Social Psych Ch2

Two Fundamental Psychological Motives

Two basic motivational orientations guide human behavior: 1. Avoidance involves avoiding the bad; more right-hemisphere activity 2. Growth involves approaching the good; primarily left-hemisphere activity

Cultural Evolution

the process whereby cultures develop and propagate according to systems of belief of behavior that contribute to the success of a society

3. Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings

Goals/ Desires: The process of generating and expending energy toward achieving or avoiding some outcome Humans direct their behavior toward the satisfaction of needs and goals.

Humans strive toward goals to meet their needs.

Goals: Cognitions that represent outcomes for which we strive in order to meet our needs and desires

Hedonism

-One of the most basic aspects of human motivation. Human preference for pleasure over pain

Four Domain-General Adaptations That Shape Human Behavior

1. Humans are social beings. 2. Humans are very intelligent beings. 3. Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings. 4. Humans are very emotional beings.

Self-esteem beliefs

A person's evaluation of his of her value or self-worth

Culture

A set of beliefs, attitudes, values, norms, morals, customs, roles, statuses, symbols, and rituals shared by a self-identified group, a group whose members think of themselves as a group

2. Humans are very intelligent beings.

Ability to imagine a future supports a uniquely human form of control over the world. Symbolic thought and language enables humans to consider multiple conceptualizations and to communicate these to others. The ability to think symbolically enables people to think about the meaning of experiences.

Beliefs

Accepted ideas about some aspect of reality; cultural truisms

Creation stories

All cultures have stories about the creation of the world and the people in it.

Domain-general adaptations

Attributes that are useful for dealing with various challenges across different areas of life

Domain-specific adaptations

Attributes that evolved to meet a particular challenge but that are not particularly useful when dealing with other types of challenges

Morals

Beliefs about the nature of good and bad behavior; community morals, autonomy morals, divinity morals (CAD); moral foundation theory

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

Cognitive capacities allowed for an awareness of the inevitability of death To minimize fear of mortality, humans strive to sustain faith that they are enduringly valued contributors to a meaningful world and therefore transcend their physical death.

Nature of the self

Collectivist: Interdependent self-construal Individualistic: Independent self-construal

Fitting in and sticking out

Collectivist: Social harmony and meeting cultural expectations Individualistic: Personal freedom; freedom of speech

4. Humans are very emotional beings.

Emotions motivate actions when goals need to be reached and needs satisfied. Internal experience of emotion is accompanied by external displays. Three-part division of emotion: background, primary, and secondary emotions. Social emotions are even more dependent on frontal lobes.

Adapting to the physical environment

Group living in specific areas shapes the development of technology differently. Adaptation to physical surroundings influences people's basic perceptions and thought processes. Culture affects susceptibility to tricks of visual perceptions (Müller-Lyer illusion).

Values

Guiding principles and shared goals of members in a wide range of situations

1. Humans are social beings.

Human survival is dependent on social relationships. The human brain has evolved several tools to facilitate appropriate social sensitivity: Recognition of human faces (fusiform face area) Exclusion sensitivity Inborn readiness to categorize people (closeness or solidarity; status or hierarchy)

Needs

Internal states that drive action that is necessary to survive or thrive

Limbic System and Frontal Cortex

Our experiential and rational systems take place in different regions of the brain that support different types of thought processes. Yet these systems are neurally connected and work together in producing thought and behavior.

Rituals

Patterns of actions performed in particular, reinforcing contexts that often signal change associated with beginning or end or something of biological, historical, or cultural significance

Social roles

Positions within a group that entail specific ways of acting, dividing labor, responsibility, and resources

Attitudes

Preferences that refer specifically to how things are evaluated as good or bad

Cultural symbols

Represent culture as a whole; beliefs or values prevalent in a culture

Norms

Shared beliefs about appropriate or expected behavior in particular situations

Customs

Specific patterns or styles of dress, speech, and behavior deemed appropriate in a particular context within a given culture

Evolution

The concept that different species are descended from common ancestors but have evolved over time, acquiring different genetic characteristics as a function of different environmental demands

Fusiform Face Area

The fusiform face area allows us to recognize the faces of the people we know.

Natural selection

The process by which certain attributes are more successful in a particular environment and therefore become more represented in future generations

Culture Transmission

The process whereby members of a culture learn explicitly or implicitly to imitate the beliefs and behaviors of other in that culture

Culture Diffusion

The transfer of inventions, knowledge and ideas from one culture to another

Naturalistic fallacy

a bias toward believing biological adaptations are inherently good or desirable.

Müller-Lyer Illusion

one line longer than the other? Your ability to answer this question correctly depends on the culture in which you were raised.

Culture helps humans adapt to their metaphysical environment

our understanding of the nature of reality and the significance of our lives within the cosmic order of things.