Chapter 2

Question 1

Evolution

Answer 1

The concept that different species are descended from common ancestors but have evolved over time, acquiring different genetic characteristics as a function of different environmental demands

Question 2

Natural selection

Answer 2

The process by which certain attributes are more successful in a particular environment and therefore become more represented in future generations.

Question 3

Adaptions

Answer 3

Attributes that improve an individuals prospect for survival and reproduction

Question 4

Naturalistic fallacy

Answer 4

A bias toward believing that biological adaptions are inherently good or desirable

Question 5

Domain-specific adaptations

Answer 5

Attributes that evolved to meet a particular challenge but that are not particularly useful when dealing with other types of challenges

Question 6

Domain-general adaptions

Answer 6

Attributes that are useful for dealing with various challenges across different areas of life

Question 7

Socialization

Answer 7

Learning from parents and others what is desirable and undesirable conduct in a particular culture.

Question 8

Automatic processes

Answer 8

Human thoughts or actions that occur quickly, often without the aid of conscious awareness

Question 9

Controlled processes

Answer 9

Human thoughts or actions that occur more slowly and deliberatievely, and are motivated by some goals that is often consciously recognized.

Question 10

Motivation

Answer 10

The process of generating and expending energy toward achieving or avoiding some outcomes.

Question 11

Needs

Answer 11

Internal states that drive action that is necessary to survive or thrive

Question 12

Goals

Answer 12

Cognition that represent outcomes that we strive for in order to meet our needs and desires

Question 13

Hedonism

Answer 13

The human preference for pleasure over pain

Question 14

Hierarchy of goals

Answer 14

The idea that goals are organized hierarchically from very abstract goals to very concrete goals, with the latter serving the former

Question 15

Cognitive appraisal theory

Answer 15

The idea that our subjective experience of emotions is determined by a two step process involving a primary appraisal of benefit or harm, and a secondary appraisal providing a more differentiated emotional experience

Question 16

Culture

Answer 16

A set of beliefs, attitudes, values, norms, morals, customs, roles, statuses, symbols, and rituals shared by a self-identified group, a group whose members think of themselves as a group

Question 17

Culture evolution

Answer 17

The process whereby cultures develop and propagate according to systems of belief or behavior that contributes to the success of a society

Question 18

Cultural diffusion

Answer 18

The transfer of inventions, knowledge, and ideas from one culture to another.

Question 19

Cultural transmission

Answer 19

The process whereby members of a culture learn explitcity or implicity to imitate the beliefs and behaviors of others in that culture.

Question 20

Collectivistic culture

Answer 20

A culture in which the emphasis is on interdependence, cooperation, and the welfare of the group over that of the individual.

Question 21

Indvidualistic culture

Answer 21

A culture in which the emphasis is on the individual initiative, achievement, and creativity over maintenance of social cohesion

Question 22

Interdependent self-construal

Answer 22

Viewing self primarily in terms of how one relates to others and contributes to the greater whole

Question 23

Independent self-construal

Answer 23

Viewing self as a unique active agent serving ones own goals

Question 24

Terror management thoery

Answer 24

To minimize fear of mortality, humans strive to sustain faith that they are enduringly valued contributors to a meaningful world and therefor transcend their physical death

Question 25

Cultural worldview

Answer 25

Human-construed shared symbolic conceptions of reality that imbue life with meaning , order, and permanence

Question 26

Self-esteem

Answer 26

A persons evaluation of his or her value or self-worth

Question 27

Just world beliefs

Answer 27

The idea that good things will happen to the worthy and bad things will happen to the unworhty

Question 28

Literal immortality

Answer 28

A culturally shared belief that there is some form of life after death for those who are worthy

Question 29

Symbolic immortality

Answer 29

A culturally shared belief that, by being part of something greater and more enduring than our individual selves, some part of us will live on after we die.

Question 30

Mortality salience

Answer 30

The state of being reminded of one’s morality

Question 31

Worldview defense

Answer 31

The tendency to derogate those who violate important cultural ideals and to venerate those who uphold them

Question 32

Cultural tramas

Answer 32

Tragic historical examples of cultural disruptions, some of which have led to complete cultural disintegration

Question 33

Acculturation

Answer 33

The process whereby individuals adapt their behavior in response to exposure to a new culture

Question 34

Assimilation

Answer 34

The process whereby people gradually shift almost entirely from their former culture to the beliefs and ways of the new culture

Question 35

Integration

Answer 35

The process whereby people retain aspects of their former culture while internalizing aspects of a new host culture.

Question 36

Melting pot

Answer 36

An ideological view holding that diverse peoples within a society should converge toward the mainstream culture

Question 37

Multiculturalism (cultural pluralism )

Answer 37

An ideological view holding that cultural diversity is valued and that diverse peoples within a society should retain aspects of their traditional culture while adapting to the host culture