Psych 24 PowerPoint

Question 1

The Social Actor

Answer 1

• Emerges ~18 months
• Rouge test
• How we are on the social “stage” of daily life
• Comprised of traits & social roles
• Social emotions
• Embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride
• Involved when committing to new roles or changing old traits

Question 2

Traits

Answer 2

• Perceived consistencies in social performance
• E.g. OCEAN/Big 5 Personality Traits
• Moves from physical to psychological with maturation
• Increasing complexity over time
• The self as first defined through social behaviour in a group setting, in reference to the success of that behaviour
• Traits become more stable around adolescence

Question 3

Social Roles

• what role are you playing? How?
• dictate inclusion and exclusion of certain behaviours

Answer 3

• The behavioural patterns expected based on setting & situations
• E.g. what role are we playing, and how does that change how we act?
• Come with expectations for & constraints on behavour
• E.g. I am a…
• student
• teacher
• brother
• husband
• Social roles can influence what traits we perceive ourselves to have
• Especially with those roles we are heavily invested in

Question 4

The Motivated Agent

Answer 4

• We have our own agendas, goals, values, hopes & fears
• Requires theory of mind
• Emerges age 7-9
• The age 5-to-7 shift: Children become more deliberately goal-oriented in an organized manner
• We define ourselves through committing to and achieving goals
• Episodic future thought
• We anticipate how our projects/goals will turn out and how this will be for us

Question 5

The Autobiographical Author

• Emerges age 15-25

Answer 5

Narrative Identity
* Selective reconstruction of past to integrate with the future
* Aimed at providing unity, meaning, purpose
* Strong effect of culture

Temporal Continuity
* The development and connection between past, present, and future selves

Autobiographical Reasoning
* We use our life story to infer who we are
* We all have the urge to draw meaning from life events

Question 6

The Autobiographical Author
- Influence of Culture

Answer 6

E.g. Redemptive Narratives

• A model for “a good life” in Western culture
• Preferred over stories with a negative outcome
• Reduces anxiety when we can fit our story to this narrative

Question 7

Culture - Social patterns of shared meaning

Answer 7

Features:

1. Versatility – change & adaptation
   Ex. Easter Paegan rabbit into Christian Easter Bunny
2. Sharing – how culture spreads
3. Accumulation – collected knowledge over generations
4. Patterns – predictable and systematic behaviours & thinking
   Ex. throwing rice, kissing, breaking plates at end of wedding

Question 8

Dimensions of Culture

Answer 8

Individualistic & Vertical
- People are unique
- Some people have higher/lower status
ex. USA, Canada, France

Individualistic & Horizontal
- People are unique
- Most people have the same status
ex. Denmark, Sweden, Australia

Collectivistic & Vertical
- People emphasize connectedness
- Some people have higher/lower status
ex. Japan, China, South Korea

Collectivistic & Horizontal
- People emphasize connectedness
- Most people have the same status
ex. Israeli Kibbutz, Brazil, Portugal

Question 9

Culture & The Self
Self-construal

Answer 9

Self-construal: How we understand ourselves in relation to others

A. Independent Self
* Uniqueness & personality traits
* Personality drives behaviour
* Individualistic cultures

B. Interdependent Self
* Defined differently in distinct social contexts
* Social context drives behaviour
* Collectivistic cultures

Question 10

Gender

Answer 10

Sex
* Biological category (male, female)
* Across species, determined by gamete size

Gender
* Psychological, social, cultural meanings, norms, expectations
* E.g. Gender roles
* What is culturally deemed as consistent with masculinity-femininity
* E.g. gender stereotypes

Question 11

Gender Identity

Answer 11

• Sense of self in terms of masculinity-femininity
• May or may not be consistent with biological sex
• Cisgender = consistent
• Transgender = inconsistent
• Gender identity is not inherently dichotomous nor stable
• Genderqueer/nonbinary
• Genderfluid
• Agender
• Bigender

Question 12

Gender Roles

Answer 12

• Social constructions what traits ppl have & how ppl should/will behave, in reference to their gender
• Usually in reference to a binary conceptualization of gender
• Vary across culture & time

E.g.
* Female: polite, nurturing, emotional
* Nurses, teachers, caretaker roles
* Male: assertive, strong, bold
* Politicians, doctors, leadership roles

Question 13

Gender roles - drawing scientists

Answer 13

• More girls draw female scientists: then vs. now
• 33% in 1985 vs. 58% in 2016
  BUT
• 90% of boys still draw a male scientists
• Both boys and girls more likely to draw male
  scientists with increasing age

Why?
Developmental intergroup theory
* adults focus so much on gender that kids learn that this is something to pay attention to in themselves and others

Social learning theory
* Gender roles learned through reinforcement,
punishment modeling

Gender schema theory
* Kids actively learn about & organize gender-related information from the broader culture, which can perpetuate gender stereotypes

Question 14

Gender Schema Theory

Answer 14

• Better recall when statement matched gender of source
• Memory biased by gender stereotypes