Social Psychology, 2: Nature/Culture Flashcards
How do Baumeister and Bushman evaluate the influence of nature and culture on humans?
They view both as essential for understanding human social behavior, furthermore, both factors affect each other: Nature constrains culture, but culture also shapes nature.
What is currently considered the most important element of natural selection for social psychologists?
Reproduction. If a trait only helps an organism survive, but not reproduce, it will not be passed on.
What did Robin Dunbar observe correlates with brain size across different species?
Brain size (per pound of body mass) is positively correlated with size of social group that the species forms.
Differentiate social species from cultural species.
While social species cooperate, culture as an adaptation adds specialized methods of teaching and learning that allow cultural species to improve their adaptations with successive generations.
What do humans most often rely on when they are in trouble?
Other humans
What is the relationship between conformity and pathogen density?
They are positively correlated across societies. The greater the chance of contracting a disease in an area, the stricter the conformity in that culture. Foreigners or nonconformists are tolerated less in these environments than in safer places.
How do species change?
Nature randomly produces change through genetic mutation. The vast majority of these are harmful, but those few that increase fitness are increasingly passed on over generations.
What explanation does evolutionary psychology give for gender differences in sexual attitudes?
It claims that because women’s reproduction is limited by the cost and duration of pregnancy, women evolved to be more cautious and oriented towards committed relationships than men, who can generate many more offspring through causal sexual relations.
What differentiates humans from all other species, at least according to Baumeister and Bushman?
Culture. Over time, various traits have been postulated that make humans ‘special’ or superior. But all of them, including culture, are debatable.
How long have humans been using currency?
Approximately 3000 years, according to the best archaeological evidence to date.
What is most strange about human’s relationship with food?
Humans are the only species that is known to reject edible food solely because of ideas or beliefs.
Differentiate socialness from culturalness in terms of prosocial behavior.
Social species typically only help genetic relatives, whereas culture includes ties of reciprocity between unrelated members of a community.
Differentiate the automatic and deliberate systems of the duplex mind.
The automatic system is rapid and unconscious, what we often call intuition. The deliberate system is slow, conscious, and controlled, related to what is called reasoning.
How do the automatic and deliberte systems relate to cultural life?
The presence of a strong deliberate system is needed to override instincts that would cause conflict and reduce cooperation in a complex and large social group. E.g., delay of gratification.
How do humans sensory systems reveal a cultural difference between us and other species?
Our senses are focused more on resolution, whereas others species is focused on detection. This makes us better at recognizing individuals than detecting danger or food, enhancing our ability to cooperate.
