Social Psychology

1
Social Psychology

• David Myers
• 11e
• Chapter 5 Social Influence
• Genes, Culture, and Gender
• -How we influence one another

2
How Are We Influenced by Human Nature and
Cultural Diversity?What is your belief/affect
response to Jan and Tomoko?

• Genes, Evolution, and Behavior
• Natural selection
• Heritable traits that best enable organisms to
  survive and reproduce are passed to ensuing
  generations
• Social animals Join, conform, recognize social
  status
• Social as well as biological evolution occurs
  (still does)
• Such as trust, disapproval, punishment, altruism,
  morality
• Social behavior genetics are harder to see
  because they interact (happens along with)
  cultural changes
• Evolutionary psychology
• Study of the evolution of cognition and behavior
  based on principles of natural selection
• There has been enough time for variance in genes
• Variation has been recent , copious, and regional
  (N.Wade)

3
How Are We Influenced by Human Nature and
Cultural Diversity?

• Culture and Behavior
• Culture
• Enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and
  traditions shared by a large group of people and
  transmitted from one generation to the next
• Cultural diversity
• Our behavior is socially programmed
• Could it also be influenced by genes?
• One in eight Americans is an immigrant

4
How Are We Influenced by Human Nature and
Cultural Diversity?

• Culture and Behavior
• Norms Expected behavior by the group
• Norms (implicit rules for getting along)
• Standards for accepted and expected behavior
• Expressiveness - German v. Greeks?
• Punctuality - U.S. v. Caribbean ? Jamaica?
• Rule Breaking a social norm for rule breaking?
• whats the benefit of that?
• Personal Space prison inmates v. us
• Buffer zone we like to maintain around our
  bodies
• Eye contact when is it appropriate? How long?
• a stare (creepy) v. hes looking at me

5
How Are We Influenced by Human Nature and
Cultural Diversity?

• Culture and Behavior
• Cultural similarity
• What is a theory of mind?
• Universal friendship norms
• Universal trait dimensions CANOE
• Universal social belief dimensions
• Cynicism, social complexity, reward for hard
  work, spirituality, fate control
• Universal status norms (R. Brown)
• Intimacy (you must call me professor!!)
• Incest taboo why is this universal?
• Norms of war except for Iraq and a few others

6
How Are Males and Females Alike and Different?

• Gender
• Characteristics, whether biological or socially
  influenced, by which people define male and
  female
• Females
• 70 more fat, shorter, weigh less
• More sensitive to smells and sounds
• More vulnerable to anxiety disorders, depression
• Males
• Slower to reach puberty, die younger
• ADHD!!!!
• Commit suicide (more women try but dont succeed)

7
How Are Males and Females Alike and Different?

• Women

• Men

• Describe themselves in more relational terms
• Experience more relationship-linked emotions
• More empathetic
• Gravitate toward jobs that reduce inequalities

• Focus on tasks and on connections with large
  groups
• Respond to stress with fight or flight response
• Gravitate toward jobs that enhance inequalities

8
How Are Males and Females Alike and Different?

• Social Dominance
• (when is it better to be socially dominant?)
• Men are socially dominant
• Womens wages in industrial countries average 77
  percent of mens
• Men tend to be more autocratic women more
  democratic
• Men take more risks

9
How Are Males and Females Alike and Different?

• Aggression
• Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
  someone
• In the U.S., the arrest ratio of male to female
  is 9 to 1
• When provocation occurs the gender gap shrinks
• Women are slightly more likely to commit indirect
  aggressive acts
• Spreading malicious gossip

10
How Are Males and Females Alike and Different?

• Sexuality
• Men
• More often think about and initiate sex
• Women
• Are more inspired by emotional passion

11
Evolution and Gender Doing What Comes Naturally?

• Gender and Mating Preferences
• Men seek out quantity (reproduce widely)
• Spreading genes widely
• Women seek out quality (wisely choose)
• Protecting and nurturing of offspring

12
Evolution and Gender Doing What Comes Naturally?

• Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology
• Evolutionary psychologists sometimes start with
  an effect and work backward to construct an
  explanation
• Way to overcome the hindsight bias is to
  imagine things turning out otherwise. (find the
  function it provides)
• Evolutionary psychologists disagree with this
  theory
• Same criticism for cultural theories
• Their opponents worry that accepting genetically
  driven differences reinforces gender stereotypes.
• Is evolution genetic determinism? Or can we adapt
  to different environments?

13
Sample Predictions Derived from Evolutionary
Psychology
14
Evolution and Gender Doing What Comes Naturally?

• Gender and Hormones
• Gender gap in aggression seems influenced by
  testosterone
• As humans age they become more androgynous
• Mixing both masculine and feminine characteristics

15
Culture and Gender Doing as the Culture Says?

• Gender Role
• Set of behavior expectations (norms) for males
  and females
• Confess did culture form you develop roots or
  wings?
• Discuss Is gender role inequality good or bad?
• Gender roles vary over culture
• Should both spouses work and share child care?
• 41 of 44 countries prefer sharing
• What are the implications for each option?
• Gender roles vary over time
• Evolution and biology do not fix them.

16
Culture and Gender Doing as the Culture Says?

• Peer-Transmitted Culture
• 50 of personality (and predisposition to
  respond)
• is inherited
• 0 -10 percent of individual variations in
  personality traits is by
• parental nurturing
• The other 40 -50 is peer influence! On values/
  preferences
• What are some that you learned /adopted?
• What are the implications for values and
  behaviors having the
• boy/girl scout v. gang group influence?
• Extremism Islamist v. other religious
  influence?
• Change comes from the youth. Some examples?

17
What Can We Conclude about Genes, Culture, and
Gender?

• Biology and Culture
• Biology and experience interact when biological
  traits influence how the environment reacts
• Epigenetics environment triggers biological
  gene expression
• E.g. diet, drugs stress
• But some stress is good for us
• (at cellular level and for physical development)
• E.g. Hostility of cop killers in Bronx and Jihad
  John
• Great truths B f (p e)
• Power of the situation
• Power of the person
• interaction () plays a big role
• A social situation affects different people
  differently
• People often choose their situation
• People often create their situations