PSYCHOLOGY FOR A CULTURAL SPECIES
According to the definitions in this book, which of the following would not be a good example of culture?
a. iPhones.
b. A child learning how to tie her shoes from her mother.
c. A child figures out how to create a hammer by tying a rock to the end of a stick.
d. A child is given a new puzzle that she has never seen before, and she discovers a new solution by herself.
e. A child learns to raise her hand in class to get the teacher’s attention.
d. A child is given a new puzzle that she has never seen before, and she discovers a new solution by herself.
When people demonstrate a prestige bias, they more or less copy everything a prestigious model does. This is because humans
a. engage in emulative learning.
b. just love to learn.
c. engage in imitative learning.
d. have a brain with a large neocortex.
e. have a small encephalization quotient.
c. engage in imitative learning.
According to a culture of honor explanation, the U.S. South has historically been more violent than the North because
a. the South is hotter than the North.
b. there was a more extensive slave trade in the South than the North.
c. the South is poorer than the North.
d. there were more herders in the South than in the North.
e. there are more guns available in the South than in the North.
d. there were more herders in the South than in the North.
- precarious existence as wealth is portable
- usually emerges where it is sparsely populated and difficult to police.
- More likely to protect your herd if you develop a reputation as someone who would respond to threats with violence
A noun bias refers to which of the following?
a. People describe themselves more with nouns than with adjectives.
b. The first words children learn are usually nouns rather than other kinds of words.
c. People pay more attention to nouns than to other words in conversations.
d. Nouns can be dropped in many languages, while still preserving the meaning of a sentence.
e. None of the above.
b. The first words children learn are usually nouns rather than other kinds of words.
noun bias: The tendency in young children to have a vocabulary with more nouns relative to the number of verbs and other relational words.
The Big Five personality traits
a. are clearly observed only in Western cultural contexts.
b. do not vary significantly in magnitude across cultures.
c. are believed to be unique to humans.
d. merge identically cross-culturally, regardless of the language from which the trait terms are derived.
e. do not cover the full extent of personality traits in all cultures, but they are still cross-culturally robust.
e. do not cover the full extent of personality traits in all cultures, but they are still cross-culturally robust.
WEIRD
An important difference between cultural psychologists and general psychologists is:
a. General psychologists study people who have had their culture statistically controlled for.
b. Cultural psychologists study people from different cultures, while general psychologists study people from one culture.
c. Cultural psychologists believe the mind is interdependent with context and content, whereas general psychologists believe the mind is independent from context and content.
d. General psychologists believe people are born with essentially the same brain everywhere, whereas cultural psychologists believe people are born with different kinds of brains in different cultures.
e. General psychologists believe experiences shape the mind, whereas cultural psychologists believe experiences do not shape the mind.
c. Cultural psychologists believe the mind is interdependent with context and content,
whereas general psychologists believe the mind is independent from context and content.
Homer sharpens a rock and uses it to shave. A manufacturing company adds a handle to the rock for better grip. Another manufacturer then changes the rock to a titanium blade for durability. The progression of improvements made to the shaving utensil is an example of
a. cultural adaptation.
b. emulative learning.
c. the eureka effect.
d. cultural bootstrapping.
e. the ratchet effect.
e. the ratchet effect.
definition: In cultural learning, the process by which cultural information becomes more complex and often more useful over time, because an initial idea can be learned from others and then modified and improved on by the learners.
After examining surveys you collected from culture X, you find that people’s responses tend to cluster toward the center of your scale. This phenomenon is known as the _____________ bias.
a. acquiescence
b. social desirability
c. moderacy
d. deprivation
e. extremity
c. moderacy
The Singhs, an Indian family, are trying to decide on room arrangements for a new house they’re building. Which of the following moral principles is likely to be the least important for this family?
a. protection of the vulnerable
b. the sacred couple
c. female chastity anxiety
d. respect for hierarchy
e. incest avoidance
b. the sacred couple
sacred couple: A moral principle that married couples should have their own sleeping space for emotional intimacy and sexual privacy.
What happens when people evaluate themselves while facing a mirror?
a. People from all cultures become more self-critical in front of a mirror.
b. Americans view themselves more positively, and Japanese view themselves more negatively.
c. Americans view themselves more negatively, and Japanese view themselves more positively.
d. Americans view themselves more negatively, and Japanese do not change.
e. People from all cultures view themselves more positively in front of a mirror.
d. Americans view themselves more negatively, and Japanese do not change.
large-scale investigation explored whether people from a variety of subsistence societies around the world tended to punish those who acted unfairly, even if that punishment was costly for the person who delivered it
Such costly punishment was evident in all 15 societies that were investigated. But there was also considerable variation in the amount of punishment.
What is this an example of? a(n)...
a. nonuniversal
b. existential universal
c. functional universal
d. accessibility universal
e. conditional universal
c. functional universal
definition: Functional universals are psychological processes that exist in all cultures, are used to solve the same problems across cultures, yet are more accessible to people from some cultures than others.
Which of the following statements is not true about animals and culture?
a. Humans appear to be the only species that uses symbolic coding.
b. Culture is found in several species of primates, but not in other animals.
c. There are behaviors common in chimpanzees in one location that are absent from chimpanzees in another location.
d. Chimpanzees show good emulative learning, but poor imitative learning, compared with humans.
e. Aside from humans, no other species shows evidence for much cumulative culture.
b. Culture is found in several species of primates, but not in other animals. IS NOT TRUE
The tendency for people living in conditions with a real threat of starvation to value food more than those living where food is abundant is an example of
a. the reference group effect.
b. socially desirable responding.
c. acquiescence bias.
d. unsynchronized sample selections.
e. the deprivation effect.
e. the deprivation effect.
deprivation effect: A tendency for people to value something more when it is lacking in their culture.
Shawna, a mother from the United Kingdom, is trying to determine which parenting style she should use with her child to maximize the child’s school achievement, independence, and self-reliance. According to Baumrind’s classification, which parenting style should she use?
a. Tiger Mom parenting
b. jiao xun parenting
c. permissive parenting
d. authoritarian parenting
e. authoritative parenting
e. authoritative parenting
authoritative parenting: Child-centered parenting, in which parents try to understand their children’s feelings but encourage them to be independent while maintaining controls on their behavior.
Ambrose has an independent self, and Hayden has an interdependent self. Knowing only this, which of the following is probably true about Hayden?
a. He draws a weaker distinction between a stranger at the bus stop and his brother.
b. He feels his identity is primarily based on his sense that he’s an outgoing and extraverted person.
c. He acts the same way regardless of the context or situation.
d. He is more motivated to be unique and different from others.
e. The same brain regions will be activated when he’s thinking about himself and his mother.
e. The same brain regions will be activated when he’s thinking about himself and his mother.
While chatting over coffee with your friend, you overhear someone say, “I don’t understand how those Hindus let cattle wander around their cities and not eat them. Where I come from, cattle are raised, branded, and then turned into steak and burgers. What the Hindus do just isn’t normal.” Which of the following does this situation best demonstrate?
a. segregation
b. ethnocentrism
c. integrationism
d. discrimination
e. assimilationism
b. ethnocentrism
Definition: Evaluating people from other cultures by comparing them to the standards of one’s own culture.
Emulative and imitative learning can be contrasted in the following way:
a. Imitative learning leads to better solutions than emulative learning.
b. Chimpanzees can perform well at tasks involving imitative learning, but not at tasks involving emulative learning.
c. Emulative learning does not require imitating a model’s behavioral strategies.
d. Emulative learning is necessary for cultural accumulation.
e. Two-year-old children solve problems with emulative learning of behavioral strategies, whereas one-year-olds do not.
c. Emulative learning does not require imitating a model’s behavioral strategies.
When reference group effects occur in cross-cultural research, what’s the reason?
a. People use social comparison to evaluate themselves.
b. People don’t really know how they feel.
c. People from different cultures have different response styles.
d. People value what they are most in need of.
e. Some words do not translate well into other languages.
a. People use social comparison to evaluate themselves.
Lee Hom and Eason, age 25, are Hong Kong natives who have recently moved to Canada after having lived in Hong Kong all their lives. Based on research into a sensitive period for culture acquisition, which of the following best characterizes their adjustment to Canada?
a. The longer they stay in Canada, the more they identify with being Canadian.
b. The longer they stay in Canada, the less they identify with being Canadian.
c. The shorter their stay in Canada, the more they identify with being Canadian.
d. There is no reliable relationship between how long they stay in Canada and how much they identify with being Canadian.
e. The younger they are when they move to Canada, the more they identify with being Chinese.
d. There is no reliable relationship between how long they stay in Canada and how much they identify with being Canadian.
sensitive period: A period of time during development when it is relatively easy to acquire a set of skills. If an individual misses that chance to acquire those skills, doing so after the sensitive period has ended would be difficult.
Ages: 0-15, 16-30, 31-50
According to research on consistency, what would be an effective way to persuade an American friend to help you?
a. Remind her of how consistently she acts across different social situations.
b. Remind her of how important the issue is that requires her help.
c. Remind her of what you may think of her.
d. Remind her that she has helped you before.
e. Have her look in a mirror when you ask her for help.
d. Remind her that she has helped you before.
consistency across situations is more closely connected to independent self-views.
What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?
and
Why is it not an illusion in some cultures?
A visual illusion in which two lines of equal length appear unequal; a line with ends that angle outward appears longer than a line with ends that angle inward.
People who are raised in cultures where they are not exposed to carpentered don’t learn that the corners provide depth cues, and therefore they are not susceptible to the illusion.
How do prestige bias, similarity bias, and conformist transmission differ from each other?
prestige bias: A tendency to imitate, and learn from, prestigious people, or those who have the respect and attention of others.
similarity bias: A tendency to selectively imitate, and learn from, people who are similar to ourselves.
conformist transmission: A tendency to learn behaviors that are performed by a greater number of people.
How do correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental designs differ?
Correlational method – The relations between two or more variables are assessed – Example: surveys
Experimental method – Variables are manipulated to examine cause-andeffect relations – Example: experiments
Quasi-experimental method • When one of the independent variables cannot be manipulated for practical or ethical reasons
Subject variable – Characterizes pre-existing differences among participants in the experiment – Gender, race, social class, political leanings
How do the three attachment styles differ and which is the most common?
secure attachment: An attachment style in which infants seek their mother’s presence when she is around; their desire to be close to her intensifies after being left alone in an unfamiliar situation. (62% of mother-child relationships studied)
avoidant attachment: An attachment style in which infants show little distress in response to their mother’s absence and avoid her when she returns. See also attachment theory.
anxious-ambivalent attachment: An attachment style in which infants show frequent distress when their mother is either present or absent. See also attachment theory.
What are two key distinctions between independent and interdependent views of the self?
independent view of self: the self derives its identity from inner attributes. The basis of the individual’s identity is stable across situations and throughout the lifespan. They’re perceived to be unique. They are self-contained, meaning they arise from the individual and not from interactions with others
interdependent view of self: in which the individual is a relational entity who is fundamentally connected to, and sustained by, a number of significant relationships. Defined by social relationships and roles, and behavior depends on the perceptions of others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions.