Title: The Odd Couple: The Compatibility of Social Construction
1The Odd CoupleThe Compatibility of Social
Construction Evolutionary Psychology
- Ron Mallon
- University of Utah
- University of Hong Kong
-
- Stephen Stich
- Rutgers University
2(No Transcript)
3The BIG Picture What I hope to show in this
talk
- Evolutionary Psychologists (EPs) Social
Constructionists (SCs) seem to have deep
empirical disagreements about - the extent to which normal humans share innate
mental mechanisms which - were shaped by natural selection
- strongly constrain our psychology, our social
interactions our institutions
4- While there may indeed be some important
disagreements between SCs EPs on these points,
there is another, less obvious issue dividing
them - A philosophical disagreement about the meaning
and reference of ordinary words for mental states
and social phenomena words like anger, disgust,
gender homosexuality
5- When this philosophical dispute is made explicit,
it becomes clear that nothing much turns on it,
and it can be easily set aside - When the philosophical dispute has been set
aside, the empirical disputes between SCs EPs
look much less serious - Rather than being adversaries, they look more
like natural partners
6Overview of the Talk
- Getting clearer on terminology (or why social
constructionism isnt always a dirty word) - A quick sketch of some SC work on the emotions
- A quick sketch of an emerging EP consensus about
the emotions - Whats left to fight about? Are emotions
universal or culturally local?
7- The philosophy that underlies this dispute The
thick description theory of the meaning
reference of emotion terms - What it claims
- How it underlies the debate over the universality
vs. cultural locality debate - How to sidestep the problem posed by the thick
description theory and make it clear that SCs and
EPs need not be adversaries, since their theories
are compatible complement each other
8Getting clearer on terminology (or why social
constructionism isnt always a dirty word)
- The terms Social Constructionism Evolutionary
Psychology are both used for a variety of
different views - Social Constructionism is sometimes used as a
label for a (quite nutty) metaphysical view that
denies the mind-independence of all reality - These radical social constructionists think that
everything is socially constructed including
atoms, galaxies and dinosaurs
9- Ill be focusing on a more modest and sane (and
prima facie plausible) version of SC which holds
that - important features of human psychology social
life are - culturally caused and
- local in character
- SCs who fit this description need not endorse
every aspect of what Tooby Cosmides call the
Standard Social Science Model
10- Evolutionary Psychology is sometimes used for a
specific cluster of views associated with
Cosmides, Tooby Pinker.
11- Evolutionary Psychology is sometimes used for a
specific cluster of views associated with
Cosmides, Tooby Pinker. - We think of this as High Church Evolutionary
Psychology
12- Evolutionary Psychology is sometimes used for a
specific cluster of views associated with
Cosmides, Tooby Pinker. - We think of this as High Church Evolutionary
Psychology
- Though we dont propose to offer a definition,
our view of EP is decidedly Low Church and more
inclusive.
13The Social Constructionist Approach to the
Emotions
- A primary concern of SCs concerned with the
emotions is to describe the rich multifaceted,
culturally local network in which the emotions
are embedded. - Since understanding what informants say is a
matter of great importance, SCs pay careful
attention to a number of aspects of emotion
discourse behavior in the target culture,
including
14- the (often complex) circumstances under which
people claim they or others experience the
emotions picked out by various emotion words - the pattern of inferences drawn when someone is
believed to be experiencing the emotion - the pattern of interactions that exist (or that
people believe to exist) among emotions and other
mental states - the ways in which both emotions discourse about
emotions interact with the moral, political
economic lives of people in that culture
15- When done well, the resulting ethnopsychological
accounts result in fascinating thick
descriptions (Geertz) of patterns of interaction
that differ in important ways from the patterns
in which our own emotions and emotion discourse
is embedded.
16- An example Catherine Lutzs study of the
emotions of the Ifaluk
17- song is an Ifaluk emotion akin to (what we call)
anger - it has a strong moral component
- to count as feeling song an Ifaluk must be
justifiably angry at another person who has
engaged in morally inappropriate behavior - thus two people cant be song at each other
- there are many other Ifaluk words for emotions
akin to anger that do not involve this moral
dimension - there is no generic Ifaluk term that picks out
all these sorts of anger - one sort of behavior that can provoke song is the
violation of a taboo (e.g. working in the taro
garden while menstruating) - another is ker, sort of excited happiness which
can produce inappropriately loud talk or showing
off
18- song does not lead to physical violence
- it does lead to
- refusal to eat or speak with the offender
- gossiping about the offender
- threats of fasting or even suicide
- threats to burn down the offenders house
- when a person recognizes that someones is song
is directed at them, they typically experience an
emotion the Ifaluk call metagu, a sort of fear or
anxiety that leads to - calmer, more appropriate behavior
- corrective action
- paying a fine
- apologizing
- sending something of value to the aggrieved
parties
19Person 1
Person 2
Ker Misbehavior happiness/ excitement
Misbehavior
Song justifiable anger
Song
fear/anxiety Metagu
Metagu
Good, calm behavior
20Evolutionary Psychology An Emerging Consensus
on the Emotions
- Ekman To explain his well known finding that
facial expressions of some emotions are
cross-cultural universals, Ekman posited that
these emotions are subserved by affect programs - largely automated or involuntary suites of
coordinated emotional responses - subserved by innate mental mechanisms that are
the product of natural selection - present in all normal members of the species
21- downstream of the affect program, the behavior
that an emotion produces is strongly influenced
by culture - display rules
- posture, tone of voice
- self reports
- more complex patterns of cognitive, behavioral
social activity
22- upstream
- Ekman posited an appraisal mechanism which
monitors stimuli triggers the appropriate
affect program - by the mid-1990s Ekman had come to think that
just about all the activity of the appraisal
mechanism is affected by culturally local factors - Lazarus proposes that the emotion triggering
mechanism includes an innate set of abstractly
characterized conditions (core relational
themes) - Anger A demeaning offense against me mine
- Fear An immediate, concrete overwhelming
danger - Sadness Having experienced an irrevocable loss
- determining when these conditions have been
satisfied requires culturally local beliefs
information about culturally local norms, goals
values
23- Robert Levensons Ekman-Inspired
- Bio-Cultural Model
24- Robert Levensons Ekman-Inspired
- Bio-Cultural Model
Affect Program
25 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
26 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
27 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
28 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
29Whats Left to Fight About?Are emotions
universal or culturally local?
- Far from being incompatible with each other, it
looks like the evolutionary psychology and social
constructionist approaches to the emotions are
complementary - ethnopsychologies like the one that Lutz provides
provide details about culturally local aspects of
belief, values, etc. - Cognitive models like Levinsons give an account
of the psychological mechanisms underlying
emotions explain how innate, evolved mechanisms
interact with culturally local beliefs values.
30 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
31- So whats left to fight about?
- Evolutionary psychologists maintain that central
parts of the emotion system are innate and
present in all normal humans, and when they are
triggered they produce emotions (like fear, anger
sadness) which are cultural universals. - Since these mechanisms are homologous to
mechanisms in other species, many non-human
animals also experience emotions.
32- Social constructionists insist that emotions are
a culturally local phenomenon and thus that
people very different cultures have very
different emotions. - song metagu are Ifaluk emotions which outsiders
do not experience - amae (a pleasant sense of helplessness and desire
to be loved) is Japanese emotion which Westerners
do not experience (Harré) - accidie (boredom or disgust with fulfilling
ones religious duty) is an emotion that was once
common in the West but has now disappeared.
33- anger is unknown among the Inuit (Briggs)
anger, as a specific emotion, is not universal
across cultures (Averill) - sadness does not exist among Tahitians (Levy)
- there are no universal emotions and there may
well be some cultures in which there are no
emotions at all (Shweder)
34Whats Going On Here? The philosophical issue
that underlies the dispute
- Far from being incompatible with each other, it
looks like the evolutionary psychology and social
constructionist approaches to the emotions are
complementary - ethnopsychologies like the one that Lutz provides
provide details about culturally local aspects of
belief, values, etc. - Cognitive models like Levinsons give an account
of the psychological mechanisms underlying
emotions explain how innate, evolved mechanisms
interact with culturally local beliefs values.
35- So why do they disagree about the universality or
cultural locality of emotions?
36- So why do they disagree about the universality or
cultural locality of emotions? - Blame Canada Philosophy
37- The most widely discussed philosophical account
of the meaning reference of terms for the
emotions other mental or psychological states
is due to David Lewis - David K. Lewis
- 1941-2001
38- jargon
- meaning is (roughly) what a person must know to
understand the term - reference is what the term picks out
- meaning ? reference the morning star the
evening star have the same reference, but
different meaning
39- some central ideas of Lewis theory
- ordinary language mental state terms can be
treated as theoretical terms - theoretical terms are implicitly defined by the
theory in which they are embedded - the definition is just a long description that
includes everything the theory claims about the
thing the term refers to - so I will call this sort of theory about the
meaning of a theoretical term a description
theory - these implicit definitions are holistic because
(i) the theory implicitly defines all of its
theoretical terms, and (ii) the entire theory
contributes to the meaning of every theoretical
term
40- the theory which implicitly defines mental state
terms is commonsense psychology our
extensive, shared understanding of how we work
mentally which is common knowledge among us
(Lewis) - mental state terms express package deal
concepts since commonsense psychology provides
an implicit definition for all of them - if Lewis theory is correct then a cultures folk
psychological theory implicitly defines the
emotion words they use
41- Ethnopsychologies like the one provided by Lutz
are intended inter alia to provide an account of
the cultures folk psychology (their shared
understanding of how they work mentally) - Question How much of the detail in a rich
ethno-psychology contributes to the meaning of
ordinary mental state terms? - austere opulent
- description theories description theories
42- What about reference?
- since the meaning of a theoretical term is
given by a long description, the natural idea (
the one urged by Lewis) is that the term refers
to whatever fits the description - but we cant require the fit to be perfect, since
if we did, then any small error in the theory
would make all the theoretical terms refer to
nothing - Lewis suggests that a term refers to whatever
more or less fits the description but that is
intentionally vague
43high accuracy
at one end of the spectrum are high accuracy
accounts of reference that require that most
descriptions fit at the other end are low
accuracy accounts that allow a referent to fit
many fewer descriptions
low accuracy
44high accuracy
low accuracy
austere
opulent
45high accuracy
thick description
low accuracy
austere
opulent
a thick description account of the meaning
reference of ordinary mental state terms is
opulent high accuracy
46- But what does all this have to do with the
dispute about whether emotions are universal or
culturally local? -
- Assume that thick description account is correct
47- Among the Ifaluk it is common knowledge (i.e.
part of their folk psychological theory) that - if a woman goes into the taro garden when she is
menstruating, it will provoke song - if a man goes into the birthing house, it will
provoke song - if you are really song at me, I cant be song at
you - when a person realizes that someone is song at
him, he typically experiences metagu - etc., etc., .
- There is no emotion, among us, that fits all of
these descriptions - So there is no emotion in our culture that counts
as an instance of song song does not exist here.
48- Much the same argument can be run in the opposite
direction - Among us, it is common knowledge (i.e. part of
our folk psychological theory) that - if someone shouts racial epithets it is likely to
provoke anger - if some gives someone else the finger it is
likely to provoke anger - if you are really angry at me, I can be angry at
you too - when one person provokes anger in another person,
it will often lead to a heated exchange of words
and will occasionally lead to physical
confrontation violence - etc., etc., .
- There is no emotion among the Ifaluk that fits
all of these descriptions - So there is no emotion among the Ifaluk that
counts as an instance of anger anger does not
exist among the Ifaluk.
49- N. B. These arguments make no assumptions at all
about the psychological mechanisms underlying the
emotions. Thus they are compatible with any
account of those mechanisms, including the
account favored by evolutionary psychologists. - All that the arguments require are
- the thick description account of meaning
reference - the fact that there are substantial differences
between our folk psychology ( what we commonly
believed about mental states) and Ifaluk folk
psychology ( what they commonly believe)
50- Is this the argument that leads Social
Constructionists to the conclusion that emotions
are culturally local? - Though they dont use the philosophical jargon
(or take account of important philosophical
distinctions like meaning vs. reference) a good
case can be made that they do indeed have
something like this argument in mind.
51- Across languages, the range of implications,
suggestions, and connotations of psychological
state terms do not easily map, at least not
lexically and to adequately understand the
meaning of the terms in either language is to
understand a good deal about different local
systems of values and particular ways of life.
(Shweder, 1994) - Emotion words are treated here as coalescences
of complex ethnotheoretical ideas about the
nature of self and social interaction. To
understand the meaning of an emotion word is to
be able to envisage (and perhaps to find oneself
able to participate in) a complicated scene with
actors, actions, interpersonal relationships in a
particular state of repair, moral points of view,
facial expressions, personal and social goals,
and sequences of events. (Lutz, 1988)
52- Obviously, Evolutionary Psychologists and others
who reject the view that emotions are culturally
local must reject the thick description theory of
meaning reference. - How much of a problem is this?
53high accuracy
thick description
low accuracy
Producing an alternative to the thick description
theory is no problem at all. There are lots of
alternatives on the market.
54high accuracy
thick description
low accuracy
Producing an alternative to the thick description
theory is no problem at all. There are lots of
alternatives on the market.
55- In addition to all these, philosophers like
Putnam and Kripke have offered alternative
causal/historical theories of reference
according to which the reference of a term fixed
by the circumstances in which it was introduced
and its transmission history in the language. -
- If any of these alternative accounts of meaning
reference is correct, then the argument for
cultural locality collapses.
56- So the situation is this
- Those who think that emotions are culturally
local are (tacitly or explicitly) adopting a
thick description account of the reference of
emotion terms. - Those who think that emotions are universal are
(tacitly or explicitly) adopting some other
account of the reference of emotion terms.
57Whos Right? And Why It Doesnt Matter
- To settle the universal vs. culturally local
dispute, it looks like we have to determine which
account of reference is correct. - And that might sound like bad news because
- philosophers and linguists arent even close to
figuring out which account of reference is
correct. Even worse,
58In Deconstructing the Mind, I argued that the
issue may well be moot, since neither
philosophers nor linguists have given us a
coherent account of what a theory of reference is
supposed to do, thus we dont really have a clear
idea of what it would be to get a theory of
reference right.
59- But actually this is not such bad news since, for
two rather different reasons, it doesnt much
matter which side is right. - Reason 1 The dispute is almost entirely
isolated from the empirical theoretical claims
that SCs EPs want to make. -
60- A SC who thinks that emotions are culturally
local can accept everything in the Levinson-style
EP model and everything an EPist wants to say
about the evolution of the components of this
model.
61 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
62- A SC who thinks that emotions are culturally
local can accept everything in the Levinson-style
EP model and everything an EPist wants to say
about the evolution of the components of this
model.
- All the SC need insist on is that many beliefs,
norms, goals values are culturally local. And
this is not a claim that (sensible) EPists are in
the least inclined to dispute.
63- Reason 2
-
- No matter who is right about the meaning
reference of ordinary language emotion terms,
each side can easily say what it wants to say
with the help of a bit of technical language. - To see the point, lets once again assume the
thick description account is correct.
64- The EPs must concede that anger (the emotion
picked out by the ordinary English word) is not
universal. -
- But they can still maintain that there is a
family of emotions in different cultures, all
subserved by the same innate affect program
emotion prototype or core relational theme
that subserve anger in our culture.
65 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Anger Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
66- We can then simply introduce a technical term,
core anger, to refer to all of these emotions.
67 Norms
Values
Goals
Beliefs
Downstream Cognitive Social Activity
Subjective
Self-Report
Experience
Interpersonal
Facial
Facial
Program
Expression
Anger Emotion
Prototype
Voice Tone
Vocalization
Program
Intrapersonal
Motor
Motor
Behavior
Program
Physiologic
Physiologic
response
Support
core anger
Appraisal System
Cultural learning
Display and feeling rules
68- EPs who have conceded that anger is not universal
can claim, instead, that core anger is universal.
- And this, surely, captures what they really want
to claim.
69Conclusions
- The most conspicuous disagreement between SCs
EPs who study the emotions is not an empirical
disagreement about minds, cultures or evolution. -
- Instead, it disagreement about the universality
or cultural locality of the emotions.
70Conclusions
- That dispute is rooted in a philosophical dispute
about the meaning reference of ordinary
language emotion terms. -
- And nothing much depends on that philosophical
disagreement. It does not matter who is right.
71Conclusions
- Once the philosophical dispute is set aside, it
should be easier for Social Constructionists and
Evolutionary Psychologists to stop seeing each
other as enemies and start seeing each other as
natural allies in the attempt to understand the
emotions.
72- Blessed are the peacemakers
- for they shall be called the children of God
- Matthew 59