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12 Cards in this Set

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  • Back
Nature vs nurture
The debate over which human behaviors are biologically or instinctually determined as opposed to being socially or culturally conditioned.
Instinct/learned
Instinct; A biologically or psychologically predetermined behavioral response to external stimuli.
Learned; Behavior that is acquired through social or cultural conditioning.
Biological/cultural
Biological; behaviors that are universal
Cultural; behaviors that are specific to certain peoples.
Konrad Lorenz (50s/60s)
Influential and controversial German ethologist famous for drawing the distinction between lethal and nonlethal animals and placing humans in the latter category. Claimed that the ability of humans to craft lethal weapons upset the balance between our ability to kill and inhibitions against killing.
Inhibiting mechanism
Biological mechanism developed to keep animals from acting out an instinct because of a certain situation.
Evolutionary lag
Disequilibrium; Konrad Lorenz's idea that humans' intellectual evolution and ability to kill has not been matched by the development of inhibitions against using these abilities to kill members of our own species. INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION > MORAL EVOLUTION.
Instrumental violence
Violence used in pursuit of some identifiable objective.
Peaceful societies
Historical and contemporary human communities that so not engage in war or even have a concept for it. These rare examples are often used to counter the argument that human nature or instincts make war an inevitability.
Nonfires
Soldiers who refuse to fire their weapons in battle (or deliberately try to avoid killing enemy soldiers) The frequency of this phenomenon is often cited by those who reject instinctual theories of aggression and war. (ex. American Civil War or American Revolution: so many men in a small space all shooting at each other would have statistically produced a larger number of casualties.)
B.F. Skinner
Social Learning Theory: people are least instinctual creatures-almost all behavior is learned.
Stimulus-response
Used in social learning theory to indicate that human behavior is shaped by social stimuli- that is, people engage in those behaviors for which they receive social rewards and refrain from behaviors that bring social punishment.
Pseudo specification
Viewing other humans as if they were not members of one's own species. Wartime propaganda depicting the enemy as animals or insects facilitates this process. This tendency is often cited by those who see war as culturally and socially learned phenomenon.