Psych Exam #1// Lecture #1 Chp 1&2 (Nature vs Culture) Flashcards
Nature
universal characteristics we share as a species
Culture
specific materials, ideas, and practices shared by a group, socialized through our interactions with others in the same culture
“the great leap forward” or “cultural big bang”
major shift in the brain allowed for modern human behavior.
“the revolution that wasn’t”:
roots of modern behavior can be seen in the stone age -in this view, we have been continuously selected for culture all along, and those capacities have evolved along with us and emerged across time
Social brain theory
brains are ‘expensive’ : intelligence arose from social pressures/ problems – living in a complex social group requires greater thinking capacity
Biological universals:
basic biological needs and motives: eating, sleeping, mating, etc.
Social universals
social functions across all members of our species: kingroups, religion, economy, etiquette, etc.
Psychological universals
capabilities of the mind: language, categorization, “self”, emotion, etc.
Emotion
universal “set” of emotions found across mammals (fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust) important for surviva
Social coordination
Humans mimic one another’s behavior, even at a non-conscious level. Multiple examples
Emotional contagion:
we will subtly mimic the facial expressions of others, and we often ‘catch’ the emotional states of others .
Behavioral mimicry
we will often posture or move in a way similar to an interaction partner (especially if we like them), and doing so increases their liking for us
Linguistic mimicry
we will use the same types of words as a conversation partner – if your friend mentions his girlfriend is “running hot and cold on him” even if these aren’t terms you normally use – you’re likely to say “well when did she grow cold at you” as opposed to “when did she start pulling away?”
Asch’s studies on conformity in line length judgments
found that most people would give an answer that conformed to a group but violated their own visual perceptions (would choose the group answer over the one they could see with their own eyes
normative influence:
we will often do what others are doing in order to be liked/valued/accepted
Milgrams’ studies on destructive obedience
Milgram found that most people would obey an authority figure to give electric shocks to another person (a confederate, who wasn’t really harmed) even when they thought they might be injuring/killing him, violating their own moral judgments.
informational influence
we will often do what others are doing/tell us to do because we want to be correct, and we assume that they know something we do not
what was found in both studies?
a participant would be able to resist conformity or resist obedience if they saw just one other person who did not conform and/or did not obey. A single “ally” broke the social pressure of either the rest of the group or of the authority figure.
hypothesis
an idea about the possible nature of reality; a prediction tested in an experiment
within-subjects design
participants are exposed to all levels of the independent variable
between-subjects design
participants are exposed to only one level of the independent variable
