this ability to use and comprehend language develops with age
  • Humans are able to understand the structure of language and learn it because of the brain's neural system (“language acquisition device”)
  • All languages share a “universal grammar” (e.g., underlying structure)
  • Evidence that some primates are able to learn basic vocabulary and sign languages challenge this theory

Gender Differences in Using Language

• Deborah Tannen proposed “genderlects” as a means of describing the differences in languages spoken by men and women
  • Men criticize directly, women soften criticism
  • Men enjoy verbal sparring, women avoid direct confrontation
  • Men tend to solve problems, women understand problems
  • Men tend to joke by teasing each other, women tend to joke by putting themselves down
  • Men get to the point when talking (vague), women are more detailed
• Doreen Kimura found a 7% difference between men and women on tests of language and spatial ability
  • Estrogen → language tasks
  • Testosterone → spatial tasks
• Sandra Witelson found that women’s temporal lobes contain 11% more brain cells than men’s temporal lobes

Is Language Nurture (Environment) or Nature (Hereditary) - Feral Children Documentary

• Children are born with the capacity to learn language, but this biological potential must be activated by real-world language exposure
• Edik (Ukraine)
  • Found at age 4 living with stray dogs in a flat after being neglected by his alcoholic mother
  • He barked, walked on all fours, and had minimal human language skills
  • Because he was rescued at a relatively young age, he was able to learn some language
  • Conclusion: Edik's case shows that early intervention can help, but his slower language development skills highlights the importance of early social and linguistic exposure; supporting the nurture argument
• Genie (USA)
  • Isolated in a small room and denied almost all social interaction from infancy until age 13
  • She had no language when discovered and despite years of therapy, she never fully learned grammar or fluent speech because of her older age
  • Conclusion: Genie’s case shows that if children are not exposed to language early on, full acquisition becomes nearly impossible later

Harry Harlow’s Research

• Purpose: To explore the effects of nurture (environment) on learning and development
• Method: Raised his infant son with a chimpanzee and treated the chimpanzee like a human (same toys, food, etc.) and observed for 9 months
• Findings: The chimpanzee learned some human behaviors but did not learn to speak while the infant developed language normally. Although, the infant started imitating the chimpanzees behavior, raising concern
• Setup: Monkeys were separated from mothers and given two artificial “mothers”:
  1. Wire mother – provided food
  2. Cloth mother – soft and comforting, no food
• Findings:
  • Monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother, even though the wire mother gave food
  • Ran to the cloth mother when frightened
  • Showed emotional attachment to comfort, not just food, concluding that comfort and emotional security are more important than food for attachment

Social