Psychology

Question 1

Think Fast

Answer 1

Question 2

Think Fast

Answer 2

Question 3

Males

Answer 3

Question 4

Females Google

Answer 4

Question 5

19-23

Answer 5

19-23

Question 6

Google Age 23-29

Answer 6

Question 7

Age 30-65 google

Answer 7

Age 30-65 Google

Question 8

Ebbinghaus Forgetting curve

Answer 8

• Ebbinghaus plotted his performance as a function of the delay and produced what are now called forgetting curves. His performance got worse with longer delays. But the drop-off wasn’t continuous.

In fact, he found that most of the forgetting happened during the first hour or 2. Performance after a day wasn’t much worse than performance after an hour, and performance after 2 days wasn’t much worse than performance after 1 day.

• Ebbinghaus also studied how much he learned as a function of each repetition. And like the forgetting curve, he found that the first repetition led to the most learning, the second repetition to a little less, and so on.
• Ebbinghaus’s findings have been confirmed in countless experiments since then. But by far his biggest contribution was to demonstrate that human learning and memory could be studied scientifically in a way that other scientists could replicate and extend. And the repercussions of that contribution are still being felt to this day

Question 9

Use vivid striking pictures to remember

Answer 9

Standing also compared memory for what he called vivid pictures with memory for ordinary pictures. The vivid pictures contained striking, interesting, or unusual features that were absent in the ordinary pictures. For example, the vivid picture might be of a crashed plane, while the ordinary picture would be a plane on a runway. And vividness also improved memory. In fact, participants made at least twice as many errors when trying to remember the ordinary pictures compared with the vivid pictures.

Question 10

Effectively Learning Explicit Information

Answer 10

Memory strategies that exploit principles that help people learn explicit information more effectively have been around for a long time. Probably the most famous, and certainly one of the most effective, is called the method of loci.

• Imagine a building with many rooms that you have a strong memory for, such as a house that you’ve lived in. The idea is to create visual images for new information that you’re trying to learn and then to store those visual images in the different rooms of the building. The more vivid and striking you can make those images, the better. For example, if you’re trying to remember a grocery list, you might begin by trying to store the image of a cow being milked in your living room and then storing one more striking image in each subsequent room in the building.
• When you get to the grocery store, you can walk through the building in your mind’s eye and conjure up the strange image that you stored there. You remember the cow being milked in your living room, so you buy milk. You continue mentally walking through each room in the building, retrieving the associated image and recalling the next item on the list.
• This age-old method has been proven to work time and time again—because it exploits the principles in this lecture: You are storing visual information rather than verbal information; storing vivid, striking visual images rather than standard, ordinary images; and connecting the information that you’re trying to learn with information you already know.

Question 11

Making Inferences

Answer 11

When we encounter new information, we tend to build up a mental model of what’s going on in the situation. And constructing such a mental model means filling in some of the details that weren’t specified. It’s that mental model that we learn and remember, rather than the original information, or even just the gist of the original information.

Question 12

Brain Anatomy

Answer 12

Directional terms are also critical when discussing brain anatomy: Superior means toward the top and inferior means toward the bottom, anterior means toward the front and posterior means toward the back, and lateral means toward the side while medial means toward the middle.

• The 2 temporal lobes are on the bottom of the left and right side of your brain. They are below, or inferior to, the parietal lobes and are in front of, or anterior to, the occipital lobes. The medial temporal lobes—the part of each temporal lobe toward the middle of the brain, away from the ears—are the parts of the brain that were surgically removed in Henry Molaison (the amnesiac patient you learned about in lecture 2), and doing so led to a profound, but also quite isolated, deficit in learning explicit, conscious information.

Question 13

Learning New Information and Memory Storage

Answer 13

• Learning new explicit information depends critically on the hippocampus, and damage to this region leads to a severe anterograde amnesia—that is, a difficulty in learning new information. But amnesiacs don’t just suffer from anterograde amnesia; they also typically suffer from a temporally graded retrograde amnesia. They have difficulty remembering explicit information that they learned a few days, weeks, or even years before their brain damage. But their more remote childhood memories are typically intact. That’s what is meant by a temporal gradient: The older memories are preserved, but the more recent memories are impaired.
• Results about the neural basis of explicit learning and memory tell us that the medial temporal lobe structures, such as the hippocampus, are not the ultimate site of memory storage. If amnesiacs who have damage to these structures can still remember their childhood, then those childhood memories obviously can’t reside in the medial temporal lobes.
• Instead, evidence suggests that they reside in the cerebral cortex. Specifically, explicit memories seem to be stored in the same cortical regions that were involved in processing the information when it was first encountered.
• The cerebral cortex performs many functions, and different parts of the cerebral cortex perform different functions. For example, your occipital lobe at the back of your brain processes visual information. The parietal lobe at the top of your brain processes spatial information and your sense of touch. Hearing is handled in superior parts of your temporal lobe, and motor function is controlled in posterior parts of the frontal lobe. And the list goes on and on.

Question 14

Information Processing and Memory Consolidation

Answer 14

• Memories ultimately get stored outside the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe structures. But if explicit memories get stored outside the hippocampus, then why do amnesiacs experience retrograde amnesia? In other words, why do they have trouble retrieving memories of what happened before their brain damage? After all, if those memories are stored outside the hippocampus, then shouldn’t they be immune to hippocampal damage?
• The explanation is based on memory consolidation. When we first learn new explicit information, the memory depends critically on the hippocampus. Even though the memory is stored in a variety of different cortical regions, you need the hippocampus to reactivate the appropriate patterns in each of those regions. But gradually over the course of days, months, and even years, the hippocampus becomes less and less critical to the representation and retrieval of the memory. The memory becomes consolidated in the cortex and no longer depends on the hippocampus.

Question 15

Hippocampus and you

Answer 15

Many scientists think of the hippocampus as a kind of organizer that gets all the relevant cortical regions together to regenerate the visual, auditory, and tactile experiences associated with a particular memory. But over time, those cortical regions begin to communicate directly with each other and no longer need the hippocampus to get them together. Once that happens, the memory has become consolidated, and hippocampal damage will no longer affect it.

Question 16

Synapses and memory

Answer 16

Storing a memory really means changing a bunch of synapses in such a way that the neural activation pattern corresponding to the new information will get activated at an appropriate time in the future. By changing those synapses, you can also store memories. And at a cellular level, that’s what learning does in the brain: It changes synapses.

• One synapse might get a little bit stronger and excite the next cell a little more than it did before. Another synapse might get weaker and excite the next cell a little less. By changing those synaptic strengths in just the right way, the brain learns a longterm memory. And when appropriate cues are encountered in the future, they will trigger the neural activation pattern associated with that memory. That’s memory retrieval.

Question 17

Re-reading doesn’t help

Answer 17

If you have read a chapter and then reread it, you will recognize a lot of what you read. And that familiarity may fool you into thinking that you really know what’s in the chapter. Unfortunately, you may be in for a rude awakening if you’re then tested on the chapter and have to actually recall the information.

This happens all the time in classrooms around the world. Students who do poorly on an exam are often very surprised, because they really thought they had mastered the material. And part of the reason is probably because rereading gave them the illusion of mastery.

Question 18

Study over long periods

Answer 18

Distributing study over time leads to stronger and longer-lasting memory than cramming. Students would be much better off studying all their subjects for a few minutes every day rather than always cramming for the next exam.

The study technique that might be the most effective of all is the method of consistently testing yourself. The benefits of testing have been shown in hundreds of studies. In one such study, Andrew Butler asked students to study a few text passages.

The students then restudied some of the passages and took a test on the other passages. A week later, they took a test that assessed how much they had learned from the passages.

Question 19

Learned Helplessness

Answer 19

The principles of operant conditioning have had an enormous influence in the real world in a variety of fields. Many parents apply these principles almost instinctively in the way they raise their children, and teachers are trained to reinforce desirable behaviors in the hopes of helping students succeed. Operant conditioning has also been used to explain, and potentially treat, many psychological and social problems, including clinical depression, addiction, and weight management. Some of this work was inspired by findings of learned helplessness in animals. Some of the most famous work in this area was done by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier.

• One group of animals could avoid a shock by pushing a lever, and they quickly learned to do so. This is an example of negative reinforcement. But another group of animals were not able to avoid the shock during the training phase.
• Then, both groups of animals were put in a new situation in which they could escape a shock by jumping over a barrier. The animals who had been able to press a lever to avoid the shock during the training phase also learned to jump over the barrier. They tried different actions until they finally hit on jumping over the barrier. And once that behavior was reinforced, they quickly learned to do it on future trials.
• But the other group of animals, who had not been able to avoid the shock during the training phase, didn’t learn to jump over the barrier, even though it would have worked. Rather, they passively suffered through the shocks without trying anything to avoid them. The standard interpretation is that this second group of animals had learned something harmful—that they couldn’t avoid shocks no matter what they did. As a result, they didn’t even try to avoid the shocks during the second phase of the experiment. They had learned that they were helpless.

Question 20

When learning a complex skill, such as piano, tennis, or golf, the most dramatic improvements will be made in the first few days and weeks of practice.

Answer 20

If you continue to practice, then you’ll still continue to improve. You’ll still get faster at playing that musical scale. But the rate of your improvement will slow down.

When you’re practicing a complex skill, you’ll improve a lot initially, but it becomes more and more difficult to get better as you become more and more skilled. You reach a plateau, and it takes more and more practice to make even small improvements. This characteristic pattern that is observed when people are learning new skills is called the power law of practice

Question 21

Cognitive stage of memory

Answer 21

1 The cognitive stage is dominated by cognition—that is, by thinking, or by explicit, declarative knowledge. a Suppose that you’ve never played golf and that you take a lesson. The golf pro will probably start out by giving you some verbal instructions, such as “keep your left arm straight when you swing.” Now you have a bunch of verbal instructions that you will dutifully try to execute. In fact, you may try to memorize some of the verbal instructions or even write them down. And you may consciously and deliberately rehearse the verbal, declarative knowledge that the pro told you as you’re trying to hit a golf ball.

One of the key characteristics of the cognitive stage is that it’s cognitively demanding; that is, it requires all of your attention. So, you can’t really do other things when you’re in the cognitive stage. All of your attention has to be focused on performing the task and rehearsing the facts that you’ve committed to memory. c Notice that there’s a big difference between knowing the declarative knowledge associated with the skill and being able to execute that skill. Having the declarative knowledge is different from having the skill; you could have one and not the other.

Question 22

Associative stage of skill learning

Answer 22

2 The associative stage involves tweaking the skill, associating it with different responses, and hopefully improving. It involves figuring out what works and what doesn’t and using that feedback to slowly get rid of actions that lead to errors. a Suppose that you’ve been taking tennis lessons for a while and you’re trying to improve your serve.

You go to the court and hit a bunch of serves. As you practice, you begin to fine-tune your serve by making changes that lead to better results. b You’re associating tweaks with outcomes, or results. And with additional practice, you start to figure out what tweaks work and what tweaks don’t work.

For that to happen, you need to be getting feedback. That feedback could come from another person, but it doesn’t have to. You just need to be able to observe what works and what doesn’t.

Question 23

The Autonomous stage stage of skill accusation

Answer 23

3 The autonomous stage is the point at which the skill can be performed really well without having to think about it. a Think of the skilled golfer who can hold a conversation while hitting golf balls at the range. Unlike the cognitive stage, which requires a lot of attention, the autonomous stage doesn’t.

Performing the skill is no longer nearly as cognitively demanding. In this stage, there is less dependence on verbalization and declarative knowledge. b Furthermore, declarative knowledge about the skill may actually become less available the more skilled you get. Maybe when you were taking lessons initially, you memorized all these things about the golf swing and could even recite them from memory. But once the skill gets automated, you may actually forget some of the declarative knowledge that you used to rely on.

c Getting feedback is crucial during the associative stage of skill acquisition, but this is not the case during the autonomous stage. Musicians and athletes at this stage of skill acquisition would typically know what happened even if they weren’t getting much feedback.

Question 24

How Skill Acquisition Happens: A Theory

Answer 24

• When practicing, how do we move from the cognitive to the associative stage and from the associative to the automatic stage? In other words, how do we transform declarative knowledge—the book knowledge and verbalized instructions about how to perform a skill—into a procedural skill?
• One of the most influential answers to this question was developed by John Anderson, who proposed that the nature of our representation of procedural skills is very different from our representation of declarative knowledge. In particular, he argued that we represent procedural knowledge using production rules, or associations between some conditions and some actions.
• You can think of a production rule as an if-then association: If the conditions are satisfied, then perform the action. Critically, this association is not explicit or conscious or declarative; rather, the association is automatic, unconscious, and implicit.
• When certain conditions are satisfied, then a certain association fires automatically, and the actions associated with those conditions are automatically and immediately executed. You don’t have to consciously decide to take those actions. That’s what makes it implicit and procedural, rather than declarative

Question 25

U shaped Acusition

Answer 25

f you track the correct use of irregular past tense forms (such as “went”) as a function of a child’s age, children get worse before they get better at using irregular past tense forms as they get older. The U-shaped acquisition curve supports the hypothesis that children are beginning to learn general-purpose rules and apply them to other words.

Question 26

Neurons and Learning

Answer 26

The human brain contains nearly 100 billion neurons, or nerve cells. And because neurons tend to make about 1000 connections each, the total number of connections is around 100 trillion. To put that number in perspective, there are probably more neural connections in your brain than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Changing the strength of connections between neurons is a fundamental mechanism underlying learning in the brain

Implicit learning occurs in the same neural circuits that control the behavior that is changing. This is fairly different from explicit learning, in which a specific region of the brain—the hippocampus—is dedicated to that function specifically.

Question 27

Learning through practice

Answer 27

1 Long-term learning can be significantly improved by introducing changes that actually make short-term performance more difficult rather than easier. Bjork refers to these kinds of changes as desirable difficulties.

2 Our intuitions about which training method will be most effective for long-term learning are not reliable. Most people assume that a training method that leads to rapid improvement during training will also lead to lasting improvements. They therefore gravitate toward such methods. Unfortunately, those methods typically don’t actually maximize long-term learning.

If our intuitions about effective practice are wrong, then how should we practice? The 3 most important principles of effective practice can be summarized in the acronym SCoRe: space, challenge, and randomize. Each of these ideas can be seen as a kind of desirable difficulty; that is, each makes short-term performance more difficult, but that short-term difficulty is actually desirable because it leads to better long-term learning.

Question 28

Space your practice to maximize long-term learning. For example, athletes benefit more from practicing for 30 minutes every day than from practicing for 4 hours once a week.

Answer 28

• There are a few potential reasons why spacing helps. One idea is that people are more engaged and attentive after a delay. If you’ve just spent the past 2 hours practicing your golf putting, it might be tough to remain focused for another hour of the same kind of work. But if you take a break and space your practice, then you can often return more energized and be more productive in your third hour.
• Another reason spacing might help is that practicing a skill at different times can make it less dependent on any specific practice context. For example, suppose you’re hitting golf balls. In one practice session, the wind is blowing into your face, and hitting the ball lower leads to better results because it keeps the ball below the wind. But then you take a break, the wind shifts, and now it’s with you during your next practice session. Now hitting the ball higher might lead to better results because the ball can ride the wind. In this case, spacing your practice helped you learn to hit shots in 2 different types of conditions, both of which you’re going to encounter when playing real rounds of golf

Question 29

«If you want to get better at any complex skill, you need to be systematic and deliberate in the way you practice. Rather than practicing things that you’re already good at, deliberately challenge yourself and stretch your abilities when you practice. «

Answer 29

• Research suggests that your practice will be more effective if you deliberately challenge yourself. If you can identify specific challenging areas to work on, set specific goals within those areas that are difficult—but not impossible—to achieve, and systematically work to achieve those goals, then you’ll improve faster than if you spend the same amount of time practicing without challenging yourself. • One study that illustrates the benefits of deliberately challenging yourself was conducted by Nina Keith and Anders Ericsson, who recruited 60 university students who had several years of typing experience. They gave them all a bunch of typing tasks, measured how quickly they could perform simple perceptual and motor tasks, and interviewed them to find out how they learned to type. They reported 2 interesting results.
• First, perceptual and motor processing speed didn’t make a difference. You might expect the people who were really fast at perceiving visual stimuli or who could press a button very rapidly would have a significant advantage and would be the fastest typists, but they weren’t. In fact, perceptual and motor processing speed didn’t correlate with typing speed at all.
• Second, they found that what really mattered was deliberate, challenging training. Specifically, the fastest typists had 2 common characteristics: They had taken a formal typing class that included deliberate typing goals and challenged themselves to type as fast as possible during their daily typing tasks. Neither characteristic alone was sufficient to identify the fast typists.

Question 30

«As you try to learn new skills, mix up your practice rather than working on an isolated part of the skill for an extended period of time. «

Answer 30

• Most complex skills involve multiple parts, each of which must be mastered. For example, tennis requires being able to hit forehands, backhands, volleys, and overheads. Random practice refers to mixing the practice of different parts of a skill, rather than practicing each part separately.
• In the experiment on learning sequences of key presses on a number pad, the group that practiced the sequences in an unpredictable order was using a random practice schedule: After practicing one sequence, they would practice a different one, in a random order. The other group’s practice was blocked, rather than being random; that is, they practiced a single sequence over and over before switching to another sequence and practicing that one over and over.
• Although the short-term performance of the group that used random practice was worse than the other group, the next day the random practice group performed much better than the other group. So, if your goal is long-term learning rather than short-term performance, random practice is better than blocked practice.
• Many people find this result counterintuitive. After all, isn’t it better to break down a complex skill into separate parts and practice each part separately without interference from all the other parts? Although that is a very common way to practice and although it does improve short-term performance, random practice is better for long-term learning.

• One potential explanation for why is that when you actually have to perform the real skill later, you’ll typically have to perform all the subparts in an unpredictable order. Using random practice therefore better prepares you for the real execution of the skill. For example, when playing in a real tennis match, you’ll be forced to
intermix forehands and backhands in an unpredictable order. And
it turns out that it’s better to practice that way, too. As athletes
often say, you should practice the way you play.

• In addition to randomizing the order of practice, it’s also helpful to
randomize the conditions of your practice. If you always practice
under the same, predictable conditions, then your learning can
become strongly tied to those conditions. For example, if you
always hit golf balls at the same driving range, then you may
limit the generality of your learning. When it comes time to use
those skills in a real competition, you could find that you haven’t
mastered them as well as you thought you had.

• Robert Kerr and Bernard Booth conducted a study that illustrates
the benefits of randomizing practice conditions. Two groups of
children practiced tossing beanbags at a target. Half the children
always tossed to a target that was 3 feet away, while the other half
of the children tossed to targets that varied in distance but were
never 3 feet away. After training, both groups of children tossed
beanbags at a 3-foot target.

• Incredibly, the children who practiced at varying distances actually
performed better than the children who had trained exclusively at
the 3-foot distance. Clearly, randomizing your practice can be a
very powerful approach.

Question 31

Qualifications on SCoRe Recommendations

Answer 31

• It’s important to recognize that not all difficulties are desirable. In particular, the level of difficulty needs to match the ability of the learner. There is nothing wrong with novice tennis players practicing forehand after forehand while they try to learn the basics of the grip and swing. Similarly, although it’s fine for an intermediate golfer to practice hitting a large green from 100 yards away, that’s probably not challenging enough to stretch a professional golfer. The point is that people at every skill level need to introduce difficulties during practice that are challenging but also manageable.
• Spacing and randomizing can also be taken too far. For example, spacing becomes ineffective if the delay between practice sessions is so long that the learners have forgotten what they previously learned. And although randomizing practice conditions is helpful, there is no need to include conditions that you would never actually encounter in real life. For example, although it’s helpful for a basketball player to practice shooting from a variety of different distances to the hoop, there is no need for the player to practice shots from 200 feet away.
• It’s important to realize that the goal is not always long-term learning. Sometimes, the goal is short-term performance. For example, the musician who is preparing for a recital tomorrow is more worried about short-term performance than long-term learning. And in this kind of case, spacing and random practice may not be the ideal way to prepare.

Question 32

Working Memory

Answer 32

• Working memory is the cognitive system that allows you to temporarily store information for short periods of time, maintain that information over a delay, and process that information in the service of whatever you’re currently trying to do.
• Working memory is a kind of temporary, or short-term, memory. In fact, psychologists often use the terms “short-term memory” and “working memory” interchangeably to refer to the same cognitive process. But working memory has become the preferred term because it conveys the idea that the system is actively engaged in working with information. It’s not just a passive storage system; it’s actively used for processing information.
• Another important characteristic is that working memory has a much more limited capacity than long-term memory, which holds hundreds of thousands of words, countless facts about the world, and thousands upon thousands of personal episodes from your life. • The capacity of your long-term memory is virtually unlimited. Our brains are finite, so there must be some upper limit on how much information we can store in long-term memory, but nobody seems to have reached it in our limited lifespans.
• In contrast, the capacity of working memory is severely limited. For example, suppose that you were asked to close your eyes and add 625,488,561 and 37,290,417 in your head. It’s pretty unlikely you’d be able to remember the numbers, much less add them together. And that’s not because you can’t add big numbers; if you were able to do the addition on paper, you’d probably find it pretty easy. The problem is that the capacity of your working memory is limited; you can only store so much information at a time.

Question 33

Working Memory II

Answer 33

• Working memory plays a crucial role in virtually any cognitive task you can think of. When you’re holding a conversation with someone, you need to temporarily store what he or she is saying, process that information, and retrieve it later in the conversation. When you’re cooking dinner, doing your taxes, playing an instrument, reading, writing, or driving, you’re using your working memory.
• People with greater working memory capacity tend to perform better on a wide range of cognitive tasks. They perform better on tests of reading comprehension and reasoning, and they get better grades and higher standardized test scores. In fact, working memory capacity is one of the best predictors of intelligence, at least as measured by IQ tests. This is further evidence that working memory is important to cognition in general.
• Working memory is important, but so are long-term explicit and implicit memory. What’s the relationship between working and long-term memory?
• Human beings use many different memory systems. For example, explicit memory is fundamentally different than implicit memory and depends on different neural substrates. And even within explicit memory, we distinguish between semantic memory for facts and episodic memory for personal events that are tied to a specific time and place.

Question 34

Theories of Sleep’s Role in Memory Consolidation

Answer 34

• Two of the most popular theories about how the role of sleep in memory consolidation works at a neural level are the system consolidation theory and the synaptic homeostasis theory.
• Explicit memories might depend on the hippocampus initially but gradually get consolidated into the cerebral cortex over time. We want to be able to learn new things quickly, but we don’t want the new learning to interfere with our previous memories. We want our memories to be plastic so that we can learn new things, but we also want them to be stable.
• The brain’s solution is to have 2 separate memory systems: one for fast, immediate learning and another for slower learning that integrates new information with old. The hippocampus is assumed to be the fast learning system that can quickly learn new relationships and associations. And that allows us to be plastic and flexible.

But consolidation of those memories into the cortex is slower and more gradual, interleaving the new memories with older existing memories. That allows us to add new information without overwriting older information, but it requires the hippocampus to reactivate new memories so that they can be incorporated into the existing memory networks without overwriting what’s already there.

• And that’s where sleep comes in, according to the system consolidation theory. During periods of slow-wave sleep, new memories are repeatedly reactivated, and those reactivations allow those memories to be gradually incorporated into the cerebral cortex without overwriting previous memories.
• According to the other major theory, synaptic homeostasis, learning new information when you’re awake tends to increase the strength of synapses between neurons, and sleep serves to downscale synaptic strength back to a more standard level.
• But wouldn’t downscaling synaptic strengths simply undermine the previous learning and cause you to forget it? The answer is no, and here’s why: Learning tends to strengthen a relatively small proportion of synapses and leaves most others unchanged. But downscaling during sleep is assumed to apply to all the synapses in a neural circuit. As a result, the strong synapses aren’t affected very much, while the weak synapses get significantly reduced. Because the strong synapses are presumably the most reliable, while the weak synapses are noisier, the overall effect is to improve the quality of the memory representation.
• The synaptic homeostasis theory and the system consolidation theory are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many sleep scientists believe both mechanisms play a role in the consolidation of memories during sleep

Question 35

Learning and Old Age

Answer 35

• It’s also important to note that there are substantial differences between different people. Some people experience a lot of learning and memory problems as they get older, but other people experience very few. Most scientific studies of aging average across people of a similar age, and when this is done, the average amount of decline is found. But keep in mind that roughly half the people in the sample are doing better than the average.
• So, storing information in, and retrieving information from, both episodic memory and working memory often (but not always) decline a little as we get older. But it turns out that there are other types of learning and memory that don’t typically decline with age—and may even improve. For example, consider crystallized intelligence, which depends critically on your knowledge, experience, and acquired skills.
• Park’s group also tested this kind of processing ability, using tasks that tested things like world knowledge and vocabulary. The results on these tasks looked very different than the results for fluid intelligence. Here, the older groups tended to perform better than the younger groups.
• Semantic memory, or your knowledge base of everything you know about the world, is a type of long-term, explicit memory, just like episodic memory; that is, you can consciously bring to mind things you know from your semantic memory, and you can verbalize those memories and talk about them.
• But unlike episodic memory, semantic memories are not remembered from a first-person perspective and are not tied to a specific time and place. And in the absence of disease, our semantic

Question 36

Men versus Women: A Psychological Mystery

Answer 36

Nine out of 10 prison inmates are men; among people who are homeless, men outnumber women by at least three to one; men are 10 times more likely to commit murder than women are; men are more likely to show up at the low end of distributions of IQ scores—they are more likely to be mentally retarded—than women; and men are more likely to abuse and abandon their children and less likely to take care of their aging parents than women.

• On psychological measures of undesirable characteristics, men outscore women on measures of cruelty, closed-mindedness, hostility, narcissism, and self-indulgence. Additionally, men die earlier than women—about five years earlier on average.

According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, 92 percent of Americans who die on the job are men. This is perhaps because men are more likely than women to work in dangerous jobs—which is exceptionally stressful—and perhaps those stressors contribute to some of the differences between men and women.

• Men are overrepresented in these jobs because, in some cases, it may be due to size or strength—but often it is due to cultural norms. Men are also more likely to be raised to think of themselves in these kinds of occupations.
• The fact that people can think consciously about themselves, including their gender and society’s expectations for them, helps to lead men down some of the roads that end in psychological problems. It’s partly a matter of differences in men’s and women’s self-images.
• Biologists disagree about why this occurs, but the phenomenon appears to be real. This extra variability might explain—at least in part—why men are more likely to have behavioral and social problems than women because the fact that men are more variable than women may naturally lead more men to have problems. • Culture might also contribute to the high proportion of men who have serious problems. Throughout history, men have been expected to go to war in service to their country—even though there are more women entering the military than ever before. Many of the men with serious dysfunctions are veterans who have experienced psychological problems, have developed addictions, or have become homeless.
• Of course, women have their own sets of psychological problems— they are more likely to become depressed, for example—but men specialize in antisocial, self-destructive, and aggressive kinds of problems.
• Researchers can document the factors that are associated with these differences between men and women, but there’s no easy way to identify precisely what causes them because we can’t do controlled experiments to identify the causes of alcoholism, homelessness, child abuse, or murder.

Question 37

Heritability

Answer 37

• Extroversion and neuroticism are the two most important personality traits because as we look at differences among people, how extroverted and neurotic people are relate more strongly to their behaviors than any other personality traits. 22 Lecture 3: Where Do People’s Personalities Come From?
• Extroversion involves the degree to which people are talkative and sociable. People who score high in extroversion are outgoing, enjoy interacting with other people, and seek out stimulating activities. People who are low in extroversion—introverts—are quiet, less outgoing, and sometimes shy.
• Research on tens of thousands of twins shows that, depending on the group studied, the heritability of extroversion is somewhere in the vicinity of 0.5 to 0.6, which means that about 50 percent of the variability that we observe in how extroverted versus introverted people are is due to genetic factors.
• Neuroticism involves how much people experience negative emotions. People high in neuroticism tend to be more moody, emotional, anxious, and prone to stress than people who are low in neuroticism, who show greater emotional stability.
• Research shows that the heritability of neuroticism is somewhere in the range of 0.3 to 0.5, depending on the group studied. This means that when we look out and see differences in how emotionally stable versus emotionally volatile people are, a little less than half of those differences in neuroticism—30 to 50 percent—can be traced to genetic factors.
• One of the biggest surprises in behavioral genetics was the discovery that attitudes and values also have genetic underpinnings. Traditionally, psychologists have assumed that values and character traits—such as integrity and compassion—are instilled by parents, teachers, and religions. In part, they are, but there are also genetic influences.

Question 38

Marriage Heritability

Answer 38

• Whether people get married—and whether they stay married—also have genetic underpinnings. A study at the University of Minnesota involving over 2,000 pairs of twins found that the heritability of marriage is 0.68.
• Genes also play a role in how well people’s marriages go. For example, women who are optimistic, warm, and low in People that have an extroverted personality are outgoing and enjoy interacting with other people. © Creatas Images/Thinkstock. 24 Lecture 3: Where Do People’s Personalities Come From? aggressiveness are happier with their marriages than women who are less optimistic, less warm, and more aggressive—and these characteristics are partly heritable. This may be because positive people will have more positive reactions to things that happen in their marriages.
• The likelihood of getting divorced is heritable as well, and the heritability of divorce is estimated to be between 0.3 and 0.4. Research suggests that much of this effect has to do with characteristics that involve negative emotionality.
• Overall, across the dozens of traits that have been studied, most personality characteristics have heritability coefficients between 0.2 and 0.5. What’s being inherited is not a personality trait but, rather, the genes that influence your nervous system to respond in particular ways.

Question 39

Heritability & genes

Answer 39

• Scientists call effects in which genes affect people’s environments gene-environment correlations. An active gene-environment correlation is “active” because genes influence behavior in a way that leads people to seek out and construct certain situations, which then influence their personalities. • For example, activity level is a highly heritable trait. Some babies are active while others are more sedate. As these babies get older, the more active ones are going to be more interested in running and 25 playing while the children who are not as active might spend more time reading. You learn different things and develop different skills from playing sports than from reading, so the activities that children choose—activities that are influenced by their genes—change their personality.
• A reactive, or evocative, gene-environment correlation is “evocative” because genes influence the person’s behavior in ways that evoke certain reactions from other people.
• For example, if a parent sees that a child really enjoys music but doesn’t enjoy sports, the parent will be more likely to buy the child things that involve music rather than sports and encourage music lessons rather than team sports. Therefore, the child’s genes foster behavior that lead parents to create a different environment, which then has downstream consequences for the child’s personality.
• These effects of genes on people’s social environment are cumulative. One initial genetic difference in a child’s activity level or irritability can start a sequence of behaviors and events that cascade for the rest of the person’s life, building on each other over time. Therefore, relatively small genetic differences at birth can become compounded year after year—and this process continues for people’s entire lives.

Answer 40

• Scientists call effects in which genes affect people’s environments gene-environment correlations. An active gene-environment correlation is “active” because genes influence behavior in a way that leads people to seek out and construct certain situations, which then influence their personalities. • For example, activity level is a highly heritable trait. Some babies are active while others are more sedate. As these babies get older, the more active ones are going to be more interested in running and 25 playing while the children who are not as active might spend more time reading. You learn different things and develop different skills from playing sports than from reading, so the activities that children choose—activities that are influenced by their genes—change their personality. • A reactive, or evocative, gene-environment correlation is “evocative” because genes influence the person’s behavior in ways that evoke certain reactions from other people. • For example, if a parent sees that a child really enjoys music but doesn’t enjoy sports, the parent will be more likely to buy the child things that involve music rather than sports and encourage music lessons rather than team sports. Therefore, the child’s genes foster behavior that lead parents to create a different environment, which then has downstream consequences for the child’s personality. • These effects of genes on people’s social environment are cumulative. One initial genetic difference in a child’s activity level or irritability can start a sequence of behaviors and events that cascade for the rest of the person’s life, building on each other over time. Therefore, relatively small genetic differences at birth can become compounded year after year—and this process continues for people’s entire lives.

Question 41

Affective Forecasting

Answer 41

• Even though we’ve all experienced hedonic adaptation many times in our lives, for some reason, we don’t expect it to happen. When we think about future events, we expect both good and bad feelings to last longer than they really do. People are not good at affective forecasting—in predicting how events will influence their emotions in the long run.
• Social psychologists have conducted many studies of affective forecasting, and this research consistently shows that people almost always overestimate how good or how bad they will feel when

Question 42

Genes and Happiness

Answer 42

• Research suggests that only about 10 percent of people’s happiness is due to their life circumstances and that about 50 percent of it is due to people’s genetic make-up, which you can’t do much about. Genes play an important role in people’s personalities, including how they tend to respond to what happens to them.
• Our genes determine the structure and activity of our brains: Some people’s brains are structured in ways that promote positive emotions, and some people have brains that respond more easily to negative emotions. Many studies have conclusively shown that about 50 percent of the variability that we see in the degree to which people experience positive and negative emotions is due to genetic factors.

Affective forecasting: The act of predicting how events will influence one’s emotions in the long run.

Eudaemonia: The act of living one’s life in a way that focuses on things that are intrinsically important for human well-being.

Focalism: The notion that when people think about how they will feel about some event in the future, they focus too much on the event itself and ignore all of the other things that will be going on that will influence their emotions.

Hedonic adaptation: The tendency for people adjust to pleasurable changes in their circumstances so that something that initially brings happiness and pleasure usually wears off over time.

Subjective well-being: An overriding sense of contentment and pleasure; a sense of well-being that goes deeper than happiness

Question 43

Where does stress come from

Answer 43

• The first reason that people are far more chronically stressed out than other animals is that we live in an environment that is drastically different from the environment in which our brains evolved. Wild animals, though, live in essentially the same sorts of environments in which they have been living for millions of years, so their brains are adapted to responding to the challenging and stressful features of those environments.
• Many—in fact, maybe most—of the things that create chronic stress in our everyday lives are the recent developments of civilization and culture, including traffic jams, computer crashes, constant noise, air travel, and stock market declines. In some ways, it’s amazing that people manage in their new environment as well as they do. Of course, many of the advances and innovations that stress us out have also improved our lives immensely.

The second reason that many people are stressed out involves the fact that we live with a lot of uncertainty regarding whether life is going well. Animals in the wild live in an immediate-return environment, in which an animal can see the consequences of its behavior on an ongoing basis. It gets immediate feedback regarding whether it is accomplishing essential life tasks.

• A third reason that people are so stressed out—and other animals aren’t—is because there’s often nothing we can do to solve the problems that worry us. In an immediatereturn environment, most stressors exist in the moment, so people can usually do something immediately that might deal with the acute stressor.

Their actions may not be effective in dealing with the problem, and they might not survive, but at least they can usually take action. However, when the things that create stress lie in the future, as they often do for us, the threat is in our mind rather than immediately present.

Answer 44

One way to answer these questions is to study people’s emotional reactions to subliminal stimuli by flashing negative or positive photographs too quickly for participants to see and then by measuring the effects of the pictures on their emotions.

• In fact, subliminal photographs can produce very distinct emotions. In various studies, flashing disgusting pictures subliminally increased participants’ feelings of disgust and flashing frightening pictures increased participants’ feelings of fear.
• The effects of subliminal stimuli can go beyond simply making people feel good or bad. For example, graduate students at the University of Michigan were presented with either a photograph of their scowling department chairman or a photograph of a smiling person. These pictures were flashed for only two milliseconds, and none of the participants reported seeing anything when they were asked.
• Then, the graduate students evaluated one of their own research ideas, rating how original and important the idea was. Results showed that the students rated their research ideas significantly more negatively if they had been exposed to the disapproving scowl of their department chair than if they had been exposed to the smiling face. A two-millisecond flash of a photograph that they didn’t see influenced their ratings of themselves and their ideas.
• Research suggests that subliminal stimuli are processed at a pretty deep level; that is, even though participants don’t consciously see pictures, their brains can extract the identity of a person in a picture and even the nature of his or her expression.

I 13: Can Subliminal Messages Affect Behavior? • Studies have also shown that subliminal words that are associated with the stereotypes of certain social groups lead people to act more like they think people in those groups act. • In one study, participants were shown a list of words, and researchers wanted to know whether subliminally priming stereotypes that are associated with older people caused participants to remember fewer words—because forgetfulness is often associated with older people. • Participants who were subliminally primed with words that are associated with stereotypes about the elderly remembered significantly fewer words, especially if they had a lot of contact with older people in their everyday lives.

• This study and similar experiments show that subliminal stimuli can affect not only our emotions but also how we respond to other people. In fact, this seems to be one way that subliminal influences creep into our everyday behavior.
• Things happen around us that we’re not consciously processing, yet these subliminal events can steer our thoughts in particular directions, influencing our emotions and behavior—but it’s a very subtle process.
• In order to affect people, a subliminal stimulus must be relatively simple—a couple of words or an image—and it must be presented in such a way that it can’t be consciously detected.
• In addition, it helps if there’s not much else going on in the situation that the person is in; it’s probably easier to get these effects in a quiet research laboratory than in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
• Once the subliminal stimulus is registered mentally, it’s usually not going to cause a particular behavior—just certain emotional inclinations and mental associations.
• A recent study showed that subliminal priming will affect people’s behavior only if the subliminal stimulus is relevant to a goal that the person already has.
• For example, if you’re not thirsty, subliminal messages aren’t going to cause you to buy a soda, but if you’re already thirsty, a subliminal message might influence your choice. Therefore, presenting a subliminal message involving a particular brand of soft drink might cause that brand to come more easily to your mind when you do decide to drink something. Subliminal Audio Stimuli
• Subliminal audio stimuli are sound waves that cannot be heard consciously. The notion of subliminal audio stimuli forms the basis of the 50-million-dollar industry that makes self-help audio recordings that contain subliminal messages. There are recorded programs to help people lose weight, improve memory, and enhance self-esteem by using subliminal audio messages that are imbedded either in music or in relaxing sounds such as white noise or ocean surf.
• Several controlled experiments have been conducted to test the effectiveness of subliminal recordings in helping people with various problems, and they uniformly fail to find any evidence that audio programs containing subliminal suggestions are effective.
• There are several reasons that recorded subliminal messages don’t help people. First, research suggests that in order to influence emotions or behavior, information in subliminal messages must be very simple—only a couple of words at most. However, these selfhelp recordings usually contain entire sentences—and many of them.
• There are studies showing that words that are subliminally hidden in babble can sometimes influence people’s reactions and choices, but the message must be very simple.
• Second, the subliminal messages are often covered up by music or background noise.

Question 45

Can Subliminal Messages Affect Behavior?

Answer 45

Can Subliminal Messages Affect Behavior? photographs can affect not only our emotions in general, but also how we evaluate ourselves. • There’s an interesting application of this phenomenon that’s being discussed among experts in this area, and that involves using subliminal tests for lie detection. In the future, it might be possible to flash a picture of a house that a thief supposedly broke into and see what sort of reaction the thief has. Conscious versus Nonconscious Stimuli

• If subliminal stimuli can influence our emotional responses, think about what might happen if a person sees one stimulus consciously while another one is shown nonconsciously, or subliminally. Research suggests that it is possible that the subliminal stimulus that you can’t see can influence your judgment of the stimuli that you can see.
• In an early demonstration of this effect, researchers told participants that they would be rating how much they liked a set of Chinese ideographs, which are characters or symbols that represent objects and ideas. The participants didn’t know that right before they saw each ideograph, a photograph of either a smiling face or an angry face was flashed for four milliseconds—too fast to be detected consciously.
• Participants rated the ideographs that followed subliminal smiling faces more positively than the ideographs that followed subliminal angry faces. Of course, the participants naturally assumed that they actually liked or disliked a particular ideograph, not knowing that their reactions were caused by the subliminal smiling or angry face.
• Such a process could potentially be used to influence people’s attitudes toward products or political candidates, for example. These results suggest that if happy pictures were flashed subliminally before you saw a new brand of breakfast cereal, it might lead you to feel good about the cereal.
• In the Chinese ideograph study, the visual stimulus—the one that people could see consciously—was relatively neutral. In other words, people don’t feel strongly about ideographs. Because they didn’t have any preexisting feelings about the things that they were evaluating, the weak emotions created by the subliminal stimulus—the smiling or angry subliminal face—could influence participants’ ratings.
• Furthermore, although the subliminal stimuli—the smiling and angry faces— caused people to rate the ideographs differently, the sizes of the effects were rather small. • Subliminal effects are real, but they are probably not strong enough to influence people’s evaluations of things that they already have strong attitudes about—such as real products or politicians. Subliminal Stimuli and Behavior
• Under certain circumstances, subliminal stimuli can influence our emotions and preferences, and they can affect how we feel about things that we perceive consciously. In addition, although the effects appear to be confined to relatively simple behaviors, subliminal stimuli can influence our actual behavior.
• For example, several research studies have shown that we can increase thirst and hunger by subliminally presenting participants with words that connote being thirsty or hungry. Popcorn and soda sales might increase when subliminal messages are flashed to an audience that is already hungry and thirsty.

Question 46

Men V Women (Understanding Mysteries)

Answer 46

Differences in Personalities • One of the largest gender differences in personality lies in the fact that women score higher than men on measures of agreeableness, which has to do with the degree to which people are friendly, nice, and cooperative. • The effect size for the average difference in agreeableness between men and women is pretty large. About half of all men and half of all women are comparable in agreeableness, but there are more men who are low in agreeableness and more women who are high in agreeableness. As a result, the average woman tends to be nicer and more agreeable than the average man. • On the other hand, men are more aggressive than women on average. Across dozens of studies, men score higher than women on both physical and verbal aggression with medium effect sizes. • Other than agreeableness and aggressiveness, there aren’t many other major personality differences between men and women. On average, men tend to be a little less conscientious, a little less 138 Lecture 18: How Much Do Men and Women Really Differ? dependable, and a little less responsible than women. Women on average are just a little more emotional than men, but the effect size is smaller than many people might expect. Men and women are about equally happy, and they are equally satisfied with their lives. • In the past, scientists assumed that most differences between men and women were inborn, but it became increasingly clear that culture, socialization, and learning play a major role in how boys and girls learn to behave. For a while, the assumption was that most sex differences are due to cultural and social factors. • The problem with this view is that all other mammals show inborn differences in the behaviors of males and females, so it would be very strange if none of the differences between human males and females were due to biological differences. • In modern times, most scientists believe that men and women differ biologically in ways that influence their behavior, but culture also plays a large role in creating gender differences.

Question 47

Men V Women II

Answer 47

• Reproductively, men are more dispensable than women. Because one man can father many children, it’s possible for a relatively small group of men to father a disproportionate number of children—in which case, all other men are reproductively dispensable. In certain species, including certain human societies, an alpha male does most of the mating, and a large number of low-status males may never mate or have offspring. • DNA evidence suggests that only about a third of our ancestors were men. Most women reproduced, but not all males did, and many of those who did reproduced at a lower rate than most women. Therefore, evolutionarily, males were more dispensable than women. Most modern cultures insist on monogamy, which will produce a more even balance, but anthropologists and biologists assume that polygamy was common in the past. For many people, one of the recurring challenges of daily life involves dealing with members of the other gender. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock.
• Because most women were likely to have children, they didn’t have to go out of their way to do things to increase their chances. As a result, no special motives or behaviors were needed to promote having babies.
• Men faced a different situation. If only some men would ever mate and have children, men had to take special action to attract a partner. They would have to show that they had something special that would lead a woman to choose them over other men.
• The fact that men were more expendable in the mating game helps to explain why men throughout history have focused on seeking recognition through military exploits, politics, exploration, and similar achievements in ways that most women have not. In other words, evolutionary processes bred men to seek attention and take risks.
• Many hypotheses have been offered for why men have dominated societies throughout history, but perhaps it’s because modern men are the descendents of men who outcompeted others. Women don’t have this relentless competitive urge to the same degree because it didn’t provide any reproductive benefits for them—they were likely to have children no matter what.
• In modern times, all of this masculine showing off isn’t particularly useful. In a monogamous society, men and women have about equal chances of having children. Therefore, this is another case of evolved behaviors that were much more valuable in our ancestors’ environment than they are today.

Question 48

Groups & Prejudice

Answer 48

• Belonging to a group can offer many benefits. It gives you people to help you when you need it, and it allows you to cooperate with other people on tasks that would be impossible for one person to do alone. Members of a group can pool their resources so that everyone has more available to them than any one person would. Furthermore, groups provide opportunities for social interaction, companionship, and support.
• However, joining up with other people is always a bit of a risk because being in a group is beneficial only if the other members of the group cooperate and reciprocate. It’s very easy to be taken advantage of when other people don’t do their share. Therefore, people don’t try to forge cooperative relationships with everybody they meet because they don’t know whether they can trust them.
• Forming a group allows people to obtain the benefits of cooperative relationships while minimizing the possible costs because most groups enforce rules for how members should treat each other.
• Sometimes, we still get taken advantage of by people in our groups, but it happens less within cohesive groups than if we were working 154 Lecture 20: Why Are Prejudice and Conflict So Common? with a group of random people who weren’t members of an identifiable group. By joining groups selectively, people can obtain the advantages of cooperating with other people while minimizing the risks of being taken advantage of.
• By defining who is “in” and who is “out” of a particular group, group boundaries tell us who is most likely to be cooperative, helpful, and trustworthy. Usually, we can trust the average member of the groups to which we belong more than we can trust and rely on the members of other groups.
• Of course, many of the people who are not members of our groups are perfectly nice, trustworthy people. However, we don’t know which ones are trustworthy, and many people who are not in our groups have no incentive to treat us well—or if they are members of competing groups, they may be motivated to work against us.
• As a result, the safest solution is for people to assume that anybody who’s not in their group might not be trustworthy. That single somewhat reasonable tactic for protecting ourselves can lead us to view other groups with suspicion and distrust, which can lead to prejudice and conflict.
• A central feature of the prejudice and conflict that develops between groups involves biases that favor members of one’s own group and discriminate against members of other groups. It’s useful to think of this as two distinct biases: a bias to favor one’s own group, and a bias to be against another group. These two biases often go together—but not necessarily.
• In general, the pattern seems to be that people strongly favor their own group but not necessarily wish harm upon other groups. In-group favoritism affects our behavior more than out-group derogation and antagonism.
• Research shows that groups of people are less cooperative and more competitive than individuals are. Social psychologists call this the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect. • Sometimes, people who hate some other racial or ethnic group have personal friends who are members of that group. As individuals, they get along fine, but they are prejudiced against each others’ group.
• The interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect is an impediment to groups getting along. Reasonable, unprejudiced people who can get along with members of the other group as individuals change somehow when they get into their group.
• Researchers who have studied this effect have uncovered a number of reasons for it. The first is that people are naturally more suspicious and afraid of groups than they are of individual people. Therefore, when we get together in a group to talk about problems with another group, we construe the situation as more threatening and antagonistic. Under the right conditions, groups in conflict can come together, but then they might collide with other groups.

Question 49

Intensifying Prejudice and Conflict

Answer 49

• Given how little it takes to create prejudice, discrimination, and conflict, it’s no wonder that people act so badly when there’s something truly important at stake. When groups are in a win-lose, or zero-sum, relationship, all of these effects become stronger.
• Prejudice and conflict also intensify when people feel that their group is disadvantaged relative to other groups. When members of a group think that their situation is worse in comparison to other groups, they experience dissatisfaction and frustration, are more likely to derogate members of other groups, and are more likely to behave aggressively.
• These reactions might be reasonable if the advantaged, successful group did something to hold the other group down, but we see this effect even when the more advantaged group isn’t responsible for the inequality between the groups.
• Just feeling less powerful or disadvantaged causes people to show more prejudice. This is why it’s so important to minimize political and economic inequalities if we want groups in society to stop fighting with each other.
• Prejudice and conflict don’t necessarily require competition for scarce resources; prejudice and discrimination are also fed by the perception that another group doesn’t share the values, attitudes, and moral standards of one’s own group.
• Prejudices arise not only in response to important outcomes such as conflicts over jobs or land, but also to symbolic threats to things that we value. Other animals will fight when something important is at stake—such as food, territory, mates, and protecting offspring— but human beings are the only species that gets into conflicts over ideas and values. • Social psychologists suggest that prejudice can provide desirable psychological outcomes for some individuals. For example, prejudice against members of another group can make people feel better about themselves.
• Research shows that people who feel insecure about their own abilities and personal characteristics judge others more harshly. Research also shows that people who have suffered a blow to their self-esteem are more likely to discriminate against others than people who just experienced a boost to their self-esteem. Presumably, feeling superior to other people can help people feel better about themselves.
• People who have the greatest desire to feel good about themselves— either because they are in a low-status social group or because they have suffered a momentary setback—are more likely to put other people down.

Question 50

Reducing Prejudice and Conflict

Answer 50

Why Are Prejudice and Conflict So Common?

• Research in the social sciences has shown that simply throwing members of opposing groups together is not usually an effective strategy, but it is possible to structure their contact in ways that reduce prejudice and conflict.
• In the 1950s, Gordon Allport described the conditions under which group contact is most likely to reduce negative feelings between groups. First, the groups must have equal status within the situation in which they will have contact and interact with each other. Second, the situation must provide an opportunity for the groups to cooperate toward some common goal. There also must be opportunities for members of the two groups to become personally acquainted. Finally, some higher authority should support the goal of bringing the groups together and reducing conflict.
• Research has shown that we can reduce prejudice by getting members of diverse groups to develop a shared identity. The idea is that we can change the way people categorize themselves from “us” versus “them” to “we.” Studies have shown that once the members of two old groups started reconceptualizing themselves as members of the same group, prejudice and conflict declined.
• Unfortunately, when we bring two groups together in this way by stressing their common identity, members of those two groups will start seeing themselves as one group, but the members of the new unified group may start seeing themselves as different from other groups that maybe they hadn’t thought much about before.

in-group favoritism: Rating one’s own group much more positively than another group.

Interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect: The notion that groups of people are less cooperative and more competitive than individuals are.

Out-group homogeneity effect: The tendency for people to think that members of groups other than their own are more similar to each other than they really are.

Realistic conflict theory: A theory that proposes that discrimination and conflict arise when groups are in competition for some scarce resource.

Question 51

Successful versus Unsuccessful Relationships

Answer 51

• Relationship science is a relatively new field, but we already know a lot about what leads to satisfying and unsatisfying relationships. Much of the research has focused on marriages, but most of what we have learned applies to other kinds of close relationships as well—including cohabiting partnerships and dating relationships— and it applies to both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.
• All relationships are unique, and the things that make a relationship successful and satisfying versus unsuccessful and unsatisfying differ greatly across people, but there are some general patterns. The determinants of relationship success can be broken into two large categories: characteristics of the people and features of the relationship itself.
• Some people have better, happier, and more satisfying relationships because they are simply better relationship partners than other people are. By nature, if a person is disagreeable, hostile, suspicious, or selfish, then that person is likely to have less satisfying relationships than a person who is agreeable, easygoing, trusting, and giving. Research shows that we can predict some of the success of people’s relationships by simply measuring certain aspects of their personalities—even before the relationship starts.
• Neuroticism, which involves the degree to which people tend to experience negative emotions such as anxiety and anger, plays a particularly important role in relationship success and satisfaction. People who score high in neuroticism not only tend to experience more bad moods, but their personal unhappiness leads to more unpleasant and negative interactions with other people, including their relationship partners.
• Other research shows that some problems arise in relationships not because either partner’s personality creates problems by itself, but because the two people’s characteristics don’t mesh very well.
• Many people believe that opposites attract, but research shows that when it comes to relationships, it’s almost never true. Of course, people don’t want their partners to be just like them, but being different is not the same as being opposite. True opposites rarely get along very well.
• One of the few examples where opposites sometimes do get along involves dominant and submissive people. The dominant person likes being in charge, and the submissive person appreciates somebody else taking the lead.

Question 52

Interdependence Theory

Answer 52

• When people think about a relationship not working out, they usually think about things that cause people to break up or to get a divorce, but merely staying together is a rather narrow view of relationship success. Therefore, to understand why some relationships work better than others, we need to distinguish between being satisfied or dissatisfied with one’s relationship and whether people decide to stay or to leave.
• Research shows that the processes that contribute to satisfaction are not the same processes that lead people to stay in a relationship.
• All relationships bring a combination of rewards and costs of various kinds. If we subtract people’s costs in a relationship from the rewards that they receive, we can get an index of their overall outcome from the relationship. A person who has more rewards than costs has a profit from the relationship, and a person who has more costs than rewards is showing a loss.
• Originally, researchers assumed that people who had a profit would be satisfied with their relationship, but that turns out not to be the case.
• According to interdependence theory, each of us has a criterion—a standard—for judging whether we are making enough of a profit in our relationships with other people. This criterion is called our comparison level, and it’s the minimum value of the outcomes that we think we deserve from a relationship. The comparison level is the standard we use to judge our relationship outcomes.
• When our outcome exceeds our comparison level, we’re getting more than the minimum payoff we expect from the relationship, and we’re satisfied. Additionally, the more our outcome exceeds our comparison level, the more satisfied we’ll be. However, when our outcome falls below our comparison level, we’re dissatisfied, and we’ll be dissatisfied even if our rewards from the relationship exceed our costs and we’re making a profit.
• People can be unhappy in a relationship that from an outsider’s perspective would appear to be rewarding because their positive outcomes fall below their comparison level. They’re not making as much of a profit as they’d like.
• People’s standards for judging their outcomes in relationships are based primarily on their previous relationships. People with a history of highly rewarding relationships tend to have higher comparison levels than people who have had a history of troubled relationships.
• Polls indicate that people say that they have more relationship problems and conflicts than people reported in the past. Perhaps this is because people today expect more out of their relationships— their comparison levels are higher.
• Research suggests that people who begin married life with the highest expectations of how wonderful it’s going to be are often the least satisfied and fulfilled a few years later because their comparison levels were too high from the beginning—they expected too much.
• People’s satisfaction with relationships is due to whether their outcomes exceed their personal comparison level, but whether people stay in a relationship or decide to leave depends on more than whether they are satisfied.
• According to interdependence theory, whether people stay in a relationship depends on their comparison level for alternatives, which is the lowest level of outcome that people think that they can get by leaving their current relationship and moving to the best alternative situation—whether that is another partner or simply being out of a relationship altogether.
• In a happy, stable relationship, people’s outcomes from the relationship exceed both their comparison level—which makes them satisfied—and their comparison level for alternatives, which keeps them committed to the relationship. They’re satisfied and don’t think that they can do better elsewhere.
• In a relationship in which a person’s outcomes fall below his or her comparison level but above his or her comparison level for alternatives, the person is not happy or satisfied because the outcomes are lower than the comparison level, but the person will stay in the relationship because the comparison level for alternatives is even lower. Lecture
• Even more puzzling than people staying in unhappy relationships are cases in which people leave happy ones. From the perspective of interdependence theory, such situations occur when people’s outcomes in a relationship fall above their comparison level but below their comparison level for alternatives.

Question 53

Relationship Rewards and Costs

Answer 53

• Fundamentally, relationships that work well are those in which people get sufficient rewards, relative to their costs, so that their outcomes fall safely above both their comparison level and their comparison level for alternatives.
• In their efforts to understand why certain relationships work better than others, researchers sometimes study new relationships from the very beginning, recontacting the same couples every so often in an attempt to understand what features of relationships foreshadow later problems.
• In all developing relationships, the perceived costs increase as the relationship grows. At the beginning of any relationship, people are focused mainly on its rewarding aspects, but then they slowly start to see the costs. At this point in any emerging relationship, the realization that the new relationship has some downsides and personal costs creates a lull, or a plateau, in people’s satisfaction.
• In successful relationships, the rewards continue to increase, people adjust to the costs, and satisfaction climbs again. However, in unsuccessful relationships, after the usual plateau in satisfaction, rewards don’t increase. Therefore, people become dissatisfied and the relationship ends—although it may take awhile for the individuals to realize that it’s not going to improve.
• Studies show that the problems that eventually lead people to break up—even after 10 or 20 years—were typically there from the beginning of the relationship. The people were complaining about those things even before they decided to get married.
• Furthermore, satisfaction with marriage generally declines over time, starting in the second year of marriage, on average. One reason for the decline is that people don’t put nearly as much effort into being considerate, responsive, and rewarding partners as time goes by. People’s declining motivation to make their partner happy can contribute to lower satisfaction—not only for the partner, but ultimately for them as well.
• All of this suggests that the most important thing that makes relationships work is to be a rewarding partner. Furthermore, research is converging on the idea that one key to relationship success involves responsiveness.
• Studies show that one of the best predictors of relationship satisfaction and success is whether the individuals perceive that their partner is sufficiently responsive to their needs and desires. The bottom line of responsiveness is whether each partner actively supports and promotes the other person’s personal welfare.
• Responsiveness is important because it is very rewarding. As a result, a responsive, supportive partner increases the partner’s positive outcomes—hopefully above his or her comparison level and comparison level for alternatives.
• To some extent, responsiveness is in the eye of the beholder. A person might work very hard to be responsive to a partner’s needs, but if the person isn’t actually doing very helpful things, or if the Studies show that the concerns that cause couples to break up don’t just appear—they often existed from the beginning. © Pixland/Jupiterimages/Thinkstock. 174 Lecture 22: What Makes Relationships Succeed or Fail? partner doesn’t interpret the person’s actions as responsive, then the partner won’t view the person as sufficiently responsive. • People miss a lot of support that their partners give, and they interpret things as supportive that their partners do not intend as such. There’s misperception in both directions.
• When people begin to perceive that their partner is not being responsive, they naturally pull back their own efforts to be responsive. Not only does a concern with equity set in, but people also don’t want to be hurt by investing more in the relationship than the partner does. Studies that track people’s relationship behaviors over time show that this can become a vicious cycle.
• Fortunately, relationship scientists are uncovering the ingredients of successful relationships, and they come down to a few basic things. People who are satisfied with their close relationships feel that they are getting sufficient rewards from the relationship. They are also highly responsive to the needs of their partner and allow themselves to depend on the other person, knowing that the relationship will work only if both people feel understood and cared for.
• Perhaps most importantly, they resist the natural tendency to fall into lazy patterns of disinterest in which they no longer display the rewarding, desirable patterns of behavior that attracted their partner to them in the first place.

Question 54

His Brain, Her Brain

• June 2005
• Scientific American

Answer 54

Medical researchers have found that male and female brains differ a bit in architecture and activity and research into these variations could lead to sex-specific treatments for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. In many cases, sex differences in the brain’s chemistry and construction influence how males and females respond to the environment or react to and remember stressful events.

Several intriguing behavioral studies add to the evidence that some sex differences in the brain arise before a baby draws its first breath. Neuroscientists are continuing to identify all the sex-related variations in the brain and pinpointing their influences on cognition and propensity for brain-related disorders.

There is now convincing evidence of sexual dimorphism in the structural, chemical, and functional characteristics of the brain, in cognition and in people’s behaviour. For example, men and women use different neural circuits and molecular mechanisms during memory-related tasks.

Regarding the differences at the cellular level, women have a higher density of neurons in the area of the temporal lobe responsible for processing and understanding language . Microglia and astrocytes are also sexually dimorphic in the brain, a phenomenon that can be attributed to the presence of sex hormones.

This difference may explain why men tend to have more difficulties expressing their feelings . Faced with stress, there are also differences: women are more resistant to chronic stress but less resistant to acute stress than men.

Question 55

Men V Women i sciennce

Answer 55

…it appears then that highly gifted kids ask themselves, “What am I better at?” rather than

“Am I smart enough to succeed in a particular career?” This finding provides some insight

into sex differences. Among precocious children, boys more frequently exhibit a “tilt”

favoring mathematical and related abilities compared with verbal aptitude. Encouraging

more balanced gifted students to keep science and technology fields open as options may

help top off the pipeline with more high-achieving female and male students.

It is true that multiple psychological and social factors play a part in determining career

direction. People’s individual expectations for success are shaped by their perception of their

own skills. One factor in forming our self-perception is how authority figures such as

teachers and parents perceive and respond to us. A 1992 study by psychology professors Lee

Jussim of Rutgers University and Jacquelynne Eccles of the University of Michigan at Ann

Arbor found that the level at which teachers rated a student’s mathematical talent early in

the school year predicted later test scores—even when objective measures of ability were at

odds with the teacher’s perception. This study and others suggest that stereotypes of science

as masculine may prejudice educators against girls from the start.

Question 56

Different Shades of Blue

Women get sad. Men get mad. Depression comes in many hues

Answer 56

• The sex hormones estrogen and testosterone interact differently with the neurotransmitters responsible for feelings of stress and well-being. As a result, men and women vary in their experience of depression and their response to antidepressants.
• Men tend to exhibit less recognizable symptoms of depression, such as anger and restlessness.
• Hormones surge and shift over a life span, making men and women susceptible to depression at different times.

Question 57

He Said, She Said

• January 2006

Answer 57

Couple research has shown spousal support is associated with better treatment adherence, illness adaptation and blood sugar control in studies of individuals with diabetes. However, few studies have investigated gender differences and how they impact spousal supporting behaviors. In this study, seventy-four individuals (patients and spouses) participated in semi-structured interviews regarding spousal support relating to diabetes management. Transcripts of these interviews were rigorously coded and analyzed by a team of researchers.

A sampling of quotes is provided illustrating gender differences in the areas of dietary and regimen specific support as well as perceptions of nagging behavior. Potential explanations for differences and implications for clinicians are discussed including the role of marital therapists on collaborative treatment teams.

Question 58

The Happy Couple: Secrets to a Long Marriage

The key to keeping the magic alive in a marriage, experts say, is finding ways to promote the positive

Answer 58

• In the past few years psychologists have discovered that thriving couples accentuate the positive in life more than do those who languish or split. They not only cope well during hardship but also celebrate the happy moments and work to build more of these into their lives.
• How couples handle good news may matter even more to their relationship than does their ability to support each other under difficult circumstances.
• Members of happy couples also individually experience a higher ratio of upbeat emotions to negative ones than do people in unsuccessful pairings. Certain tactics can boost this ratio and thus help to strengthen bonds with others.

Question 59

men vs women being funny.

Answer 59

Women like men who find them funny. Men like women who find them funny.

Question 60

Fathers challenge kids

Answer 60

• Fatherhood has undergone a profound change in the past half a century. In 1965 fathers were spending 2.6 hours a week on child care; by 2000 that figure had reached 6.5 hours. There are three times as many stay-at-home fathers as there were a decade ago.
• For years social scientists considered fathers to be second-string parents, but that view has changed, partly thanks to research revealing that dads are anything but bit players in their children’s lives. Fathers are biologically as responsive to their children as mothers are.
• Fathers influence children in unique ways. In particular, they play an outsized role in stretching their emotional and cognitive capabilities—enriching their verbal skills, for example, and encouraging them to take risks.

Question 61

Psychopathic Traits:

Dutton delves into the personality traits commonly associated with psychopaths, such as charm, ruthlessness, and fearlessness, and explores how these traits can be harnessed for positive outcomes.

Answer 61

Psychopathic Traits:
Psychopathic traits refer to specific characteristics commonly associated with individuals diagnosed with psychopathy. These traits can vary in intensity from person to person, and it’s important to note that not all individuals who exhibit these traits are psychopaths. In the book, Kevin Dutton likely discusses these traits in the context of how they can be understood and applied in different situations. Here are some key psychopathic traits and their implications:

Charm: Psychopaths often possess a charming and charismatic demeanor. They can be highly persuasive and adept at making a positive impression on others. This charm can be used to manipulate and influence people to achieve their goals.

Manipulativeness: Psychopaths are skilled at manipulating others to serve their own interests. They may use cunning tactics, lies, and deception to get what they want. In certain professions, this trait can be advantageous for negotiation and persuasion.

Impulsivity: Psychopaths tend to be impulsive, acting without thinking through the consequences of their actions. While this can lead to reckless behavior, it can also make them more willing to take risks in pursuit of their goals.

Lack of Empathy: One of the defining characteristics of psychopathy is a diminished capacity for empathy. Psychopaths have difficulty understanding or caring about the emotions and suffering of others. This can make them more willing to make tough decisions without being emotionally hindered.

Fearlessness: Psychopaths often exhibit fearlessness, particularly in high-stress situations. They remain calm under pressure and are less prone to anxiety or fear, which can be an asset in professions that require quick decision-making.

Superficial Charm: Psychopaths may display superficial charm, making it easier for them to establish rapport and trust with others. However, this charm is often shallow and driven by ulterior motives.

Dutton’s exploration of these traits likely involves examining how they manifest in different individuals and contexts. While these traits are typically associated with negative behavior when taken to extremes, the book may suggest that, when moderated and controlled, they can be harnessed for positive outcomes in areas like leadership, negotiation, or even personal development. Understanding these traits can provide insights into human behavior and the complexities of psychopathy.

Question 62

The Good Psychopath: The book introduces the concept of “good psychopaths” who exhibit psychopathic traits but use them in ways that benefit society. For example, some successful CEOs and leaders may possess these traits and apply them to achieve their goals while still adhering to ethical standards.

Answer 62

The Good Psychopath:

The idea of the “good psychopath” challenges conventional views of psychopathy by suggesting that individuals with psychopathic traits can use these characteristics in positive and socially beneficial ways. Here’s a more in-depth exploration of this concept:

1. Trait Balance: Dutton likely discusses how the key psychopathic traits, such as charm, fearlessness, and manipulativeness, exist on a spectrum. In some individuals, these traits are balanced in a way that allows them to function effectively without causing harm to others or breaking the law.
2. Positive Outcomes: The book may provide examples of individuals in various professions who exhibit psychopathic traits but use them for positive outcomes. For instance, a CEO with psychopathic traits might be highly charismatic and skilled at decision-making, driving the success of a company.
3. Ethical Considerations: Dutton could explore the ethical considerations associated with the “good psychopath.” While these individuals may achieve success and contribute to society, there is a question of whether their methods are always ethically sound. This raises discussions about the means justifying the ends.
4. Adaptability and Resilience: The concept of the good psychopath might highlight how these individuals are often highly adaptable and resilient in the face of challenges. They may possess a unique ability to bounce back from setbacks and maintain focus on their goals.
5. Risk-Taking: The book may discuss how the risk-taking tendencies of psychopaths, when channeled appropriately, can lead to innovation and entrepreneurship. Good psychopaths might be more willing to take calculated risks that lead to positive outcomes.
6. Prosocial Behavior: Some individuals with psychopathic traits may engage in prosocial behavior, such as philanthropy or community leadership, using their influence and resources for the greater good.
7. Self-Control: Dutton may emphasize that good psychopaths often have a level of self-control that distinguishes them from criminal psychopaths. They can manage their impulses and manipulative tendencies to achieve socially desirable goals.
8. Cognitive Empathy: While they may lack emotional empathy, good psychopaths might possess cognitive empathy, enabling them to understand the perspectives and motivations of others. This skill can be used strategically in negotiations and leadership roles.
9. Personal Development: The book may explore how individuals can learn from good psychopaths to develop certain psychopathic traits in a controlled and ethical manner. This self-improvement angle could be a key theme.

Overall, the concept of the “good psychopath” challenges preconceived notions about psychopathy and suggests that these traits, when harnessed positively and ethically, can lead to success in various domains. It underscores the complexity of human personality and behavior, offering a fresh perspective on the potential benefits of psychopathic traits in society.

Question 63

Wisdom of psychopaths II

Answer 63

The Good Psychopath:

The idea of the “good psychopath” challenges conventional views of psychopathy by suggesting that individuals with psychopathic traits can use these characteristics in positive and socially beneficial ways. Here’s a more in-depth exploration of this concept:

1. Trait Balance: Dutton likely discusses how the key psychopathic traits, such as charm, fearlessness, and manipulativeness, exist on a spectrum. In some individuals, these traits are balanced in a way that allows them to function effectively without causing harm to others or breaking the law.
2. Positive Outcomes: The book may provide examples of individuals in various professions who exhibit psychopathic traits but use them for positive outcomes. For instance, a CEO with psychopathic traits might be highly charismatic and skilled at decision-making, driving the success of a company.
3. Ethical Considerations: Dutton could explore the ethical considerations associated with the “good psychopath.” While these individuals may achieve success and contribute to society, there is a question of whether their methods are always ethically sound. This raises discussions about the means justifying the ends.
4. Adaptability and Resilience: The concept of the good psychopath might highlight how these individuals are often highly adaptable and resilient in the face of challenges. They may possess a unique ability to bounce back from setbacks and maintain focus on their goals.
5. Risk-Taking: The book may discuss how the risk-taking tendencies of psychopaths, when channeled appropriately, can lead to innovation and entrepreneurship. Good psychopaths might be more willing to take calculated risks that lead to positive outcomes.
6. Prosocial Behavior: Some individuals with psychopathic traits may engage in prosocial behavior, such as philanthropy or community leadership, using their influence and resources for the greater good.
7. Self-Control: Dutton may emphasize that good psychopaths often have a level of self-control that distinguishes them from criminal psychopaths. They can manage their impulses and manipulative tendencies to achieve socially desirable goals.
8. Cognitive Empathy: While they may lack emotional empathy, good psychopaths might possess cognitive empathy, enabling them to understand the perspectives and motivations of others. This skill can be used strategically in negotiations and leadership roles.
9. Personal Development: The book may explore how individuals can learn from good psychopaths to develop certain psychopathic traits in a controlled and ethical manner. This self-improvement angle could be a key theme.

Overall, the concept of the “good psychopath” challenges preconceived notions about psychopathy and suggests that these traits, when harnessed positively and ethically, can lead to success in various domains. It underscores the complexity of human personality and behavior, offering a fresh perspective on the potential benefits of psychopathic traits in society.

Question 64

Wisdom of psychopaths III

Answer 64

Empathy and Manipulation:

1. Lack of Emotional Empathy: One of the defining characteristics of psychopathy is a diminished capacity for emotional empathy. Psychopaths struggle to connect with and understand the emotions of others. This lack of emotional empathy allows them to engage in manipulative behavior without being burdened by guilt or remorse.
2. Cognitive Empathy: While psychopaths may lack emotional empathy, they often possess a certain level of cognitive empathy. Cognitive empathy refers to the ability to understand and predict the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others. Psychopaths may use cognitive empathy strategically to manipulate people effectively.
3. Strategic Use of Empathy: In the book, Dutton might explore how psychopaths use their cognitive empathy as a tool for manipulation. They can accurately read people’s emotional states and motivations, allowing them to tailor their words and actions to influence others.
4. Mirroring: Psychopaths are skilled at mirroring the behaviors and emotions of those around them. This mirroring technique involves mimicking the body language, speech patterns, and emotions of their target, making them appear more relatable and trustworthy.
5. Deceptive Charisma: The combination of cognitive empathy, charm, and mirroring can create a charismatic facade that draws people in. Psychopaths may use this facade to gain trust, form alliances, or manipulate others into doing their bidding.
6. Ethical Implications: Dutton may delve into the ethical considerations surrounding the manipulation of empathy by psychopaths. While these tactics can be effective, they often involve deception and exploitation, raising questions about the morality of such behavior.
7. Manipulative Strategies: The book might explore specific manipulative strategies employed by psychopaths, such as gaslighting (making someone doubt their own perceptions), guilt-tripping, and playing on people’s emotions to achieve personal goals.
8. Self-Preservation: Psychopaths’ ability to manipulate through empathy can be linked to their self-preservation instincts. They may use these tactics to avoid consequences, gain advantages, or secure resources without regard for the well-being of others.
9. Detecting Manipulation: Dutton might discuss how individuals can become more aware of and resilient to psychopathic manipulation. Understanding the tactics used by psychopaths can empower people to protect themselves from being manipulated.
10. Balancing Empathy and Manipulation: The book may explore the delicate balance between empathy and manipulation. While psychopaths excel at manipulating others, they often do so at the expense of genuine emotional connections. This imbalance can lead to a shallow and transactional approach to relationships.

In summary, the interplay between empathy and manipulation is a central theme in understanding psychopathy. The book likely examines how psychopaths use their cognitive empathy to manipulate and deceive others, highlighting both the effectiveness of these tactics and the ethical considerations surrounding them. It underscores the importance of empathy in fostering genuine human connections and ethical behavior.

Question 65

Wisdom of psychopaths IV

Answer 65

Self-Help and Personal Development:

1. Adopting Positive Traits: Dutton may suggest that individuals can learn from psychopathic traits and adopt certain aspects of them in a controlled and ethical manner. For example, people might work on improving their decisiveness, resilience, or fearlessness to enhance their personal development.
2. Effective Decision-Making: Psychopaths are known for their ability to make quick decisions without being overly influenced by emotions. The book may offer insights into how individuals can cultivate better decision-making skills by adopting a more rational and calculated approach.
3. Stress Management: Psychopaths often remain calm under pressure, which can be an asset in high-stress situations. Dutton might provide strategies for managing stress and anxiety based on the principles of emotional detachment and fearlessness that psychopaths exhibit.
4. Enhancing Communication: The book could explore how psychopaths’ skills in persuasion, charm, and manipulation can be adapted for more positive communication and relationship-building. This might involve improving one’s ability to connect with others or negotiate effectively.
5. Developing Resilience: Psychopaths’ resilience in the face of setbacks could serve as a lesson in personal development. Dutton might discuss techniques for building emotional resilience and bouncing back from challenges.
6. Balancing Traits: The author may emphasize the importance of balancing psychopathic traits with empathy and ethical behavior. While certain psychopathic traits can be advantageous, they should be tempered with a moral compass to avoid harmful manipulation or exploitation.
7. Self-Awareness: Dutton may encourage self-awareness as a key component of personal development. Understanding one’s own strengths and weaknesses, including any psychopathic traits, can help individuals make informed choices about personal growth.
8. Ethical Considerations: Throughout discussions on personal development, the book may stress the ethical boundaries of adopting psychopathic traits. It’s essential to use these traits for constructive purposes and avoid causing harm to others.
9. Real-World Examples: The author might provide real-world examples of individuals who have successfully integrated psychopathic traits into their personal development journey. These examples could serve as inspiration for readers seeking self-improvement.
10. Self-Improvement Strategies: “The Wisdom of Psychopaths” could conclude with practical self-improvement strategies that draw from the insights gained from studying psychopathy. These strategies may encompass areas such as decision-making, communication, and emotional resilience.

In essence, the book likely explores how individuals can draw lessons from psychopathy to enhance their personal development while maintaining ethical and empathetic values. It underscores the idea that some psychopathic traits, when used in moderation and with awareness, can contribute to personal growth and success.

Question 66

Evolved Masculine

Answer 66

The concept of the “Evolved Masculine” represents a modern and progressive perspective on masculinity, which emphasizes personal growth, emotional intelligence, and positive contributions to society. Here’s a summarized overview:

1. Personal Growth: The Evolved Masculine encourages men to engage in continuous self-improvement. This involves developing emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and a sense of purpose beyond traditional gender roles.
2. Emotional Intelligence: Men embracing the Evolved Masculine concept prioritize emotional intelligence. They work on understanding and managing their own emotions, as well as empathizing with others, fostering healthier relationships and communication.
3. Healthy Relationships: The Evolved Masculine promotes respectful and equal partnerships. It rejects toxic behaviors like aggression and dominance in favor of mutual respect, cooperation, and support in personal and professional relationships.
4. Authenticity: Men following this concept are encouraged to be authentic and true to themselves. They embrace vulnerability and express their feelings, challenging traditional notions of stoicism and emotional suppression.
5. Social Contribution: The Evolved Masculine encourages men to contribute positively to their communities and society. It emphasizes values such as empathy, compassion, and social responsibility, encouraging men to be active participants in addressing societal issues.
6. Breaking Stereotypes: This concept challenges traditional gender stereotypes that limit men to narrow roles and behaviors. It allows men to define their masculinity in ways that align with their personal values and aspirations.
7. Balanced Well-being: The Evolved Masculine seeks a balanced approach to physical and mental well-being. It encourages men to prioritize not only physical health but also mental health, seeking support when needed.
8. Feminine Integration: Men adopting this concept recognize the value of integrating traditionally feminine qualities, such as nurturing, empathy, and collaboration, into their lives, promoting a more holistic understanding of masculinity.
9. Positive Role Models: The Evolved Masculine highlights the importance of positive male role models who embody these principles, serving as examples for future generations of men.

In summary, the Evolved Masculine represents a progressive and holistic approach to masculinity that promotes personal growth, emotional intelligence, healthy relationships, and a positive impact on society. It seeks to redefine traditional notions of manhood and encourages men to embrace a more authentic and empathetic version of themselves.