Exam 2 Chapter 5

THE POWER OF THE SITUATION & THE PERSON

- Social situations profoundly influence individuals. Individuals also influence social situations 1. A given social situation can affect different people differently. 2. People often choose their situations -social people elect situations that evoke social interactions. 3. People often create their situations -we induce in others the behavior we expect.

INTERACTION

A relationship in which the effect of one factor (such as biology) depends on another factor ( such as environment. Biology predisposes men to strength tasks and women to infant care, but the behavior of men and women is sufficiently maleable that individual of both sexes are fully capable of carrying out organizational roles at all levels.

NORM SIMILARITIES THAT TRANSCEND CULTURES

All cultures have some common norms for friendship. In all cultures people describe others with between two and five dimensions. There are five universal dimensions of social beliefs. In all cultures one talks to higher-status people more respectfully and to lower-status people in a more familiar way.

BIOLOGY & CULTURE

Biological factors operate within a cultural context, and culture builds on a biological foundation. Research in the field of epigenetics shows that genes are expressed in some environments and not in others. Biological and cultural explanations do not contradict each other, they interact.

GENDER & HORMONES

Biology plays an important role in gender differences but so do social roles. As people mature to middle age and beyond, women become more assertive and self-confident, and men become more empathic and less domineering. Hormone changes are one possible explanation for shrinking gender differences.

TWO PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

EPIGENETICS IS A FIELD OF RESEARCH THAT CONSIDERS HOW GENES ARE EXPRESSED IN SOME ENVIRONMENTS & NOT IN OTHERS.

Explores the expression of genes across different environments. We are born with the capacity to learn language and bond with others. Much of our behavior is socially programmed, not hardwired

GENDER SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

FEMALES The average female has 70 % more fat, 40 % less muscle, is 5 inches shorter, and weighs 40 pounds less. Is more sensitive to smells and sounds. Is twice as likely to experience anxiety disorders or depression. MALES - The average male is slower to enter puberty, but quicker to die. Three times as likely to be diagnosed ADHD, 4 times more likely to commit suicide, 5 times more likely to be killed by lightning. More capable of wiggling his ears. 3 to 4 times stronger from the waist up.

GENDER AND MATING PREFERENCES

Females invest their reproductive opportunities carefully, by looking for signs of resources and commitment. Men everywhere feel attracted to women whose physical features, such as youthful faces and forms, suggest fertility. Men everywhere tend to be attracted to women whose age and features suggest peak fertility. Women of all ages prefer men just slightly older than themselves. When at peak fertility women tend to behave more flirtatiously, especially with confident, and socially dominant, men

CULTURE & GENDER

Gender role is a set of behavior expectations for males and females. The universal tendency has been for males, more than females, to occupy socially dominant roles. Gender socialization gives girls roots and boys wings.

GENDER ROLES

Gender roles show significant variation from culture to culture and from time to time. The trends toward more gender equality appear across many cultures. Societies with more gender equality are less likely to engage in war and are less violent.

SOCIAL DOMINANCE

In every society men are socially dominant. People perceive leaders as having more culturally masculine traits. Men act more impulsively and take more risks. In conversations, men/s style reflects their concern for independence, women's for connect Gender differences vary greatly by culture, and gender differences are shrinking in many industrialized societies.

AGGRESSION

In surveys, men admit to more aggression than do women. In Canada and the U.S. 8 times as many men as women are arrested for murder. Men all over the world of all ages more often injure others with physical aggression

NORMS VARY BY CULTURES

Individual choices are emphasized in individualistic cultures. Expressiveness is more common in collectivistic cultures. Punctuality takes place in individualistic cultures. Collectivistic cultures ostracize rule breakers. Personal space is larger in individualistic cultures. In all cultures children display a theory of mind at age four years.

WHAT IS GENDER?

It refers to characteristics people associate with male and female. Findings confirm that women are less physically aggressive, more nurturing, more socially sensitive.

GENDER AND AGGRESSION

Men commit more harmful physical aggression than women. Women commit more acts of relational aggression (malicious gossiping) Male to female arrest ratio in the U.S. is 9 to 1.

SEXUALITY

Men fantasize more about sex, have more permissive attitudes, seek more partners, are more easily aroused, use more pornography, initiate sex more often, take more risks.

PEER-TRANSMITTED CULTURE

Much of culture's influence is transmitted to children by their peers. Examples: -Preschoolers will refuse to try a food despite parents' coaxing, until they are placed at a table with children who like it. -Children pick up smoking from their peers, not their parents. -Immigrant children will assimilate to their peer's language rather than their home tongue.

ALL CULTURES HAVE NORMS - RULES FOR EXPECTED SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Norms are standards for accepted and expected social behavior. Cultures vary in norms for expressiveness, punctuality, rule-breaking, and personal space.

NATURAL SELECTION EXPLAINED

Organisms have many and varied offspring. Those offspring compete for survival in their environment. Certain biological and behavioral variations increase their chances of survival and reproduction in that environment. Those offspring that do survives and reproduce are more likely to pass their genes to succeeding generations. Thus, over time, population characteristics may change.

INDEPENDENCE VS. CONNECTEDNESS

Play -girls are more intimate, play in smaller groups and less aggressively. Friendship -women describe themselves in relational terms. Vocations -women would rather have jobs dealing with people Family relations -women bind families. Smiling -women have a higher rate of smiling. Empathy -women are more likely to describe themselves as having empathy. Emotions -women are better at reading emotions.

THE TWO HUMAN DIVERSITY DIMENSIONS THAT MATTER MOST:

RACE AND GENDER

WHAT IS CULTURE

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

OUR GENES

The evolutionary perspective emphasizes our similarities. The universal behaviors that define human nature arise from our biological similarities.

NATURAL SELECTION

The evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in particular environments are passed to succeeding generations

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE HIGHLIGHTS OUR UNIVERSAL HUMAN NATURE

WE SHARE PREFERENCES. WE SHARE ANSWERS TO SOCIAL QUESTIONS. OUR EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES ARE THE SAME AS THOSE THAT WORKED FOR OUR ANCESTORS.

WHAT DO WE FEAR

What our ancestors feared: the dark, enemies, unfamiliar faces, heights, the ethnically different, airplanes, we fear what's immediate and sudden, more than greater and gradual harms, such as smoking.

THE BEST-KNOWN UNIVERSAL NORM:

is the taboo against incest -parents are not to have sexual relations with their children, nor siblings with one another. Every society disapproves of incest.

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

studies how natural selection predisposes psychological traits and social behaviors that enhance the preservation and spread of one's genes. We are this way because nature selected those who have our traits.

WOMEN-ARE-WONDERFUL EFFECT

the fact that people rate their beliefs and feelings regarding women as more favorable than their feelings regarding men.