Chapter 5 (Midterms) Flashcards
Emphasizing human kinship; highlights our universal human nature; highlights the kinship that results from our shared human nature.
Evolutionary perspective
Emphasizing human diversity; highlights human adaptability
Cultural perspective
The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.
Culture
Evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to ensuing generations.
Natural selection
The study of the evolution of cognition and behavior using principles of natural selection.
Evolutionary Psychology
Most important similarity, the hallmark of our species
Capacity to learn and adapt
What was said by Aristotle about humans?
We (humans) are the social animal
Field of research exploring the expression of genes across different environments.
Epigenetics
Not fixed blueprints; their expression depends on the environment.
Genes
The diversity of our languages, customs, and expressive behaviors confirms that much of our behavior is socially programmed, not hardwired.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Standards for accepted and expected behavior; prescribe “proper” behavior; also describe what most others do—what is normal
Norms
Aspects where cultures vary in their norms (5)
Individual choices
Expressiveness
Punctuality
Rule-breaking
Personal space
Cultures vary in how much they
emphasize the individual self (individualistic cultures) versus others
and the society (collectivistic cultures).
Individual choices
The buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies.
Personal space
Different types of personal space (bubble size) (3)
Individuals differ
Groups differ
Cultures differ
Type of personal space where some people prefer more personal space than others
Individuals differ
Type of personal space where adults maintain more distance than do
children; men keep more distance from one another than do women.
Groups differ
Type of personal space where they differ not only in their norms for such behaviors, but
also in the strength of their norms.
Cultures differ
An essential universality; as members of one species, the processes that underlie our differing behaviors are much the same everywhere.
Cultural similarity
People everywhere have some common norms for friendship.
UNIVERSAL FRIENDSHIP NORMS
Around the world, people describe others with between two and five universal personality dimensions
UNIVERSAL TRAIT DIMENSIONS
There are five universal dimensions of social beliefs (Leung & Bond, 2004); across 38 countries, people varied in cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control.
UNIVERSAL SOCIAL BELIEF DIMENSIONS
Big 5 SOCIAL BELIEF DIMENSIONS
Cynicism
Social complexity
Reward for application
Spirituality
Fate control
Social belief where powerful people tend to exploit others
Cynicism
Social belief where one has to deal with matters according to the specific circumstances
Social complexity
Social belief where one will succeed if he/she really tries
Reward for application
Social belief where religious faith contributes to good mental health
Spirituality
Social belief where fate determines one’s success and failures
Fate control
An aspect of universal norm where forms of address communicate not only social distance but also social status
First aspect of universal norm
An aspect of universal norm where advances in intimacy are usually
suggested by the higher-status person.
Second aspects of universal norm
In the progression toward intimacy in the second aspect of universal norm, the higher-status person is
typically the what?
Pacesetter
Parents are not to have sexual relations with their children, nor
siblings with one another.
The incest taboo
Characteristics, whether biological or
socially influenced, by which people define male and female.
Gender
Your “opposite sex” is actually your similar sex
Gender similarity
Most people rate their beliefs and feelings regarding women as more favorable than their feelings regarding men
“women are wonderful”
effect
Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone; in laboratory experiments, this
might mean delivering electric shocks or saying something likely to hurt another’s feelings.
Aggression
From andro (man) 1 gyn (woman)—thus mixing both masculine and feminine
characteristics.
Androgynous
Suggests that people create and adapt to cultures, and cultures, in turn, shape people’s behaviors.
Culture cycle
A set of behavior expectations (norms) for males and females; refer to the set of societal expectations, behaviors, and norms that are considered appropriate for individuals based on their perceived or assigned gender
Gender roles
A culture where traditional gender roles have often placed men in dominant positions while women were expected to assume more subservient roles
Machismo culture
The vicarious experience of another’s feelings; putting oneself in another’s shoes.
Empathy
A relationship in which the effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another
factor (such as environment).
Interaction
