Individual differences (Cultures & Evolutionary) Flashcards
how do communication styles vary across cultures?
high context cultures - indirect, rely on non verbal cues and messages are implicit as relationships influence meaning, indirect refusals!
low context cultures - direct, explicit communication and messages are clear with direct refusals!
what is meant by individualism?
often a style seen in Western Europe, whereby there is an emphasis on personal freedom, individual achievement and independence, decisions are often made based on personal benefit.
what is meant by collectivism?
often seen in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, whereby there is an emphasis on group harmony, loyalty, family and community, decisions often consider group welfare and decisions often involve family input & expectations.
how do egalitarian cultures view hierarchy and leadership?
( Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand), leaders are seen as facilitators rather than figures of authority, flat leadership structures w shared responsibilities and flat organisational structures. have a preference for equality and shared power.
how do hierarchical cultures view hierarchy and leadership?
(China, South Korea, India, Mexico, Russia), leaders are expected to give clear direction and maintain authority, decisions are often made at the top, HS in workplaces and society, accept unequal power distributions and authority is respected.
how do attitudes toward personal space vary?
preference for small ps - (Latin America, Middle East), people stand closer during conversations, in Middle Eastern culture signals trust and warmth.
whereas preference for large ps - (USA, Northern Europe), people prefer more physical distance during interactions, may be considered intrusive if too close.
what did Sorokowska et al, 2017, find in research?
studied 8943 participants from 42 countries and found that temperature influences personal space preferences, the higher the annual temp of a country the closer the preferred distance to strangers but the greater preference to close person.
what did Sorokowska et al, 2021, find in research?
studied 14,000 participants from 45 countries and found that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative and religious countries among younger, female and liberal people.
why do individual differences in preference for personal space and communication occur?
evolution and natural selection, brain expansion and tool use & dexterity
what is evolution?
is the biological process through which living organisms change over time, leading to the development of new species.
what is natural selection?
is the main mechanism driving evolution, where individuals with favourable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. traits that improve survival are passed on to offspring, gradually spreading through populations.
what differences did Darwin find in his finches as an example?
the size and shape of their breaks, which are specialised for various food sources.
how was brain expansion lead to individual differences?
- human brain size increased over time, from early hominids like Homo Habilis to modern Homo sapiens.
- this allowed advanced social learning, language and complex decision making
- changes in the brain structure, especially the temporal lobes & prefrontal cortex, played a crucial role in cognitive and social evolution.
how has tool use & dexterity influenced individual differences?
- human hands evolved to have ulnar opposition enhancing precision and power grips
- this adaption supported advanced tool making and manipulation.
what does the evolutionary theory suggest about human cognition, motivation and behaviour?
were shaped by natural selection
this perspective asks what function a trait has
what does the nature vs nurture debate explore?
the debate explores whether our genetics or our environment and experiences have greater influence on who we become. e.g. intelligence and personality inherited from our parents, or are they shaped by how we’re raised and the experiences we have?
what adaptively preparedly learning do?
bridges the n vs n debate
- the outdated n vs n has evolved into recognising that organisms are predisposed to learn some associations more easily than others
- preparedness refers to this predisposition to learn specific behaviours that aid survival and reproduction.
- This form of learning does not follow traditional classical conditioning rules
what is the prepared learning systems for fear?
- fear responses: fear involves an innate prepared system, with lower brain centres driving fear responses that are hard to override consciously
- some fear triggers are innate many are learned, fear learning is easier for certain cues and harder to extinguish compared to others
what is the prepared learning system for sex differences?
prepared over hard wired, biological facts make certain behaviours more rewarding thus shaping learning experiences, societal structures reinforce and facilitate these differential learning experiences based on biological predispositions
what is phenotypic plasticity in various ecological contexts and how does it effect individual differences?
- organisms exhibit different traits under varying environmental conditions, despite having the same genes
- influenced by factors such as population density, genetic relatedness, resource availability, predation pressure and disease prevalence.
- allows organisms to adapt flexibly to changing environments, optimising survival and reproduction.
- human ancestors likely developed adaptive phenotypic plasticity allowing for flexible psychological and behavioural responses to changing ecological conditions thus now we adapt predictably to ecological conditions
what does the evolution theory suggest?
evolutionary theory suggests many cultural norms arise from interactions between evolved psychological mechanisms and local environments.
how is culture constructed?
cultural practices rise from arbitrary historical events, cultural norms are shabby by interactions between evolved psychological mechanisms and local ecological conditions. for example, language is an example of an evolved capacity with shared global features but varies by culture.
what are some cultural practices which reflect adaptations to contexts?
- mating patterns, reflect human preferences and social ecology
- variations in marital practices can be linked to ecological factors like resource distribution, population density and sex ratios.
- Tiwi people ( aboriginal groups of AUS), marry older women to access resources and alliances, but then after marry younger women.
what are some ecological factors in marriage practices?
- monogamy is common but polygamy & polyandry exist under specific conditions
- polyandry is found in extreme resource scarcity conditions
- polygyny is correlated with steep social hierarchies, wealth accumulation and occasional famines, where women may prefer sharing a wealthy husband for survival benefits
- surplus of women marry later, experience more divorces and permissive sexual norms
- surplus of men experience more stable monogamous relationships
how do small groups occur in human evolution?
- human evolution primarily occurred in small groups
- hunter-gatherer bands typically consist of 50-80 people, occupying large exclusive territories.
- kinship ties were extended to most individuals in the group
- humans live in small, kin-based groups for millions of years, shaping cognition and behaviour
- evolutionary pressures likely shaped a cognitive inclination to distinguish between in groups and out groups
how does the presence of outgroup members shift behaviour in small groups?
- enhanced ability to solve problems related to social cooperation like detecting cheaters likely evolved from ancestral group living
- out group members pose dangers they also offered potential rewards, necessitating a flexible response system.
what happened in the recent argicultural shift?
- plant cultivation began only about 10,000 years ago - brief
- modern industrial societies with large, anonymous populations are a small part of human evolutionary history.
what are some cognitive adaptions to social behaviour?
- experiments show people excel at solving social contract problems, particularly those involving detecting cheaters as humans are cognitively inclined to divide people into in group and out group
- research suggests that environmental cues associated with danger can heighten threat-related stereotypes toward out group members, reflecting adaptive responses to perceived threats.
what were the 6 ecological dimensions that sing et al., 2018 proposed to have a role in cultural variation?
population density
genetic relatedness
sex ratio
resources
mortality likelihood
pathogen prevalence
what does population density focus on?
the negative consequences of overcrowding → inc, dec aggression and moderate density of aggression, whereby it peaks at moderate densities.
high pop density leads to inc competition and social complexity
-> encourage slower life history strategies like future orientated planning, greater investment in children’s education and greater investment in bodily maintenance.
what does genetic relatedness focus on?
is the degree to which n individual is genetically related to others in their group,
the higher the more prosocial behaviour, alloparenting and inbreeding avoidance. alloparenting is where ind help raise siblings offspring, tendency to behave differently when surrounded by kin → inc altruistic behaviours
what does sex ratio focus on?
refers to the ratio of reproductive aged males and females, shaping behaviours like mate competition and selection.
male and female biased ratio both lead to greater competition but male leads to lower divorce rates and females being more focused on careers. other variations are: wealth display, financial risk-taking, aggression and violence, marriage practices.
what does resources focus on?
resource availability affects behaviours like cooperation, competition and migration, resource scarcity shapes economic system, social heirarchies and cultural values.
resource poor societies prioritise collectivism, resource sharing & risk management
resource rich societies lean towards individualism and competition.
Resource patchiness & resource unpredictability
what is resource patchiness?
is the variability of resource distribution across space and whether resources are concentrated in specific areas or evenly spread.
what is resource unpredictability?
is when there are fluctuations in resource availability over time.
what does mortality likelihood focus on?
faster life history strategies in high mortality ecologies, vigilance and fear responses and in-group conformity and social behaviour.
societies with high mortality risk adopt faster life history strategies like early reproduction, low parental investment and present-focused orientation.
what behaviours do humans in high predation ecologies show?
heightened vigilance, stronger startle responses and greater sensitivity to movement as adaptive defences against threats
what behaviours do human show in high mortality societies?
people foster stronger in-group conformity and social cohesion as protective mechanisms, people may become more socially conforming and agreeable within their groups to enhance cooperation and security.
what does pathogen prevalence focus on?
high can lead to behaviours that reduce infection risk such as avoidance, high disease prevalence may develop stronger social norms around cleanliness, in group loyalty and xenophobia. high pathogen societies favour conformity, strict social norms and distrust of outsiders to reduce disease spread.
what do genetic studies show?
immunity genes are under stronger selection pressure than genes related to other environmental factors.
why are infectious diseases prevalent?
significant cause of morbidity, mortality and natural selection throughout human history. Volk & Atkinson 2013, showed a high infant and child mortality in past human populations primarily due to infectious diseases.
what are some behavioural and psychological mechanisms to avoid infectious disease?
feelings, cognition and social behaviours, drives prejudice against individuals perceived as contagious and avoidance of animals which pose threat.
what did evolution lead to the development of?
Immune system
what does the immune system do?
detects and defends against pathogens
why is an immune system good?
mounting an immune response is costly, leads to the evolution of a behavioural immune system which helps detect pathogens in the environment and encourages avoidance before contact.
how are immune signals detected?
responds to perceptual cues indicating potential pathogen presence triggering aversive emotional and cognitive responses to avoid contact.
what happens when a signal is detected?
these cues are not perfectly correlated with actual infection leading to inference errors
what is the functional flexibility of the immune system?
cost benefit problem occurs w avoidance,. the balance between costs and benefits depend on vulnerability to infection, higher vulnerability leads to greater sensitivity and stronger avoidance responses, impacting emotional, cognitive and behavioural outcomes.
what emotion is central to the behavioural immune system?
disgust, which is triggered by cues suggesting pathogen threats
why is disgust so important to the immune system?
signalling proximity to infectious pathogens and behaviours that violate norms linked to disease transmission. disgust is sensitive to cues related to physical contact and the spread of disease. disgust is triggered by actual risks and harmless stimuli resembling risks. these responses become exaggerated when immune defences are suppressed reflecting heightened sensitvity to pathogen cues.
what are implications of interpersonal interaction on the immune system?
- ppl with high germ aversion tend to report lower levels of extraversion
- temp circumstances such as media coverage can increase pathogen salience and inhibit social behaviours.
- experiments show that pathogen salience reduces extraversion and triggers avoidant behaviour in response to images of people → overall the psychological salience of infection risks reduces the desire for social interaction.
what are the implications of person perception and prejudice on the immune system?
psychological salience leads to discriminatory behaviour, as it triggers aversive responses towards individuals perceived as higher infection risks leading to the stigmatisation of those with infection diseases → leads to biases against ppl with physical disabilities, obesity or elderly individuals.
BIS drives ethnocentrism and xenophobia, with stronger prejudices towards unfamiliar groups during times of perceived vulnerability, those vulnerable prefer contact with familiar over foreign individuals.
what is dynamic coevolution?
hosts and parasites engage in ongoing evolutionary arms races, with continuous adaptation and counter adaptation without a permanent solution for either side.
coevolutionary races between hosts and parasites vary by geographic location leading to regional differences in immune adaptations.
what does assortative sociality and parasite stress lead to?
high parasite stress leads to adaptive behaviours like reduced dispersal, xenophobia and ethnocentrism to avoid novel parasites.
define philopatry
philopatry reduces contact with our group, minimising exposure to unfamiliar parasites.
define xenophobia
xenophobia is the fear of strangers or outsiders
define neophobia
neophobia is the fear of new things or experiences
