Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to contextualize optimal experience and the process of individual psychological selection within the two main inheritance systems that influence human behavior: the biological and the cultural ones. The most recent acquisitions in the study of the processes of selection and transmission of biological and cultural information will be briefly outlined. Culture will be described as an emergent inheritance system that ultimately predominates on biology in shaping and directing human behavior at both the individual and social levels. The manifold interaction patterns between culture and biology, and their impact on the relationships among human societies will be highlighted. Material and symbolic artifacts will be briefly analyzed as extrasomatic cultural products which substantially mediate the relationship between individuals and their environment. The closing section will focus on the role of individuals as active agents, who create, select, and replicate with time biological and cultural information according to personal meanings, goals, and experiences which are only partially constrained by biological and cultural inheritance.
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Delle Fave, A., Massimini, F., Bassi, M. (2011). Biology, Culture, and Human Behavior. In: Psychological Selection and Optimal Experience Across Cultures. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9876-4_2
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