Читать книгу Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett - Страница 45

As you can see, there are many approaches to understanding the causes of social behavior. Which one is correct? The answer is that, on its own, none is: Social behavior cannot be reduced to a single cause. Not only is every social phenomenon a product of both personal and situational factors—which right away suggests more than a single cause—but virtually any behavior can be examined from each of these three levels of analysis. A complete understanding of a particular behavior will involve utilizing multiple explanations (see Figure 1.3). Let’s take obedience to authority as an illustration. From an evolutionary perspective, we could ask whether it was adaptive for our ancestors to have been, at least some of the time, obedient to the authority in their group, family network, tribe, or community. The answer would be yes, because too much disobedience would likely have led to expulsion from the group, and that would have placed the rebel at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to mating, finding food, and protection from dangerous animals and humans.

Yet group-level influences are also evident when we consider how obedience can differ across cultures. Obedience and respect for authority are much more important in collectivistic than individualistic cultures (Blass, 2012; Bond & Smith, 1996b). Individual experiences and learning history play a role in that from a very early age we are rewarded for doing what our parents or other authorities tell us to do and punished when we disobey. Moreover, social cognitive processes are also crucial to obedience: We must attend to the authority, interpret what she says as a command that applies to us, and so on. As you can see, these approaches are complementary and together provide a more complete understanding of social phenomena.

One quick qualification is necessary: Often one of these three perspectives provides more insight or explanatory power for a specific social behavior than the others, and for the purposes of this text, we may focus only on that primary explanation. For instance, certain characteristics that men prefer in potential female mates are considered to be universal and therefore apply to all cultures. In this case, we’ll emphasize the evolutionary perspective. In contrast, if we focus instead on ways that marital arrangements vary across cultures, then we’ll emphasize culture-based explanations. Let’s take a look at the guiding principles that guide social psychology’s investigation of human behavior.