CHAPTER 5: GENES, CULTURE, AND GENDER

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY | 2ND SEMESTER

Natural selection Norms

●​ Evolutionary process by which heritable traits ●​ Standards for accepted and expected behavior
that best enable organisms to survive and ●​ Prescribe “proper” behavior
reproduce in particular environments are passed
to ensuing generations Individual choices
●​ Implies that certain genes– those that predisposed ●​ Cultures vary in how much they emphasize the
traits that increased the odds of surviving long individual self (individualistic cultures) versus
enough to reproduce and nurture descendant– others and the society (collectivist cultures)
become more abundant
●​ Simplified: Expressiveness
○​ Organisms have many and varied ●​ Some cultures, like those in Latin America and
offspring the Mediterranean, tend to be more emotionally
○​ Those offspring compete for survival in expressive, using hand gestures and vocal
their environment intonation in conversations. Others, like many
○​ Certain biological and behavioral East Asian cultures, value emotional restraint and
variations increase their chances of indirect communication. (source: bff)
survival and reproduction in that
environment Punctuality
○​ Those offspring that do survive and ●​ In cultures like Germany, Switzerland, and Japan,
reproduce are more likely to pass their punctuality is highly valued, and being late is seen
genes to ensuing generations as disrespectful. In contrast, cultures in parts of
○​ Thus, over time, population Latin America, the Middle East, and Southern
characteristics may change Europe often have a more relaxed approach to
time, where social interactions take precedence
Evolutionary psychology over strict schedules. (source: bff)
●​ Study of the evolution of cognition and behavior
using principle of natural selection Rule-breaking
●​ Studies how natural selection predisposes not just ●​ Norms are especially important in traditional,
physical traits suited to particular context but also collectivist cultures.
psychological traits and social behaviors that ●​ Many collectivist culture promote the belief that
enhance the preservation and spread of one’s human suffering is caused by violating social
genes norms
●​ Collectivists cultures are more likely stigmatize
Culture people seen as different, whether through identity
●​ The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and or behavior
traditions shared by a large group of people and
transmitted from one generation to the next Personal space
●​ Buffer zone we like to maintain around our
Epigenetics bodies
●​ Field of research exploring the expression of genes ●​ Size depends on our familiarity with whomever is
across different environment near us
 ●​ Some people prefer more personal space than
Average female Average male
others (individuals)
●​ Adults maintain more distance than do children Has 70% more fat, has Slower to enter puberty
(groups) 40% less muscle, is 5 inch (by about two years) but
shorter, weighs 40 lbs less quicker to die (by four
Universal friendship norms years,
●​ Respect the friend’s privacy worldwide)
●​ Make eye contact while talking
More sensitive to smells Three times more likely to
●​ Don’t divulge things said in confidence
and sounds be diagnosed with
ADHD (attention
Universal trait dimensions
deficit/hyperactiv-
●​ Evaluating others as good or bad appears across
ity disorder), four times
almost all cultures and languages
more likely to commit
●​ All culture have norms, so all cultures evaluate
suicide, and five times
how well other follow those norms
more likely
to be killed by lightning
Universal social belief dimensions
●​ Across 38 countries, people varied in cynicism, Twice as likely to More capable of wiggling
social complexity, reward for application, experience anxiety his ears.
spirituality, and fare control. disorders or depressions
●​ People’s adherence to these social beliefs appear
to guide their living. Play
●​ Girls:
Universal status norms ○​ Talk more intimately
●​ Wherever people form status hierarchies, they ○​ Play less aggressively
also talk to higher-status people in the respectful ○​ Play in smaller groups, often talking with
way they often talk to stranger one friend
●​ They talk to lower-status people in the more ●​ Boys:
familiar, first-name way they speak to friends ○​ More often do larger group activities
●​ Forms of address communicate not only social ○​ Play is more often competitive or
distance but also social status aggressive
●​ Advances in intimacy are usually suggested by the
higher-status person Friendship
●​ Women:
The incest taboo ○​ More likely to describe themselves in
●​ Best-known universal norm relational terms, welcome help,
●​ Parents are not to have sexual relations with their experience relationship-linked emotions,
children, nor siblings with one another and be attuned to others’ relationships
○​ Focuses more on personal relationships
Transgender ○​ More aware of how their actions affect
●​ Sense of being male or female differs from their other people
birth sex ○​ Talk for longer when the goal is
affiliation with others
Gender ○​ Share more of their lives and offer more
●​ Characteristics people associate with male and support
female ●​ Men:
 ○​ More often focus on tasks and on ●​ Women tend to outperform men at reading
connections with large groups others’ emotions
○​ Talk more overall and when the goal is ●​ Women are more skilled at expressing emotions
asserting one’s opinions and giving nonverbally
information
○​ Tend to response with “fight or flight” Social dominance
often ●​ Men:
○​ Socially dominant
Vocation ○​ In leadership roles, they tend to excel as
●​ Women: directive, task-focused leaders
○​ More interested in jobs dealing with ○​ Precarious manhood - fear of losing
people social power
○​ Less interested in math-intensive careers ○​ More concerned about being identified
○​ Gravitate to jobs that reduce inequalities as feminine
○​ Value good hours, personal relationships, ○​ Act more impulsively and take more
and opportunities to help others risks
●​ Men: ○​ Uses more complex language
○​ More interested in job with things ○​ More likely to act as powerful people
○​ Gravitate disproportionately to jobs that often do (talking assertively, interrupting
enhance inequalities intrusively, touching with the hand,
○​ Value earnings, promotion, challenge, staring more, smiling less)
and power ●​ Women:
○​ Excel more often in transitional or
Family relations relational leaderships that is favored by
●​ Women play a central role in maintaining family more and more organizations
connections as mothers, daughters, sisters, and ○​ Influence style tends to be more indirect
grandmothers. (less interruptive, more sensitive, more
●​ Women also spend about twice as much time polite, less cocky, and more qualified and
caring for children as men. hedged)
●​ Additionally, they engage more in social and ○​ Uses more social words and pronouns
emotional family interactions
●​ On social media, women are more likely to share Aggression
family photos and express emotions, whereas men ●​ Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
focus more on status and risk-taking. someone
●​ Men admit more aggression than do women
Smiling ●​ Women are also slightly more likely to commit
●​ Women’s greater connectedness has been indirect aggressive acts
expressed in their generally higher rate of smiling
Sexuality
Empathy ●​ Males are more likely than females to initiate
●​ Vicarious experience of another’s feelings sexual activity, exhibit greater interest in
●​ Putting oneself in another’s shoes uncommitted sex, and seek more sexual partners
●​ Women are more empathetic than men
●​ Women also are more often strikingly better than Gender and Hormones
men at recalling others’ appearance ●​ Testis-determining factor
 ○​ Directs the formation of the testicles,
which begin to secrete testosterone (male
sex hormone that influences masculine
appearance and other traits)
●​ Girls exposed to excess testosterone during fetal
development tend to exhibit more tomboyish
play behavior than other girls
●​ Androgynous
○​ Mixing both masculine and feminine
characteristics
●​ Capable of both assertiveness and nurturance

Gender roles
●​ Set of behavior expectations (norms) for males
and females

The Nurture Assumption

●​ Parental nurture, the way parents bring their
children up, governs who their children become

Biology and culture

●​ Interact
○​ Relationship in which the effect of one
factor (biology) depends on another
factor (environment)

The power of the situation and the person

●​ Given social situation often affects different people
differently
○​ Because our minds do not see reality
identically or objectively, we respond to a
situation as we construe it
●​ People often choose their situations
○​ Sociable people elect situations that
evoke social interaction
●​ People often create their situations
○​ If we expect someone to be extraverted,
hostline, intelligent, or sexy, our actions
toward the person may induce the very
behavior we expect.