Transcript Values Collectivist Individualist

Fundamentals of Social Behavior
Chapter 2
Socially-constructed reality
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We base our behavior on a socially
constructed view of reality, e.g., selfconcept.
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I tells us what things go together, what
things mean, etc.
What do we know about humans?
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We are social beings.
◦ Need caretakers
◦ Need others for joint tasks
◦ Need relationships (meaning)
What do we know about humans/
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How much of our social needs are really
biological?
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Preemies grow faster when touched
Orphans sometimes fail to thrive
Psychosocial dwarfism
Core Knowledge Theory – Babies are wired
for psychology.
What do we know about humans?
How about the Brain?
Experiences rejection in the same area as
pain
 Inborn readiness to catagorize people
 Fusiform face area
 Closeness – friend or foe
 Sensitive to status or hierarchy
 Socialization needed and possible
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Humans are very intelligent
Learn automatically – reactive to the
environment
 Have imagination
 Have symbolic thought and language with
a displacement quality
 Have consciousness
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Humans have a sense of self
Self-awareness
 Identity
 Self-evaluation
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Thinking
Conscious and non-conscious aspects
 Non-conscious includes automatic
biological processes
 Also included automatization – no longer
has to come through consciousness
 Controlled processes
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The brain is enormously complex, most
complex entity in the known universe.
Humans are Goal-striving
Have needs for competence and
relatedness
 Hedonism – needs to approach pleasure
and avoid pain
 Fundamental motives for security and
growth
 Hierarchy of goals from concrete to
abstract
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Humans are Emotional Beings
Emotions are always positive or negative
(may be mixed)
 They are experienced in relation to those
things that are perceived to be good or
bad.
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There are Levels of Emotion
Background – sense of life, mood
 Primary
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◦ Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise
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Secondary
◦ These are variations on primary
They are often called self-referenced
Include, shame, guilt, fear, pride, empathy,
embarrassment
Cognitions & Emotions
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Cognitive Appraisal Theory
◦ Primary appraisal leads to arousal
◦ Secondary appraisal refines, modifies or
changes the emotion
How do emotions affect cognitions?
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How does mood affect cognitive
performance?
◦ Positive emotion can lead to positive
judgments, optimistic predictions, and recall of
positive memories.
◦ Negative emotion can lead to negative
memories being recalled, more analysis, and
negative expectancies.
How do emotions affect cognitions?
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They may be impediments to rational
thought.
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They are necessary for good decisionmaking.
What is culture?
System of order
 Self-evidently true
 Accepted automatically (socialization)
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Set of beliefs, attitudes, values, norms,
morals, customs, roles, statuses, symbols,
rituals – shared by a self-identified group
whose members think of themselves as a
group
Elements of a Culture
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Beliefs – accepted ideas about reality
◦ Cultural truisms are generally taken on faith.
◦ Beliefs are based on learning from others such
as parents, teachers, friends, media, cultural
authorities. Examples: UFO’s, Global
Warming, afterlife, Illuminati, etc.
Elements of a Culture
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Attitudes – preferences, likes and dislikes,
opinions about what is good and bad;
examples: abortion, transgender
bathrooms, building a wall on the Mexican
bordor
Elements of a Culture
Values – principles and goals (text, p. 53)
 Ten cross-cultural values
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1-benevolence
3-universalism
5-conformity
7-hedonism
9-tradition
2-self-direction
4-security
6-achievement
8-stimulation
10-power
Individualist vs. Collectivist Cultures
Values
Collectivist
Individualist
Group membership
Values independence
Group harmony
Individual Opinions
Tolerates self-inconsistency Self-consistency
Interdependence
Independence
Ingroup/outgroup distinction Others as individuals
Holistic style
Analytical style
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Culture in the Round
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Cultures are stable, but they also change.
◦ Once the pattern is formed, cultures tend to
stay stable; make members feel secure
◦ Usually when cultures change, it is due to
natural or geo-political upheavals (e.g., war,
earthquakes). Can also be due to technology
or disgruntled groups or individuals.
Structural Elements
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Cultures, or rather societies, have
organized ways of meeting essential
needs.
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Marriage/family
Government
Religion
Military
Economy
Education
 The way these are set up has a profound effect on
the way members understand things.
Facts about Cultures
They include both material and nonmaterial elements.
 They diffuse or are transmitted.
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What happens when individuals change cultures?
They can assimilate, change to the new
cultural ideas and patterns.
 They can remain multicultural.
 The balance of same and mixed elements
in a culture is correlated with its stability.
 Most individuals like freedom, but not
complete freedom, it is comfortable to
conform.
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How to think about relationships
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Community sharing
◦ Cooperation; self-sacrifice
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Authority ranking
◦ Giving and taking orders
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Equality matching
◦ same rights as friend
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Market pricing
◦ Economic exchange principles; cost-reward
Culture & the Metaphysical Environment
Culture influences your understanding of the
nature of reality and the significance of your
life
 It also helps us to address the question of
where we go from here
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Terror Management Theory
Assumes thoughts of death = terror
 Worldviews give life meaning, value, order,
and assurance by answering questions.
 Worldview is a theory of reality that
provides answers.
 The worldview may be our own individual
or collective creation.
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Example: Creation Stories
Garden of Eden
 Evolution
 Ancient Alien ideas
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These answer questions about who we
are and where we came from.
 This may be the basis for our self-esteem,
our standards and values, and the social
roles we take.
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Fear of Death
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May be more a fear of meaninglessness
than a fear of future nothingness.
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When surveyed, more than half of people
say that they believe in an afterlife, and
another one fourth say they think there is
probably one.
Symbolic Immortality
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People also desire to achieve symbolic
immortality or to leave a legacy so that
they live on through their children, their
works, monuments, or some other means.
Cultural Worldview
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All these things are part of the cultural
worldview so that:
◦ Social consensus and validation of our beliefs
increases our confidence.
◦ Threats from alternate worldviews are the
source of prejudice and conflict. These cause
us to be unsettled or insecure.