Behaviour and Environment
Chapter 1
Social Psychology: The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of
individuals in social situations.
Dispositions: internal factors such as beliefs, values, personality characteristics, or
skills that affect how people behave
Channel factors (nudges): situations that can affect behavior by making one path
easier to follow than another
Situational factors: external influences on an individual that affect how they
behave
Fundamental attribution error: the failure to recognize the importance of situational
influences on behavior, together with the tendency to overemphasize dispositions.
Kurt Lewin
Behavior is a function of the surroundings
Came up with channel factors
Stanley Milgram Experiment
An authority figure ordered participants to deliver what they believed were
dangerous electrical shocks to another person. These results suggested that
people are highly influenced by authority and highly obedient. Shows situation
matters.
Good Samaritan experiment - John Darley and Daniel Batson
Students were asked to deliver a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan, a
Bible story about helping strangers in need. Research showed that being in a hurry
can lead even a seminary student with the Good Samaritan on the mind to ignore a
person in distress.
Creativity is most associated with happiness.
Behaviour and Environment 1
, Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology: people perceive objects not by means of some passive and
unbiased perception of objective reality but by active, usually non conscious
interpretation of what the object represents.
Naive realism: the belief that we see the world directly, without any complicated
perceptual or cognitive machinery “doctoring” the data.
Construal: refers to how we interpret situations and behavior and how we make
inferences, nonconscious, about the contexts and the people we are
encountering.
Schema: cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret
information.
Stereotypes: a belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a
particular group.
Processing
Automatic processing Conscious processing
Implicit attitudes Explicit attitudes
Fast Slow
Important for efficiency Deliberate thought
Ideomotor Mimicry Deliberate awareness
Implicit attitudes: unconscious beliefs or evaluations that affect our feelings and
behaviors towards others.
Explicit attitudes: conscious beliefs or evaluations that affect our feelings and
behaviours towards others.
Ideomotor mimicry: subconscious imitation of body language
Solution —> Consider important propositions and potential courses of action in a
number of different settings, if possible.
Behaviour and Environment 2
, Evolution and human behaviour
Charles Darwin
Natural selection: individuals with certain traits will be better able than others to
survive, reproduce and raise their offspring to the age of viability. Behavioural
inclinations as well as physical characteristics.
Theory of mind: the ability to recognize that other people have beliefs and desires
and that understanding others' beliefs and desires allows us to understand and
predict their behaviour.
Naturalistic fallacy: the claim that the way things are is the way they should be.
Culturalistic fallacy: tracing back each type of social behavior to its cultural
influences (or the way in which people behave is strictly the result of socialization)
Parental investment: an evolutionary principle that costs and benefits are
associated with reproduction and the nurture of offspring.
Social neuroscience
Older regions of the brain —> nonconscious, automatic reactions to our social
environment.
Amygdala: Involved in automatic reactions to social stimuli, particularly fear.
Nucleus Accumbens: Associated with reward processing; connects to the
prefrontal cortex for complex thought and emotion regulation.
Prefrontal Cortex: Responsible for higher-order cognitive functions and
decision-making.
Neocortex: reasoning, abstract thought and memory. Involved in social
behavior.
Unique about the human brain is the size of our neocortex.
Behaviour and Environment 3
, Culture
Independent culture: those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs
of the group as a whole
Dependent culture: people view themselves as inherently connected with others,
seek to adjust and fit in to important relationships and groups, and prioritize
collective over personal goals
Past —> cultural differences were mainly about what people believe, like, and
value.
Recently —> differences go much deeper. They affect how people see
themselves, interact with others, and even how they think, perceive the world, and
form new ideas.
Factors
Economic
Degree to which social realtions are based on associations with kin
Chinese PS that are more independent have more grey matter in the region of the
cortex related to the self and the region of the brain that supports thoughts of self-
agency.
We share mental patterns (construals) in any size of group. These are shown in:
Institutions - like following laws
Practices - like following traditions
Artefacts - like wearing the corresponding clothing)
Culture affects our behavior (like with covid, loose cultures struggled to isolate
themselves)
Behavior = Evolution and culture
“By birth, the same; by custom, different”
Cultures influences behavior which produces more culture which influences
behavior…
Ratchet effect: Cultural development cannot be reversed, it's the basis for future
developments
Behaviour and Environment 4
Chapter 1
Social Psychology: The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of
individuals in social situations.
Dispositions: internal factors such as beliefs, values, personality characteristics, or
skills that affect how people behave
Channel factors (nudges): situations that can affect behavior by making one path
easier to follow than another
Situational factors: external influences on an individual that affect how they
behave
Fundamental attribution error: the failure to recognize the importance of situational
influences on behavior, together with the tendency to overemphasize dispositions.
Kurt Lewin
Behavior is a function of the surroundings
Came up with channel factors
Stanley Milgram Experiment
An authority figure ordered participants to deliver what they believed were
dangerous electrical shocks to another person. These results suggested that
people are highly influenced by authority and highly obedient. Shows situation
matters.
Good Samaritan experiment - John Darley and Daniel Batson
Students were asked to deliver a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan, a
Bible story about helping strangers in need. Research showed that being in a hurry
can lead even a seminary student with the Good Samaritan on the mind to ignore a
person in distress.
Creativity is most associated with happiness.
Behaviour and Environment 1
, Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology: people perceive objects not by means of some passive and
unbiased perception of objective reality but by active, usually non conscious
interpretation of what the object represents.
Naive realism: the belief that we see the world directly, without any complicated
perceptual or cognitive machinery “doctoring” the data.
Construal: refers to how we interpret situations and behavior and how we make
inferences, nonconscious, about the contexts and the people we are
encountering.
Schema: cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret
information.
Stereotypes: a belief that certain attributes are characteristic of members of a
particular group.
Processing
Automatic processing Conscious processing
Implicit attitudes Explicit attitudes
Fast Slow
Important for efficiency Deliberate thought
Ideomotor Mimicry Deliberate awareness
Implicit attitudes: unconscious beliefs or evaluations that affect our feelings and
behaviors towards others.
Explicit attitudes: conscious beliefs or evaluations that affect our feelings and
behaviours towards others.
Ideomotor mimicry: subconscious imitation of body language
Solution —> Consider important propositions and potential courses of action in a
number of different settings, if possible.
Behaviour and Environment 2
, Evolution and human behaviour
Charles Darwin
Natural selection: individuals with certain traits will be better able than others to
survive, reproduce and raise their offspring to the age of viability. Behavioural
inclinations as well as physical characteristics.
Theory of mind: the ability to recognize that other people have beliefs and desires
and that understanding others' beliefs and desires allows us to understand and
predict their behaviour.
Naturalistic fallacy: the claim that the way things are is the way they should be.
Culturalistic fallacy: tracing back each type of social behavior to its cultural
influences (or the way in which people behave is strictly the result of socialization)
Parental investment: an evolutionary principle that costs and benefits are
associated with reproduction and the nurture of offspring.
Social neuroscience
Older regions of the brain —> nonconscious, automatic reactions to our social
environment.
Amygdala: Involved in automatic reactions to social stimuli, particularly fear.
Nucleus Accumbens: Associated with reward processing; connects to the
prefrontal cortex for complex thought and emotion regulation.
Prefrontal Cortex: Responsible for higher-order cognitive functions and
decision-making.
Neocortex: reasoning, abstract thought and memory. Involved in social
behavior.
Unique about the human brain is the size of our neocortex.
Behaviour and Environment 3
, Culture
Independent culture: those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs
of the group as a whole
Dependent culture: people view themselves as inherently connected with others,
seek to adjust and fit in to important relationships and groups, and prioritize
collective over personal goals
Past —> cultural differences were mainly about what people believe, like, and
value.
Recently —> differences go much deeper. They affect how people see
themselves, interact with others, and even how they think, perceive the world, and
form new ideas.
Factors
Economic
Degree to which social realtions are based on associations with kin
Chinese PS that are more independent have more grey matter in the region of the
cortex related to the self and the region of the brain that supports thoughts of self-
agency.
We share mental patterns (construals) in any size of group. These are shown in:
Institutions - like following laws
Practices - like following traditions
Artefacts - like wearing the corresponding clothing)
Culture affects our behavior (like with covid, loose cultures struggled to isolate
themselves)
Behavior = Evolution and culture
“By birth, the same; by custom, different”
Cultures influences behavior which produces more culture which influences
behavior…
Ratchet effect: Cultural development cannot be reversed, it's the basis for future
developments
Behaviour and Environment 4
