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14 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Biopsychology
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studying and understanding the biological and evolutionary roots of behavior
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What is the relationship between nature & nurture?
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A mix between the two determines intelligence, personality, and behavior.
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What is the nature position?
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Focus on innate, biological explanations for human nature. Includes adaptation, selections, evolution.
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Adaptation
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Changes in a population of organisms over time-- can be physical or behavioral and are due to changes in environment
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Evolutionary Psychology
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Focuses on psychological characteristics (behavioral adaptations) and applies to populations, not individuals
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Sexual Selection
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Adaptations within populations that contribute to reproduction-- enhance attractiveness to potential mates; "survival of the sexiest"
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Natural Selection
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Adaptations that contribute to survival-- most likely to passed through generations-- physical features, behavior techniques (hunting),
"survival of the fittest" |
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What are the problems associated with the nature position? (4)
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1. behavior is multiply determined, so it's hard to trace complex behaviors from a single gene and ignore a person's lifetime of experiences (many factors)
2. can lead to discrimination or biological determinism -- ex. racist or sexist views about occupation 3. "is/ought" fallacy-- that's how it is or how it's always been, therefore that's how it ought to be 4. distal (remote) causes can deemphasize proximal (immediate) causes-- biology vs. natural condition |
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What is the nurture position?
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Focus on environmental and cultural explanations for behavior, knowledge, personality, etc.
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Culture
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"behaviors/attitudes shared by a group and transmitted across generations"-- varies between different places in terms of "appropriateness"
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Peer Influence
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"how you are now has little to do with how your parents raised you and more about child's friends" -- how friends, colleagues, etc. influence language, behavior, interests
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Gender
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Difference between sexes might have more to do with society than biology
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Neural Plasticity
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Biological brain changes influenced by experience-- neural connections form and change over period of practice/learning
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What are problems associated with the nurture position? (3)
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1. Proximal/external causes can deemphasize distal causes; neurochemistry, don't know that nature isn't underlying cause
2. can increase blame that is sometimes unwarranted (blame society, parents, etc.) 3. cultural relativism-- people want simple explanations that are preferably biological or universal because they are viewed with more legitimacy and not necessarily always correct vs. something being accepted by a culture b/c society says so |
