Major Exam 1 - Social Psych

The First Rule of Moral Psychology

"Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second" - Jonathan Haidt

The Lower Brain (reptilian brain) (old brain)

- Mid Brain/Limbic system: The brain's command center of emotions - Hind Brain/Brain Stem: The brain's command center of physiology

David G. Meyers Social Psych definition

- Social Psychology is a science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another. More precisely, it is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Humans tend to be Cognitive Misers

- We seek ways to conserve cognitive energy and simplify complexity - We usually have to consciously choose to enter the realms of cognitive complexity, and most visit there only periodically, and for short periods.

Susan Fiske's Five Core Social Motives

1. Belongingness 2. Understanding & Predicting Accurately 3. Controlling 4. Enhancing Self - A Need To Matter 5. Trusting

All living organisms are "_____"

All living organism are NEEDY - But social animals meet many of their needs and desires with and through others

David O'Shaughnessy's take on Social Psychology' major emphases

As a discipline, Social Psychology places key emphases on: 1. Using scientific methods to work with (describe, explain, predict, and modify/respond to) what follows from humans being a highly social species. 2. Using scientific methods to work with how human beings tend to behave when others are involved. 3. Using scientific methods to work with human behavior in groups (of various sizes).

Social Psych Big Ideas

Attitudes shape, and are shaped by, behavior

Social behavior is also _____________ behavior

BIOLOGICAL

Experience begins at ____________.

CONCEPTION

3 Keys to Behavior Change - Elephant & Rider

Direct The Rider - give clear direction, reduce mental paralysis Motivate The Elephant - find the emotional connection Shape The Path - Reduce obstacles, tweak the environment, make the journey go downhill

Social Psych Big Ideas

Dispositions shape behavior

The political brain is an ________ one.

EMOTIONAL

Learning is a form of ___________

EXPERIENCE

The Duality of Experience

Experience involves both what is going on inside the human, and what is going on external to the human, at the same time

TRUE OR FALSE Experience is not cumulative

FALSE, Experience(s) can be isolated moment-by-moment, but experience is also at the same time something cumulative over time.

TRUE OR FALSE Humans are aware of most of their experience as they experience it

FALSE, and we also cannot remember

TRUE OR FALSE During times of COMFORT, it is common for humans to regress back to earlier stages of development

FALSE, challenge

TRUE OR FALSE It is possible for a gene to operate independently of experience

FALSE, it is IMPOSSIBLE

TRUE OR FALSE - The higher and more forward you go in the brain, the LESS cognitively complex, slower, and more open to consciousness and some degree of choosing do you see things go

FALSE, more

TRUE OR FALSE Learning is only academic in nature

FALSE, not all learning is done cognitively

Fast Thinking vs Slow Thinking (Daniel Kahneman)

Fast Thinking (95%) = Intuition & Instinct - Unconscious, Fast, Associative, Auto-pilot Slow Thinking (5%) = Rational Thinking -Takes effort, slow, logical, lazy, indecisive

HIGHER BRAIN "New Brain"

Forebrain (Cortex/Command Center of Cognition)

The Lower Brain Team offers rapid, simple and more primal responses to newly encountered stimuli like:

I. Freeze II. Submit to III. Run away from IV. Join (recognize as being on, or wanting to be on, the other's team) V. Defend (self, dependents, team, clan, tribe, political party, nation, food, territory, possessions, ego, reputation, status, place in line, etc.) VI. Attack (fight) VII. Nurture VIII. Be nurtured by IX. Desire to mate with

Psychology is the scientific study of __________ & __________

Mental Processes (COGNITION) & Behavior (actions and reactions [wink or blink])

3 types of Learning

Motor, Emotional, and Cognitive (traditional)

Triune Brain

Neocortex (metaphorical), Limbic System (social/emotional), Reptilian Complex (fight or flight)

Why is the Nature vs. Nurture debate "false"?

Our experience is a combo of both simultaneously

Aronson's first law

People who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy

Stimuli can be more _________ or ________ in form

Physical or Mental

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Love and Belonging, Esteem, Self-actualization

Rational vs. Rationalization

Rational: A person could said to be acting rationally when he or she is behaving significantly in accordance with reason Rationalization: (DEFENSE MECHANISM) controversial behaviors (or feelings) are attempting to be explained and justified in a seemingly rational manner - but in a way that avoids the full truth

Social Psych Big Ideas

Social behavior is also biological behavior

Social Cognition Definition

Social cognition is the study of how people come to believe what they do, how they explain, remember, predict, make decisions, and evaluate themselves and others; and why these processes so frequently produce errors.

Social Psych Big Ideas

Social influences shape behavior...

Social Psych Big Ideas

Social psychology's principles are applicable to everyday life...

Plato's metaphor of the charioteer connects with the __________ Brain

TRIUNE BRAIN --- The Charioteer represents man's Reason, the dark horse his appetites, and the white horse his thumos. ... Plato believed reason has the highest aims, followed by thumos, and then the appetites

The Elephant and The Rider metaphor, like Plato's Metaphor of The Charioteer, connects to the ______ ______

TRIUNE BRAIN: The cerebellum and limbic system make 95% of decisions whereas the neocortex makes 5% of decisions

TRUE OR FALSE - As a general principle the lower and further down in the brain you go, the less cognitively complex, faster, and more automated do things usually operate.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE - While all parts of the brain are always involved in some sense, it is helpful to think of some parts of the brain showing more leadership, or being more involved than other parts of the brain

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE Anything you can remember, you have (in some sense) learned, but there are things you have learned, that you cannot remember.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE Genetic directions are never expressed unless activated through experience (biology and/or learning).

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE Given the type of creatures we find the human species generally being today, experience is usually a greater general explanatory variable than is genetics in explaining the human story - at least since the advent of civilization

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE Psychology had philosophy and the biological sciences as its "discipline parents."

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE Social Evolution (as a category of experience) is responsible for so much more of the form of life today than is biological evolution. Social evolution acts as a speed demon compared to its biological cousin.

TRUE

Elephant and The Rider Metaphor

The elephant (emotions) makes most of our decisions without conscious awareness and the rider rationalizes/justifies those decisions so we seem reasonable to others and to ourselves on our path (environment).

PLATO'S METAPHOR OF THE CHARIOTEER

The rational element (represented by the driver) is to rule over and guide the two horses that represent the emotions (passions) and the physical parts (appetites).

Triangle of meaning

The same stimulus in different scenarios can have different meanings

Social Psych Big Ideas

We construct our own perceived social reality

Although we are capable of HIGH RATIONALITY, we can choose to follow less rational directions and guides

Yalom quotes connection to reptilian brain - We would find it strange if we were studying an insect and we noticed that it had an irrational obsession with two lumps on the thorax - "He hated being enslaved by early programming... his primitive lust for seduction and conquest -- what were they if not fossils direct from the dawn of history? And his passion for the breast, for the kneading and the sucking... A relic from the nursery."

- Unfortunately, since human evolution takes so incredibly long, and with social evolution being exponentially faster, you're getting around in a human "vehicle" desperately in need of updates!

You have (in significant ways), a PRIMATE or Cave Man/Cave Woman brain and body -- but a 21st Century mind and experience.

Definition of learning

any new neural network formed in the brain prompted by the organism experiencing sufficient stimuli

Aristotle quote (History of Social Psych)

• "Man is by nature a social animal, an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human." • "Society is something that precedes the individual. ... No man can break the shackles of mutual dependence."