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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Chapter Outline
Resources
Lecture/Discussion Ideas
 As Nature Made Him
 Evolution: Entering the Debate
 Mother Love?
 Culture and the Origin of Good
 Culture: Are People the Same Everywhere?
 History of Science
 Social Capital
 Paper Clip = House
 Time
 Alive
 Taste Preference
 The Pill
 Culture and Sex
 Deep Survival
 Is Conscious Decision Making Better?
 The Evolution of Evil
 The Cultural Animal
Class Activity/Demonstration Ideas
 Fact or Fiction (Handout 2-1)
 Pancakes or Waffles?
 Evolution: Knives, Spoons, and Hands
 Culture: Simulation Games
 The Light Bulb
 Charades
 Food Rituals
 Penguin Reproduction
 Stroop Effect
 Driving Automatically
 Stop!
 Cultural Questions Activity
 Think/Pair/Share—Culture Says Stop (Handout 2-3)
Student Projects/Homework
 X: A Fabulous Child’s Story
 Evolution: Reproduction
 Other Cultural Animals?
 Analyzing Cultural Behavior
 Culture and the Case of Shackleton
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
 Culture and Fiction
 Civilization and Its Discontents
 Division of Labor
 Where Does Your Food Come From?
 Slow Foods Movement
 Kinsey Institute Sex Knowledge Test
 Tradeoffs
 Automatic Actions
 Cultural Questions
 Other Cultural Animals?
Video/DVD Suggestions
Handouts
 2-1 Fact or Fiction
 2-2 Think/Pair/Share—Culture Says Stop
 2-3 Culture and the Case of Shackleton
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Outline
I. Chapter Prologue
A. The “Brenda” Story
1. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto
2. Boy who, because of a circumcision accident, had his penis removed shortly after birth
and was raised until his teen years as a girl.
B. The Limits of Socialization
1. Given the boy’s difficulty in adjusting to his female identity, the story suggests that
gender differences are not solely because of socialization.
2. Innate differences constrain what parental care, teaching and other socialization
experiences can affect.
3. Both nature and experience are important to explaining human behavior.
II. Nature and Social Behavior
A. Explaining the Psyche
1. The psyche is “a broader term for mind,” including all psychological processes
(emotions, perceptions, desires, etc.).
2. Analogy of someone on a deserted island, who has no experience with electricity or
cans, trying to determine the purpose of an electric can opener.
3. To understand the psyche, we have to understand what it was designed for. And
nature and culture have shaped the psyche to be what it is.
4. Often nature and culture (or nurture) are pitted against each other. One example of
this debate is with homosexuality. Result of genes or of experience?
5. Some have argued that nature is primary, culture builds on it.
6. This book argues for interaction—each shapes the other.
B. Nature Defined
1. Nature is “the physical world around us, including its laws and processes.”
2. In terms of human behavior a ‘nature’ explanation involves explanations involving
chemicals in the brain or genes.
3. Behavior patterns are understood using evolutionary theory.
C. Evolution, and Doing What’s Natural
1. The theory of evolution, proposed by Charles Darwin, explains how change occurs in
nature.
a. Natural selection is the process of competition by which certain traits are selected
and endure and others disappear.
1) 2 criteria for natural selection
a) Survival means “living longer.” The ability to survive depends in
part on how well adapted an organism is to its circumstances.
b) Reproduction—passing along one’s genes. Biologists emphasize
this as the more important criteria for natural selection.
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c) Mutation is “a new gene or combination of genes.” Mutations are
selected when they promote not only survival but increase the
probability of reproduction.
b. Gender Differences and Evolutionary Theory
1) Men can father many children by having sex with many women and
therefore, men who desire many partners were more likely to pass on their
genes.
2) Women can mother about one child per year and are more likely to have
children survive with the help of a partner. Women, therefore, who prefer
lasting, committed relationships were more likely to pass on their genes.
D. Social Animals
1. Consider the difference between trees and animals. Both interact with their world, but
doing do is more complicated for an animal than a tree.
2. Animals that are not loners have discovered, or nature has discovered for them, that
interacting with the world works better if they live and work together.
3. Being social is a strategy that provides benefits in terms of survival and reproduction
for such animals.
4. The down side of being social is that it is harder to achieve than a solitary life,
requiring larger and complex brains.
E. The Social Brain
1. Social animals require brains with more complexity and flexibility.
2. Bigger brains are not linked with larger territories or eating better food.
3. Bigger brains are linked with larger and more complex social organization. It evolved
as such to help us understand each other better.
4. A theme of this text, then, is that inner processes serve interpersonal functions.
III. Culture and Human Social Life
A. Social Animal or Cultural Animal?
1. As social animals we seek connections with others. We live, work, and play together.
a. Many other animals are just as, if not more social.
b. What makes humans different is culture.
1) Few animal species show any but the rudiments of culture.
2) Humans rely on culture.
c. Being cultural animals is what sets humans apart from other animals.
B. Culture Defined
1. Culture is difficult to define. Social scientists generally use culture to “refer to what a
large group of people have in common.” It is an advanced way of being social, with
nature progressing from plants, to solitary animals, to social animals, and finally
cultural animals.
2. Shared Ideas
a. Enables those who don’t know each other, but share a culture, to interact.
b. Culture does not exist in/with a single person.
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c. Does not preclude debate about how to implement or practice the shared beliefs.
3. Culture as System
a. Culture is a network that links many different people, but because of its dynamic
nature it is more aptly described as a system.
b. Example of food: without hunting, fishing, or farming a family can eat because of
a system of food delivery that involves farmers, factories, truckers, stores and
many others.
c. The food system illustrates the theme the authors describe as “putting people
first.” Many people in the modern world get their food from people, not from
nature.
4. Culture as Praxis
a. Praxis refers to “a practical way of doing things.”
b. Debate among anthropologists whether culture is best understood as shared
beliefs and values or a shared way of doing things. Likely both.
c. Example of Philadelphians sharing values as well as a way of doing things.
Philadelphia works because most do things in the same way.
d. Praxis often depends on shared ideas.
5. Culture, Information, and Meaning
a. Meaningful information is shared in a culture and influences how people in that
culture act.
b. Contrast of the food storage behaviors of humans and squirrels.
6. Summary
a. Culture is “an information based system, involving both shared understandings
and praxis, that enables groups of people to live together in an organized fashion
and to get what they need”.
C. Money Matters: Nature, Culture and Money
1. Although nearly all cultures use money, from the perspective of nature, it is an unusual
phenomenon, as no plants or animals use it.
2. Lea and Webley (2005) explain why people work so long and hard for money using
two analogies:
a. Money is a tool that helps people get what they want. But this analogy doesn’t
explain hoarding behavior.
b. Money is like a drug, in that it takes advantage of the body’s capacity for pleasure.
It functions like an addiction.
3. Research suggests some animals can learn rudimentary elements of dealing with
money.
a. After months of training, monkeys did learn to trade coins for treats from
humans.
b. But the monkeys rarely used the money amongst each other, and they occasionally
tried to use cucumber slices as coins (as if they were interchangeable).
D. Food for Thought: Virtuous Vegetarians
1. With culture, eating is shaped by ideas and beliefs.
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2. Humans share with non-human animals the need to eat and the avoidance of food
that makes us sick.
3. Vegetarians, however, choose not to eat meat because they:
a. believe it is better for the planet.
b. want to reduce the suffering of other people.
c. believe in animal rights.
4. Individuals with particular religious views may choose not to eat certain foods.
5. These phenomena illustrate the power of cultural ideas to shape eating behavior in
humans.
E. Sex: Sex and Culture
1. Debate over whether human sexuality is the result nature or nurture.
2. Those aspects of sexuality common across cultures may be rooted in nature.
a. In all cultures men have a desire for more sex partners than women.
b. Same basic sex practices known in most cultures.
c. All cultures have rules about sex.
d. All cultures have made efforts to control conception.
3. Some aspects of sexuality show influence of culture.
a. Examples from Guam, Turkey, Lebanon, New Guinea, the U.S., and England.
4. Differences within cultures as well
a. Age of first intercourse, number of sex partners, sexual positions used, interest in
watching or reading about sex.
b. The commonalities, and the variance, in sexual practice illustrates that it is
influenced by both nature and culture.
F. Nature and Culture Interacting
1. Nature’s interaction with culture can be seen in the relative age effect. Children who
start school when they are older (by virtue of school district age cutoffs that they “just
missed the cutoff to start a year ago) are more likely to be categorized as “gifted.”
2. This effect has been observed in sports like hockey, as well. Star athletes are not just
born, nor are they simply made, it is nature interacting with culture that promotes
success, including being born on the right side of the age cutoff dates.
3. The interaction can also be seen in construction of gender identity. Although the
“Brenda” story at the outset of this chapter illustrates the strong biological influence
on gender, other research suggests that “manhood” has strong cultural influences.
a. Many cultures require boys to “prove” their manhood.
b. Among American college students, loss of manhood is seen as due to social
factors, whereas loss of womanhood is more difficult to fathom.
c. Threats to a man’s masculinity cause a man to feel aggressive and anxious, but
parallel threats to a woman’s femininity provoke no such response.
G. What Makes Cultural Animals?
1. Many animals have some elements of culture, but it tends to be rare and rudimentary.
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2. This is partly explained by the fact that most animals lack sufficient brainpower to
sustain culture.
3. Other differences between social and cultural animals include
a. Social animals often work together, but cultural animals have elaborate division of
labor with more varied, complex, and flexible roles amongst group members.
b. Social animals figure out good ways of doing things, but cultural animals preserve
this knowledge and share it with the group to create progress.
c. Social animals communicate, but usually about the present. Cultural animals use
language to communicate about the past, present, and future.
d. Social animals tend to help primarily kin; cultural animals have a broad sense of
community and will help total strangers.
e. Social animals resolve disputes usually through aggression. Cultural animals have
moral principles and laws that help them resolve conflicts without resorting to
violence.
4. Humans survive and reproduce by means of their culture. Nature has shaped humans
to “do” culture.
5. Culture is a better way of being social. As a biological strategy, culture has allowed the
human population to increase, lifespan to increase, and habitation in an enormous
variety of climates and terrains for humans.
H. Are People the Same Everywhere?
1. Culture influences food, language and other aspects of life.
2. Example of cultural differences in sleep
3. Cultural differences can be problematic for social psychologists. How do social
psychologists find similarities if people are different across cultures?
4. But cultural differences are often a matter of degree rather than kind. This is a more
optimistic view that general principles of social behavior can be meaningfully
identified.
5. Goal in this book is to find the underlying similarities.
I. Summary
1. Culture provides many advantages for humans.
a. But requires many things: language, holding social roles while being flexible,
thinking about complicated decisions and restraining impulses.
b. The requirements for culture may help us explain the human psyche.
IV. Important Features of Human Social Life
A. The Duplex Mind
1. Although many do not accept Freud’s account of the conscience and unconscious,
there does seem to be two parts to the human mind.
a. A summary version is presented, with the acknowledgement that experts do not
agree on what to call the two systems or the details of the systems.
2. Two Systems
a. Automatic System
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1) Outside of consciousness
2) Does simple jobs automatically
a) Interpreting, categorizing and organizing information
b. Conscious System
1) Likely the smaller ‘half’ of the system
2) Involves a small, but important part of what is in the mind
3) Working when the individual is awake
3. What is consciousness for?
a. Although many people believe it does, the conscious mind does not constantly
direct one’s thoughts and actions.
1) Example of walking—something we do not consciously do.
b. Because the automatic system directs much of behavior (learning, thinking,
choosing, responding) there is debate of what, if anything, the conscious mind is
good for.
1) Gazzaniga concluded consciousness is a side effect of other processes
2) Wegner suggests that consciousness provides us emotional signals so we
do not confuse our own actions with the actions of others.
c. Given its biological expense there are likely advantages provided by consciousness
1) Complex jobs involving combination of information, and logical reasoning
are the realm of conscious thought.
4. Differences between the systems
a. Automatic system does many unrelated things at the same time. Consciousness
does one thing at a time.
b. The automatic system does things quickly and efficiently. The conscious system
does things slowly and takes effort.
c. An advantage of the conscious system is its flexibility. The automatic system has
difficulty dealing with new or unfamiliar situations.
d. The conscious system is needed for the complexity, involving novelty and
unexpected situations, of the cultural society.
e. The conscious system is also able to combine information and come up with
precise answers to questions.
f. One way to think of the decisions of the automatic system is the “go with your
gut” feeling. Conscious thinking relies on careful reasoning.
5. How they work together.
a. The automatic system works to make conscious thought possible.
1) The automatic system might work as an alarm for those instances when
conscious thought is needed.
a) Example of an illogical comment on the radio: someone was
injured at a party and therefore all parties are canceled on campus.
b) Your automatic system may have processed the sounds,
understood the words and the gist of the message and activated
your memory.
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c) At that point it would alert the conscious mind to potential
problems with the message where conscious thought is required.
6. Conscious Override
a. The conscious mind may override the automatic system
1) Example of wanting a donut but consciously deciding not to eat one
b. Humans often override aggressive impulses when frustrated, hot, or insulted.
c. Conscious override is necessary for culture
B. The Long Road to Social Acceptance
1. Culture has advantages but also many demands.
a. Contrast of a bird flying into town and finding a place to live versus a human
moving into town and needing to find an apartment and a job (among other
things).
b. For human beings finding a romantic partner is more complicated than for other
animals.
2. Social acceptance is one of the basic jobs of individual humans.
C. Build to Relate
1. Human beings are built to relate to others.
2. Broad theme: inner processes serve interpersonal functions
a. Our psychological traits are designed to help us connect with others
b. Language and our emotional capacities of love and affection serve to connect us
with others.
c. Social brain theory, the idea that evolution made larger brains for supporting social
interaction, upholds this view.
d. When people talk, they tend to end up sharing their feelings, which promotes trust
and bonding.
e. When cues make people think of members of a certain group, automatic processes
start preparing those folks to interact with such group members.
f. Some inner processes do not serve interpersonal processes—hunger and thirst.
g. Contrast human inner processes to that of trees. Trees’ inner processes involve
getting enough water and sunlight. Trees do not interact much with other trees.
Culture is a better way for humans to be social.
D. Nature Says Go, Culture Says Stop
1. The aspects of human behavior that come from nature are usually those that involve
impulses and automatic reactions.
2. The aspects of human behavior that come from culture are usually those that restrain
the impulses.
a. Example of cultural rules surrounding sex is given. Sex is a natural thing; culture
has its influence on when, how and what happens with regards to sex.
b. The 10 Commandments (from the Judeo-Christian religion) are a list of things not
to do.
3. There are exceptions to this.
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a. Disgust is a natural restraining reaction.
b. People may start eating because of a cultural impulse (it is lunch time) but stop
because of a natural reaction (I am full).
c. In war culture tells someone to be aggressive. Nature may tell them to stop
because of exhaustion or injury.
4. The nature says go, culture says stop is usually more of a rule, with few exceptions.
E. Selfish Impulse Versus Social Conscience
1. Selfishness comes from natural desires
a. Natural selection has selected for those individuals who have focused on their own
survival and that of their kin.
2. Culture often requires unselfish regard for others.
a. Morality is a requirement of culture to do what is best for the community
b. Law often takes the place of morality in large groups.
1) Morality works best at focusing people on unselfish goals in small groups
where people know each other.
2) Contacts between strangers tend to need something stronger (e.g., laws).
c. Conflict between selfish impulse and social conscience can be seen in the way the
automatic system tends to react to stigmatized others (e.g., someone with AIDS)
and the way the conscious system promotes a more socially kind response, of
treating that stigmatized person as a normal human being.
3. The most basic conflict within the human psyche is probably this conflict between
selfish impulse and self control.
4. Consciousness is often needed to override our natural selfish impulses.
F. Tradeoffs: When You Can’t Have It All
1. Example of the tradeoff between driving a smaller car to get better gas mileage and
lower emissions, but perhaps less safety, versus a larger car that has poorer mileage
and is worse for the environment, but perhaps safer in a crash.
2. Tradeoff—“a choice in which taking or maximizing one benefit requires either
accepting a cost or sacrificing another benefit.”
3. Tradeoffs are important in the lives of humans
4. Time is often an important part of tradeoffs.
a. Benefits now or benefits in the future?
b. Athletes face this dilemma with performance enhancing drugs. Taking the drugs
may help them compete now, but ruin their health for the future.
c. Natural selection has largely selected for immediate rewards not future rewards.
1) Example from a study with chimpanzees is given. Fed plenty of food once
a day, rather than several times a day as they prefer, the chimpanzees never
learned to save food for later
d. Humans do change current behavior for rewards in the distant future.
1) One example is going to college.
a) Teenagers could get a job directly out of high school and make
more money for a few years than their college student friends do.
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b) But many teenagers choose to go to college, forfeiting immediate
income for greater future income.
2) Paying attention to future tradeoffs is especially important for cultural
beings
3) Research suggests that people do not like tradeoffs, they would prefer one
right answer, one in which a choice for one thing does not involve losing
the other things
G. Tradeoffs: The Political Tradeoffs
1. One example of a political tradeoff is the passage of new laws. Many are passed, few
are repealed. Generally laws are designed to fix a problem, but sometimes create new
ones.
a. Example from Ohio state legislature passing a law allowing pregnant women out
of prison is given. The law resulted in many women getting pregnant to avoid or
get out of prison.
2. Energy and environmental issues are another important political tradeoff. We want to
protect the environment, but doing so increases energy costs
3. Government services are also a political tradeoff. We want government to provide
protection, sanitation, education and assistance to the poor, but doing so costs money
people are reluctant to part with.
4. Studies by Tetlock analyzed the speeches of politicians to see if they seemed to
recognize payoffs.
a. In pre-election speeches, politicians tended to ignore tradeoffs.
b. Post-election speeches showed an acknowledgment of tradeoffs.
c. The difference was not due to learning about tradeoffs post election. Elected
politicians talked about tradeoffs until their reelection campaigns and then showed
the pre-election pattern of ignoring tradeoffs.
H. Putting People First
1. Human perceptual systems tend to focus more on perceiving each other, precisely
which occurs at the expense of detecting many things.
2. Human perceptual systems are tuned to other humans.
a. Example: People get food from other people. Animals tend to get food directly
from nature.
b. People tend to look to other people first when they have a need rather than
looking to the world.
c. People tend to get their knowledge about the world from other people. Animals
tend to gain their knowledge from their own experiences in the world.
3. Solomon Asch’s classic experiment on conformity illustrates our tendency to rely on
one another.
a. Asch had 6 confederates give wrong answers on a line judgment task.
b. Despite a judgment that was clearly wrong, a large minority of times participants
went along with the answer of the group.
4. Research suggests that, like the participants in Ash’s studies, we put people first, and
this is especially true if it is a person we would like to make a connection with.
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V.
A.
B.
C.
What Makes Us Human?: Putting the Cultural Animal in Perspective
Humans evolved from other animals so our behaviors are refinements of the actions of animals.
Humans are distinct from animals, however, in our possession of culture.
Despite their diversity, cultures have common themes (language, clothing, money).
1. These themes are not found in non-human animals.
D. Culture has disadvantages as well as advantages.
1. Generally the benefits of culture outweigh the costs.
2. Culture allows humans to live in diverse places
3. Culture has allowed us to increase our lifespan
E. Because of culture humans have accumulated knowledge over time, offering us enormous
advantages we could not otherwise imagine.
Resources
Lecture/Discussion Ideas
As Nature Made Him
To reinforce the textbook’s initial discussion of the story of the man who was raised as a girl
you might show, Sex: Unknown (2001), a wonderful documentary of the story of “Brenda” that was
produced by NOVA. It can be purchased from Shop.wgbh.org ISBN # 1-578078-07-5.
You might also listen to National Public Radio’s interview with the author of the book, As
Nature Made Him, John Colapinto, broadcast after David’s death by suicide. A link to this interview
can be found at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1894187
Evolution: Entering the Debate
According to Gallup poll data from Feb. 2001 43% of U.S. adults agreed with the statement
“God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years
or so.” In an article on Darwin, National Geographic (Quammen, 2004) suggests that it is not just
scriptural literalists who espouse this position. Many Americans seem ignorant or confused about
evolution. Depending on your students you may want to spend some time talking about the basics of
evolutionary theory.
An article in the Skeptical Enquirer (http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-11/beliefs.html) describes
why inaccurate beliefs might persist in the face of evidence that shows otherwise. The article describes
beliefs as survival mechanisms for a brain that needs to have a representation of potential dangers that
are not currently available to our senses. If one has a belief about dangers one cannot see one is more
likely to avoid those dangers and survive. Beliefs persist, despite contradictory evidence provided by
our senses, because they provide a survival mechanism. The belief that you might be in danger from a
rattlesnake out in the desert despite not seeing a snake will keep you alive while your hiking partner,
lacking the belief, fails to watch her step.
The author of the article suggests that effectively changing beliefs involves focusing on the
survival value of the beliefs not their accuracy. To do this those who want to change belies should
realize that reluctance to change is not due to stupidity, so becoming critical or demeaning is not
helpful, simply presenting contradictory evidence is not sufficient. Because changing beliefs involves
changing worldviews the entire belief system needs to be addressed. Individuals are motivated to
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maintain a sense of coherency in their lives, so those who want to change beliefs must deal with the
meaning of the data as well as the anxiety and defensiveness that individuals may feel when their
worldview is being challenged. Those who wish to change beliefs must be aware that challenging
belief may be seen by the brain as challenging survival, so respect, wisdom, and compassion are
necessary. This perspective may be helpful when addressing student concerns about the validity of the
theory of evolution.
Lester, G. W. (Nov./Dec., 2000). Why Bad Beliefs Don’t Die. Skeptical Enquirer, 24 (6).
For resources from National Geographic see: nationalgeographic.com/magazine/0411
Quammen, D. (November, 2004). Darwin’s Bid Idea. National Geographic, 206(5), 2-35.
Mother Love?
We generally take for granted that a mother bonds to her children, no matter the culture. A
fascinating article about women in Taiwan forces us to examine that assumption. Arthur P. Wolf
published an article in Current Anthropology that describes a practice of women in rural Taiwan who
gave away infant daughters and took in infant daughters from other families as husbands for their
sons. Wolf examined adoption records for 1905 to 1945 for 13 rural villages he visited. He found that
his initial finding from a conversation with a few women in a few villages was not unfounded. A large
number of women (3,046) gave up a majority of their daughters (6,201) for adoption by age 1 and by
age 15 the percentages were astounding (80 to 90 percent). Although he looked at adoption records
elsewhere in Taiwan, he found that this did not occur in central or southern Taiwan, only the
northern part. The practice declined with changes in society beginning in the 1930’s.
To see the reference for Science News go to (full text requires a subscription):
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040320/bob9ref.asp If your library has Current Anthropology
on a full-text data base you may be able to read the article online. Here is the link to the article in
Current Anthropology: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA/journal/contents/v44nS5.html
Culture and the Origins of Food
As cultural animals, humans rely on other humans for essential things like food. Students may
not realize just where their food comes from. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan is a great source for lecture ideas on this topic. For example Pollan traces his
family’s McDonald’s meal back to the species that created the bulk of it, corn.
Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:
Penguin Press
Culture: Are People the Same Everywhere?
An important debate in the history of social psychology deals with the question of whether
people are the same everywhere. Kenneth Gergen’s 1973 article in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology would be a good starting point for a lecture on the history of this debate within the field. A
pdf file (caution it is poorly scanned), as well as other article by Gergen can be found at:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/kgergen1/web/page.phtml?id=manuscripts&st=manuscripts
The textbook argues that there are underlying similarities in humans across cultures. Many of
those who responded to Gergen felt the same way (although some did have other arguments
regarding his conclusions). This debate could also be used as a student assignment. Students could
read Gergen’s original article and a selection of the responses and provide their own opinion on the
topic. Gergen’s 1985 article “The Social Constructionist Movement in Modern Psychology,” may also
be helpful in understanding Gergen’s position (and later articles as well).
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Gergen, K. (1973). Psychology as History. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 26, 309320.
Gergen, K. (1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American
Psychologist, 40, 266-275.
History of Science
The history of science offers many examples of the advantages of culture, particularly the
passing down of information from one generation to the next. For example a man by the name of
Benjamin Thompson (later becoming Count von Rumford, the inventor of the drip coffee maker and
thermal underwear) began the Royal Institution, an institution which promoted the young science of
chemistry. The Royal Institution allowed Humphry Davy, professor of chemistry at the institution, to
discover a dozen elements (among them potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and aluminum). It
was a number of years after he died in 1829 that a Russian, Dimitri Ivonovich Mendeleyev, took many
of the new elements and arranged them according to their similar chemical properties, providing us
with the periodic table. The periodic table predicted the presence of elements not yet discovered in his
time. Later chemists would fill in the holes.
A good source for stories that include aspects of human interest is Bill Bryson’s A Short
History of Nearly Everything. New York: Broadway Books.
Social Capital
In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam suggests that social capital is declining in the United States.
The civic engagement that has been central to our democratic society is disappearing and with it the
kind of public life that we rely on. The idea of social capital and its effect on a society could be used as
an expansion of the textbook discussion of the individual in society.
Researchers have found that in communities with a great deal of civic engagement the lives of
the citizens are better in such diverse areas as education, poverty, unemployment, crime, drug abuse
and health. Yet in today’s society, Putnam reports, membership drops are evident in religious
affiliation (48% in the late 1950’s to 41% in the early 1970’s, with continued decline ever since), labor
unions (a drop of more than a half since its height in the mid 1950’s), parent-teacher organizations (a
drop of almost half from 1960s to today), Boy Scouts (down 26% since 1970) and the Red Cross
(down 61% since 1970). The name of Putnam’s book comes from the finding that despite the
increased popularity of bowling (increase of 10% 1980 to 1993), fewer people are bowling in leagues
(decline in league over the same period of 40%). More people bowl alone.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York:
Simon & Schuster.
Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling Alone: Americas Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy,
6, 65-78. Also available online at:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/detoc/assoc/bowling.html
Paper Clip = House?
A great illustration of one of the advantages of culture—mutually beneficial exchange of
goods and services—is that of a young man named Kyle trading one red paperclip for a house. He
began his quest with a single paperclip and after conducting 14 trades ended up with a house in
Kipling, Saskatchewan. His story can be found on his blog at: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Time
The textbook author suggests that sex and food are central to humans and animals; for
humans these essential aspects of life are influenced by culture. Time is also important for humans
and animals and the way we view it is influenced by human culture. Jay Griffiths, the author of A
Sideways Look at Time, writes that the Karen people consider time in terms of what is occurring in the
forest in which they live. Because walking is the only way to travel, Griffiths reports that the word for
soon means not far away. For other people groups months are named according to scents (people of
the forests of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean), when things are ripe (e.g. February is the
season of the palm fruit; Huaorani of Ecuador), or what occurs in that month (e.g. Naked-Tree
month, Pedestrian month, month of Crows, Spawning Month, Pine-Sapwood month, Birch-Sapwood
month, Salmon-Weir month for the Urgic Kahnt of northern Siberia). Other examples or ideas may
be found in the book.
In the U.S. the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder Colorado
broadcasts the time. Coordinated Universal Time is based on the 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the
cesium atom that define the second. According to Griffiths this makes for 86,400 seconds in a day,
31,536,000 seconds in a year, except for the 86,401 seconds present in one day about once a year, the
leap-second needed to realign time with the earth’s unreliable time.
A lecture or discussion of time could include information on the views of time offered by
various cultures and how these have been influenced by the culture and influence the culture. The way
we view time in the western world may be different from non-human animals, however, an interesting
class discussion could center around whether the way many people groups who are living in greater
touch with nature might be closer to the way non-human animals also view time (e.g. time to gather
and store food, move to winter quarters). If this is so for these groups is time a cultural convention or
something based in nature?
Another place to discuss the issue of time would in the discussion of culture. Culture may be
viewed as shared beliefs and values or as praxis, a practical way to doing things. The view of time in
different cultures influences how that culture does many things.
Griffiths, J. (2004). A Sideways Look at Time. New York: Penguin.
Alive
Vegetarianism is one example of how culture has affected food consumption. For a great
discussion starter on the meaning of what we eat show a 12-minute clip from the movie Alive
(Touchstone). The film depicts the experiences of a group of people stranded in the Andes Mountains
when their plane crashed. They were finally rescued after they sent out a small group to find help. The
group survived by eating the flesh of those who had died in the crash or shortly afterward. The clip
begins about 54 minutes into the film. The words “Day 9” are shown at the bottom of the screen. In
the clip they realize that the outside world has given them up for dead and the only way they are going
to survive is to eat the dead. The clip shows the difficulty of the decision and, at the end, the
individual decision of each of them to eat.
Taste Preference
Some of our food preferences are driven by nature. Humans prefer sweet and salty foods.
Other food preferences and taboos are related to culture; Jews don’t eat pigs, Hindus believe in the
sacred cow. The Sacred Cow and Abominable Pig, written by Marvin Harris, anthropologist at the
University of Florida, may provide some great examples of food preferences and their potential
origins.
Harris, M. (1987). The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
The Pill (PBS)
A wonderful video and informative website from PBS covers the introduction of what is
probably the most revolutionary change in contraception in our history: the birth control pill. This
film could be used as a catalyst for discussion of human’s desire for sex, something shared with
animals, and our somewhat unnatural (from an evolutionary standpoint) desire to control pregnancy.
May also be used to discuss what occurs when a society is undergoing major cultural change and
differences in ideas and values within a culture. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/index.html
Culture and Sex
In Understanding Human Sexuality, Hyde and Delamater (2003) discuss three societies with very
different approaches to sexuality. Their descriptions may be shared as an extension of the text’s
discussion of the social side of sex.
Hyde and Delamater describe the highly sexually repressive society of Inis Beag, an island off
the coast of Ireland. There is no significant sex education, parents believing that after marriage nature
will takes its course. Premarital sex is largely unknown and after marriage most partners keep
underclothes on during sexual activity. In fact, nudity is considered abhorrent and men and women
wash only the parts of themselves that extend beyond their clothing. Female orgasm is largely
unknown. Men consider sex hard on their health and avoid sex before tasks that will require much
activity. Both menstruation and menopause are feared.
In contrast on Mangaia, an island in the South Pacific, sex is of great interest. Boys are told
about masturbation around the age of 7 and engage in it beginning around age 8 or 9. After
undergoing a ritual around age 13, which involves explicit sexual instruction, the boy has sex with an
experienced woman who provides more instruction. Boys seek out girls, typically having sex every
night. Girls are also given instruction and encouraged by their parents to have sexual experiences with
several men so they can find a compatible marriage partner. The girls may have 3 or 4 boyfriends
before age 20. Men are given instructions on how to promote female orgasm and bringing his partner
to orgasm is a source of pleasure for men in this society.
Finally, in the central Brazilian village of Mehinaku, a great deal of focus is put on sex. Men
compete with each other for women’s sexual favors, although female orgasm is largely unknown.
There is a great deal of openness about sexuality with children, such that children often know about
the names of their parents extra-marital lovers. Despite this openness a great deal of gender
segregation exists and punishments for disobeying social rules are harsh, cultural myths about extramarital sex involve horrible death, and menstruation is considered dangerous.
Hyde, J., & Delamater, J.D. (2003). Understanding human sexuality (8th Ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Deep Survival
In his book on survival in wilderness and emergency situations Laurence Gonzales describes
several instances in which the difference between the two systems in the duplex mind is clearly
illustrated.
One illustration occurred with the death of a 44-year-old man named Peter Duffy. In rafting
on a river the best way to react to a fall into the river is to float on one’s back with toes out of the
water. Doing so will allow the individual to float and avoid getting one’s feet caught in the rocks and
dragged under. Gonzales quotes the River Safety Report in his description of Peter Duffy’s accident
“Facing upstream, he attempted to stand, caught his right foot between two rocks, and was pushed
under. His life jacket was stripped off, and he was trapped under three feet of water…Foot
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
entrapment rescues are very difficult. You might as well step in front of a speeding car as get your
foot caught in a fast moving river. The victim was warned, but he failed to follow instructions” (p.
35). Unfortunately for Mr.Duffy, the automatic system took over and when he fell into the water he
did what he had probably done many times before when in water, he stood up. For him, the
conscious override of the automatic system did not come soon enough for him to do what,
consciously, he knew he should do.
Deep Survival contains a number of examples relevant to the difference between the automatic
and the conscious systems.
Gonzales, L. (2003). Deep survival. New York: Norton.
Is Conscious Decision Making Better?
In their 2006 article, Dijksterhuis and Nordgren suggest that unconscious thought (what the
textbook would refer to as automatic) is better at making complex decisions than conscious thought.
They note that conscious thought is better at simple decisions.
Their conclusions are based on research in which participants were asked to make a decision
about which of 4 hypothetical apartments was best. The apartments were described as being different
is size, in different areas (e.g., nice area), with different landlords (e.g. unfriendly). A great deal of
information was provided but overall one of the apartments had mostly positive features, one had
mostly negative features and 2 were neutral. The participants were given 3 minutes to consciously
think about the apartment choices, were asked to provide immediate judgments, or were distracted for
3 minutes and then required (without any time for conscious thought) to evaluate the apartment
choices. The immediate judges and those given 3 minutes to consciously think about the apartments
did not tend to choose what was really the best apartment. Those who thought about it unconsciously
(the distracted group) were significantly better than these two groups at choosing the most desirable
apartment.
The authors suggest that capacity is one reason for the problems with conscious decision
making. Our conscious capacities are limited. Using the top-down processing of conscious thought,
they suggest, promotes the use of schemas, which results in reduced time in processing (jumping to
conclusions). They provide several other principles potentially involved in unconscious and conscious
thought that may be helpful in a discussion of the duplex mind.
Dijksterhus, A & Nordgren, L. F. (2006). A theory of unconscious thought. Perspectives on
Psychological Science, 1, 95-109.
Evolution of Evil
An explanation of how human understanding of evil evolved provides an interesting addition
to the textbook discussion of nature saying go while culture says stop. Duntley and Buss (2005)
suggest that evil can be understood within evolutionary theory. In competing with other members of
our species to become the parents of future generations one strategy is to inflict costs on those
competitors. Killing a competitor is the ultimate in gain for the rival. From the victim’s perspective
such an event would, of course, be considered the ultimate evil. The victim has lost ability to
reproduce in the future and leaves his/her family vulnerable. Those who are able to avoid being killed
will, therefore be more likely to live and reproduce. As humans got better at killing each other they
also got better at avoiding being killed. Categorizing others as evil allows the potential victim to
activate defenses and, perhaps, avoid being killed. Evil, according to the authors, is “behaviors or
behavioral dispositions that result in a massive imposition of fitness cost on another individual or
group” (p. 104). Duntley and Buss suggest that aspects of cultural, such as religion, allows for
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
identification of friends and enemies as well as establishing a group identity. Both of these would
protect individuals from potential evil doers.
Duntley, J. D. & Buss, D. M. (2005). The evolution of evil. In A. G. Miller (Ed.) The Social
Psychology of Good and Evil (pp. 102-123). New York: Guilford Press.
The Cultural Animal
This section provides a broad perspective on the cultural animal and how being a cultural
animal is distinct. As a wrap-up discussion for this section of the course, discuss with the students the
themes presented in this section. Discussion starters: What might humans be without culture?
Imagine life without money, cooking, language, clothing. What are the advantages of living with
culture? What are the disadvantages? (Listing the answers to these last 2 question on the board and
then examining the 2 lists you may be able to point out how the advantages outweigh the costs.)
Class Activity/Demonstration Ideas
Fact or Fiction?
Before students read the chapter have them complete handout 2-1—Fact or Fiction?
Correct answers:
1. F
11. F
21. T
2. T
12. T
22. F
3. F
13. F
23. T
4. T
14. F
24. T
5. T
15. T
6. T
16. T
7. F
17. T
8. T
18. F
9. T
19. T
10. T
20. T
Pancakes or Waffles?
A visual illustration of the interaction of nature and culture can be accomplished by doing a
little cooking in class. Although you can describe this verbally actually cooking in class will make the
analogy much more vivid and memorable, just be sure to do a little practicing at home first. Bring in
the basic ingredients for pancakes (mix, eggs, milk). Tell students that nature is like the ingredients
you’ve brought in today—it’s the preexisting stuff that we have to work with. Culture takes that initial
material and may do different things with it.
Bring in an electric skillet and a waffle maker and spread a little pancake batter on the hot
skillet to make a pancake and pour some of the same batter in a waffle maker. Explain that the same
initial material will result in a different final product because of the influence of culture. You can take
the same batter and make pancakes or waffles or could even do something else with it—for example
bake it in the oven. How these will turn out will depend on what you initially put into the culture; but
culture/socialization is also limited by innate differences. You could have started with a different
initial product. It is possible to use cake mix to make waffles (my brother-in-law calls them quaffles).
You could have used wheat flour instead of the mix or corn meal instead of flour and your finished
product would be different. The basic point to get across is that it is not either nature or culture but a
combination of the two that is important.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Evolution: Knives, Spoons, and Hands
The text discusses environmental circumstances as well as competition with others of the
same species as being important for natural selection. A fun and engaging activity illustrating this can
be done with lentils and plastic knives and spoons. This activity is best done outside, but can be done
indoors (with the permission of the custodial staff). Purchase a bag or two of lentils (depending on
the area you will cover; dried peas work as well) and a package of plastic knives and spoons (enough
for ½ or less of your class). On the day of the activity spread the lentils out in the grass. The students
will be asked to pick up the lentils with either a knife, a spoon, or their hand. Those who do not have
enough lentils in their ‘stomach’ (non-dominant hand) will ‘die’ and be reassigned (to their own or
another condition, proportional to the number of surviving in each condition). After several
reproductive cycles one group, the hands, usually are the only ones left.
Take the class outside and tell them: “You will be doing an activity today in which you are
members of a species that eats lentils. Within this species there are those with a limb shaped like a
knife, those with a limb shaped like a spoon, and those with a limb shaped like a hand. There are
lentils in the grass that you need to pick up. You can pick the lentils up with only one limb and only
with the object I give you (or your hand for those of you with that limb). Once you have picked them
up you can store them in your stomach—your non-dominant hand. You may not use your nondominant hand for anything other than storing your lentils. At various points in this exercise I will
stop you and if you do not have enough lentils to survive, in other words your stomach is empty or
almost empty, you will die. At that point you will be reincarnated as the offspring of one of the
surviving individuals.”
Divide the class into 3 equal groups and provide 1/3 with knives, 1/3 with spoons, and tell
the final 1/3 they can use their hand to pick up the lentils. Depending on how long you want the
activity to last give students 3-5 minutes to start filling their stomach. At that point ask them to stop
‘eating’ and count the number of lentils they have. If you want the game to end quickly set the
number of lentils required to survive high, if you want to play for a while set it lower. Tell the students
that those below the required number have died. Reassign them in roughly proportional numbers to
be descendants of the surviving members of class. Usually this means many hands, some spoons, and
few knives. Continue playing for as many iterations as you have time for, stopping when there are
most, if not all, hands.
Discuss what occurred with the class. Some questions: Who was most likely to survive and
why? Does this provide a good illustration of natural selection? How might the environmental
circumstances have been different and how would that have affected the outcome? What would have
happened if the hands had a lower reproduction rate than the knives or the spoons? Would there be
any mutation that could affect the survival rate? Did our species have a ‘culture’? Could it have?
Students may bring up that with different environmental circumstances, for instance the need
to cut food or food that has some sort of sharp outer coating, advantage could be with the knives or
spoons. There is little culture present in the game, however, the group may have actually developed
rules for themselves that is the beginning of culture. For example, when some groups play picking up
a lentil that someone else has found but is having trouble picking up comes to be considered cheating
whereas in other groups this is common and accepted behavior.
Culture: Simulation Games
A classic illustration of the shared ideas and understandings that are found in cultures is the
BaFa BaFa simulation game. In this game participants are divided into two cultures, each with
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
different rules, and representatives of the two cultures are asked to interact with one another.
Instructions and materials for this game can be purchased from Simulation Training Systems
(http://www.simulationtrainingsystems.com/schools-charities/bafa.html; 1-800-942-2900). A simpler
version of the game is also available from Simulation Training Systems.
Tomcho and Foels (2002) suggest a similar game, focusing on acculturation. The conducted
the activity in a class of approximately 30 students, dividing the students into two groups each with
different customs, currency (binder clips, large and small, vs. paper clips, large and small),
entertainment activities (movies vs. bowling) and food. Sojourners from each culture would enter the
other culture for 5 minutes to 1) buy food that would make them feel at home, 2) tell the host culture
they would like to have some fun, and 3) seek medical help in the host culture. The activity began
with some team building activities and ended with a debriefing. Tomcho and Foels report that money
was often a point of contention between the two cultures and that, although the activity was designed
to be lighthearted and fun, students were frustrated by their inability to communicate what they
wanted in the other culture, indicating involvement and hopefully learning about the difficulties of
acculturation.
Another game, Barnga, played as a card game, is available from Intercultural Press. The game
takes about 45 to 90 minutes and is played in small groups. Groups receive slightly different sets of
rules and experience a great deal of conflict as they move from group to group.
Available from Intercultural Press (ISBN 1931930309) http://interculturalpress.com Intercultural
Press; P.O. Box 700; Yarmouth, ME 04096 (207-846-5168)
Tomcho, T.J. & Foels, R. (2002). Teaching acculturation: Developing multiple “cultures” in
the classroom and role-playing the acculturation process. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 226229.
The Light Bulb
To introduce the idea of the advantages of culture ask students to write down as complete of
an explanation as they can of how a light bulb works. Then ask students to get into groups of 3 or 4
and provide a group explanation of how a light bulb works. As a class discuss the process. Who had a
better explanation, the individual or the group? Make the point that culture allows groups to pool
their separate knowledge and all benefit from it. You might also make several points about the
advantages of culture: such an activity would be impossible without language. Students do not need to
know how a light bulb works to reap the advantages of the light bulb. The technology was developed
before they were born and passed on. Students also do not need to manufacture a light bulb to use
oneThey can do what they do best and the light bulb manufacturer can do what it does best. Finally,
they derive an advantage by exchanging what they have, money, for what they want, a light bulb, and
the manufacturer exchanges what it has, light bulbs, for what it wants, money, for a mutually
beneficial exchange.
Charades
A simple way to vividly illustrate the importance of language is to play a quick game of
charades. A student volunteer is given 2 or 3 actions without speaking they must act out while the
class tries to figure out what the action is and provides guesses. Some examples of actions: mowing
the lawn, driving to the store, visiting the statue of Liberty.
The textbook asserts that the sharing and storing of information is greatly improved with
language. Having just illustrated how the sharing of information is impeded without language,
brainstorm as a class how one might store knowledge without language. The scarcity of answers
will illustrate this well.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Food Rituals
A quick way to introduce the topic of the impact of culture on food is to ask students to
spend a few minutes talking with a partner or small group about food rituals. You might ask students
to discuss with other students what they do with their family for Thanksgiving or another holiday.
What do they eat? Where do they eat? With whom do they eat? Any foods reserved for this holiday?
Penguin Reproduction
Penguins engage in a reproduction strategy that involves a great deal of investment in a single
offspring. The importance of that one offspring becomes clear in an illustration in the film March of the
Penguins. Toward the end of the film there is a scene where the young chicks and their mothers face a
storm. After the storm, one mother penguin finds that her carefully reared offspring has been lost.
The devastation is obvious as she attempts to steal another penguin mother’s child.
Stroop Effect
A great illustration of automaticity is the Stroop effect. With a short demonstration students
realize that reading, for them, is automatic. To do this you will need to either obtain poster board or
an overhead transparency and colored markers or develop Stroop effect slides on PowerPoint.
For the first slide mark blocks of color. For this slide students will be asked to simply say the
color of the ink that makes up the block. For the second slide write non-color related names in
different colors (for example desk, house, chair, library, sink). For the final slide write color names in a
different color ink as the name (for example write red in blue ink, green in yellow ink). For these
slides, students will be asked to name the color of the ink (not read the words).
Choose one volunteer and have them read through the slides as fast as they can. Time them
for each slide. Most of the time people move quickly through the first slide. The second slide is also
done quickly. Students often stumble, however, on the third slide, sometimes making the mistake of
saying the word rather than the color of the ink.
As a class discuss the activity. Why the slow time for the last slide? Would the same be true for
someone who couldn’t read?
Driving Automatically
One way to quickly demonstrate the automatic system is to ask who in class drives a car with a
manual transmission. Choose one or two of these individuals and ask them whether they think about
shifting. Do they need to think—put in the clutch, take the car out of 2nd gear, put it into 3rd gear, let
out the clutch while pressing on the gas? Where is reverse on their car? Next to 1st or 5th? Ask those
individuals whether they ever have to drive another car with an automatic transmission. They may
report their right hand reaching out next to them as they come to an intersection or their left foot
pushing on empty air or the brake, automatically going for the clutch.
When a friend drove my car recently, I realized my shifting was almost entirely automatic. She
asked how to get the car in reverse. It was only when I went out into the driveway with her that I
realized that you need to push the shifter down to put the car into reverse.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Stop!
To think as a class about how culture says stop when nature says go have students offer
information on how culture says stop in the following situations:
Having more than one girlfriend at a time
Eating another scoop of ice cream
Walking around naked
Hitting your sister when she’s bugging you
Urinating in an office lobby
Taking someone else’s iPod.
Now consider another cultural pressure that some people may feel more than others: the
pressure to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. You can show the class the video clip of a family
talking about their efforts to promote sexual abstinence amongst their children
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgA6KFKDBQw), and discuss how this family employs
cultural tools to stop their children from engaging in sex prior to marriage.
Cultural Questions Activity
The cultural questions assignment described below could be modified to provide an
interesting class activity. Rather than going to acquaintances outside of class and providing a written
report students might turn to their neighbor in class and ask a cultural question they would like an
answer to. After spending a few minutes discussing these questions with their partner a class
discussion may center around how their partner answered the question. Were other people mentioned
as the source of the knowledge? Did it appear the individual was tapping into a broader cultural
knowledge about how the national, local, or campus culture works? As a class you could consider
where ‘culture’ actually exists, how we use culture in our everyday lives, or the wealth of knowledge
that is present in culture.
Think/Pair/Share—Culture Says Stop
For this activity ask students to first think about the questions and write a short response
explaining what they think. Next, pair the students up in class and ask them to discuss the question
and their initial thoughts. Finally, have each pair share their thoughts with the rest of the class. The
questions are below. See Handout 2-3 for student instructions.
The textbook suggests that culture often says ‘stop,’ while nature says ‘go.’ Consider one
cultural rule that says ‘stop.’ Describe that rule below. Why might it be advantageous for the
culture to go against nature for that rule? If you would like to challenge yourself think about a
rule where culture actually says go. Why might that rule exist in a culture?
Student Projects/Homework
X: A Fabulous Child’s Story
X: A Fabulous Child’s Story by Lois Gould (1972) is the story of a fictional child’s life as he/she
encounters life not as a boy or girl but as an X. The child is brought up without regard to gender
roles. The author obviously believes strongly in the power of socialization. The story also points out
the need in our culture to define individuals as male or female.
For this assignment ask students to read the story and write a brief response paper. Some
questions you might ask: Is this author’s view different from that of your textbook writers? Contrast
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
this story with that of David (“Brenda”) shared at the beginning of the chapter. What is your view of
the power of socialization with regard to gender? Was your reaction more similar to the children
(enjoyment and envy of X) or the adults (frustration) in the story? To what extent might such an
experiment be possible in our current culture?
The book is out of print, but you may be able to find used copies or reprints (the story is
printed in Social Psychology Reading: A Century of Research, Amy G. Halbertstadt and Steve L. Ellyson,
Eds.)
Gould, L. (1972). X: A Fabulous Child’s Story. New York: Rembar & Curtis
Evolution: Reproduction
A short and accessible article for students on evolutionary psychology’s predictions and findings
with regard sex differences was written by David Buss (1995). In four pages, Buss outlines the
differences we would expect between men and women based on their different adaptive challenges in
reproduction and the findings of differences across cultures. A homework assignment could ask
students to read this article and respond to the following questions: According to Buss, in what ways
should men and women be similar? In what ways should they be different? What is sexual selection?
What hypotheses does Buss provide? How do sex differences support those hypotheses?
Alternatively, Eagly and Wood provide an excellent description of social structural theory in their
1999 article in the American Psychologist. They describe both evolutionary theory and social structural
theory as origin theories. Although both begin with basic biological differences according to social
structural theory “physical sex differences, in interaction with social and ecological conditions,
influence the roles held by men and women because certain activities are more efficiently
accomplished by one sex….Men typically specialized in activities…that yielded greater status, wealth,
and power” (p. 412). Because of the roles they inhabited men and women engage in behavior and seek
to develop skills to fulfill the duties of those roles. If both the Buss and Eagly and Wood articles are
read by students the assignment could ask them to compare and contrast the two views. Other
questions: According to the article what is the origin of differences between men and women? Does
culture play a role? What does social structural theory suggest about changing gender roles?
Buss, D.M. (1995). Psychological sex differences: Origins trough sexual selection. American
Psychologist, 50, 164-168.
Eagly, A. H. & Wood, W. (1999). The origin of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved
dispositions vs. social roles. American Psychologist, 54, 408-423.
Other Cultural Animals?
The textbook suggests that one of the things that makes humans different is culture, we are
cultural animals. Primate lovers may disagree with this statement. For this assignment students visit a
website that discusses animal culture. The website can be found at: http://chimp.stand.ac.uk/cultures3/default.htm. After reading the material and the textbook description of culture,
students are asked to provide their opinion of whether humans are the only animals that have more
than the rudiments of culture. Students must state their opinion and provide at least two arguments
to support that opinion.
If class time is available a class debate may help clarify what social psychologists mean when
we talk about culture and provide space for a lively discussion of whether or not animals have more
than the basics of culture. An interesting article on this topic can be found at:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040403/bob9.asp
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Analyzing Cultural Behavior
Once students are sensitized to the impact of culture on human behavior they may notice its
impact on their own actions. For this assignment students write a short paper about 2 of their own
actions they notice as being influenced by culture. For this paper they should clearly describe the
action, how it is influenced by culture, and how the action might appear different if done within a
different cultural context.
Culture and the Case of Shackleton
Ask students to read Alfred Lansing’s riveting account of Shackleton’s failed attempt to cross
Antarctica. The book chronicles Ernest Shackleton, the expedition’s leader, selection of crew and
voyage to the Antarctic where their ship, the Endurance, is caught in pack ice and subsequently crushed
and lost. Incredibly, the crew members salvage the lifeboats and survive the bitter Antarctic winter on
the ice floes, accomplish a navigational feat of getting separate open lifeboats to tiny Elephant Island,
and then taking one of the boats on the 650 mile nautical journey back to South Georgia Island for
help. Astonishingly, not one crew member was lost in the nearly two year journey.
The case of Shackleton has often been scrutinized as a stellar example of “leadership” in the
social and organizational sciences. With respect to the content of the “Culture and Nature” chapter,
ask students to analyze some of Shackleton’s strategies to keep the group cohesive and functioning
with respect to cultural norms and roles that he imported into a dire setting. Using Handout 2-3, ask
students to identify the elements of culture that Shackleton used to promote smooth functioning
group dynamics in his isolated group of men. Have students identify which of those elements says
“Go” (a response the text argues is favored by nature” and which elements say “Stop” (the text argues
is favored by culture). Does the Shackleton case support the text’s argument or refute it. In class,
report what sort of consensus students generated in their responses.
Lansing, A. (2001). Endurance: Shackleton’s incredible voyage to the Antarctic. New York: Carroll
& Graf Publishers, Inc.
Culture and Fiction
For this homework assignment students are asked to read a work of fiction and reflect on
what it tells us about culture. Hillary Lips (1990) describes the use of The Left Hand of Darkness and
Women and the Edge of Time in a psychology of sex and gender course. In small group discussions she
asks students to consider how daily life would be different in the world described by the authors.
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland tells the story of a future time, when U.S. society collapses. In a
house in the forest two sisters struggle, after their parents have both died, to make their way in this
new world. The girls give up their dreams of Harvard and the San Francisco Ballet as the world they
knew, including electricity and the internet, stores selling commercial products, and air travel,
disappears. At the end of the book they leave the last vestiges of civilization behind and go into the
forest. When one of the sisters realizes there is no way she can carry all the books she loves through
the forest, she decides to take the index of the encyclopedia as a reminder of everything that humans
have known.
In The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula LeGuin (1969) describes a planet on which people are not
men or women. Once a month residents of this planet experience a period of sexual desire where they
become men or women, which gender they become may be different each time. One individual may
be a mother and a father, depending on which gender they were when conception occurred.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Marge Piercy’s (1976) novel, Woman at the Edge of Time, takes place in the future. In this society,
gender has little impact on social relationships. Babies are grown in test-tube nurseries and children
are raised by three men and women who mother them.
Hegland, J. (1996). Into the forest. New York: Bantnam Books.
LaGuin, U. (1969). The left hand of darkness. New York: Ace Books
Piercy, M. (1976). Woman at the edge of time. New York: Fawcett Crest.
Civilization and Its Discontents
To investigate a classic picture of the relation of society and human beings student read
Freud’s Civilizations and Its Discontents. Excerpts from this work are a shorter alternative to the entire
book. In a response paper students will answer the following questions: What is Freud’s basic premise
with regard to the relation of humans and society? According to Freud how would humans behave if
society were not present? How is this view similar or different from that presented in the textbook?
Freud, S. (1974; 1989). Civilization and its discontents. J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.) New York:
Norton.
Division of Labor
For this short assignment, students will focus on one aspect of the advantages of culture,
division of labor. In two pages, students write about an example of division of labor in a current or
historical context. For example students could write about Henry Ford’s innovation involving
division of labor, the assembly line or their own experience with division of labor in the cafeteria
working in the dish washing room (they might be in charge of scraping plates, someone else of
spraying them off, someone else might put them in the dishwasher). They should spend at least a
paragraph reflecting on what effect this division of labor has on the efficiency of the process being
done or product being produced.
Where Does Your Food Come From?
Individually or in small groups students can trace the origin of a food. For example students
might trace the asparagus they find in the supermarket to growers in Peru or a granny smith apple to
New Zealand. To get that asparagus from Peru or the apple from New Zealand to the local market
would require a variety of forms of transportation. This information can be difficult to find, which in
itself is a lesson to be learned, but may be possible with assistance from the grocer and internet
research. Be prepared for frustration from students, so you may want to do some research on your
own first and suggest some foods that are traceable. Discussion of student findings in class are likely
to be very informative. As a class discuss how the way we as humans obtain food is different from
that of animals.
Slow Foods Movement
An alternative to “Where Does Your Food Come From?” assignment above would be to have
students look into the slow foods movement. This movement seeks to help save endangered domestic
plants and animals (for example heirloom varieties of tomatoes) by, as Michael Pollan puts it, “eating
them.” A great article about one man’s encounter with the movement was written by Michael Pollan,
“Cruising on the Ark of Taste” in Mother Jones
(http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/05/ma_372_01.html). Websites on the
movement: http://www.slowfood.com/ or http://www.slowfoodusa.org/
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Kinsey Institute Sex Knowledge Test
For this assignment students fill out the Kinsey Institute Sex Knowledge Test. Copies of the
Kinsey Institute Sex Knowledge Test can be found online at
http://www.therapyinla.com/psych/psych0501.html. In a short response paper students respond to
one of two questions 1) What does this test tell us about our culture? Focus here can be either on the
data or on administration of a test like this within a society. 2) Considering their own results on the
test what does this test reveal about the difference between cultural knowledge (knowledge passed
among people) and actual behaviors within a culture?
On the day students hand in their reports consider talking more about the test and inviting
students to share what they think the test tells us about culture or cultural knowledge. This test
illustrates that sex is not just a natural thing but cultural as well. Results of the test can be found in
Reinisch’s (1990) book The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know To Be Sexually Literate.
The Kinsey institute web site can also be a resource for information on research the institute is
working on, publications, and links to other sites. www.Kinseyinstitute.org
Reinisch, J. (1990). The Kinsey Institute new report on sex: What you must know to be sexually literate.
New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Tradeoffs
Applying their knowledge of social psychology to their daily life students write a short paper
describing a time when they made a decision involving a tradeoff. They could also be asked to
describe if, like the research suggests, they disliked thinking through the positive and negatives of that
decision (they would rather have a clear ‘right’ answer).
Automatic Actions
With this homework students write a short report on one thing they do automatically. This
can be anything from always taking the same route to class to brushing their teeth a certain way. They
should describe the action and how that action became automatic. For the report they should also
describe a time when they had to shift to automatic to conscious action. What happened that
prompted that shift?
Cultural Questions
The textbook discusses culture as a kind of general store of information. For this assignment
students are asked to gain some information from that store. Ask students to find the answer to a
question that is potentially relevant to their life. For example, they could choose to find out what
place in town has the best hamburger, or how they might get from here to New York City (and a
good place to stay when they get there), or how to get tickets for the next school basketball game, or
how to ask a girl they like out. They need to ask at least two people and provide a written report
addressing three things about the interaction. 1) Why did they choose that individual? What did they
know about that person that suggested this person might know the answer? Could they have chosen
others? 2) How did each person answer the question? Did they mention knowledge they gained from
others or refer the student to others? (e.g. my aunt knows someone in NYC, perhaps she knows a
good place). Did they provide an answer which allowed no compromise (this is the way to do it, no
other options) or did they suggest several ideas with rationale for each? 3) Did both individuals give
the same basic information? In other words, is there an apparent body of knowledge out there they
were tapping into (perhaps only a piece of it) or was their answer something based wholly on their
own experience? Finally students are asked to reflect on what they learned about culture in this
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
interaction. They might consider where ‘culture’ actually exists, how we use culture in our everyday
lives, or the wealth of knowledge that is present in culture.
Other Cultural Animals?
If this assignment was not completed for the Explaining the Psyche section it could be
completed for this section. The textbook suggests that one of the things that makes humans different
is culture, we are cultural animals. Primate lovers may disagree with this statement. For this
assignment students visit a website that discusses animal culture. The website can be found at:
http://chimp.st-and.ac.uk/cultures3/default.htm. After reading the material and the textbook
description of culture, students are asked to provide their opinion of whether humans are the only
animals that have more than the rudiments of culture. Students must state their opinion and provide
at least two arguments to support that opinion. If class time is available a class debate may help clarify
what social psychologists mean when we talk about culture and provide space for a lively discussion
of whether or not animals have more than the basics of culture. An interesting article on this topic can
be found at: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040403/bob9.asp
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
DVD/Video Suggestions for Chapter 2
Video Title
Brief Video Description
Social Psychology & Human Nature DVD
ISBN: 0-495-11638-6
We Don’t All Feel the
This video describes research that reveals cultural differences in
Same Way: Cultural
expressing emotion. Can be used to springboard a discussion of
Influences on Emotion
what, in terms of evolutionary history, might account for such
differences. Ask students to think about how different cultures
might “select” for different levels of expressiveness and why.
ABC Videos: Introduction to Psychology (v. 1 & 2)
ISBN: 0-495-50306-1and 0-495-59637-X
How Many Children?,
This video describes the trend for families to opt for only children
Volume 2
over more than one child. The textbook describes survival and
reproduction as key features of evolutionary success. This video
could be used to motivate a discussion of why such a trend might
occur if reproduction (i.e., number of offspring and grandchildren)
is so critical to evolutionary success.
Roger Klein: Research in Action
ISBN: 0-495-59520-5
Timing
This video illustrates research conducted by Daniel Cerutti on
timing in species such as the pigeon or the zebrafish. Cerutti
focuses on timing as an adaptive behavior. This short clip could be
used to set up a classroom discussion of the role of timing in
tradeoffs that humans experience. Research in the text talks about
how humans have been rewarded for valuing the present over the
future. Students and the instructor could explore how Cerutti’s
research speaks to that tendency.
Psychology in Film
ISBN:0-618-27530-4
E. T. The Extraterrestrial: This video clip illustrates the how shared emotional experience can
Developing Trust
build trust. It can be used to support the material presented in the
text section, “Built to Relate” on the social role that emotions can
play.
Revealing Psychology
ISBN:0-547-01453-1
Evolutionary Psychology
This video illustrates the tendency for people to remember social
and Social
information more completely and accurately than they remember
Communication
factual information. The narration provided gives an explanation of
this in terms of the theory of the “social brain,” which fits nicely
with the section of the text on the social brain in “Nature and
Social Behavior.”
YouTube content
Purity Ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgA6KFKDBQw illustrates a
family talking about their efforts to promote sexual abstinence
amongst their children. Can be used to illustrate and promote
classroom discussion of the “Culture Says Stop” idea presented in
the text.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Video/DVD available for purchase or rental:
Alive
The film depicts the experiences of a group of people stranded in the Andes Mountains when
their plane crashed. They were finally rescued after they sent out a small group to find help.
The group survived by eating the flesh of those who had died in the crash or shortly
afterward. Available from Touchstone. (1993) 127 minutes
Alfred Kinsey: Social Science in America’s Bedroom
A program which describes Alfred Kinsey’s findings with regard to sexual practices of men
and women in the United States. Available from Insight Media. (2002) 16 minutes
Brain Sex
A good presentation of the evolutionary perspective or nature perspective regarding
differences between men and women. Discusses how genes, hormones, and brain structure
differ between men and women and impact behavior differences. (1993) 3 volumes, 150
minutes.
Culture, Identity, and Behavior
The program explores the interaction of culture, identity and behavior and their effect on
social behavior, including deviance. It also evaluates models proposed by Freud and others.
Available from Insight Media. (2003) 35 minutes.
Gender Development: Social Influences (The Brain)
From The Brain series, this short module (Module #9) presents the socialization experiences of
boys and girls—treating boys and girls differently which will encourage different abilities in
boys and girls. Somewhat dated. (1988) Module is 4 minutes.
In Search of Ourselves
From the television series A Science Odyssey this film looks at what we know about our own
behavior. Can be purchased as part of a 5 disk set from PBS. (1998).
Intercultural Communication: Better Together Than Apart
Discusses concepts such as acculturation, stages of ethnocentrism, cultural values, cultural
variation, and intercultural competence. Available from Insight Media. (1996) 62 minutes.
Is Criminal Behavior Genetic?
A good topic with which to bring out issues of nature versus culture/socialization. This BBC
program looks into both the genetic and the social factors contribute to criminal behavior.
Available on both VHS and DVD from Insight Media. (1996) 50 minutes.
March of the Penguins
A story of how penguins face one of the harshest winters in the world to invest in their
offspring. Available from Warner Independent Pictures and National Geographic Feature
Films (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/marchofthepenguins).
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Sex: Unknown (2001)
A wonderful documentary of the story of “Brenda” was produced by NOVA. It can be
purchased from Shop.wgbh.org ISBN # 1-578078-07-5.
A World of Food: Tastes and Taboos in Different Cultures
Fascinating journey into what is considered edible and disgusting in a variety of cultures with
exploration of the reasons for different food rules. Available from Berkeley Media. (2000) 34
minutes.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Handout 2-1
Fact or Fiction?
Before reading the chapter, complete the following True/False quiz.
_____ 1. If you were to raise a boy from infancy as a girl (and this boy were given female genetalia)
he would see himself as a girl and accept his female identity.
_____ 2. The theory of evolution can be helpful to understanding not just the physical
characteristics of animals and humans but human behaviors as well.
_____ 3. Natural selection involves competition between species but not competition between
members of the same species.
_____ 4. Most biologists agree that reproduction is a more important factor in natural selection than
survival.
_____ 5. Culture can be defined as a network, existing in what people share with one another.
_____ 6. Humans are the only animals who can receive the distinction of being ‘cultural animals,’
animals that live within an organized, information-based system, using language and ideas.
_____ 7. Species with bigger brains (in proportion to body size) seem to have these bigger brains
because it helps them to eat better food and maintain better and bigger territories.
_____ 8. The capacity for language is vital to culture.
_____ 9. Human beings are one of the only creatures to not only have division of labor but also the
flexibility to change roles or hold multiple ones.
_____ 10. All known human cultures have rules about sex.
_____ 11. For animals, as for humans, eating is infused by ideas and beliefs.
_____ 12. In general, one bad thing a person has done will have more of an impact on our view of
them than many good things.
_____ 13. In its history, psychology has spent more time studying the good about humans than the
bad.
_____ 14. People generally like to think about what they would be losing and gaining by different
decisions (it makes them feel like they have control) rather than one choice will all gains and
another choice with all losses.
_____ 15. Researchers have found that the majority of Olympic caliber athletes would take a legal
drug that would help them win in the next five years even if it would eventually kill them.
_____ 16. Before elections, researchers have found that politicians talk only about the positives
about policies (e.g. legislation to clean up the environment) and tend to ignore the potential
costs of these policies (e.g. higher energy prices).
_____ 17. Well over half of human behavior is done automatically.
_____ 18. You are conscious of everything in your mind.
_____ 19. Some experts consider our conscious mind to serve no important function.
_____ 20. Things done without conscious awareness are generally more efficiently done than things
done with conscious awareness.
_____ 21. Many of the psychological traits of humans are designed to allow people to connect with
each other.
_____ 22. Our natural impulses most often restrain what culture requires of us—we don’t do
something because those natural impulses tell us to stop.
_____ 23. Natural selection has programmed us to be selfish, to take care of ourselves and our kin
first.
_____ 24. The human perceptual system is focused on communication with other humans while
animal perceptual systems are focused on detecting other species.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Handout 2-2
Think/Pair/Share—Culture Says Stop
Think: Read the questions below and write your answer to the questions in the space provided.
The textbook suggests that culture often says stop, while nature says go. Consider one cultural rule
that says ‘stop.’ Describe that rule below. Why might it be advantageous for the culture to go against
nature for that rule? If you would like to challenge yourself think about a rule where culture actually
says go. Why might that rule exist in a culture?
Your Response:
Pair: Discuss your response with a classmate and record highlights of your discussion below.
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Chapter 2—Culture and Nature
Handout 2-3
Culture and the Case of Shackleton
After reading Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic by Alfred Lansing, use the table
below to analyze what elements of culture Shackleton imported to promote his crew’s survival during
the time they were stranded on the ice floes, on Elephant Island, and on the open lifeboats. After
listing the elements of culture in the first column, then indicate if that element promotes a “go” or a
“stop” response. Finally, determine if your analysis of Shackleton’s case supports your textbook’s
assertion that “nature says go, culture says stop” or not. Explain why or why not.
Element of culture imported by Shackleton to promote
survival
Element promotes “go” or
“stop”
On the back side of this assignment, indicate whether or not you feel your analysis of Shackleton’s
case supports or refutes the textbook’s argument that “nature says go, culture says stop.” Explain why
or why not.
53