Psych for a Cultural Species
imitating those who have skills and are respected by others.
logic --- because the critical behaviors for success are unclear, a general limiting mechanism attracts us to prestigious individuals, whom we try to observe and try to imitate, regardless of what they're doing.
what is PRESTIGE BIAS?
choosing whom to imitate, and learn from, based on the target's similarity to themselves (e.g. gender, ethnicity, language/accent)
what is SIMILARITY BIAS?
the area of psychology that studies how culture shpaes human mental processes, behavior, and experience
cultural psychology
WEIRD + why does it matter?
1. Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
2. acknowledge that it may lack global generalizability/validity
a tendency to learn from people who are engaging in behaviors that are more common compared with others.
logic --- the most useful behaviors should ultimately be copied by the most people/if an idea is any good, it will likely be picked up by more people.
people tend to copy the behaviors that are most common in a group, especially when the task is difficult, when people lack confidence in their own abilities, and when there are many different options to choose from.
what is CONFORMIST TRANSMISSION?
taking the perspective of others. considering others' intentions, preferences, and strategies. allows us to observe and imitate others' behavior and engage in collaborative learning.
what is MENTALIZING?
psychology that often seeks broad laws of mind and behavior and treats cultural context as less central to basic processes
general psychology
what is a PRO of our definition for cultural psychology?
- explores the average tendencies within cultural groups
- enables us to make comparisons between cultures
- both specific and general
- allows us to move forward instead of being stuck defining culture
imitative learning makes it possible for culture to _______ over time. (How?)
accumulate
the learner internalizes something of the model's goals and behavioral strategies
what is IMITATIVE LEARNING?
revolutionized general psychology by proving that higher mental processes, like learning and memory, could be studied using strict scientific experiements
who was Hermann EBBINGHAUS?
what's a challenge when defining culture?
there are many variations within a culture
TRUE/FALSE:
our class' definition of culture is the most correct definition, proven by empirical research
FALSE
the learner focuses on the environmental events involved, like how the use of one object could potentially cause changes in the state of the environment.
- doesn't require imitation
- try to figure things out for themselves, once they have an idea by observing others
- doesn't allow for cultural info to accumulate
what is EMULATIVE LEARNING?
after an initial idea is learned from others, it can then be modified and improved upon by other individuals. therefore, cultural info grows in complexity and often in usefulness over time (involves imitation)
what is the RATCHET EFFECT?
a computer comparison that treats the mind as a general information-processing system, separate from the content and context of thought
central processing unit (CPU) model
studied the sociocultural theory of cognitive development. viewed learning as a social process where children grow cognitively through interactions w/their culture, language, and other people
who was Lev Vygotsky
Why is "meaning" central to cultural psychology?
"meanings" are interpreted differently by people depending on their culture.
enables people to convey their beliefs, intentions, and complex thoughts, facilitating the coordination of behavior among individuals living in groups.
how does LANGUAGE contribute to social learning and cultural transmission?
Human are not unique in their ______ to lear cultural info, but are unique in their ______ and ______ for learning cultural info.
ability; speed; extent
if you push a boulder at the top of a hill, it will roll down because of gravity. As gravity is a universal force, the boulder would do that same thing regardless of geographic location
what is the BOULDER analogy?
stated that humans remember things through social schemas and that remembering is constructive (our mind doesn't record memories like a camera, instead, memory is an active, imaginative reconstruction)
who was Fredric Bartlett?