social neuroscience chapter Flashcards
What does social neuroscience do?
uses the brain and body to understand how we think and act, with a focus on how we think about and act toward other people
- neuroscience measures to understand how other people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
How can social neuroscience be thought of as both:
a methodological approach
a theoretical orientation
a methodological approach: (using measures of the brain and body to study social processes)
a theoretical orientation: (seeing the benefits of integrating neuroscience into the study of social psychology)
What is The overall approach in social neuroscience?
to understand the psychological processes that underlie our social behavior
What is Social categorization ?
act of mentally classifying someone as belonging in a group
How does social neuroscience study social categorization without self report measures?
electroencephalogram, or EEG. EEG is a measure of electrical activity generated by the brain’s neurons.
(very precise timing information)
subjects have been shown pictures of people who belong to different social groups.
FOUND:
Social categorization is an automatic process – something that happens with little conscious awareness or control – especially for dimensions like gender, race, and age
What did they find about the identity of the perceiver with the EEG?
The studies specifically show that brain activity differs when subjects view members of different social groups (e.g., men versus women, Black people versus White people), suggesting that the group differences are being encoded and processed by the perceiver
When trying to understand others,
Do we make associations based on what is likely?
Do we imagine what our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors would be in a similar situation?
If we use both brain areas when thinking about ourselves and others when trying to understand someones POV, it means self may be used to make inferences about others via simulation
Used FMRI ( oxygenation of blood- more oxygen in active brain bits)
- Good for precise location
showed subjects pictures of strangers and had them judge either how pleased the person was to have his or her picture taken
(quires making an inference about someone’s internal feelings)
FOUND: More activity in brain for self when thinking about how strangers might feel
What is mentalizing?
making an inference about someone’s internal feelings
What else did they find on the POV of others study?
Increased activity in:
- Region important in representing biological motion (superior temporal sulcus or STS),
- an area critical for emotional processing (amygdala),
- a region also involved in thinking about the beliefs of others (temporal parietal junction, TPJ)
Means:
a distributed and interacting set of brain areas is likely to be involved in social processing.
What did they find about POVs and subjects similar to yourself?
Activity which has been most consistently associated with thinking about the self, was particularly active when subjects mentalized about people they rated as similar to themselves
How can u measure stress?
Cortisol levels in spit or blood
Are we more stressed performing actions infront of other vs alone?
Dickerson, Mycek, and Zaldivar (2008) asked undergraduates to deliver a speech either alone or to two other people. When the students gave the speech in front of others, there was a marked increase in cortisol compared with when they were asked to give a speech alone. This suggests that like chronic physical stress, everyday social stressors, like having your performance judged by others, induces a stress response
BUT:
Interestingly, simply giving a speech in the same room with someone who is doing something else did not induce a stress response. This suggests that the mere presence of others is not stressful, but rather it is the potential for them to judge us that induces stress.
Are other people always stressful?
No!
Research on social support shows that relying on a network of individuals in tough times gives us tools for dealing with stress and can ward off loneliness
