Unit 9:
Chapters 19 and 20
Sociocultural
Influences and Relationships: Guided Reading and Cloze Notes
Attribution Theory
š The
theory that describes how people explain the causes of behavior. The process
includes antecedents, attribution, and consequences.
š :
Information and beliefs a person already has about another people
š :
the act of making judgments about the causes for another’s behavior
š :
the emotional responses, behavior, and expectations that result from the
attribution.
Maria is a friendly person of whom you know casually. You
speak when you bump into one another in school. She has always been kind to you
and in turn, you value knowing her and are kind in response. ( )
One day, walking home from school at 4:00 PM, you see Maria
walking down the sidewalk. As usual, you say “Hi Maria.” However, today, Maria
responds with the very unusual “What!? Leave me alone!” and stalks off.
Obviously, you are a little baffled. There are two possibilities. Either
something personal is going on or there is a situation that caused her to act
this way. So the next day, you see her at school and walking home. You say
“Hello!” and she says “Hey, how are you?”. However, once again on Tuesday, you
see her at 4:00 PM and she snaps at you again.
So you investigate. Only on Tuesdays does Maria act this way. You
discover that every Tuesday, Maria goes to visit her grandmother, who suffers
from Alzheimer’s Disease. They were very close but now Maria’s grandmother does
not recognize her. Visiting is very difficult for Maria. Now, you can make up a
cause of her weird behavior ( )
Now that the attribution has been made, there will be a .
The first being, you now have a reasonable cause for Maria’s behavior and not
take it personally. Because you already know Maria is normally friendly
(antecedent) you can move on from this. However, let’s say your antecedent of
Maria was not a friendly person, but an angry person who could be unpredictable
at times. Perhaps your antecedent of Maria was that she seemed friendly, but
you weren’t sure. The consequence could be completely different. Perhaps you
would think her volatile or rude.
Interpersonal
Attraction
Using your smart phones or page 572 to 574, complete the
following questions.
š 1.
What are physical symptoms that occur when someone is “falling in love”?
š 2.
What two main factors affect liking and loving? In what ways?
š 3.
What guidelines should one follow when revealing one’s feelings to another
person?
š 4.
What are four recommendations of marriage counselors for a healthy, successful
relationship?
š We
tend to fall in love with people who remind us or who we would like to be.
š The
“
”
is both true and false. Opposites can be attractive but if people are too
different or do not share enough common beliefs, the relationship will not last
How have “love” relationships evolved over the years? Think
of some examples.
How can culture play a role in “love”? Think of some examples.
Aggression and
Violence
š How
can aggression or violence be natural?
š In
the animal world, it is natural due to limited and a need for .
š However,
in ,
individual citizens display aggression. One theory is that America encourages ,
which manifests itself as aggression when completing a goal.
What
Is Aggression?
In psychology and other social and behavioral
sciences, aggression refers to behavior that is intended to cause harm or pain.
Aggression can be either physical or verbal, and behavior is classified as
aggression, even if it does not actually succeed in causing harm or pain.
However, behavior that accidentally causes harm or pain is not aggression.
Aggression is a perplexing phenomenon, as people are
motivated to bring harm to another. Aggression can be a form of survival, but
people can be aggressive for the sole purpose of bringing harm to another.
After two centuries of theories and technological advances, psychologists and
other scientists have been able to look deeply into aggression's biological and
evolutionary roots, as well as its consequences in society. While scientists
continue to test various areas of the brain for their effects on aggression,
two areas that directly regulate or affect aggression have been found.
The amygdala has been shown to be an area that causes
aggression. Stimulation of the amygdala results in augmented aggressive
behavior, while lesions of this area greatly reduce one's competitive drive and
aggression. Another area, the hypothalamus, is believed to serve a regulatory
role in aggression. The hypothalamus has been shown to cause aggressive
behavior when electrically stimulated but more importantly has receptors that
help determine aggression levels based on their interactions with the
neurotransmitters serotonin and vasopressin
Aggression can also serve a number of
different purposes, including to intimidate or threaten, assert dominance or
possession, a response to anger, fear, or pain, to compete with others (and
impress others) or to achieve a goal.
After
reading the article, Conflict vs. Aggression, answer the following three
questions.
1.
How can aggression be explained according to
evolutionary arguments?
2.
How can conflict be defined?
3.
What is aggression according to social
psychologists, and what goal does it usually serve?
Groups vs. the Individual
š Using learning, individuals learn what behaviors to
mimic from their peers and parents
š Men are
more likely to be aggressive than women, but both are equally
verbally aggressive
š One theory
of aggression is that it is learned early in life by witnessing a family member
acting aggressively on a frequent basis
š Individuals
are less likely to engage in behavior by themselves as they are in a group,
i.e. a child is less likely to steal candy from a bowl when they are by
themselves, but three times as likely if they are with a group.
š This
process where a person loses their sense of individuality as the result of
being in a group is called
.
š This is
also in part to the ,
a situation in which the risk associated with an act is spilt up among the
members of a group; hence, the risk is smaller for each person.
Using pages 577-582,
complete the questions that follow.
1.
How can allergens, amphetamines, and alcohol
lead to aggression?
2.
What two principles have emerged from basic film
studies?
3.
What does imitation learning tell us about
violence and TV? What is the clear, short-term effect of violent TV?
4.
About how many actual laboratory studies have
been done on the effects of TV on violence?
5.
How is behavior observed in field studies? What
have field studies told us about TV and violence?
6.
What is catharsis? Does it seem to reduce
aggression?
Why
Don’t People Help?
1. When others are present, we are
inhibited from acting, for of making a fool of ourselves
2. If other people are present at an
emergency, we use them as a .
3. People who think that others are
present at an emergency are less likely to take . In this
of responsibility, the responsibility for
helping others is spread out, making the responsibility less.
4.
People won’t call for help because this admits
there is a
5.
People will not call for or offer help in an
environment they are with.
š This issue
of being concerned with how others will view or judge us is called
š This is
very similar to the shift phenomenon, where the group
mentality lessens the results.
*Also called the Genovese Syndrome,
after watching this clip, can you think of another name for the risky shift
phenomenon?
In four or five
sentences, using what we have learned so far in our notes, readings, and the
clip, explain why you think the Genovese Syndrome occurs. Include what
factors probably kept Kitty’s neighbors from offering help.
Environmental Influences on Behavior
š Territoriality:
an attachment to a fixed area as “ ”
and ours alone and the tendency to defend it against intruders.
š Personal
space: an “invisible ”
around each person, we each try to keep this space from being invaded.
Sociocultural Influences: Attitudes and People--Chapter 20
Cultural Diversity
š Culture:
a set of that attitudes and values held in common by a
large number of people and passed down from one generation to the next
š Ethnicity:
set of hereditary characteristics that distinguishes a major
group of people
š Ethnic
group: a group of people who share important and features. Can also be referred to as an ethnic
tribe.
š Although
some cultures value family interdependence versus individual independence, an
individual’s personal values will always play a role
š In
addition, most research in psychology focuses on middle-class, Americans.
š This
is why can never be made about someone just because
of their ethnicity
The Power of the Group
š Our
eating, ,
speech patterns, ,
and interests are all influences by the groups we belong too, including
friends, family, colleagues, etc.
š In
order to conform, we must (takes attitudes and beliefs of others) and
suppress our own desires
Please answer the following questions in your cloze notes.
You may use the book, pages 598-599
1.
In a group, people tend to think alike. Identify
one good thing and one bad thing that can result from this.
Positive effect:
Negative effect:
2.
What is a reference group? What do reference
groups provide for us?
3.
What are attitudes? How can they change over
time?
We will read “The
Prison Guard Experiment” and answer the questions that follow. (Page 600)
š 1.
What kinds of rules could the guards have written that may have prevented the
problems that arouse during the experiment?
š 2.
What did the prison-guard experiment teach us about reference groups.
(hint-think back to our last unit)
How We View Others
š Stereotypes:
a fixed set of about a group of people that is generalized to
all or most group members. Stereotypes may or may not be accurate.
š People
stereotype to solidify the “in-group”
š It
also reduces the “threat” that new ways (ways different from our own) will take
over. Stereotypes become dangerous when they lead to prejudice and
discrimination
š Prejudice:
biased of people based on the group they belong to
rather than their personal, individual characteristics
š Discrimination:
or denial of rights based on membership
š Illusionary
correlations: seeing between things that that match already held
beliefs and ignoring what does not match these beliefs.
š An
example: subjects are shown paired words the same number of times, including
the pairing “bacon - eggs”. However, because of a previous association with
bacon and eggs, they believe they see it multiple times.
In your packets, find
the following questions. Use pages 606 to 610 to answer the following
questions.
1. What is scapegoating? What is one of the most infamous
examples of scapegoating in history?
2. How have people removed those who deviated from the norm?
3. What is cognitive dissonance? Provide an example.
4. What is conformity? Why do people yield to others or obey
authority?
5. Who was Stanley Milgram and what is one theory about why
people obeyed authority in his experiment?
The Power of
Persuasion
š 1)
Who is the source of information?
š If
the person is a reliable source of information (for example, Dr. Phil on
psychology, Michael Jordan on basketball) or not (Oprah Winfrey on soccer, Ms.
Brennan on advanced calculus)
š 2)
How friendly is a person?
š If
a person is friendly, we are more apt to trust them and resist less what they
have to say.
š 3)
Are there rewards?
š Rewards
can provide incentives for people to do what you want.
Four Steps of
Persuasion
š 1.
Present BOTH sides of the argument (you’ll seem informed and open-minded)
š 2.
Actively involve your audience (they learn more by doing)
š 3.
Have an expert sell your message (Cindy Crawford sell Meaningful Beauty)
š 4.
How you say something is more important than what
you say.
Use the space below
to create your persuasion case with a partner.
Gender Differences
. :
the sex of an individual, male or female.
Despite an age old believe going back 100 years that suggested males
were smarter because their brains were bigger (10%). This has nothing to do
with intelligence. The shapes of lobes/activity are different, leading to
perceived differences in language versus math.
Hormones
O
Hormones: regulators that control bodily processes, such
as emotional responses, growth, and sexuality
O
Androgen: the sex hormone
O
Estrogen: the sex hormone, which also controls the
reproductive cycle
O
Remember: both men and women have hormones
Please use pages 377, 381-383 to answer the following questions
(or a smart device)
1.
Which gender responds quicker to a loved one’s
needs? Which gender responds quicker to helping someone in an unfamiliar
situation?
2.
As infants, are males or females more active?
Why?
3.
What are spatial skills? What gender usually
performs better at special skills? In this performance related to differences
in the brain? Provide an example of a spatial skill.
4.
What four factors need to be resolved before
concluding that one sex is better at math than another?
5.
What are some environmental factors that may
determine why males do better at math than females?
Disparities
Start Early in Life
Scientists now know that sex
hormones begin to exert their influence during development of the fetus. A
recent study by Israeli researchers that examined male and female brains found
distinct differences in the developing fetus at just 26 weeks
of pregnancy. The disparities could be seen when using
an ultrasound scanner. The corpus callosum -- the bridge of nerve tissue
that connects the right and left sides of the brain -- had a thicker
measurement in female fetuses than in male fetuses.
Consider these recent findings.
Researchers, using brain imaging technology that captures blood flow to
"working" parts of the brain, analyzed how men and women process
language. All subjects listened to a novel. When males listened, only the left
hemisphere of their brains was activated. The brains of female subjects,
however, showed activity on both the left and right hemispheres. This activity
across both hemispheres of the brain may result in the strong language skills
typically displayed by females. "If there's more area dedicated to a set
of skills, it follows that the skills will be more refined," says David
Geary, PhD, professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri.
As a whole, girls outperform boys in the use of language and fine motor
skills, notes Denckla. Boys also fall prey to learning
disabilities more frequently than girls. "Clinics see a preponderance
of boys with dyslexia," Denckla tells WebMD. ADHD also strikes more boys
than girls. The symptoms displayed by girls and boys with ADHD differ, too.
Girls with ADHD usually exhibit inattention, while affected boys are prone to
lack of impulse control. But not all differences favor girls.
Boys generally demonstrate superiority over
female peers in areas of the brain involved in math and geometry. These
areas of the brain mature about four years earlier in boys than in girls,
according to a recent study that measured brain development in more than 500
children. Researchers concluded that when it comes to math, the brain of a
12-year-old girl resembles that of an 8-year-old boy. Conversely, the same
researchers found that areas of the brain involved in language and fine motor
skills (such as handwriting) mature about six years earlier in girls than in
boys.
Social Factors
O
Males and females do not differ in their
self-confidence, nor their desire to achieve.
O
Socially, men and women differ quite a bit
|
Social Factor
|
Women
|
Men
|
|
Childhood behavior
|
Equal status in social groups
|
A leader is chosen in the group
|
|
Decisions for the group
|
Makes suggestions
|
Make demands
|
|
Number of friends
|
A few close friends
|
Large number of acquaintances
|
|
Sharing emotions or concerns
|
Women talk to other women
|
Men talk to women rather than men
|
|
Ending relationships
|
Women most often initiate; move on sooner
|
Men are often the ones left; takes longer to move on
|
Communication Differences
Think about a conversation you have had recently with a friend of the same gender (MUST be a face to face conversation). How were you sitting or standing? What type of body language or gestures did you use? How was your tone of voice? What did you talk about? How did you respond to what your friend? How did your friend respond to what you said? Please respond to these questions below.
|
Communication
|
Female
|
Male
|
|
|
Face to face
|
Side by side
|
|
|
Establish rapport,
build relationship, try to relate by
discussing a similar problem they experiences
|
Maintain skill and
knowledge, preserve independence, try to solve the problem
|
|
|
Remain stationary,
steady eye contact, nod head, small gestures
|
Move around,
sporadic eye contact, wide gestures, males touch more
|
|
|
Pause for thought
and reflection
|
Pauses are sporadic
|
|
|
Personal disclosure
|
Impersonal topics
|
|
|
Get the details
first
|
Get the big picture
first
|
|
|
Questions, “we”
statements, indirect, soft speech, interrupt less
|
Assertions, “I”
statements, clear, loud, interrupt more
|
What do men and women
look for in a partner. Complete the chart using page 389. Please note
characteristics and qualities have been listed in order that each gender looks
for
|
MEN
LOOK FOR…
|
WOMEN
LOOK FOR…
|
|
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
|
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
|
Hormone Cycles
O
Menstrual Cycle: monthly cycle that revolve around the
elimination of the lining of the uterus when an egg has not been fertilized
O
Hormone changes can result in physical
discomfort and moderate mood changes (anxiety, short temper, sadness)
O
Premenstrual Syndrome ( ): rare
condition affecting 5% of women who suffer from extreme mood changes and
physical discomfort
Gender Role Behavior
O
Children adopt roles because they identify with the models
around us
O
is the process of modeling behavior after
(usually) a member of the same sex
O
If a father is very ,
the daughter may be a very ,
as she is apt to spend time doing activities with her father
O
Children of single parent homes tend to be less or less (which is perfectly healthy!) but tend to find
a role model of their own gender and begin modeling behavior.
Mixing Gender Roles
O
:
quality of having both masculine and feminine characteristics
O
People who are androgynous are actually
(usually) psychologically healthy than people who model
traditional masculine or feminine roles.
O
An issue they may have is society tends to value
traits more than traits, which is detrimental to both male and
females.
The People Watching
Project
After everything we have discussed, you will now go out and
put the learning into practice! You may choose whatever location you like: a
coffee shop, a restaurant, a plaza, a park bench. Sit, relax, and watch what
goes on around you. Try to stay in your
location for at least an hour!
Where are you?
|
|
Who are you seeing? (Individuals, families, friends, couples)
|
|
What behaviors are they engaging in?
|
|
Did you see any helping behaviors?
|
|
Did you see any behaviors that would be considered harmful?
|
|
What types of diversity did you see?
|
|
Did you witness any acts of conformity?
|
|
Did anyone stop and ask you why you were just sitting there?
|
Once you complete your people watching and are able to
gather enough data using the above helpful hints, reflect on your experience
(what you saw, what you felt, what the overall experience was like) in a
journal entry. You must have three paragraphs. Please use size 12 Times New
Roman or Ariel font, one inch margins. You will be graded on the following
Required length and format……………………………………..…………………..……..…..25
points
Required content (1-5)…………………………………………….……………………….…………50 points
Completed organizer………………………………………………………………………..…………15 points
Spelling Grammar…………………………………………………………………………..……….…10 points
END OF ASSIGNMENT
ARTICLE: CONFLICT VS AGGRESSION
Conflict
vs. Aggression
Defining
conflict and aggression
Conflict is defined as a perceived incompatibility of goals.
Conflict can be acted out in various ways. The word “aggression” is used in a
lot of different ways in everyday speech, but for social psychologists this
term is defined by the motive of the actor.
Aggression is behavior whose immediate intent is to hurt someone.
It is defined by a behavior’s immediate goal, even when the ultimate goal is
something else. Conflict often leads to aggression, but aggression also has
other origins, for example negative emotions such as anger or frustration.
Origins
of aggression
A popular evolutionary explanation
of aggression is the “beast within” view. According to this view, “survival of
the fittest” has bred aggression in human beings. It is thus “human nature” to
be aggressive. Modern evolutionary psychology has a more sophisticated view.
This view states that “human nature” includes a lot of psychological mechanisms
and motives. Men are generally more physically and verbally aggressive than
women. Aggression is just one technique among many others that
humans use as they strive for mastery of material resources, as well as for
respect from and connectedness to others.
So what does this mean?
Conflict is seen as the perceived incompatibility of goals,
where what is wanted by one group may be against the desires of another
group. Aggression is defined by social psychologists as a behavior whose
immediate intent is to hurt someone. Conflicts between two parties often lead
to aggression.
An
evolutionary view of aggression shows that this is one technique among many
others that humans use as they strive for mastery of material recourses, as
well as respect and connectedness to others. Both individual thoughts and
social influences affect the experience and expression of aggression.
How can aggression be explained according to evolutionary
arguments?
How can conflict be defined?
What is aggression according to social psychologists, and
what goal does it usually serve?
ARTICLE: KITTY G
Thirty-Eight Who
Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police
New York Times.
Martin Gansberg. March 27, 1964
For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens
watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.
Twice their chatter and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him
and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her
again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called
after the woman was dead.
That was two weeks ago today.
Still shocked is Assistant Chief Inspector Frederick M. Lussen, in charge of
the borough's detectives and a veteran of 25 years of homicide investigations.
He can give a matter-of-fact recitation on many murders. But the Kew Gardens
slaying baffles him--not because it is a murder, but because the "good
people" failed to call the police.
"As we have reconstructed the crime," he said, "the assailant
had three chances to kill this woman during a 35-minute period. He returned
twice to complete the job. If we had been called when he first attacked, the
woman might not be dead now."
This is what the police say happened at 3:20 A.M. in the staid, middle-class,
tree-lined Austin Street area:
Twenty-eight-year-old Catherine Genovese, who was called Kitty by almost
everyone in the neighborhood, was returning home from her job as manager of a
bar in Hollis. She parked her red Fiat in a lot adjacent to the Kew Gardens
Long Island Railroad Station, facing Mowbray Place. Like many residents of the
neighborhood, she had parked there day after day since her arrival from
Connecticut a year ago, although the railroad frowns on the practice.
She turned off the lights of her car, locked the door, and started to walk the
100 feet to the entrance of her apartment at 82-70 Austin Street, which is
in a Tudor building, with stores in the first floor and apartments on the
second.
The entrance to the apartment is in the rear of the building because the front
is rented to retail stores. At night the quiet neighborhood is shrouded in
the slumbering darkness that marks most residential areas.
Miss Genovese noticed a man at the far end of the lot, near a seven-story
apartment house at 82-40 Austin Street. She halted. Then, nervously, she
headed up Austin Street toward Lefferts Boulevard, where there is a call box to
the 102nd Police Precinct in nearby Richmond Hill.
She got as far as a street light in front of a bookstore before the man grabbed
her. She screamed. Lights went on in the 10-story apartment house at 82-67
Austin Street, which faces the bookstore. Windows slid open and voices
punctuated the early-morning stillness.
Miss
Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help
me!"
From one of the upper windows in the apartment house, a man called down:
"Let that girl alone!"
The assailant looked up at him, shrugged, and walked down Austin Street toward
a white sedan parked a short distance away. Miss Genovese struggled to her
feet.
Lights went out. The killer returned to Miss Genovese, now trying to make her
way around the side of the building by the parking lot to get to her
apartment. The assailant stabbed her again. "I'm dying!" she
shrieked. "I'm dying!"
Windows were opened again, and lights went on in many apartments. The assailant
got into his car and drove away. Miss Genovese staggered to her feet. A city
bus, 0-10, the Lefferts Boulevard line to Kennedy International Airport,
passed. It was 3:35 A.M.
The assailant returned. By then, Miss Genovese had crawled to the back of the
building, where the freshly painted brown doors to the apartment house
held out hope for safety. The killer tried the first door; she wasn't there. At
the second door, 82-62 Austin Street, he saw her slumped on the floor at
the foot of the stairs. He stabbed her a third time--fatally.
It was 3:50 by the time the police received their first call, from a man who
was a neighbor of Miss Genovese. In two minutes they were at the scene. The
neighbor, a 70-year-old woman, and another woman were the only persons on the
street. Nobody else came forward.
The man explained that he had called the police after much deliberation. He had
phoned a friend in Nassau County for advice and then he had crossed the
roof of the building to the apartment of the elderly woman to get her to
make the call.
"I didn't want to get involved," he sheepishly told police.
Six days later, the police arrested Winston Moseley, a 29-year-old business machine
operator, and charged him with homicide. Moseley had no previous record. He is
married, has two children and owns a home at 133-19 Sutter Avenue, South Ozone
Park, Queens. On Wednesday, a court committed him to Kings County Hospital for
psychiatric observation.
When questioned by the police, Moseley also said he had slain Mrs. Annie May
Johnson, 24, of 146-12 133d Avenue, Jamaica, on Feb. 29 and Barbara Kralik, 15,
of 174-17 140th Avenue, Springfield Gardens, last July.
The police stressed how simple it would have been to have gotten in touch with them.
"A phone call," said one of the detectives, "would have
done it." The police may be reached by dialing "0" for operator
or SPring 7-3100.
Today witnesses from the neighborhood, which is made up of
one-family homes in the $35,000 to $60,000 range with the exception of the
two apartment houses near the railroad station, find it
difficult to explain why they didn't call the police.
A housewife, knowingly if quite casually, said, "We thought it was a
lovers' quarrel." A husband and wife both said, "Frankly, we were
afraid." They seemed aware of the fact that events might have been
different. A distraught woman, wiping her hands in her apron, said, "I
didn't want my husband to get involved."
One couple, now willing to talk about that night, said they heard the first
screams. The husband looked thoughtfully at the bookstore where the killer
first grabbed Miss Genovese.
"We went to the window to see what was happening," he said,
"but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street."
The wife, still apprehensive, added: "I put out the light and we were able
to see better."
Asked why they hadn't called the police, she shrugged and replied: "I
don't know."
A man peeked out from a slight opening in the doorway to his apartment and
rattled off an account of the killer's second attack. Why hadn't he
called the police at the time? "I was tired," he said without
emotion. "I went back to bed."
It was 4:25 A.M. when the ambulance arrived to take the body of Miss
Genovese. It drove off. "Then," a solemn police detective said,
"the people came out."
END OF ASSIGNMENT
ARTICLE
The Evolution of Love by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
How
did we evolve the most loving brain on the planet? Humans are the most
sociable species on earth - for better and for worse.
On the one
hand, we have the greatest capacities for empathy, communication, friendship, romance, complex social structures, and altruism. On the other, we have the greatest capacities for shaming,
emotional cruelty, sadism, envy, jealousy, discrimination and other forms of dehumanization, and wholesale
slaughter of our fellow humans.
In other words,
to paraphrase a Native American teaching, a wolf of love and a wolf of hate live
in the heart of every person
Many factors shape each
of these two wolves, including biological evolution, culture, economics, and
personal history. Here, I'd like to comment on key elements of the neural
substrate of bonding and love; in next week's blog, I'll write about the evolution
of aggression and hate; then, in the next several posts, we'll explore the
crucial skill of empathy, perhaps the premier way to feed the wolf of love.
Evolution
The growing length of childhood coevolved with the enlarging of the brain - which has tripled in size over the last 2.5 million years, since the time of the first tool-making hominids - and with the development of complex bonding, which includes friendship, romantic love, parent-child attachment, and loyalty to a group.
The growing length of childhood coevolved with the enlarging of the brain - which has tripled in size over the last 2.5 million years, since the time of the first tool-making hominids - and with the development of complex bonding, which includes friendship, romantic love, parent-child attachment, and loyalty to a group.
As the brain
grew bigger, childhood needed to be longer since there was so much to learn. To
keep a vulnerable child alive for many years, we evolved strong bonds between parents and children, between mates, within extended family
groups, and within bands as a whole - all in order to sustain "the village
it takes to raise a child." Bands with better team workout competed with other bands for scarce resources; since
breeding occurred primarily within bands, genes for bonding, cooperation, and altruism proliferated
within the human genome.
Numerous
physical, social, and psychological factors promote bonding. Let's focus on
physical factors, and then drill down further to examine two chemicals inside
your brain: dopamine and oxytocin. Both are neurotransmitters, and oxytocin also functions as
a hormone when it acts outside the nervous system.
(By the way,
dopamine and oxytocin, like many other biochemical factors, are present in
other mammals, too, but as with most things human, their effects are much more
nuanced and elaborated with us.)
Dopamine
It's an error to reduce love to chemicals, since so many other factors are at work in the brain and mind as well, so let's hold this material in perspective.
It's an error to reduce love to chemicals, since so many other factors are at work in the brain and mind as well, so let's hold this material in perspective.
That said, it
appears that when people are in love, among other neurological activities, two
parts of their brain really get activated. They are called the caudate nucleus
and the tegmentum. The caudate is a reward center of the brain, and the
tegmentum is a region of the brain stem that sends dopamine to it; dopamine
tracks how rewarding something is.
In effect,
being in love rewards the pleasure centers in your brain, which then crave
whatever it was that was so rewarding - in other words, your beloved. Those
reward centers are the same ones that light up when people win the lottery. Or
use cocaine.
And being rejected
in love activates a part of the brain called the insula, which is the same
region that lights up when we are in physical pain.
So we are
doubly motivated to hold fast to the object of our love: feel the pleasure and
avoid the pain.
Interestingly,
when people are in lust, rather than
in love, different systems of the
brain get activated, notably the hypothalamus and the amygdala.
The
hypothalamus regulates drives like hunger and thirst. Interestingly, the word in the early
records of the teachings of the Buddha that is translated in English as the
"desire" or "attachment" or "clinging" that is
the root of suffering has the fundamental meaning of "thirst," so
it's pretty likely that the hypothalamus is involved in much of the clinging
that leads to suffering.
The amygdala
handles emotional reactivity, and both it and the hypothalamus are involved in
arousal of the organism and readiness for action. (While these systems are
centrally involved in fight-or-flight responses to stress, they also get engaged in energizing activities that feel
emotionally positive like cheering on your favorite team - or day dreaming
about your sweetheart.)
These neural
components may shed some light on the subjective experience of being in love,
which commonly feels softer, more "Aaaaahh, how sweet!" rather than
the "Rawwrh, gotta have it!" intensity of lust.
That said,
dopamine - increased in love - triggers testosterone production, which is a major factor in the sex drive
of both men and women.
Oxytocin
Oxytocin promotes bonding between mothers and children, and between mates, so they work together to keep those kids alive. The experiential qualities of oxytocin are pleasurable feelings of relaxation and rightness, so it is an internal reward for all bonding behaviors - not just with mates.
Oxytocin promotes bonding between mothers and children, and between mates, so they work together to keep those kids alive. The experiential qualities of oxytocin are pleasurable feelings of relaxation and rightness, so it is an internal reward for all bonding behaviors - not just with mates.
For example, in
women, oxytocin triggers the let-down reflex in nursing, and is involved in
that blissful, oceanic feeling of peace and comfort and love experienced by
many women while breastfeeding. It also seems to be part of the female response
to stress (more than in men - since women have much more oxytocin than men do),
in part by encouraging what Shelley Taylor at UCLA has termed
"tend-and-befriend" behaviors in women when they are stressed. Of
course, men, too, will often reach out to others and be friendly during tough
times, whether it's crunch quarter at the office, or somewhere in a dusty war -
another example of how there are many pathways in the brain to important
functional results.
Oxytocin
encourages sociability; for example, when oxytocin capabilities are knocked out
in laboratory mice, their relationships with other mice are very disturbed.
And oxytocin
dampens the stress response of the sympathetic nervous system and the
hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis - besides having functional benefits, this
is another pathway for rewarding, and thus encouraging, bonding behaviors.
END
Types of Groups
Some examples of types of groups include
the following:
A peer group is a group with members of
approximately the same age, social status, and interests. Generally, people are
relatively equal in terms of power when they interact with peers.
A group of people that have many of the same
interests & commonly found in a High School/College setting; most of the
time they have a name & rules for themselves.
A club is a group, which usually requires one
to apply to become a member. Such clubs may be dedicated to particular activities:
sporting clubs, for example.
A cabal is a group of people united in some
close design together, usually to promote their private views or interests in a
church, state, or other community, often by intrigue.
A community is a group of people with a
commonality or sometimes a complex net of overlapping commonalities, often–but
not always–in proximity with one another with some degree of continuity over
time.
A gang is usually an urban group that gathers
in a particular area. It is a group of people that often hang around each
other. They can be like some clubs, but much less formal. They are usually
known in many countries to cause social unrest and also have negative influence on the
members and may be a target for the law enforcers in case of any social vices
A mob is usually a group of people that has
taken the law into their own hands. Mobs are usually groups which gather
temporarily for a particular reason.
This is usually a small group, of around 3 to
15 people, who work as a team to accomplish their goals.
Similar to a squad, though a team may contain
many more members. A team works in a similar way to a squad.
It is a social group toward which a member
feels respect and loyalty.
It is a group that an individual identifies in positive direction. If a
person is part of the in-group then they are collectively part of an inner
circle of friends. An inner circle may contain sub-groups within the inner
circle including the apex (best friends), core (very close friends), outer rim,
etc. This group provides a support structure and being exclusive offers
protection from anyone in an Out-group (see below.)
It is a social group toward which a person
feels a sense of competition or opposition. It is a group that an individual identifies in negative direction.
END OF UNIT
