6 things i learned from the article and the videos….

In the article, it states that Dr. Gottman has 87 percent accuracy in determining if marraiges will last or not between four and six years. He also has 81 percent accuracy for seven to nine years. Talk about a man knowing his stuff. Gottmans questions he asks his couples depends on the way the person answers rather than what the person says. In the first video i watched( Dr.Gottmans: explaining the couples lab) Gottman says that he started studying couples, heterosexual or homosexual, about 30 years ago. He also did a study and put couples into this apartment lab where these couples were hooked up to instruments measuring their heart rate, measured their stress hormones, and had four cameras in the room were the couples did whatever they wanted. In the second video i watched( the magic relationship ratio) Dr. Gottman states that in a relationship thats going to last there needs to be a ration of 5:1 positive to negative, so hurt feelings one needs to make up five times for! Another statement he made was that negative has alot more ability to inflict pain and damage than positive things have to heal and bring you closer. 

          Belief systems are relevant to prejudice as they influence the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to social groups. the online readings stated that ones belief system has an affect on ones prejudices. For example, in the authoritarian belief, one believes that its a “dog eat dog world”. Their main prejudice is on homosuxals because authoritarianism is associated with religiosity.

          Not all prejudices are on a negative basis though. The humanitarianism-Egalitatianism belief is one that “treat others the way you want to be treated”. These belief holders are pro-black for example. They want to give blacks, or people of different race, a chance in society. They believe that its not ones individual goals but the goals of the whole society to make a change.

          Some peole are not aware of these prejudices at all. Some people who believe that we are all equal dont relize that just because you think that doesnt mean the majority thinks the same way. That just because you treat someone with respect and equality doesnt mean others will do the same. For example, Some, not all, caucasian people think of African Americans as less of a human and thus treat them that way; without respect, and treat them as if they were animals. This is wrong and people must be blind to view people as not equals but some people do.

1.George Murdocks definition of family stated that ” The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults”. This statement was made over 50 years ago. Popenoe’s  definition differs from that of Murdock in that the minimum number constituting a family is one adult and one dependent person, the parents do not have to be of both sexes, and the couple does not have to be married. The functions of the family are procreation and socialization of children, sexual regulation, economic cooperation, and provision of care, affection and companionship.These two men differ in their thoughts and idead because they we in a different time in which sexuality was heterosexual and the the gay community was on the down low.

2.Another thing i found interesting in this family section is that when demographers and researchers did a census on two generational families(parents and children). in Greece, the Greek peoples are very close to their family and many of which live right by each other( same apartment complex, neighboring houses). So it would be a mistake to assume that just because they dont live with each other doesnt mean that they arent three generational.(grandparent, parents, children)

3. I was suprised to find out that sexual promiscuity and relationship infidelity was the same across cultures. Since many cultures are different in beliefs, morals, and attitudes, i thought that many cultures wouldnt be so into relationship infidelity. I also thought it a little funny that some of the questions on the survery given were considered to “sexual” and some cultures didnt help with the research because of that factor.

4. Something that also grabbed my attention was the link between extraversion and sexual promiscuity. Since extraversion has been linked to sexual risk taking in the US, they have start to do studies on HIV and AIDS. This wasnt something that went through my mind when i thought about people with an extraverse personality having a high risk for HIV.

       First off, I’d like to state that Wally Funk is and amazing and talented woman. I saw posters up these past two weeks saying “who is wally funk?” and i honestly thought it was a DJ or something along those lines, boy was i wrong.

       Wally Funk was born in Mexico and grew up with the Twaa(spelling?) Indians. She was taught how to fish and survive if she could on her own. needless to say, she was a tough individual. Wally knew she wanted to fly planes since she was a young girl. She had heard about woman being asked to do a series of tests to go into flying planes and although she wasnt necessarily invited, she sure made it clear that she wanted to be in this training. She had to go through a series of tests and experiments befor she could be able to be considered to fly planes.

       These tests varied. One test Wally took was she was strapped into a chair and the experimenters put ten degree water in her ears with a needle to see how much her eyes struggled(testing vertigo). Another test was the bicycle test: she was stuck with needles all over her body and had to go 10 mintues with weights on the back of the bike. She went 11minutes!. One of her last major tests was the tank test: the testies took Wallys body temperature and layed her in a large tank full of water the same temperature as her body. She stayed in that tank for 10 hours and 35 minutes! This woman truely tested her limits.

       Wally Funk is known for her many different accomplishments. She was the first woman to take the Martin Baker seat ejection test, she was the first FFA inspecter in 1971, and is part of the ninety nines organization. Wally Funk is also a very happy, energetic, fun person to be around and is just so full of life. ” If you want to be smart, you must associate yourself with smart people”. SHE IS BRILLIANT. :]

The process of facial expressoins across cultures are very similar and somewhat different at the same time. Russel, J.A, used a series of emotion cards to determine if the emotions, happy, sad, angry, fear, disgust, and suprise were universal. Many countries across the world had the same expressions for each of these cards although, some countries had a hard time distinguishing lets say fear from disgust. This being as to weather their meanings of fear and disgust were different from other countries meanings-Misquita et al(1997). The Teitelbaum and Geiselman experiments showed that the Caucasian and African American race showed higher accuracy in facial expressians that that of other races. The data also revealed that the participants showed high accuracy when they experienced and unpleasant mood rather than a pleasant mood. In cunclusion to this topic, the six main facial characteristics (happy, sad, anger, fear, disgust, and suprise) are known to be universally known despite some minor factors.

 The five factor model(FFM) was discovered by american researchers and using american instruments based on english language trait terms. The FFM consists of neuroticism(N), extraversion(E), openess to experience(O), agreeableness(A), and conscientiousness(C). To measure these traits, we use the NEO personality inventory. This assesses 30 specific traits( 6 in each factor) and has shown to be a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of normal personality traits. There have been some arguements as to wether or not some cultures value some personality traits over others. As for age and gender differences in personality, the US has come to the conclusion that between adolescence and the age of 30, neuroticism, extraversion, and openess to experience decrease, where as agreeableness, and conscientionsness seems to increase. It appears that age, that from adolescence and mid-adulthood especially, tends to make individuals better adjusted, more altruistic, and better organized. In addition, it appears that between this time one is less enthusiastic and less open to ecperiences-McCrae et al(2000). These changes appear to be common universally. Where the NEO personality inventory had been administered( 26 cultures) to college age men and woman it seemed to be that in the US woman had scored higher in N and A as well as some parts of E and O, where as the men usually scored higher in the E and O. There were few gender differences in C. Around the world, woman tend to score higher in anxiety, vulnerability, straightforwardness, and openess to aesthetics. Men usually scored higher in competence, assertiveness, excitement seeking, and openess to ideas. Although some researchers believe that the NEO tests translations of the instruments are not equivalent. Other researchers all over the world use these NEO tests for numerous subjects. For example, Yand and his collegues(2002) show that these scores are valid predictors of personality disorders in chinese phyciatric patients. Over in germany, Blickle(1996) demonstrated that personality traits predict learning style and college grades. In conclusion, the NEO personality Inventory shows to be a serviceable tool in a wide variety of cultures.

In cross cultural psychology we need to look at both the etic and emic aspects of culture.Etic is like the larger main idea, while emic is more in depth. There are many elements of subject culture incuding: categories, categories with associations, beliefs, attitudes, norms, roles, tasks, values, and value orientation. We may identify a category by noting that people give the same resoponse to discriminibly different stimuli. When comparing and contrasting different culutures to one of our own, there are many subjects involved. For example, “all asians are bad drivers”. This is a stereotype. I believe we hear this from people all the time so its sort of forced to believe. How many times do you get cut off by an american and let it slide? And how many times do you get cut off by an asian and say something about how horrible drivers they are? So does this mean that asians are truely bad drivers? or that we believe because we were taught it?. Another main point in chapter 1 is that when studying other cultures, a meaning to us, can be a totally different meaning to another culture. All cultures differ from one another weather its on a large scale, or on a smaller scale.