Guest lecture at National University of Ireland, Galway to the NUIG Psychology Society, 18 February 2013

3. Kinship loyalty A building is burning.
(Pinker, 2002) You can run through
the left door and save
a number of children
who are all unrelated
to you, or you can run
through the right
door and save
your own child…

4. Julie and Mark are brother and sister…One night they are
staying alone in a cabin…They decide that it would be
interesting and fun if they tried making love…Julie was
already taking birth control pills, but Mark uses a condom
too, just to be safe. They both enjoy making love, but they
decide not to do it again. They keep that night as a special
secret, which makes them feel even closer to each other…
Based on Haidt (2001)
Picture: http://l0stshadow.deviantart.com/

5. Definition of ‘value’
(Rokeach, 1973)
An “enduring belief that a
specific mode of conduct or
end state of existence is
personally or socially
preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct or
end state of existence”

6. • Stable over time
(not transient)
• Criteria for evaluations
(not evaluations themselves)
• Hierarchically ordered
• May be shared at societal level
• Exist within typologies
(e.g., terminal vs. instrumental)

8. Aristotelianism Utilitarianism
Deontology
‘Golden mean’ of Maximising utility
perfection/virtue (or minimising
Categorical imperative: ‘negative utility’)
‘…will that it should
become a universal law’

9. Left-wing Right-wing
Redistribution of Private property
resources
Social justice Capitalism
Liberalism Conservatism
Big Government Small government

10. Left-wing Right-wing
Favours individual Favours adherence to
freedom of thought decisions of a central
and action ruling regime

11. Libertarian Authoritarian
Anarchists Capitalists
Communists Conservatives
Progressives Fascists
Social liberals Monarchists
Social democrats Nationalists
Socialists Reactionaries

13. Implications of Nature-Nurture
Distinctions…
…for parenting
Nurture:
Parenting instills
values
Nature:
Parenting less
important

14. Implications of Nature-Nurture
Distinctions…
…for interventions
Nurture:
Interventions should
work well
Nature:
Interventions less
effective than
hoped

15. Implications of Nature-Nurture
Distinctions…
…for moral culpability
Nurture:
Circumstances to
blame
Nature:
Person to blame
NYDailyNews.com

19. 80 120
70
100
60
80
50
40 60
30 NY Times
40
20 Wash Post
20 NY
10
0 0 DC
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Shanahan & Good (2000). Public Understanding of Science, 9, 285-295.

22. http://goo.gl/SReC0

29. Adolescent
competence

31. Taylor’s “tend-and-befriend” position
Taylor et al. (2000), Taylor (2002)
• Taylor’s concern:
– Most fight-or-flight research conducted on males
– But, genders had different evolutionary
experiences

32. Taylor’s “tend-and-befriend” position
Taylor et al. (2000), Taylor (2002)
• Gayle Pitman (2003)
– Misogynistic, reflects societal sexism, reinforces
“harmful and inaccurate gender stereotypes”

33. http://www.ehow.com/info_8783846_difference-between-qualitative-
quantitative-approaches.html

36. “Peer-reviewed journals, positivist epistemology, and
quantitative methods work...to reduce women’s
participation in psychology.” (p. 96)
“*In addressing discrimination against women] the
new Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section should
also provide an important forum…” (p. 96)
The Psychologist
(2006)
On behalf of the British
Psychological Society’s
Standing Committee for
the Promotion of Equal
Opportunities

37. HTTP://XKCD.COM/385/

39. research it?

41. Group vs. Individual Differences

42. Tendency to
notice sex
differences and
to under-
emphasize ‘sex
similarities’
File-drawer
problem

43. (Some)
Scientific Values
1. Open communication
2. Honesty, objectivity
3. Precision
4. Curiosity
5. Open-mindedness