Lecture 8 concepts Flashcards
Media and selection bias
Tendency of news/media to selectively cover and report specific topics. In some cases, media outlets can even twist stories to fit a certain narrative.
Personality traits and political attitudes (Gerber)
Gerber et al (2010) have found that high traits of openness-to-experience is strongly associated with overall liberalism, as well as social and economic liberalism. They also found that high levels of conscientiousness are associated with overall, social and economic conservatism. Low levels of neuroticism (emotional stability) is also associated with conservatism.
The Dark Triad and the effects
Narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy. People with Dark Triad traits are much more likely to engage in politics; it is a way of getting attention and make themselves appear better than other people.
Moral foundations theory (Haidt, 2004, 2012)
Principle 1: Intuitions come first, systematic reasoning comes second
Principle 2: there is more to morality than harm and fairness
Principle 3: morality binds and blinds
Conflict of visions (Thomas Sowell)
Defines vision as a “pre-analytic cognitive act’, which he further defines as “a set of assumptions not necessarily spelled out even in the individuals’ own mind)
Traditional justice vs social justice
Traditional justice: applying the same rules and standards to everybody. Simple, mass produced and indifferent to people’s background.
Social justice: equalising the prospects and outcomes of everybody. More complex & needs to be tailored to individual cases.
Psychology of religion
Aims to systematically describe religious beliefs, attitudes, experiences and expressions. Aims to explain the origins of religion, both in the history of humankind and in individual lives. Aims to map out the consequences of religious attitudes and conduct, both for the individual and for society at large.
Positive effects of religious beliefs (William James)
Religious people report more helpfulness towards others and more religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes (including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life, even during terminal illness).
Negative effects of religious beliefs (Freud)
Freud views religion as “an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses).
Religious ideas are illusions whose purpose is the fulfilment of urges for security, escape from feelings of helplessness, or a return to the simplicity of childhood. However, he does acknowledge that this creates psychological wish fulfilment, security and a sense of purpose.
Meditation and the brain
The practice of meditation has been found to stimulate several changes in the brain, a process known as neuroplasticity: it involves alterations in the brain’s structure and function in response to experience and learning. It can lead to increased cortical thickness and can help calm down your sympathetic nervous system.
