Sociocultural Psychology - IB Psychology Unit 4

Chen et al (2005) background

-Investigated how culture may affect buying habits. -Hofstede added another dimension to his original list: Confucian work dynamism, aka long term vs short term orientation.

Cohen Results

-Northerners were rather unaffected by the result. -The southerners compared to northerners were found to: -Think their masculine reputation was threatened. -Be more upset (showing elevated levels of cortisol--a hormone associated with stress and arousal). -Be more physically primed for aggression (showing elevated levels of testosterone--a hormone associated with aggression and dominance). -Be more cognitively primed for aggression (completing artificial scenarios with more violent endings). -Be more likely to engage in aggressive and dominant behavior. -Northerners were only half as likely as southerners to become angry about than amused by an insult (35% vs 85%). It has been shown that culture of honor states have a higher level of high school aggression and major depression and both male and female suicidal rates.

Kearins (1981) Results

-On all four tasks, the Aboriginal children performed better than the white Australian children. -The least difference between the two groups was on the A/D array. This is the task on which the white Australian children scored the highest. -Aboriginal children showed no significant difference whether the task was artificial or natural. The objects themselves therefore didn't affect the results. -Aboriginal students: 44/88 did perfectly. 20-item arrays: ⅕. 75% got at least one perfect score, while 41% got two or more perfect scores. -White Australian students: -Less than 5% of perfect performances on both arrays. None obtained two or more perfect scores. 18% managed one perfect score.

Asch (1955) Procedure

-Participated in a 'vision test.' Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates/stooges. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. -The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven confederates/stooges were also real participants like themselves. -Each person in the room had to state aloud which comparison line (A, B, or C) was most like the target line. The answer was obvious. The real participant sat at the end of the row and gave his or her answer last. -At the start, all participants (including the confederates) gave the correct answers. -However, after a few rounds, the confederates started to provide unanimously incorrect answers (18 rounds total: confederates answered 6 right, 12 wrong).

chen et al (2005) procedure

-Sample: 149 bi-cultural participants from a Singaporean University. Study was conducted online. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions. -Participants were primed in order to make their Singaporean or their American identity more salient (to make them more aware of that part of their identity). This was done by first showing them a collage of 12 photos that were emblematic of the culture. Images included famous buildings, brand names, the flag, and celebrities. After looking at the collage, they were then asked to write down as many of the items as they could remember. -After completing the priming task, the participants were given a shopping scenario to buy a novel online. -They were told the standard delivery cost for a novel was 2.99 Singaporean dollars. They were then told it would take 5 business days to receive the delivery, but that they could pay extra to receive the book in one day. -Participants were asked how much they'd be willing to pay for the book to come in 1 day. -Then, the participants were asked to list the first three politicians that come to mind.

Cohen Procedure

-Set up 3 conditions to test for the difference between northerners and southerners. The US term "honor states" typically refers to the states in the southern USA. -A confederate bumped into the participant and then insulted him by calling him a derogatory name.

several factors affecting conformity

-Size of the majority. -Importance of time, place, or social context. Individualist/Collectivist culture. -If you are face to face or at a distance (this means that conformity drops in cyberspace as do the the effects of being in a collectivist/individualist culture). -Individual differences. -There we should only cautiously generalize findings on conformity.

tajfel theory

-Three psychological mechanisms involved in creation of social identity -Social categorization, social comparison, tendency for people to use group membership as source of self esteem. -Based on social categorization - Process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics (age, nationality, occupation) -This gives raise to in groups (us) and out-groups (them) . -When randomly assigned to a group think of that group as their ingroup. -Assess value of his ingroup membership through social comparison with out-group. -Maintain self-esteem, creates a self concept

Cialdini (2005) procedure

-field study carried out on the campuses of 7 large American universities, which all had popular American football teams. Researchers recorded what clothing students were wearing the Monday after a big football match was played against a rival university. -Researchers also called the students and asked them their opinion of their team's performance.

Kearins (1981) Procedure

1. As the concept of 'standard' testing situations is culturally foreign to 2. Aboriginal students, no testing was done until students had time and opportunity to ask questions. This study was done outdoors. 3. Kearins placed 20 objects on a board divided into 20 squares. Each student was told to study the board for 30 seconds. 4. They were told that the subsequent task was reconstruction of the board with the objects in the same arrangement. 5. Then, all the objects were heaped into a pile in the center of the board. 6. Children were then asked to replace the items in their original locations.

Asch (1955) Participants

50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA.

Asch (1955) Findings

About ⅓ of the participants who were placed in this situation conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of participants conformed at least once and 25% of participants never conformed.

chen et al (2005) relations to concept

Appears that Confucian Work Dynamism played a role in their online shopping behavior. In both cases, the participants listed politicians that were relevant to the culture that they should have been primed for. This indicates that the priming had remained throughout the study and should discount individual differences between the groups.

line judgment task

Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classical experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a ______________.

lab experiment

Asch Type of Experiment?

Asch (1955) Limitations

Biased sample, all male. Cannot be generalized to females or older groups of people. Low ecological validity, the task does not really apply to real life.

Cialdini (2005) limitations

Cannot be generalized because the researchers only sampled students from large American universities. It does not apply to the overall population.

Dov Cohen at the University of Illinois

Culture of Honor Study?

Kearins (1981) Strengths

Differentiates between culture and nation (doesn't repeat Hofstede's mistake when he generalized one culture across one nation). There is high ecological validity since it is quasi-experimental.

Kurt Lewin

Father of Social Psychology; developed gatekeeper theory.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009) Strengths

High ecological validity, as this is something that would happen in real life. Used a field experiment that is highly replicable.

Asch (1955) Strengths

Highly replicable, applicable to conformity.

group pressure

If the participant gave an incorrect answer, it would be clear that this was due to ______________.

Kelman

In 1995, _______ distinguished between 3 levels of conformity: 1. Compliance 2. Identification 3. Internalization

Cohen Aim

Led researchers in a quasi-experimental study to test his theory that southern white males in the USA responded differently to threats and insults than northern white males.

Kearins (1981) Limitations

Low internal validity, no control over confounding variables (quasi-experimental). It cannot establish a cause and effect relationship. There is participant bias, as it cannot be generalized among adults and children or even people from other cultures.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009) Limitations

Only selected participants from European countries.

chen et al (2005) results

People whose Western cultures were made more salient through priming placed a higher value on immediate consumption than the people whose Eastern cultural values were more salient.

Harry Triandis, ethnic homogeneity, and population overcrowding

Several psychologists studied factors that affect our mental and behavioral processes, such as culture. One of these psychologists is _____________, who contributed various significant cultural concepts, including the idea that restricted or closed cultures are identifiable through their ___________ and ________________ characteristics, suggesting that these types of societies strictly uphold cultural values and standards, in which they give less significance on individual's right, differences, and expression.

Cialdini (2005) relation to concept

Social identity (the groups you belong to) play an important role in self esteem.

Cialdini (2005) results

Students were far more likely to wear clothing associated with their university if team won. When asked to describe their team's performance, students were more likely to use first person pronouns (ex. "We played a great game") if the team won, and more likely to use third person pronouns (ex. "They didn't play well as a team") if the team lost.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009)

Study relating to Power Distance Index?

Asch (1955)

Study relating to conformity?

Kearins (1981)

Study relating to cultural dimensions?

Cohen Applications

The research by Cohen et al (1996) illustrates an important issue in relation to cross-cultural research. Although not explicitly about acculturation (process of psychological and cultural change as a result of contact and interaction between cultures), this research raises the question: what happens when members of a culture of honor are asked to live in a culture that does not include an insult-aggression cycle?

Kearins (1981) Conclusion

The survival of Aboriginals in the harsh desert landscape rewarded their ability to store and encode information using visual retrieval cues. This suggests that survival needs may shape and reward a particular way of encoding information in memory.

Power Distance Index

What does PDI stand for?

Asch (1955) Relation to Concept

When they were interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought "peculiar". People conform because they want to fit in with the group and because they believe the group is better informed than they are.

Conformity

a change of behavior as a result of real or imagined group norms. It is the result of one of our most basic human behaviors: social comparison. Essentially, it is the tendency to compare ourselves with others around us.

Horizontal Collectivism

a collectivist culture in which people are relatively equal in status

Vertical Collectivism

a collectivist culture in which there are status differences between members

Identification

a deeper form of conformity. It is when an individual changes their private views as well as their public behavior to fit in with a group they admire but it is probably TEMPORARY. An example may be seen when a person adopts a new football team every time they move town.

Ingroup

a group to whom you, as a person, belong and anyone else who is perceived as belonging to that group.

Horizontal Individualism

an individualist culture in which people are relatively equal in status

Vertical Individualism

an individualist culture in which there are status differences among members

Chen et al (2005)

another study relating to social identity theory?

Geert Hofstede

attempt to simplify and standardize cross-cultural analysis. Came up with 5 dimensions of culture.

Culture

behaviors, attitudes, and identities that are common among a group of people who claim unity.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009) Procedure

collected data from 10 diverse European countries, 307 doctors and 5807 patients. Filled out questionnaires and medical communications were videotaped.

Outgroup

consists of anyone who does not belong to the group.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009) Aim

could Hofstede dimensions predict cross-national differences in patient doctor communication.

Kearins (1981) Independent Variable

cultural backgrounds of adolescents aged 12-16 (aboriginals vs white Australians).

Hofstede

culture guides a group of people in their daily interactions and distinguishes them from other groups of people.

Matsumoto

culture is a unique meaning and information system shared by a group and transmitted across generations.

Uncertainty Avoidance

degree of comfort with uncertain/ambiguous situations.

social categorization

dividing the social world in different categories of people is always self relevant. You always belong to one of the groups or a third (outsider) group. This lays the basis for social identity.

Low PDI

do not tolerate inequalities, prefer equal distribution of power.

impermeability

don't move between group boundaries

Culture of Honor

exists in societies where individuals (normally men) place a high value on strength and social reputation and where any insult to someone's reputation, family, or property is met with a violent response. Can come through socialization (EX: "are you just going to sit there and take it?")

Cohen Strengths

explains how someone from a nonviolent family can be violent, also has high ecological validity.

Origins

form social groups to protect ourselves and better enable us to survive a given environment.

Deep Culture

gender roles, respect for authority and rules and concepts or social identity and the self (easily accessible to members of that culture but inaccessible for those of nonmembers).

cialdini (2005) strengths

high ecological validity, as talking about football is a normal thing to do.

Long term vs Short term Orientation

how a society thinks about its past, present, future, and how it organizes itself based on this (maintaining traditions and being suspicious of change vs taking a pragmatic approach to change).

Power Distance

how individuals relate to power and authority (preferring a hierarchical order vs equality of power).

Indulgence vs Restraint

how much individuals in a society control their desires/impulses (allowing vs suppressing gratification).

Ecological Fallacy

inferring information about individuals using information from a group of which they belong.

Globalization

interconnected social groups.

Personal identity

longitudinal study--collected observations over a period of 25 months.

Compliance

lowest form of conformity. This is when you go along with another person while privately disagreeing with them. For example, you may be laughing at the jokes of a person you like but you may not actually find them funny.

Cohen Participants

male University of Michigan students who either grew up in the south or the north of the USA.

Kearins (1981) Participants

matched participants. 44 aboriginal adolescents (27 boys, 17 girls). All from desert Aboriginal descent raised under semi-traditional tribal conditions, and spoke English as a second language. 44 white Australian adolescents (28 boys, 16 girls) from the inner suburbs of Perth.

Cohen Limitations

only evaluates certain cultures, can't be generalized to the overall population.

social comparison

people are motivated to obtain a positive social identity through positive intergroup social comparisons.

Masculinity vs Femininity

preference for 'masculine' (EX: competition, glory, etc.) vs 'feminine' (EX: cooperation, friendship) values.

Emic Research

prioritize trying to understand a culture from within, seeks to understand only culture specific behavior. Cultural syndromes.

Enculturation

process by which individuals learn their culture through observation, formal instruction, or direct personal experience.

Acculturation

process of interacting with a new culture and adjust to life in that new culture.

Kearins (1981) Type of Experiment

quasi-experiment (the IV culture cannot be manipulated).

social identity

self in terms of group membership. Person has not just one "personal self", but rather several social selves that correspond to a group membership. Need to know who we are in a social value

Cialdini (2005)

study relating to social identity theory?

Etic Approach

studying cultures from an outside perspective looking in. Looked at from above or outside the culture. Follows cross-cultural analysis.

permeability

the ability to move between groups due to flexibility of group boundaries.

Internalization

the deepest level of conformity. The beliefs of a group are taken on and become a permanent part of that person's worldview. It is also known as 'conversion.' An example of this may be vegetarianism.

Informational social influence

the need for certainty. When we are in ambiguous situations, we engage in social comparison in order to figure out how to behave.

normative social influence

the need for social acceptance and approval. We conform in order to be accepted and fit in.

Kearins (1981) Dependent Variable

the number of items correctly relocated.

Cultural Norms

the unique set of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors specific to a particular culture.

Cultural transmission

theory of learning whereby individuals acquire a significant amount of information by interacting within their culture. Done through enculturation and social cognition; attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs being passed from one generation to the next.

Hofstede Meeuwesen (2009) Findings

those with higher nation PDI = less unexpected information was shared and the conversation was more one-sided. Those with lower nation PDI = doctors conveyed more information, flexible communication styles, lasted longer.

Asch (1955) Aim

to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.

chen et al (2005) aim

to investigate the role of Confucian work dynamism (long term orientation) on an individual's buying habits.

Cialdini (2005) aim

to investigate the role of social identity in self esteem.

Kearins (1981) Aim

to see whether aboriginal (relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia or their languages) might perform better on tests that took advantage of their ability to encode with visual cues. In other words, to see the effects of culture on memory.

Gatekeeper Theory

to who controls information and ideas in a social group. Those people who decide what information is shared to others (politics, news editors). People become socialized in an environment.

High PDI

tolerant of inequalities, hierarchical in nature.

Surface Culture

what is easily observed (costumes, traditions)

salient

when we became more aware of one facet of identity. When one social identities becomes salient it will have an influence on behavior.

Individualism vs Collectivism

whether individuals see themselves as dependent or independent from a social group.