Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett

Скачать книгу

virtue of selection pressures on the gene pool. Social neuroscience—based in biology—falls under the evolutionary approach. Yet, as discussed in Chapter 1, social behavior is influenced by a number of other factors, such as culture, individual learning, and how people construe their world. Researchers used to think that the brain stopped developing relatively early in life and that the organization of neurons and the brain regions involved in specific activities were largely fixed. However, we know now that many neurons can regenerate and reorganize throughout the life cycle. Moreover, some changes in the brain (and even the genes) occur as a result of a person’s experience (Francis, 2011). That is, the brain exhibits plasticity or flexibility, which means that it is sensitive to external social, cultural, and environmental influences (Duffy & Kitayama, 2010). Evidence has been accumulating with regard to the coevolution of genes and culture, demonstrating that culture and genes have affected each other over the course of human evolution (Chiao, 2011; Donald, 2000; Richerson & Boyd, 2005). These and related findings bring home the lesson that a comprehensive understanding of social behavior requires examining it from multiple levels of explanation, including but not limited to social neuroscience.

      Core Concepts

       Dualism is the perspective that the mind operates independently of the body and is not constrained by it. Understanding the exact nature of the relationship between the two is called the mind/body problem.

       Contemporary social psychologists view the mind as embodied or inextricably bound up with the body; the social brain is now seen as the default state of mind and mental processing.

       The tripartite brain is composed of the reptilian, mammalian, and higher brains. The social brain hypothesis holds that increasingly large social networks produced pressures that selected for more sophisticated thinking and larger brains. The ecological hypotheses explain the larger brains as caused by nonsocial factors, but they have less empirical support than does the social brain hypothesis.

       Neurons are the basic units of the brain and nervous system and have three major sections: soma, dendrites, and axons. Neurons communicate via neurotransmitter messages that are released across the synaptic gap, from the axon from one neuron to the dendrites of others.

       The roles of five key neurotransmitters are discussed in the chapter: dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, and acetylcholine.

       Structures of the brain that are key to understanding social behavior include the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, thalamus and hypothalamus, and insula.

       Social neuroscience is the interdisciplinary field devoted to the study of neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms and to the study of the associations and influences between social and biological levels of organization.

       Social neuroscience uses a variety of methods to investigate the neurobiology of social behavior, and since each has its strengths and weaknesses, multiple methods are often used.

       fMRI has been proposed as a method for detecting deception, but research has not supported its use.

       The brain is clearly hardwired as a result of evolutionary processes; nevertheless, it is also surprisingly flexible or plastic, as it is capable of being rewired throughout the life cycle.

       Test your understanding of chapter content. Take the practice quiz. edge.sagepub.com/barrett

      Key Terms

       Alleles, 59

       Dualism, 45

       Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), 63

       Mind/Body Problem, 45

       Neocortex Ratio, 48

       Reductivism, 66

       Social Neuroscience, 47

       Review key terms with eFlashcards. edge.sagepub.com/barrett

      Think Further!

       Why is the brain considered to be inherently social?

       Why is studying the brain crucial to understanding the foundations of social behavior?

       If you could choose one structure of the brain to research in depth and learn more about its role in social behavior, which would it be and why?

       In your opinion, which of the methods of social neuroscience represents the most significant advance in understanding the social brain?

       If the fMRI were shown to be a valid and reliable way to detect deception, do you think it would be ethical to use it this way? Why or why not?

       What is brain plasticity and why is this important for understanding the relationships among genes, evolution, and culture?

      Suggested Readings

      Baer, J., Kaufman, J. C., & Baumeister, R. F. (2008). Are we free? Psychology and free will. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

      Cacioppo, J. T., & Berntson, G. G. (2005). Social neuroscience: Key readings. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

      Ito, T. A., Thompson, E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). Tracking the timecourse of social perception: The effects of racial cues on event-related brain potentials. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1267–1280.

      Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

      Vanman, E. J., Saltz, J. L., Nathan, L. R., & Warren, J. A. (2004). Racial discrimination by low-prejudiced Whites facial movements as implicit measures of attitudes related to behavior. Psychological Science, 15, 711–714.

      WANT A BETTER GRADE?

      Get the tools you need to sharpen your study skills. Access practice quizzes, eFlashcards, web exercises, and multimedia at edge.sagepub.com/barrett

Part II Thinking About the Self and Others

      Chapter 3 Social Cognition

      Figure skating pairs silver medal winners Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada, left, look toward Russians figure skating pairs and gold medal winners Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze during and awards ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Monday, February 11, 2002. Canadian outrage forced figure skating’s ruling body to launch an inquiry into judging at the Olympics following Russia’s controversial victory over the Canadians in the event.

      AP Photo/Doug Mills.

      Learning Objectives

       3.1 Identify the five ways in which social cognition is different from nonsocial cognition and explain why people cannot NOT believe whatever they hear.

       3.2 Define and compare and contrast the two types of processing; identify the four criteria for automaticity and list the three types of automatic processes; describe priming and spreading activation and illustrate them with an example.

       3.3 Explain heuristics

Скачать книгу