Essay on Social and Evolutionary Psychology

The two theories discussed here will be the Psychodynamic Theory and the Social Learning Theory. Psychodynamic theories include the wisdom of Freud and Jung. Freud discusses, defense mechanisms, understanding the ego as it relates to rational thinking and the superego in regard to mortality. Whereas the Social Learning Theory includes those works from Bandura, Watson, and Piaget among others. This theory will focus on imitation, observation and modeling another’s behavior to achieve a certain desired outcome. Although their conceptual theories differ, they both reflect, shape, and interpret the very essence of the human psyche and how we have evolved and developed over the years.

In the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy” by Jamie Uys, there is a contrast between the primitive and the civilized society. The civilized society has come a long way since its primitive days. Its hard to imagine that there are still people in this world that live without the advantages and developments of a civilized society. Those living in a civilized society would must likely believe that their society is better than that of a primitive society, but like wise a primitive society would think their society is better. In this essay, a comparison will be made between the different traits that make up these two different societies.

To clarify, the “human condition” is an ambiguous term used to describe the foundational aspects of humanity, both the instinctive traits, which all animals have, and the further-evolved or uniquely-human traits, which set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. To illustrate my purpose, I will focus on the both aspects, since both prevent us from thinking logically and acting objectively.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

In “Primitive,” Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten argue that in various topics, “primitive” can either have positive or negative connotations. They also specify that the term is not a classification but rather a comparison to its inverse: “civilized.” Antliff and Leighten explicitly discuss its use in the fields of time and space, gender, race and class to support their argument.

Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, of information in the brain. It is a process that is generalized within a species, and relates to members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the methods of cognitive

Every person is born with an innate set of traits that define who they are as a human. These traits, such as curiosity, exemplify what it means to be a human being. These natural traits, however, are not able to be fully recognized due to society altering the way that humans interact with one another. These traits are impaired and altered by society in order to create a civilization that is cohesive in terms of its function and goals. These natural traits are not only being altered, as these natural traits have a large impact on the changes that occur in the way a society functions. The innate traits shown in these texts are impaired and modified through their interactions with civilization. These modifications lead to the individual furthering

In Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Horace Miner challenged what his audience on what makes a civilized or savage. He demonstrates that all cultures seem strange from an outsider’s perspective, and that with this in mind no one culture can truly be more civilized than any other. When it comes to cultures, normality is a matter of

Everyday people use social cognition as a tool to help them thrive in social world. There are many important aspects of social cognition that are helpful to us in making decisions and help us to interpret the world around us. An important aspect that is linked to social cognition is that of thought suppression. Thought suppression is when a person tries to force particular thoughts, memories or feelings out of their minds that may be unpleasant or may cause a great deal of stress for the individual. Many people are unaware how often we use thought suppression in our daily lives, but the truth is we use it in almost every aspect of our day.

Essay Question 6 If humans began acting like unevolved animals, they would rely on their universally shared primal instincts. The four primary instincts are sexual desire, survival, forming relationships and seeking protection. These instincts are naturally embedded into all humans and influence all action. Humans’ primal instincts can help strengthen them overall in many ways but also can destroy them due to the social impacts they entail.

There is never an irrational decision or moment. As a result, the societies with state might find difficulty in finding themselves among the traits of the primitive societies. This hinders the ability of states to understand them. As stated by Brown (1978), they “remain unimaginable or merely imaginable”. Having reason in and for every action is to leave no space for identification – which is where its true value lies. As a result, even though Clastres has provided a coherent scenario of the primitive societies, his Indians are legendary. Their reason in principle as well as fact makes them mechanical. Primitive societies have transformed from foreign to another form of being. One that is difficult for individuals who live in states to truly understand. As such, Clastres teaches us about the Indians rather than about reason which can be applied to the states. This allows states to appreciate the situation of the Indians but it does not provide states with the knowledge to learn of one self. There is no room for application or practice of this new

The Biological Perspective: This is the study of exactly how the physical events within the physical body interact with the events in the external environment. This is expressed by our perceptions, memories, behaviors and interactions with everything around us. We can think about our heredity and genetic makeup and the influences that has on each one of us as an individual. Then think about the stress of poor health and illness and how we may express our emotions with those around us. Since we are diverse as individuals we rely on our physiological make up and the stimuli of our environment to adapt to each situation. This human biology helps us to constantly adapt and survive in an ever-changing world.

“As a world view, Darwinism cannot of course be refuted, since Faith is, always has been, and always will be, stronger than facts. “ - Francis P. Yockey

The notion of human nature has always been historically debated. Explores, philosophers, and writers have always come to argue on what is considered to be barbarism, savagery, and civilized. These constructed categories have put a label on people who do not share the same ideas as one another. These different views of human nature have come to propel change and have come to revolutionized human history. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Michel de Montaigne, and Thomas Hobbes all differ on their ideas of human nature, but they also share common ground. For some of these men the practices of different cultures are categorized as savagery, and for others it has been viewed as noble savagery. Their ideas however have allowed society to view different perspectives of human nature. These perspectives have classified human nature as a way of life, or as an obstacle to what is consider to be the good life. Their ethnographic resources provide a glimpse to all the different cultures and their value to society and history.

Socialization is the process by which culture is learned; also called enculturation. During socialization individuals internalize a culture's social controls, along with values and norms about right and wrong. Socialization is a complex process that involves many individuals, groups, and social institutions.