Search Results

Evolutionary Perspectives on Sibling Relationships

Richard L. Michalski and Harald A. Euler

in Family Relationships: An Evolutionary Perspective

Sibling relationships are unique. They are the longest lasting human social relationship exceeding, on average, the length of relationships with parents, mates, and children. The powerful underlying ... More

Sibling relationships are unique. They are the longest lasting human social relationship exceeding, on average, the length of relationships with parents, mates, and children. The powerful underlying evolved psychological mechanisms activated in the contexts of sibling relationships are revealed in the attempts often made by parents to foster closeness between their children. Parents often attempt to groom young children for the arrival of a younger sibling. Put simply, there would be no need for such attempts if it were not for the evolved psychological mechanisms triggered in the minds of children that attempt to counteract the diversion of parental resources to siblings. This chapter shows that the most powerful guidance available to unmask this psychology is offered by evolutionary theories including inclusive fitness theory, parental investment theory, and parent-offspring conflict theory.Less

A Framework for the Psychology of Norms

Chandra Sekhar Sripada and Stephen Stich

in Collected Papers, Volume 2: Knowledge, Rationality, and Morality, 1978-2010

This chapter offers an account of the psychological mechanisms and processes underlying norms that integrate what is known and can serve as a framework for future research. The chapter is organized ... More

This chapter offers an account of the psychological mechanisms and processes underlying norms that integrate what is known and can serve as a framework for future research. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 1 offers a preliminary account of what norms are. Sections 2 and 3 assemble an array of facts about norms and the psychology that makes them possible, drawn from a variety of disciplines. Though the distinction is not a sharp one, Section 2 focuses on social level facts, while Section 3 focuses on how norms affect individuals. Section 4 provides a tentative hypothesis about the innate psychological architecture subserving the acquisition and implementation of norms, and explains why an architecture like the one proposed can explain many of the facts assembled in Sections 2 and 3. Section 5 focuses on open questions—important issues about the cognitive science of norms that the account in Section 4 does not address.Less

Culture and psychological mechanisms

Henry Plotkin

in Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

This chapter argues against memetics as a science that decreases culture to biology. In particular, it briefly refutes the charge of reductionism, and then attempts to save memetics from the second ... More

This chapter argues against memetics as a science that decreases culture to biology. In particular, it briefly refutes the charge of reductionism, and then attempts to save memetics from the second criticism – simple-mindedness – which is justifiably invoked against memetics of a particular kind. This is handled by appealing to psychological mechanisms as the basis for a pluralistic approach to the concept of memes. There are many different forms of knowledge and belief. Two kinds of memes – ‘surface-level’ and ‘deep-level’ – are also explained. The beliefs of universal Darwinism, replicators, and interactors as the basic concepts of memetics may substantially establish a productive approach to the understanding of culture; even more importantly, it might offer one of the conceptual bridges between the biological and social sciences.Less

Predictions, Implications, Complications

Patrik N. Juslin

in Musical Emotions Explained: Unlocking the Secrets of Musical Affect

This previous chapters looked at eight psychological mechanisms through which music might arouse emotions. This chapter widens the perspective and considers some of the implications of this ... More

This previous chapters looked at eight psychological mechanisms through which music might arouse emotions. This chapter widens the perspective and considers some of the implications of this multi-mechanism framework. It explains the need to distinguish between the mechanisms in both research and applications. It also addresses some more general questions raised by the previous chapters. With such a large number of mechanisms, why does music not always arouse emotions? Why do different listeners react differently to the same piece of music? How does the context influence musical emotions? Why do ‘live’ concerts tend to arouse more intense emotions than recorded music? Are emotional reactions to music similar across different cultures?Less

Tversky and Kahneman's availability approach to frequency judgement: a critical analysis

Tilmann Betsch and Devika Pohl

in Etc. Frequency Processing and Cognition

This chapter examines the predictive power of Tversky and Kahneman's availability approach to frequency estimation. It is shown that the original formulation of the availability approach does not ... More

This chapter examines the predictive power of Tversky and Kahneman's availability approach to frequency estimation. It is shown that the original formulation of the availability approach does not provide a falsifiable theory that would allow one to derive a priori predictions about the psychological mechanisms by which people arrive at frequency judgements. Rather, availability is one among other possibilities that people might rely on when being confronted with a frequency estimation task. A brief review of the empirical evidence reveals that the availability approach indeed describes one possible estimation strategy.Less

The Place of Truth in Epistemology

Ernest Sosa

in Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology

Suppose we think that knowledge is belief that is both true and derives from intellectual virtue. And if we also assume that knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief, then where does the ... More

Suppose we think that knowledge is belief that is both true and derives from intellectual virtue. And if we also assume that knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief, then where does the value of knowledge in addition to truth come from? This chapter provides an answer to the value problem by arguing that truth is the only fundamental epistemic value (with qualifications for values as understanding that is not directly connected to knowledge.) It suggests that humans prefer their epistemic success to be attributable to their own doing. More specifically, there is a so-called ‘performance value’: that is, the kind value afforded to a belief performance which normally produces truth belief when operating in a suitable environment. Such performances can have this value even when the acquired belief is false. But the chief intellectual good involves getting the truth through the quality of one's performance.Less

The Illusion: It usually seems that we consciously will our voluntary actions, but this is an illusion.

Daniel M. Wegner (ed.)

in The Illusion of Conscious Will

This chapter discusses how the idea of conscious will and the idea of psychological mechanisms have an oil and water relationship, having never been properly reconciled. One way to put them together ... More

This chapter discusses how the idea of conscious will and the idea of psychological mechanisms have an oil and water relationship, having never been properly reconciled. One way to put them together is to say that the mechanistic approach is the explanation preferred for scientific purposes, but that the person's experience of conscious will is utterly convincing and important to the person and so must be understood scientifically as well. The chapter states that conscious will is an illusion in the sense that the experience of consciously willing an action is not a direct indication that the conscious thought has caused the action. It also shows that the mechanisms underlying the experience of will are themselves a fundamental topic of scientific study.Less

‘Others’ and others: hysteria and the divided self

Sean A. Spence

in Cognitive Neurology: A clinical textbook

In hysteria, a physical symptom or sign is said to be produced by a psychological mechanism, triggered by a conflict within the patient. Crucially, there is no explanatory physical cause that can be ... More

In hysteria, a physical symptom or sign is said to be produced by a psychological mechanism, triggered by a conflict within the patient. Crucially, there is no explanatory physical cause that can be demonstrated. The man or woman so afflicted reports that they cannot raise their arm, or cannot see; yet physical investigations prove negative and, when sedated or observed unobtrusively over time, symptomatic inconsistencies arise. However, despite these, the diagnostic systems applied are quite specific that the patient experiencing and exhibiting such symptoms and signs is not responsible for their production, i.e. they are not ‘feigning’. Hence, the physician is called upon to judge what the patient is thinking and not doing, i.e. to perceive that they are really trying to move or see and are not pretending to be impaired. This is a complex task and the use of language in this area suggests considerable uncertainty among physicians as to what it is they are diagnosing.Less

Religious Prosociality: A Synthesis

Ara Norenzayan, Joseph Henrich, and Edward Slingerland

in Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion

Religion is a ubiquitous aspect of human culture, yet until recently, relatively little was known about its natural origins and effects on human minds and societies. This is changing, as scientific ... More

Religion is a ubiquitous aspect of human culture, yet until recently, relatively little was known about its natural origins and effects on human minds and societies. This is changing, as scientific interest in religion is on the rise. Debates about the evolutionary origins and functions of religion, including its origins in genetic and cultural evolution, hinge on a set of empirical claims about religious prosociality: whether, and through which particular pathways, certain religious beliefs and practices encourage prosocial behaviors. Here we synthesize and evaluate the scientific literature on religious prosociality, highlighting both gaps and open questions. Converging evidence from several fields suggests a nuanced pattern such that some religious beliefs and practices, under specific sociohistorical contexts, foster prosocial behaviors among strangers. This emerging picture is beginning to reveal the psychological mechanisms underlying religious prosociality. Further progress will depend on resolving outstanding puzzles, such as whether religious prosociality exists in small-scale societies, the extent to which it is constrained by in-group boundaries, and the psychology underlying various forms of disbelief. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.Less

The Mechanisms of Social Idealization and Splitting

Niza Yanay

in The Ideology of Hatred: The Psychic Power of Discourse

Chapter three raises the questions how are prejudice and hate speech reproduced and how do they persist despite the fact that Western democracies conceive of themselves as liberal, tolerant and ... More

Chapter three raises the questions how are prejudice and hate speech reproduced and how do they persist despite the fact that Western democracies conceive of themselves as liberal, tolerant and pluralistic? The best way to show how the forces (or mechanisms) of the political unconscious operate within public speech is through the analysis of resistance and fixation in speech. The chapter analyzes speech exchanges between Jewish and Palestinian students in a dialogue group to demonstrate how idealization and splitting as forces of speech implicitly dominate the dialogical process and allow for old denials to reappear in speech as social symptoms.Less

Voter Affect and the Demise of Party Systems

in Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela

This chapter analyzes voter affect and the psychological mechanism connecting citizens' attitudes with the decision to vote in favor of party-system collapse in Peru and Venezuela. It describes an ... More

This chapter analyzes voter affect and the psychological mechanism connecting citizens' attitudes with the decision to vote in favor of party-system collapse in Peru and Venezuela. It describes an experiment regarding the effects of anger on propensity to support a candidate from outside the party system and discusses the result which shows that voters randomized to feel anger are significantly more likely to support the outsider candidate than are those assigned to the control group. The chapter also considers how emotional states influence political attitudes and positions on political issues.Less

Experiments in primatology: from the lab to the field and back again

Charles H. Janson and Sarah F. Brosnan

in Primate Ecology and Conservation

This chapter discusses how studies of field and captive (both laboratory and free-ranging captive) populations can provide complementary insights into the function and mechanisms of primate ... More

This chapter discusses how studies of field and captive (both laboratory and free-ranging captive) populations can provide complementary insights into the function and mechanisms of primate behaviours. In both arenas, experiments and observations play a role, although the ease of adopting each approach differs depending on the context, and they each have distinct kinds of strengths and constraints. Studies in captivity generally emphasize experiments on psychological mechanisms or development of behaviour, whereas field studies are best used to document the natural contexts in which functions are evident. Studies in captivity often reveal cognitive capacities that are only documented much later in the wild (e.g., tool use in capuchin monkeys) or that challenge us to discover the adaptive context in which they make sense (e.g., ability to count by chimpanzees). Studies in the wild may reveal behaviours that may not develop easily in confined lab environments (e.g., large-space navigational ability) or suggest explanations for species differences in cognitive abilities found in captivity (e.g., spatial vs. temporal discounting among tamarin species).Less

Conclusion

Andrea Chiovenda

in Crafting Masculine Selves: Culture, War, and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan

The conclusion to the book pulls together the many conceptual threads that emerged from the ethnographic material presented in the previous chapters. It argues for a human “shared psychic reality” ... More

The conclusion to the book pulls together the many conceptual threads that emerged from the ethnographic material presented in the previous chapters. It argues for a human “shared psychic reality” that can only be expressed and operationalized through the meanings given to it by the cultural world in which each individual is immersed and lives. Thus, while psychic mechanisms have to be “primed” by the individual’s cultural and social environment in order to function meaningfully, so also cultural material, in order to be understood, has to be approached by investigating the subjectivities and psychological dynamics of those who utilize it and produce it. This is particularly true in the realm of conflict, in all its connotations, which is a constant presence in the pages of the book. Indeed, power is here considered to be constitutive of all relations of interdependence between individuals, and not simply as something that someone has and others have not, whether when producing harmony or conflict.Less

Blast from the Past: Episodic Memory

Patrik N. Juslin

in Musical Emotions Explained: Unlocking the Secrets of Musical Affect

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as episodic memory. Episodic memory is defined as a process whereby an emotion is induced in a listener because the music evokes a personal ... More

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as episodic memory. Episodic memory is defined as a process whereby an emotion is induced in a listener because the music evokes a personal memory of a specific event in the person's life; when the memory is evoked, so is also the emotion associated with the event. The emotion can be intense, perhaps because the physiological response pattern to the original event is stored in memory, together with the experiential content. Episodic memory requires detached mental representations (i.e. representations of events or objects that are not currently sensed in the external world) and a sense of self, which ties together the individual episodes. Episodic memory is also an important aspect of what it means to be human.Less

Seeing in the Mind’s Eye: Visual Imagery

Patrik N. Juslin

in Musical Emotions Explained: Unlocking the Secrets of Musical Affect

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as visual imagery. Visual imagery is defined as a process whereby an emotion is evoked in the listener because he or she conjures up inner ... More

This chapter considers the psychological mechanism known as visual imagery. Visual imagery is defined as a process whereby an emotion is evoked in the listener because he or she conjures up inner images while listening to the music. Images might come about in three ways. First, mental imagery may occur when listeners conceptualize the musical structure through a nonverbal mapping between the metaphorical ‘affordances’ of the music and image-schemata grounded in bodily experience. A second type of imagery might occur when a listener brings to a listening experience certain types of knowledge or myths about the circumstances surrounding the creation of the piece or about the artist in question. Thirdly, a music listener can create images based on how certain aspects of the music mirror aspects of the listener's current life experience.Less