1. Social Psychology PSY450 Instructor: Briana (Seay) Harvey
Welcome!
Social Psychology
PSY450
Instructor: Briana (Seay) Harvey

2. Nature vs. Nurture Are you the way you are because of genetics?
Or because of the way you were raised?
Personality?
IQ?
Skills?

3. Nature vs. Nurture Twin studies Separated at birth or raised together
Diseases
Interests/hobbies

5. Nature Defined
Nature – the physical world around us, including it’s laws and processes

6. Culture and Human Social Life
Culture – an information based system that includes shared ideas and common ways of doing things
In other words: what a large group of people has in common

7. Culture consists of shared ideas
Mental representations (thoughts) that are abstract (i.e., they refer to more than a single concrete thing) and that can be expressed in language
Example’s:
Traffic signal
Money

8. Culture
Praxis
Practical way of doing things (e.g., drive on the right side of the road)

9. Praxis

10. Nature and Culture Interacting the Social Side of Sex
Rooted in Nature
Men desire more partners than women
Basic practices known to most cultures
Reason is reproduction
Cultural Differences
Guam- law prohibits woman marrying if she is a virgin
Turkey-woman must be a virgin and used to have to submit to exam
Indonesia- masturbation penalty is beheading
Lebanese- Men who have sex with male animals get death penalty but if female it’s fine

11. Nature and Culture Interacting Virtuous Vegetarians
Eating is natural & vital
Humans naturally eat meat
Culture
Some believe it is immoral to eat meat
Religious reasons or animal rights

12. Culture and Food Preferences
Americans eat oysters but not snails.
The French eat snails but not locusts.
The Zulus eat locusts but not fish.
The Jews eat fish but not pork.
The Hindus eat pork but not beef.
The Russians eat beef but not snakes.
The Chinese eat snakes but not people.
The Jale of New Guinea find people delicious.

13. Evolutionary Psychology
Examines the evolution of human behavioral tendencies
Based on the idea that evolution may “select” psychological and behavioral traits that enhance the preservation and spread of one’s genes
This has been helpful in understanding areas such as mating strategies (e.g., the function of jealousy) and emotions

14. Evolution, and Doing What’s Natural
Theory of evolution
Theory proposed by Darwin to explain how changes occur in nature
Darwin’s finches on Galapagos

15. Evolution Natural selection
Process whereby those members of a species that survive and reproduce most effectively are the ones that pass along their genes to future generations

16. Human vestigiality
Vestigial: having lost all or most of their original function through evolution.
Tails
present for a period of 4 weeks in fetal development
23 babies born with a tail
Wisdom teeth, Appendix, ear muscles
Appendix?

17. Criteria for natural selection
Survival – living longer
“Survival of the fittest”
Competition within species
BUT…survival in order to reproduce
Reproduction – producing babies that survive long enough to also reproduce
Mutation – a new gene or combination of genes
Can be helpful or harmful (Ex. Flu)

19. The Social Brain Social Brain Theory
Being social can increase survival & reproduction
In order to be social one needs a complex, powerful brain

20. Social Animal
Social Animal – seek connections to others and prefer to live, work, and play with other members of their species
Includes humans, but also many other animals
Cultural Animal – evolution shaped human psyche to enable humans to create and take part in culture
Defining trait of what makes us human

21. Name each color…
Experiment time

22. Blue Green Black Red Red Black Green Blue Red Blue Black Green
Name each color…
Blue Green Black Red
Red Black Green Blue
Red Blue Black Green

23. Name each color (don’t read the word!)…
Red Blue Green Black
Black Blue Red Green
Blue Black Green Red

24. Automatic and Conscious Thinking
Stroop effect
Conscious thought has difficulty overriding automatic

25. Review What was the IV in this experiment:
Text (whether the word represented it’s color or not
What was the DV in this experiment:
The time scores from each classmate
Was this a within or between subject design?
Within: because each classmate was exposed to both conditions
Was it experimental, Quasi, or correlational
Quasi
Because I let people volunteer instead of randomly selecting participants

26. Automatic Processes Effortless, unconscious, and involuntary
Behaviors which are rehearsed enough to become routine:
Counting 1 to 10
Spelling your name
Writing your address
Walking
Driving

27. Conscious Processes
Intentional setting of the goals of processing and intentional evaluation of its outputs
Behaviors which require thinking/planning/override automatic processes:
Stroop Effect
Playing a game
Going on a diet!

28. Selective attention
Are we always aware of our surroundings or are we on autopilot?

30. Table 2.1 The Duplex Mind: Conscious and Automatic Systems

31. The Duplex Mind Automatic system Conscious system
Outside of consciousness
Simple operations
Conscious system
Complex operations

32. Decision making
Unconscious (automatic) is better at making complex decisions (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren,2006)
The conscious is better at simpler decisions (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006)

34. Explaining the Psyche Psyche
Broad term for mind, encompassing emotions, desires, perceptions, and all other psychological processes
Conscious AND unconscious mind

35. What is Consciousness for?
Increased focus on role of automatic system
Can learn, think, choose, and respond
Has ideas and emotions
Knows “self” and other people
Consciousness focus on complex thinking and logic

36. Nature Says Go, Culture Says No
Nature – impulses, wishes, automatic responses
Culture – teaches self-control and restraint
Inhibitions

37. Conscious Override Sometimes we need to override the unconscious
Vital to life in culture because culture is full of rules about how to behave: norms, guidelines, laws, morals, expectations

38. The Long Road to Social Acceptance
Working to gain social acceptance
Inner states help humans connect to others
Human brain evolved to improve interpersonal relations
Think about the evolution of second order emotions:
Empathy, guilt
Pariah- someone who is an outcast

39. Humans “feel” others’ pain:

40. Selfish Impulse Versus Social Conscience
Nature makes us selfish
Preservation of self
Culture helps us resist selfish impulses
Consideration of what is best for society
Morality

41. Tradeoffs: When You Can’t Have It All
Tradeoffs – no choice that is clearly the best in every respect
Time – Now versus Tomorrow
Performance-enhancing drugs
Sacrifice now – Payoff in the future
Future Orientation (thinking ahead)
Important aspect of cultural animal

42. Putting People First Conformity research!
People get most of what they need from other people
Culture as a “general store” of information
Conscious processes rely on culture
People look to each other first
Conformity research!

43. The boy who was raised as a girl

44. Culture and Nature
What does the case of “Little Brenda” suggest about culture and nature?
Innate versus socialized
~50 minutes

45. Next Time…
The Self..
Self-Esteem
Reality vs. Illusions