Culture/Psychology/Sociology/Linguistics Flashcards
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Physiological
- Safety
- Love and Belonging
- Esteem
- Self-Actualization
Hofstede’s Onion Model (Inside to Outside)
-Values
(can’t be directly observed)
-Practices
(way one is expected to behave)
(crosses rituals, heroes, symbols)
-Rituals
(collective activities)
-Heroes
(models for behaviour)
-Symbols
(visible gestures, pictures, objects that carry particular meaning)
4 Personality Types according to Hippocrates (Ancient Greek physician) and their related element/season/humour (body substance) and characteristics
Sanguine (blood, air, spring) - pleasure-seeking and sociable
Choleric (yellow bile, fire, summer) - ambitious and leader-like
Melancholic (black bile, earth, autumn) - analytical and literal
Phlegmatic (phlegm, water, winter) - relaxed and thoughtful
Universal Grammar
Theory of Noam Chomsky
-innate biological component of the language faculty
-predisposition our brains have for certain structures of language
eg. observation in support of this theory
-recursion
-pidgin used by slaves from different places to communicate on the plantations developed into new languages called creoles as their children added grammatical complexity)
Sapir’s belief & the stronger and weaker interpretations of the Sapir-Whorfian Hypothesis
Sapir believed language is essential to understanding one’s worldview and that difference in language implies a difference in social reality
-Linguistic Determinism
(thoughts determined by categories and language structures available in L1)
-Linguistic Relativism
(L1 influences perception/thought/behaviour)
eg. Inuit tribe has many terms for snow so perhaps had a more refined perception of snow
Remote learning in 1960s Italy
TV series, ‘Non é mai troppo tardi’ hosted by Alberto Manzi taught Italian to the general population, especially elderly and in rural areas, at a time when illiteracy was almost 10%
Characteristics of Individualism in West
Protestant Culture
-individual rights and freedoms
-economic freedom
-the rule of law
-self-reliance
-self-interest
-competition
-private ownership
Catholic Culture emphasises other values such as family and community interactions
Carl Jung’s Cognitive Functions and Quote
Main psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition
(led to Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI)
‘sensing establishes what is given, thinking enables us to recognise its meaning, feeling tells us its value, and finally intuition points to the possibilities of whence and whither that lie with the immediate facts’
DSM-5
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders –publication by the American Psychiatric Association
-5th edition revised in 2022
-handbook for healthcare professionals with standard criteria for diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders
Female Hysteria
-diagnosis originating in Ancient Greece and very popular in 1800s
-symptoms may have been only way of rebelling against prescriptive roles in 19th and early 20th century
-observed by Freud and Jung
WEIRD (acronym, purpose)
Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic
-highlights sampling bias present in studies conducted in cognitive science, behavioural economics and psychology
WEIRD v non-WEIRD culture (*be wary of dichotomy)
personal attributes, specialised abilities and dispositional virtues
(greater independence, less deference to authority, more guilt, stronger use of intentions in moral judgements, personal achievement)
(self-obsessed, overconfident, suicide-prone)
Vs
friendships, lineages and family alliances
(tradition, elder authority, general conformity)
Carl Jung - Attitudes and Related Pathology
internally focused/subjective (introverted) or externally focused/objective (extraverted) tendency
(Daniel Pink’s ambivert theory, combination as we exist on a bell curve)
Jung believed that pathology in introversion had a tendency towards schizophrenia and pathology in extroversion had a tendency towards manic or depressive episodes
MMR vaccine and Autism (anti-vax community)
Wakefield published article in Lancet in 1998 falsely claiming link between the vaccine for Measles, Mumps and Rubella and autism
Features of European Expansion after 1500
imperialism
extractive economic policies
war
genocide
slavery
Important Characteristics to compare pandemic response across Texas, Germany and East Asia
Individualism
Conformity/Tightness (ability to shame deviants into compliance)
Trust in Government
Obedience to Authority
Ethnocentrism definition and benefits of rejecting it
-evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture
-greater tolerance of difference, openness to foreigners and trust in strangers resulting in increased innovation and economic growth
EU and languages
-a politico-economic union of 27 member states
-24 official and working languages
Schengen Agreement
creates area of free movement of people and labour across EU
(minus Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania)
(plus non-EU: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein)
Patois
a regional dialect of a language (especially French) considered substandard
eg. pidgins, creoles (Creole French in Carribean), dialects, vernacular
French language policy
-certain percentage of TV and songs given radio play must be in French to protect language
-advertisements and signs must be in French unless there’s no alternative
-patois (eg. Occitan, Breton, Alsacien) not supported by state
Occitan
language spoken in southern France, northern Spain, Monaco, Italy’s Occitan Valleys, Calabria
distantly related to Catalan
Spanish language on American Continent
17/35 countries are Spanish-speaking
Nigerian language policy
-English was made the official language after British colonisation ended in 1960 for cultural and linguistic unity
-English spoken as L1 of small minority of urban elite
-250 ethnic groups communicate in over 500 languages
-major languages are Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo
-corresponding three hegemonic ethnic groups: Hausa-Fulani(north), Yoruba(southwest), Igbo(southeast)
-intense ethnic polarisation and conflict
Spanish language policy
-Franco’s dictatorship (1939-75) aimed to make Spain one so language restricted to only Castilian Spanish
-now others like Catalan, Basque/Euskera (oldest living language in Europe), and Galician are protected
-inconclusive referendum in 2015 for Catalonian independence
Worldwide number of languages, variations, most native speakers v most spoken
about 7000
-Chinese has 13 variations
-Arabic has 20 variations
Most native speakers: Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese
Most spoken: English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, French
Belgium language distribution
Dutch 59%, French 40%, German 1%
South Africa language
speaks English, Afrikaans, Xhosa (native language of Nelson Mandela) and Zulu among others
Linguistic relativism examples
Space
-no left/right in Kuuk Thaayorre Aboriginal language in Australia, instead position laid out in absolute space so speakers are always aware of orientation
Time
-English speakers think of time left to right
-Hebrew and Arabic speakers think of time right to left
-Kuuk Thaayorre speakers think of progression of time in line with sun East to West
Gender
-more marked it is, the more salient it is
-study of how much time it took children to recognise their own gender (results: Hebrew faster than English faster than Finnish, gender not marked in Finnish)
-representations in art etc. if objects corresponded to their gender in the language
Intentional vs Accidental Events
-English (don’t differentiate) vs Spanish and Japanese (differentiate and were more likely to forget accidental events)
Laswell’s Model of Communication
Who? (communicator)
Says what? (message)
In what channel? (medium)
To whom? (recipient)
With what effect? (effect)
Carl Jung
Swiss Psychiatrist/Psychoanalyst, 1875-1961
Richard Dawkins
British evolutionary biologist
Wrote The Selfish Gene & The God Delusion
Coined the word meme
Universalist View of Language
All humans share the same neurological configuration and similar basic cognitive patterns. Variation due to cultural differences is negligible
Pidgin
An alternative language developed to facilitate communication between speakers of two different languages
eg. international sign language
eg. West African pidgins such as Nigerian pidgin or Jamaican Maroon language, the result of slaves brought over, which evolved to become Jamaican Creole
Creole
A combination of 2 first languages which has become a new native tongue for a group of people
Interlanguages
Second languages held in common by speakers of different native tongues
eg. Modern Standard Arabic
Main difference between pidgins and creoles
Creole language must be a native tongue learned as a first language from infancy
Internet language
Certain images (memes) and words like lulz and pwn3d invoke a common understanding between people who don’t share a first language
May develop into an internet pidgin language in coming decades
Halley’s Comet
Short period comet with roughly 76 year orbit
Discovered by Edmond Halley in mid 18th century
Next visible as it passes Earth in 2061
Theobald Wolfe Tone
Irish revolutionary
One of the founding members of the United Irishmen
Regarded as the father of Irish Republicanism
Auguste Rodin
Late 19th century French sculptor
Most famous works:
1-The Thinker (bronze)
2-Monument to Balzac (in honour of French novelist Honoré de Balzac)
3-The Kiss (marble)
4-The Burghers of Calais (commemorates Calais’s surrender to the English during the Hundred Years’ War)
5-The Gates of Hell (bronze depiction of the Inferno, the first section of Dante’s Divine Comedy)
Catch-22
title of a novel by Joseph Heller (1961), in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions in WWII, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity
Simone de Beauvoir
20th-century French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist
Wrote:
The Second Sex
She Came To Stay
The Mandarins
Cinderella Effect
in evolutionary psychology, phenomenon of higher incidence of different forms of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents
Cinderella Complex
women’s fear of independence – an unconscious desire to be taken care of by someone else
Italian Dialects
- Lombard dialect – Milan
- Venetian dialect/Veneto – Northern Italy (4 million)
-influenced by German/Greek, many foreign words
-spoken in Croatia, Slovenia, France, and Austria - Tuscan dialect (also spoken in northern Sardinia)
- Sicilian dialect (influenced by Arabic and Greek)
- Neapolitan dialect - Naples
-wide vocabulary
-dropped syllables - Piedmontese dialect
- Calabrese dialect
- Romanesco dialect
- Abruzzo dialect
Received Pronunciation (RP accent)
the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English
Sir Francis Bacon
- English philosopher, statesman, scientist, and author
- proponent of the scientific method
-served as Lord Chancellor of England under King James I in early 17th century - career ended in disgrace
Margarita Pizza
invented in honour of the Queen of Italy, Margarita of Savoy, and the unification of Italy
Francis Bacon (artist)
- 20th century self-taught Irish painter
- powerful, predominantly figural images express isolation, brutality, and terror
- banished from home as a teenager for allegedly homosexual leanings
- In Screaming Popes he converted Diego Velázquez’s famous Portrait of Pope Innocent X into a nightmarish icon of hysterical terror
- can visit his London studio in Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin
Diego Velázquez
most important Spanish painter of the 17th century
-painted Rokeby Venus and Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Theory of why facial expression causes that emotion
Change in facial musculature->effects blood flow->impeding or facilitating the cooling of cerebral blood->these variations in cerebral temperature promote or inhibit release of neurotransmitters
Theory about why we still bare our teeth and narrow our eyes when enraged, wrinkle our nose in disgust, stare wide-eyed when afraid, etc.
Originally: if species that attacked by biting, baring teeth was a prelude to an assault and wrinkling nose reduced inhalation of noxious odours, etc.
Now: communicative, external evidence of an individual’s internal state
Smiling (where smiles more, for different reasons, stability)
- correlation between emotional expression and diversity
- diverse societies smile more than homogenous ones (if people don’t speak same language, they need to build trust and cooperation) - societies smiled for different reasons
- more homogenous societies smiled to show superiority in hierarchy while diverse societies smiled for social bonding - in unstable countries, smiling was perceived a stupid (perhaps person was unaware of the reality)
Theory about gaze direction during a conversation
Instead of eye contact being an expression of intimacy or closeness
Looking away to limit visual input when there was more cognitive demand
eg. looking away, listener may infer difficulty formulating message so may be lying
eg. not looking away, maybe utterance isn’t spontaneous
Different hand movements on the lexicalization (word-like) continuum
- Adapters (scratching, adjusting glasses, rubbing, fidgeting)
- not intended to be communicative
- dispositional inferences (bored, nervous, uncomfortable) - Converational Gestures
- accompany speech
- timed with speech
- seem related to speech
a. motor movements (no obvious relation to semantic meaning, fixed shape, may be repeated)
b. lexical movement (changing form, complex, non-repetitive)
eg. deicitic - relating to individual or feature (me, here, that, next Tue)
eg. interactive gesture - maintain participant’s involvement - Symbolic Gestures (raised fist, bye-bye, thumbs up)
- intentional
- clear communication function
- with or without speech
Intrapersonal functions of gestures
When speakers prevented from gesturing:
- decreased fluency
- impaired articulation
- reduced vocabulary size
Mormons
religious and cultural group
branched from Latter Day Saints movement
founded by Joseph Smith in 18th century
high concentration in Utah state
used to practice polygamy
TERF
trans-exclusionary radical feminist
Perestroika
means reconstruction
political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the late 1980s associated with Mikhail Gorbachev and his Glasnost policy reform
Glasnost policy
Gorbachev’s policy of increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR)
Descriptive v Prescriptive Grammar
A descriptive grammar is a study of a language, its structure, and its rules as they are used in daily life by its speakers from all walks of life, including standard and nonstandard varieties.
A prescriptive grammar specifies how a language and its grammar rules should be used.
Descriptive v Prescriptive Grammar
A descriptive grammar is a study of a language, its structure, and its rules as they are used in daily life by its speakers from all walks of life, including standard and nonstandard varieties.
A prescriptive grammar specifies how a language and its grammar rules should be used.
Bourgeoisie v Aristocracy
18th century
The bourgeoisie were the urban merchant and manufacturing class. The aristocracy were the highest class in certain societies, typically comprising people of noble birth holding hereditary titles and offices.
Sometimes came into conflict, eg. French Revolution 1789
Suez Canal
- artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt
- connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea
- dividing Africa and Asia
- constructed 1859
British Raj
the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia from 1858 to 1947
East India Company
- trading body for English merchants created in 1600
- originally spice trade.
- later added such items as cotton, silk, indigo, saltpetre, tea, and opium to its wares
- also participated in the slave trade
Enculturation vs Acculturation
Enculturation:
the process of acquiring the rules, norms, values, customs and guidelines of a culture in order to be a part of society
Acculturation:
-the process of transforming the cultural beliefs and customs of one’s own culture, by adopting traits of a different culture
-assimilation to a different culture, typically the dominant one
3 main branches of Judaism
-Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
-Orthodox Judaism is considered the most traditional form of modern Judaism
Zionism
Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews
Dog Whistle (politics)
Use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition
eg. “Law and order” is often used to police low-income communities, particularly Black and Latinx people. Richard Nixon used this phrase in 1968 to appeal to white voters who were angry about integration
Low v High Context Cultures
Low: good communication is precise, simple, and clear
-messages understood at face value
eg. Anglo-Saxon, particularly US
High: good communication is sophisticated, nuanced, and layered
-messages are both spoken and read between the lines
eg. Asian, particularly Japan
Transatlantic Slave Trade
oceanic trade in African men, women, and children which lasted from the mid-sixteenth century until the 1860s
Parts of a boat
Bow : Front of a boat.
Stern : Rear of a boat.
Starboard : Right side of a boat.
Port : Left side of a boat.
Hull : Body of a boat
Talmud and Torrah
The Talmud is a record of the rabbinic debates in the 2nd-5th century on the teachings of the Torah
The Torah is a compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
Lewis Carroll
pen name of 19th century English author (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass
Tamil
official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (south east), and the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore
Kerala
narrow Indian state on the south west coast
North v South India
- North Indians are descendants of the Aryan race; whereas the South Indians are descendants of Dravidian race.
- North Indians are generally taller and lighter brown of skin, whereas southerners are shorter and darker.
- Hindi is more spoken in the north
Magyar
Hungarian language
a member of a people who originated in the Urals and migrated westwards to settle in what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD
War on Drugs
President Richard Nixon in 1971
failed global campaign of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States
Sex vs Gender
Sex: usually categorized as female or male but there is variation in the biological attributes that comprise sex and how those attributes are expressed
Gender: socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender diverse people
Proxemics
the study of how space is used in human interactions
eg. authority can be communicated by the height from which one person interacts with another (sit vs standing)
eg. personal space definitions in different countries
eg. preferences of sitting front or back of a classroom or how close to the head of the table
Nubian
an ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt
Croatian War of Independence
armed conflict between Croatia and the Yugoslav army controlled by Serbia that took place from 1991 to 1995
beginning of Yugoslavia’s disintegration
Postmodernism
a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality
a late 20th-century movement that generally questions the basic assumptions of Western philosophy in the modern period (roughly, the 17th century through the 19th century)
Mesopotamia
comes from a Greek word meaning “between rivers,” referring to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but the region can be broadly defined to include the area that is now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq
where world’s earliest civilization developed in 10th millennium BCE when irrigation allowed for agriculture
Gothic Architecture
architectural style in Europe that lasted from the mid-12th century to the 16th century
-Vaulted Ceiling
-Pointed Arch
-Flying Buttress
-Spires
-Stained-glass windows
Romanesque Architecture
architectural style in Europe that lasted from the mid-10th century to the mid-12th century
-Towering round arches
-Massive stone and brickwork
-Small windows
-Thick walls
-Art and sculpture depicting biblical scenes
Renaissance Architecture
European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries
conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture
-columns
-domes
-use of geometrical shapes
-vibrant interiors painted by Renaissance masters
Tower of Babel
According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and a tower “with its top in the heavens.” God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another.
Shah
-royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies
-Iranian monarchy was abolished after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
French Revolution
-1789
-period of radical political and societal change in France
-the monarchy and the feudal system ended
-ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte
Russian Revolution
-a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire 1917 during WWI
-abolished its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government
-included two successive revolutions (February Revolution & October/Bolshevik Revolution) and a bloody civil war
October/Bolshevik Revolution
leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup d’état against the Duma’s provisional government
early November 1917 (October on Julian calendar)
Socialisation vs Enculturation
Socialisation refers to the general process of acquiring culture, while enculturation refers to the process of being socialized to a particular culture.
eg. learning and internalizing gender roles is a part of socialisation, while learning a specific culture’s expectations of femininity and masculinity is enculturation.
Taoism/Daoism
indigenous religio-philosophical tradition that has shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years. In the broadest sense, a Daoist attitude toward life can be seen in the idea of accepting and yielding
Confucianism
-a worldview, a social ethic, a political ideology, a scholarly tradition, and a way of life
-propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE and followed by the Chinese people for more than two millennia
-ancestor reverence and a profound human-centred religiousness
Coptic Orthodox Church
-the largest Christian community in the Middle East
-Coptic Christians make up the majority of Egypt’s roughly 9 million Christians
Anglicanism
midway between Protestantism and Catholicism
Western Christian tradition that has developed from the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe
Sufism
a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism
Rumi
-most famous Sufi mystic poet of Iran
-lived in 13th century
-believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path to reach God
Pygmalion
-Play by George Bernard Shaw
-name from the famous story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
-Adapted into My Fair Lady (changed ending so that she doesn’t marry Freddy)
-Professor Higgins (Pygmalion)
-Eliza Dolittle (Galatea)
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Pygmalion, disgusted by the loose and shameful lives of the women of his era, creates a beautiful statue more perfect than any living woman. He prays to Venus that she gives him a lover like Galatea, the statue, and she, pitying him, brings her to life. In the legend, they live happily ever after and have children.
Audrey Hepburn
Belgian-born British actress (1950s and 60s) and humanitarian
My Fair Lady
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Roman Holiday
Vaudeville
a type of entertainment popular chiefly in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of speciality acts such as burlesque comedy, song and dance
Planned Obsolescence
a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design
eg. iPhone battery with 2/3 year lifespan
Auschwitz-Birkenau
site of death of between 1.1 and 1.5 million people (90% Jewish, also Romani and Polish)
located at the meeting point of train lines from Russia, Prussia and Austrian empire
Kingdom of Prussia
a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871
Otto von Bismarck
-prominent 19th century European aristocrats and statesmen
-he engineered the unification of the numerous states of Germany in1871
-served as the German Empire’s first chancellor from its founding in 1871 until 1890
Ottoman Empire (colloquially Turkish Empire)
-an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries
-sided with Germany in World War I
-postwar treaties dissolved the empire
Mirroring
- behaviour in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another
- non-verbal way to show empathy
Mirror neurons
- specific nerve cells in brain that are responsible for mirroring
-they support observational learning and promote imitation
Trichomoniasis
common STI caused by parasite
Symptoms:
-women: a foul-smelling vaginal discharge, genital itching and painful urination
-men: typically no symptoms
Mujahideen (who, where, when, enemy, accomplishments, aftermath)
- Islamic guerrilla groups operating in Afghanistan during the Afghan War
- opposed the invading Soviet forces and eventually toppled the Afghan communist government
- broke into rival factions - Taliban and rival coalition, Northern Alliance
Taliban (who, did what, origins)
- ultraconservative political and religious faction
- ruled Afghanistan 1996 - 2001
- provided sanctuary for al-Qaeda, perpetrators of the September 11 attacks
- formed in the early 1990s by some Afghan mujahideen
Osama Bin Laden
Saudi Arabian militant
founder of al-Qaeda
War in Afghanistan (who, when, why)
joint U.S. and British invasion of Afghanistan (2001- 2021)
triggered by the September 11 attacks
Filibuster
U.S. Senate tactic to delay/block vote by preventing debate from ending
Romantic Movement
an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century
- healing power of the imagination to enable people to transcend their troubles and their circumstances
-emphasis on emotion and individualism, clandestine literature, paganism, idealization of nature, suspicion of science and industrialization, as well as glorification of the past with a strong preference for the medieval rather than the classical
Jingoism
derogatory for extreme patriotism
(often aggressive foreign policy)
TED acronym
Technology Education Design
Culture
a group or community with which we share common experiences that shape the way we understand the world
‘software of the mind’ - Geert Hofstede
Hippocrates
Ancient Greek physician
