student submission -- gen psych getting a picture of society

7/28/2019 Student Submission -- Gen Psych Getting a Picture of Society

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• Aspects

1. Who -- the individuals, the roles, the qualifications....

2. What -- the objects, clothing, tools, ritual objects,technology....

3. When -- scheduling, timing, cycles....

4. Where -- the locale, buildings, furnishings....

5. How -- the activities, rituals, techniques....

• Domains

(or Why we do these things)

1. Organization -- order

2. Power structures -- enforcement3. Production -- subsistance

4. Education -- learning

5. Recreation -- entertainment

6. Belief systems -- stability



•Layers of society

1. Family -- the most intimate circle and its activities,

including meals, sexuality and reproduction, child

rearing, male/female and adult/child role

differentiation....2. Community -- a larger circle of people that we still

think of as "us," and all that pertains to "us."

3. The Others -- the people beyond our community,

whom we think of as "them," and how we relate to"them.“



Culture“Personalities"



• Culture obviously has a huge influence on us asindividuals. People within a single culture (and

especially if they are in the same social class,the same racial group, the same gender...) will tend to have many things in common, and tend to be somewhat different from the people in

another culture with which they have littleinteraction.

•

•Culture



Ways in

which Cultures

Impact on Organization

• Five Dimension



o1. Power distance. is the degree to which less powerful

parts of a society "accept and expect that power is

distributed unequally.“ o2. Individualism vs. collectivism . Individualism is found in

societies where "ties between individuals are loose" and

"everyone is expected to look after him/herself and

his/her immediate family." Collectivist societies are

those wherein "people from birth onwards are

integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often

extended families... which continueprotecting them in exchange for

unquestioning loyalty."



o 3. Masculinity vs. femininity . In some societies, both men

and women tend to be rather modest and peaceful, and

show considerable nurturance or caring for others - i.e.

feminine values.

o 4. Uncertainty avoidance vs. tolerance for uncertainty . In

some cultures, uncertainty and ambiguity are seen aspainful and to be avoided at all costs.

o 5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation .

Long-term societies value perseverance andthrift. Short-term societies value tradition,

social obligations, and protecting "face.“



Alternativeculture-

personality models

By; Fons Trompenaars and Charles

Hampden-Turner



o Universalism vs. Particularismo Individualism vs. Communitarianism

o Neutral vs. affective o Specific vs. diffuse o Achieved status vs. ascribed status o Internal vs. external orientation

o Time orientation



Three very traditional

culture dimensions in discussing multicultural

psychopathology and therapy

Richard Castillo



1. Sociocentric vs. egocentric. In the sociocentric society, aperson gets his or her identity from the group,traditionally, the extended family. In an egocentric society,

a person's identity is independent of the group2. Dominance hierarchies vs. egalitarianism . In societies withprominent dominance hierarchies, people at lower levelsof the hierarchy are perceived as having less value and are

stigmatized. Egalitarian societies tend to view all people ashaving similar value, even when that may not be entirelytrue of the society.

3. Premodern vs. modern. Premodern societies have arelatively low level of technology. Modernsocieties are basically those that have passedinto an industrial economy, or at least ahigh-level agricultural level with a significanturban population.



Four levels

of Society

by anthropologists Morton H. Fried

and Elman Service



o1. Hunter-gatherer bands - very small population

density, an economy based on hunting and gathering.

o2. Tribal societies - low population density, an

economy based on simple agriculture and somedomestication of animals.

o3. Stratified societies - moderate populations, with

formal hierarchies and assigned

statuses.

o4. Civilization - high populations,

with considerable urban concentration.



Intelligence and IQ

Intelligence is a person's capacity to (1)

acquire knowledge (i.e. learn and understand),

(2) apply knowledge (solve problems), and (3)

engage in abstract reasoning. It is the power of one's intellect, and as such is clearly a very

important aspect of one's overall well-

being. Psychologists have attempted to measure

it for well over a century.



Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is the score you get on an

intelligence test. Originally, it was a quotient (a ratio): IQ=

MA/CA x 100 [MA is mental age, CA is chronological age].

Today, scores are calibrated against norms of actual population

scores.



Under 70 [mentally retarded] -- 2.2%

70-80 [borderline retarded] -- 6.7%

80-90 [low average] -- 16.1%

90-110 [average] -- 50%

110-120 [high average] -- 16.1%

120-130 [superior] -- 6.7%

Over 130 [very superior] -- 2.2



Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics To understand IQ and the research involving IQ, we need tounderstand the basics of descriptive statistics:

1. The normal curve. This curve, also called the bell-shaped curve, isan idealized version of what happens in many large sets ofmeasurements: Most measurements fall in the middle, and fewer fall

at points farther away from the middle. Here, most people scorenear 100 (the average), and much less people score very high or very low.

2. The mean. The mean is just the average. The sum of everyone’sIQ scores, divided by the number of scores, is the mean, which was

originally set at 100 by agreement.3. The standard deviation. The standard deviation is like theaverage degree to which scores deviate from the mean. For our purposes, just know that 1 standard deviation above and below themean [85 to 115] contains 68% of all the scores, 2 sd [70 to 130]

contains 95%, and 3 sd [55 to 145] contains 99.7%



Correlation is what you are doing when you compare two

sets of measurements (each set is called a variable). If youwere to measure everyone’s height and weight, you could then

compare heights and weights and see if they have anyrelationship to each other

A perfect correlation is +1. An example would be the volumeof water vs the weight of water.

Perfect correlation can also be -1. An example would be the

amount of ink left in your printer vs the amount of ink used up.

Most things have a correlation of 0. An example would beyour height vs your SAT score.

In psychology, we are generally impressed by correlations of .3

and higher. .8 or .9 blows us away.But one thing correlation cannot tell you is what causeswhat. Your grades and your SATs correlate a little bit -- butwhich causes which? Odds are there is something else thatcauses two things to correlate.



Here are a fewcorrelations to

ponder, between

one person's IQand anothers:

Father-child .51

Mother-child .55

siblings .50

Biologicalfamilies

Adoptivefamilies

Mother-child .41 .09

Father-child .40 .16

Child-child .35 -.03

Is it genetic or environmental?



Identical twins Fraternal twins

fingerprints .97 .46

height .93 .65

IQ (Binet) .88 .63IQ (Otis) .92 .62

word meaning .86 .56

nature study .77 .55

history and literature .82 .67

spelling .87 .73

So intelligence clearly has a powerful genetic component. But we can also see a

number of environmental aids and hindrances: A stimulating environment,

parental encouragement, good schooling, specific reasoning skills, continued

practice, and so on, certainly help a person become more intelligent. Likewise,

there are certain biological factors that are nevertheless environmental: prenatal

care, nutrition (especially in early childhood), freedom from disease and physical

trauma, and so on.



Different kinds of intelligences

Verbal, numerical, spatial, reasoning, fluency, perceptual

speed...

Fluid vs. crystallized (Cattell)...

Linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial,

bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal

(Gardner)...



Here are some social statistics relating to IQ:

IQ group.......

lessthan75

75to90

90 to110

110to

125

125andhigh

er

% of total population 5% 20% 50% 20% 5%

% of group out of labor force morethan one month out of the year 22% 19% 15% 14% 10%

% of group unemployed more thanone month out of the year (men) 12% 10% 7% 7% 2%

% of group divorced within five years 21% 22% 23% 15% 9%

% of group that had illegitimatechildren (women) 32% 17% 8% 4% 2%

% of group that lives in poverty 30% 16% 6% 3% 2%

% of group ever incarcerated (men) 7% 7% 3% 1% 0%

% of group that are chronic welfarerecipients (mothers) 31% 17% 8% 2% 0%

% of group that drop out of high school 55% 35% 6% 0.4% 0%



Selected Portions of

Intelligence: Knowns

and Unknowns



I. Concepts of Intelligence

• Concepts of "intelligence" are attempts to

clarify and organize this complex set of

phenomena.

• Although considerable clarity has been

achieved in some areas, no such

conceptualization has yet answered all theimportant questions and none commands

universal assent.

I lli



Intelligence tests.

• Tests of intelligence itself (in the psychometric

sense) come in many forms. Some use only a single type of item or question; examples

include the Peabody Picture Vocabulary and

Raven's Progressive Matrices• For historical reasons, the term "IQ" is often

used to describe scores on tests of intelligence.

It originally referred to an "intelligenceQuotient" that was formed by dividing a so-

called mental age by a chronological age, but

this procedure is no longer used.



Intercorrelations among Tests.

• Individuals rarely perform equally well on

all the different kinds of items included in a

test of intelligence. One person may do

relatively better on verbal than on spatial

items, for example, while another may show

the opposite pattern. Nevertheless, subtests

measuring different abilities tend to be

positively correlated: people who score

high on one such subtest are likely to be

above average on others as well.



Multiple Forms of Intelligence

Gardner's Theory.•

On this view conceptions of intelligence should beinformed not only by work with normal children and

adults but also by studies of gifted individuals

(including so-called 'savants"), of persons who have

suffered brain damage, of experts and virtuosos, and

of individuals from diverse cultures. These

considerations have led Gardner to include musical,

bodlily-kinesthetic, and various forms of personal

intelligence as well as more familiar spatial,

linguistic, and logical mathematical abilities in the

scope of his theory.



Sternberg's Theory.

• Robert Sternberg's (1985) triarchic theory

proposes three fundamental aspects of

intelligence-analytic, creative, and

practical--of which only the first is

measured to any significant extent by

mainstream tests. His investigations suggest

the need for a balance between analytic

intelligence, on the one hand, and creative

and especially practical intelligence on the

other.



Developmental Progressions Developmental Progressions

• Intelligence develops in all children through

the continually shifting balance between the

assimilation of new information into existing

cognitive structures and the accommodation of

those structures themselves to the new

information. To index the development of

intelligence in this sense, Piaget devised

methods that are rather different from

conventional tests.



Vygotsky's Theory.

• Language and thought first appear in early

interactions with parents, and continue to developthrough contact with teachers and others. Traditional

intelligence tests ignore what Vygotsky called the

"zone of proximal development." i.e., the level of

performance that a child might reach with

appropriate help from a supportive adult. Such tests

are "static." measuring only the intelligence that is

already fully developed. "Dynamic" testing, in which

the examiner provides guided and graded feedback,

can go further to give some indication of the child's

latent potential.



II. INTELLIGENCE TESTS AND

THEIR CORRELATES oSchool Performance.

oYears of Education.

oSocial Status and Income.

o Job Performance.

oSocial Outcomes.

III THE GENES AND



III. THE GENES AND

INTELLIGENCE • In this section of the report we first

discuss individual differences

generally, without reference to any particular trait. We then focus on

intelligence, as measured by

conventional IQ tests or other tests

intended to measure general cognitive

ability.



Sources of Individual Differences

Partitioning the

Variation.• Individuals differ from one another on a wide variety

of traits: familiar examples include height.

intelligence, and aspects of personality. Those

differences are often of considerable social

importance. Many interesting questions can be asked

about their nature and origins. One such question is

the extent to which they reflect differences among the genes of the individuals involved, as distinguished from

differences among the environments to which those

individuals have been exposed.



How Genetic Estimates areMade.

• Estimates of the magnitudes of these sources of

individual differences are made by exploiting natural

and social 'experiments" that combine genotypes and

environments in informative ways. Monozygotic (MZ)

and dyzygotic (DZ) twins, for example, can be

regarded as experiments of nature. MZ twins are

paired individuals of the same age growing up in the

same family who have all their genes in common; DZ

twins are otherwise similar pairs who have only half

their genes in common. Adoptions, in contrast, are

experiments of society.



Results for IQ scores Parameter Estimates.

• Across the ordinary range of

environments in modern Western

societies, a sizable part of the variation in

intelligence test scores is associated with

genetic differences among individuals.

Quantitative estimates vary from one study to another, because many are based

on small or selective samples.



Implications.

• A common error is to assume that

because something is heritable it is

necessarily unchangeable This iswrong. Heritability does not imply

immutability. As previously noted,

heritable traits can depend on learning,

and they may be subject to other

environmental effects as well.



IV. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON

INTELLIGENCE “Social Variables”

oOccupation.

o Schooling.

o Interventions.

oFamily environment.



“Biological Variables” o Nutrition. There has been only one

major study of the effects of prenatal

malnutrition (i.e. malnutrition of the mother

during pregnancy) on long-term intellectual

development.

o

Lead. Certain toxins have well established negative effects on intelligence.



o Alcohol. Extensive prenatal exposure to

alcohol (which occurs if the mother drinks

heavily during pregnancy) can give rise to fetal

alcohol syndrome, which includes mental

retardation as well as a range of physical symptoms.

o Perinatal Factors. Complications at

delivery and other negative perinatal factors may

have serious consequences for development.



Individual Life Experiences

o Although the environmental variables that produce large

differences in intelligence are not yet well understood,

genetic studies assure us that they exist. With a heritability

well below 1.00, IQ must be subject to substantial

environmental influences. Moreover, available heritabilityestimates apply only within the range of environments that

are well-represented in the present population. We already

know that some relatively rare conditions, like those

reviewed earlier, have large negative effects on intelligence.Whether there are (now equally rare) conditions that have

large positive effects is not



o As we have seen, there is both a biological and a

social environment. For any given child, the social

factors include not only an overall cultural/ social/school setting and a particular family but also a

unique "micro-environment" of experiences that are

shared with no one else. The adoption studies

reviewed in Section 3 show that family variables, such

as differences in parenting style, in the resources of

the home, etc., have smaller long-term effects than we

once supposed. At least among people who share a given SES level and a given culture, it seems to be

unique individual experience that makes the largest

environmental contribution to adult IQ differences.

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