Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Psychology and sociology for Baccalaureate

Social Dimension: Individual and Company

Item 9: Social Dimension — Individual Company

"The socialization" is the process of learning through which we integrate into the community in which we take part. It basically consists of the acquisition and internalization of the rules, principles, and practices of the culture in which we live.

Primary Socialization

The stage occurs during the first years of life. Its main features are the acquisition of customary patterns and social group membership. Power is favored by affective bonds. There is no discussion or awareness of this process. Its success depends on comprehensive education. Examples: acquisition of language; respect for social customs. The mechanisms used are imitation and the granting of...

A Theory Defined

A theory is a set of hypotheses, assumptions, and data models that relate empirically to a system. Theories allow us to understand interrelationships and make predictions about future development.

Personality Theories Seek Answers

Personality theories attempt to answer fundamental questions:

• What characteristics define people and how are they organized?
• How do genetic and environmental factors interact?
• Why does every person behave differently in a situation?
• How can we explain changes in behavior and the causes of abnormal behavior?

Major Personality Study Approaches

The study of personality is based on different theories:

• Psychodynamic Theories (Freud): Attach great importance to the unconscious and focus on personality functioning,

Understanding Identity and Emotions

Identity Statuses and Development

Identity formation is a crucial aspect of human development. While complex, certain patterns emerge in how individuals approach commitment and exploration regarding their identity. Here are some key identity statuses:

• Foreclosure: Individuals in this status commit to an identity without much exploration, often adopting values and goals set by others, such as parents. For example, a person might decide on a career path solely because their parents expect it.
• Identity Diffusion: Characterized by a lack of commitment and exploration. Individuals avoid making decisions about their identity, often feeling aimless or unconcerned about their future direction.
• Identity Moratorium: This

Biological Foundations of Society

Instinctive determination: Unlike many other animals whose actions are immediate and involuntary, in humans, behavior is learned. This is possible thanks to three factors: permeability (which allows us to be affected by external stimuli and assimilate them), intelligence (which enables us to search for the most adequate solution), and a social body (which retains those responses that have shown to be adaptive).

Long Period of Immaturity

The child is completely helpless and remains so for a long time. Our biological nature makes the company of others a remarkable necessity.

Inexistence of Remarkable Physical Qualities

The human being possesses features that make them physically inferior to other animals in terms...

The Foundations of Psychology

Psychology is a relatively young science with roots in many disciplines, including physiology, sociology, medicine, and philosophy. It examines human behavior and the underlying causes that originate it.

Historical Roots

Until the early 20th century, psychology was defined as the science of mental life. From the 1920s to the 1960s, American psychologists, led by John Watson, redefined psychology as the science of observable behavior.

Key Areas of Psychology

• Experimental Psychology: Focuses on scientific methodology and research techniques.
• Psychophysiology: Studies the biological bases of behavior and the relationship between bodily processes and organism behavior.
• Evolutionary Psychology: Examines changes and development

Identity and the Recognition of the Self

Recognition of the self refers to the same person as a unique and singular individual with specific character traits and grounds. This is tied to the process of socialization, where the adopted values and customs of the society the subject belongs to are internalized, allowing the individual to identify with them.

The Stages of Socialization

Socialization is the process that integrates the subject into society. It is divided into two primary phases:

• Primary Socialization: This enters the subject into society and development within the family during childhood. It carries a great affective burden.
• Secondary Socialization: This occurs when institutional worlds are internalized, such as the spheres of active

Hominization and Humanization: Biological and Cultural Evolution

Defining Hominization and Humanization

The conjunction of anatomical and physiological changes that allowed the gradual evolution of early hominids to Homo Sapiens is known as the process of Hominization.

Parallel to these biological changes, major psychological, behavioral, and social changes occurred. This is what we call the process of Humanization.

These are two interdependent processes that influence one another. Hominization makes Humanization possible. We are human because our biological constitution evolved to enable a flexible brain capable of thought, speech, and planning. Biologically, we evolved primates. Culturally, we are very far from our origins. Thus, the leap is...

The Evolution of Human Culture

Human culture began to develop from first and second-order instrumental functions. Homo habilis was able to overcome the instrumental function of the second order when they first manufactured instruments with an adaptive purpose to facilitate survival. When survival is assured, cultural manifestations appear and begin to develop adaptive behavioral patterns—religious, social, or artistic (such as when they begin to bury the dead or paint in caves). With the passage of time and due to cultural complexity, Edward B. Taylor proposed the following definition of culture as a whole of human productions, including knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and any habits or abilities acquired by the human being as a member...

The Nature of Science

Science is a way of knowledge derived from empirical facts. It aims to formulate laws and theories with objectivity. Rigor and precision in formulation, preferably mathematical, are its characteristic features, contrasting with subjective reality. It operates on the assumption of the constancy of events.

Types of Sciences

Sciences can be broadly categorized into the following types:

• Formal Sciences

  These include logic and mathematics. Their claims are universal and necessary, representing a priori knowledge which is independent of experience. The criterion of truth for formal sciences is consistency, and their primary method is deduction. Deduction starts from general principles and proceeds in a necessary way to a particular

Behaviorism

Appendix: Characteristics of Science

The criticisms that have been made of psychoanalysis have focused on the fundamental idea that psychoanalysis is not adapted to the requirements for a theory to be characterized as scientific. We shall therefore look very briefly at these requirements before continuing with the various trends in psychology.

Aside from the problem that creates the division between empirical and experimental sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and human or social sciences, there are a number of basic issues that science must share:

1. They deal with phenomena occurring in the physical world.
2. They begin with some common assumptions:
   • Determinism: It is assumed that the world, particularly the object of study of each discipline,