Samenvatting PPD
Lecture 1 – Nature – Culture – Subject
Core concepts:
1. Nature: Refers to the inherent traits and dispositions an individual is born with. These
biological predispositions influence behavior and personality.
2. Culture: Encompasses the shared beliefs, practices, norms, and values of a group. Culture
significantly shapes how individuals perceive themselves and others, and how they behave
within a societal context.
3. Subject: This term pertains to the individual person who experiences, acts, and constructs a
sense of self within their socio-cultural environment.
4. ‘First Nature’: Refers to the biological and genetic foundations of an individual, including
basic needs and instincts.
5. ‘Second Nature’: Involves the habits, skills, and traits developed through interaction with
the environment, particularly through cultural and social influences.
6. Nurture: The environmental factors and experiences that influence an individual's
development. This includes family, education, social interactions, and cultural context
7. Joint Intentionality: The capacity to share intentions and goals with others, which is crucial
for cooperative activities and cultural learning. This ability allows individuals to participate in
and contribute to collective practices.
8. Conventional Cultural Practices: The established ways of doing things within a culture,
which are learned and perpetuated through socialization. These practices help individuals
navigate their social worlds.
9. ‘Symbolic Order’: The system of symbols and meanings shared within a culture, which
provides a framework for understanding and interpreting experiences.
10. Schema: Cognitive structures that help individuals organize and interpret information.
Schemas influence how people perceive the world and guide their behavior.
11. The Psychological Self: The sense of oneself as a distinct individual with thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors. This concept is central to understanding identity and personal agency.
12. Actor - Agent - Author:
- Actor: The self as an actor involves performing roles in social interactions. From a young
age, individuals learn to behave according to societal expectations and norms.
- Agent: As a motivated agent, the self is driven by goals, values, and aspirations. This
perspective emphasizes intentionality and planning for the future.
, - Author: The self as an author involves constructing a coherent life narrative. This narrative
helps individuals make sense of their experiences and shape their identity over time.
Theories of personality are about who this person is and how they became that way. This always
involves development and goals and motivation for the future, as well as in a certain context.
What the context means to the person causes individual differences in reacting and forming
personality.
For example: in client narrative 1 of Naomi, there was no room for emotions and she felt like she
wasn't considered important. This adds to her depressive feelings that developed in a context
with lack of connection and working without joy.
Thus personality theories are about who a person is and how they became that way in the a
certain context, influenced by their development.
Historical origins of personalities
Cultural histories are formed due to transmission of conventions:
- Conventions are how we do certain things and understand things
- Thus there is transmission between people on how they do and understand things and
this forms our culture and cultural history.
By telling and reflecting on cultural stories about who we are and how we came to be, we
change our understanding of who we are.
- Reflecting: 'Being Dutch means...'
, 'We's' we belong to are the things you are a part of or that 'define' you, such as being Dutch,
going to a university, doing a certain sport and being part of a team.
Cultural transmission / cultural origins are typically human!
There are three perspectives on personality:
1. Universal / human nature: a new organism in nature
2. Particular / human cultures: a new person in a culture
3. Singular human live: a new subject of an individual life
Common confusions and mistakes:
1. Naturalizing cultural categories
a. Example: treating race as a natural kind
b. Our thoughts come from complex histories & people naturalize these
complexities
2. Reducing every aspect to cultural narratives
a. Example: not taking seriously the evolved physical body and brain as important
limits on what is culturally possible
3. Forgetting about the cultural and subjective position from where the autoher
speaks
a. Any theory that is narrated is influenced by the narrator
b. They position in history, society and culture influences the way facts are treated
4. Treating all accounts as equally subjective opinions
An organism in nature
According to Tomasello et al., there are two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation,
which is what is fundamental in humans & mammals:
1. Obligate collaborative foraging:
Lecture 1 – Nature – Culture – Subject
Core concepts:
1. Nature: Refers to the inherent traits and dispositions an individual is born with. These
biological predispositions influence behavior and personality.
2. Culture: Encompasses the shared beliefs, practices, norms, and values of a group. Culture
significantly shapes how individuals perceive themselves and others, and how they behave
within a societal context.
3. Subject: This term pertains to the individual person who experiences, acts, and constructs a
sense of self within their socio-cultural environment.
4. ‘First Nature’: Refers to the biological and genetic foundations of an individual, including
basic needs and instincts.
5. ‘Second Nature’: Involves the habits, skills, and traits developed through interaction with
the environment, particularly through cultural and social influences.
6. Nurture: The environmental factors and experiences that influence an individual's
development. This includes family, education, social interactions, and cultural context
7. Joint Intentionality: The capacity to share intentions and goals with others, which is crucial
for cooperative activities and cultural learning. This ability allows individuals to participate in
and contribute to collective practices.
8. Conventional Cultural Practices: The established ways of doing things within a culture,
which are learned and perpetuated through socialization. These practices help individuals
navigate their social worlds.
9. ‘Symbolic Order’: The system of symbols and meanings shared within a culture, which
provides a framework for understanding and interpreting experiences.
10. Schema: Cognitive structures that help individuals organize and interpret information.
Schemas influence how people perceive the world and guide their behavior.
11. The Psychological Self: The sense of oneself as a distinct individual with thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors. This concept is central to understanding identity and personal agency.
12. Actor - Agent - Author:
- Actor: The self as an actor involves performing roles in social interactions. From a young
age, individuals learn to behave according to societal expectations and norms.
- Agent: As a motivated agent, the self is driven by goals, values, and aspirations. This
perspective emphasizes intentionality and planning for the future.
, - Author: The self as an author involves constructing a coherent life narrative. This narrative
helps individuals make sense of their experiences and shape their identity over time.
Theories of personality are about who this person is and how they became that way. This always
involves development and goals and motivation for the future, as well as in a certain context.
What the context means to the person causes individual differences in reacting and forming
personality.
For example: in client narrative 1 of Naomi, there was no room for emotions and she felt like she
wasn't considered important. This adds to her depressive feelings that developed in a context
with lack of connection and working without joy.
Thus personality theories are about who a person is and how they became that way in the a
certain context, influenced by their development.
Historical origins of personalities
Cultural histories are formed due to transmission of conventions:
- Conventions are how we do certain things and understand things
- Thus there is transmission between people on how they do and understand things and
this forms our culture and cultural history.
By telling and reflecting on cultural stories about who we are and how we came to be, we
change our understanding of who we are.
- Reflecting: 'Being Dutch means...'
, 'We's' we belong to are the things you are a part of or that 'define' you, such as being Dutch,
going to a university, doing a certain sport and being part of a team.
Cultural transmission / cultural origins are typically human!
There are three perspectives on personality:
1. Universal / human nature: a new organism in nature
2. Particular / human cultures: a new person in a culture
3. Singular human live: a new subject of an individual life
Common confusions and mistakes:
1. Naturalizing cultural categories
a. Example: treating race as a natural kind
b. Our thoughts come from complex histories & people naturalize these
complexities
2. Reducing every aspect to cultural narratives
a. Example: not taking seriously the evolved physical body and brain as important
limits on what is culturally possible
3. Forgetting about the cultural and subjective position from where the autoher
speaks
a. Any theory that is narrated is influenced by the narrator
b. They position in history, society and culture influences the way facts are treated
4. Treating all accounts as equally subjective opinions
An organism in nature
According to Tomasello et al., there are two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation,
which is what is fundamental in humans & mammals:
1. Obligate collaborative foraging:
