Psychology Exams, Paper 1

Define the masculinity/femininity dimension

Masculinity/femininity is another dimension and it has to do with whether traditionally feminine or masculine values are valued in a society. 'Masculine' values are competitiveness, materialism, ambition and the acquisition of wealth. Common traits found in countries that score high on the masculinity scale are that life's priorities are achievement, wealth and expansion. It is acceptable to settle conflicts through aggressive means. Women and men have different roles in society. Professionals often "live to work", meaning longer work hours and short vacations. 'Feminine' values are relationship building and quality of life. Common traits found in countries that score low on the masculinity scale believe that the main priorities are family, relationships and quality of life. Conflicts should ideally be solved through negotiation. Men and women should share equal positions in society. Professionals "work to live", meaning longer vacations and flexible working hours. These values are more often found in societies where there is more gender equality. This is one of the least understood dimensions, as many people tend to associate it with masculinity and femininity literally. This is why some researchers have renamed the dimension quantity of life/quality of life.

Define principles

Principles are main ideas of researchers working within a specific level of analysis about what influences behaviour (origins of behaviour) and how behaviour should be studies (what research methods should be used).

Manson et al (1985)

The aim of the study was to construct a culturally appropriate diagnostic instrument that would increase reliability and validity of diagnosis of mental illness for Hopi Indians in the US. This is an emic study since it studies the experiences and perceptions of mental illness from the perspective of the Hopi themselves. The assumption is that they may relate to the world and one another differently from the average American. One reason for conducting the study was that depression is the most diagnosed mental illness among Indians. 40% of those who attend mental health facilities are diagnosed with depression, which is 4-6 times more often than in the US at large. They are easily misdiagnosed because their experiences and views of the world are not very well understood. The participants were 36 Hopi Indians of both genders, different ages and from different places. Individual one-hour interview with each participant was conducted, performed by a bilingual member of the Hopi community. They asked the participants questions about different aspects of mental illness: - Which illnesses of the mind are there? (Meaning they wanted to know how they would express themselves when it comes to illnesses, since for example the word depression does not have an equivalent in their language). - How does on know when a person is ill? (Meaning that they asked them about which symptoms people tend to have, according to their own point of view, when they have a certain illness of the mind. They were asked about cognitive aspects such as "How does a person think?", affective aspects such as "How does a person feel?", and behavioural aspects such as "How does a person behave?") - How long does such an illness usually last? (Meaning they wanted to know how long the illnesses that they had stated lasted, according to them) - How and where does one seek help for such an illness? (Meaning they wanted to know these illnesses should be treated, according to them) Results: This is a large study with many different parts, but the researchers derived the following five (translated) Hopi illness categories relevant to depression: - Worry sickness - Unhappiness - Heartbreak - Drunken-like craziness - Disappointment Most Hopi participants said they could not identify a Hopi word that was equivalent to the term depression, but they were all familiar with all five of the Hopi illness categories. Some of the characteristics identified by Manson et al. were similar to Western ways of looking at depression (e.g. unhappiness), but others were entirely different. The category of heartbroken, for example, included the following symptoms: weight loss, disrupted sleep, fatigue, psychomotor retardation and agitation, loss of libido, a sense of sinfulness, shame, not being likeable, and trouble thinking clearly. As a pattern, this set of symptoms does not form part of any western diagnostic scheme. This study illustrates the importance of considering culutral factors as it showed that how a disorder is viewed in one culture may be different from how it is viewed in another culture. This could lead to misdiagnosis among other things, thus having an emic approach to research/considering cultural differences in such matters is important. The study resulted in the development of the American Indian Depression Scale.

Evaluation of Hofstede (1973)

+ Since survey were used it was possible to have a large sample, many different countries and continents - No participants from much of Africa or from the communist bloc. Limits possibility to generalise. - The sample could have been biased. All participants were employees at the computer company IBM, and thus may not be representative of the entire population within the country. - Self-report data, meaning it may not be fully reliable - Data analysed using content analysis which can be seen as subjective. Possibility less reliable results. - Questionnaires were devised by westerners. They could potentially have been ethnocentric, but Hofstede teamed up with Bond, a canadian sociologist working in Hong Kong and performed a new survey that had the opposite approach: Chinese social scientists were asked to come up with questions about cultural values they thought were relevant, and these questions were translated into English and other languages and the questionnaires were given out. This study showed similar results, which confirms the high validity of the original study and which increases the reliability of the research. In addition to this, many replications have been made by other researchers that have showed similar results. - It is assumed that culture within a country is largely uniform, when it can differ greatly. The ratings may not apply to all groups within the country. It is important to remember that the variability within cultures is often larger than the variability between different cultures. The ratings on the cultural dimensions are only the averages for all respondents in a country. + The cultural dimensions can be used in getting to know a new culture and are useful when interacting with another culture. They can be used instead of relying on personal anecdotes and generalisations. It is a more scientific way of showing cultural differences. If used properly, they can decrease levels of frustration, anxiety and concern when faced with an unfamiliar culture as a deeper understanding of the cultural values and what behaviour is normative will be gained.

What research methods are used at the SCLOA?

1. Experiments. 2. Surveys. Experiments are used at the SCLOA as they can establish causation, because they are well controlled and since they are easily replicable. Use Asch's (1951) conformity study. Standardised procedure, control of variables (same confederates, same task, same cards shown etc.), cause established (being in a group causes change in behaviour?). Easily replicable, has been replicated by many (illustrate using Crutchfield, 1955, and Bond & Smith, 1996 meta analysis). Surveys are used at the SCLOA because they are convenient, allow for large groups of participants, because participants can be used in different parts of the world In questions 1-4. do not forget to define the LOA and give a bit of background. Lower marks if the answer is not explicitly connected to the LOA. Example: According to the sociocultural level of analysis, human behaviour could be fully understood only if the social ocntext in which the behaviour occurred was also taken into account. It investigates how people interact and influence each other. Critical thinking: Evaluation of strengths and advantages of experiments and surveys, include comments about method triangulation in final remarks.

What principles exist at the SCLOA?

1. Individual behaviour is influenced by other people. This means that the behaviour of an individual is not only based on their personality and their personal traits, but that their behaviour is influenced by those around them. This could mean that an individual behaves differently when alone compared to with a group of people. 2. Humans are social animals with a need to belong. When placed in groups, individuals tend to conform to the behaviour of the group in order to fit in. Humans search for a sense of belonging and want to have a sense of connectedness, and this may sometimes lead to conforming with the group in order to belong. Both of these principles can be illustrated using Asch (1951), as the study showed that 1. The behaviour of the participants was different when in groups since 75% went along with an obviously wrong answer at least once, whereas those who were alone answered close to all questions correctly. The study also showed that 2. humans have a need to belong as the results can be explained by having a desire to fit in, and in addition to this when the participants were interviewed afterwards some admitted that they went along with the confederates because they did not want to stand out. This is known as normative conformity in Deutch and Gerrard's theory of conformity.

Define experiment

An experiment is a research method where one or more independent variable(s) are manipulated, and the effect of this manipulation is observed on another variable (the dependent variable). Experiments are well controlled, and since all other variables apart from the independent variable(s) is controlled, cause and effect can be established. This is a strength since it is often useful to know what factors cause a behaviour, instead of knowing only that two factors are direction since there is no bi-directional ambiguity (i.e. no issues regarding what causes what). That they are well controlled also means that extraneous variables can be avoided. Experiments are also easy to replicate since they follow a standardised procedure and are well controlled, which means that all necessary information exists for performing the same experiment under identical conditions, and thus replications can be made by other researchers. This is a strength as if several studies show the same results, the findings increase in reliability.

Asch, 1951

Asch (1951) showed that people conform to a great extent, even when the task is unambiguous (i.e. the correct answer is clear). The aim of his original experiment was to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group can affect a person to conform even when the majority obviously is incorrect. There were two groups of participants in the experiment, one group which were individually asked to compare the lengths of lines on different cards, and one group in which the participants were put one each into a group with 7 confederates. The participants in the groups with confederates were

Ethics in socio-cultural research

Begin by defining the level of analysis and signposting what studies and ethical considerations you will bring up. For these questions that are common to all LOAs, you need to be specific to the LOA in the question. Connect what you write specifically to the LOA. Ethical guidelines are rules that need to be followed by researchers when conducting research. Ethical considerations are debatable issues where guidelines might or might not be followed, or where following them might be difficult. Several classical studies within the SCLOA raise serious ethical concerns. Since the goal of the SCLOA is to investigate human interaction and since often negative behaviours such as conformity, obedience and compliance are investiagted, it is very iomportant to avoid participants suffering from unacceptable levels of stress, and making sure that they Many classical experiments were very unethical, at the SCLOA Asch (1951) can be used. Discuss how informed consent is required.

Define cultural dimensions

Cultural dimensions are psychological dimensions that can be used to describe a specific culture, and the assumption is that the they can be used to classify cultures based on to what extent they embrace certain values. According to Hofstede (1973), they can be used to explain, predict and interpret cultural differences in terms of values and cultural norms without relying on stereotypes, personal anecdotes, or impressions. This is a more scientific way of interpreting cultural differences.

Define culture and cultural norms

Culture is a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors. Cultural norms are rules (implicit or explicit) which regulate behavior within a particular culture. They are culturally shared beliefs about how a person within that culture should behave.

Hofstede, 1973

Hofstede (1973) conducted surveys in order to score different cultures on the dimensions. He originally surveyed 100,000 employees in a large international corporation (IBM) in more than 40 countries. He used 126 questions about satisfaction, perception, personal goals, beliefs, and demographics. Results showed that there were cultural variations in how the questions were answered, and based on this Hofstede created cultural dimensions that can be used to quantify how the cultural values and norms are in different countries. Four cultural dimensions were originally proposed, two of which were individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity. A continuum ranging from 1 - 120 was created where the extremes represent individualism or collectivism, or masculinity or femininity fully, whereas there also exist intermediate cultures that lie somewhere in between. In Hofstede's research, Japan was found to be the world's most masculine society, with a rating of 95. Sweden was the most feminine with a rating of 5. Other examples of "masculine" cultures include the USA (62), Germany (66), Ireland and Italy (70). "Feminine" cultures include Spain (42), Thailand (34), Korea, Portugal (31) and the Middle East. Intermediate cultures are Belgium, Britain and France. North American, Australia and Western European nations were found to be relatively individualistic, whereas more collectivism was found in Asian and Latin American countries. Some countries, such as Spain, India and Brazil were rated as intermediate cultures.

Define the individualism/collectivism dimension

Individualism/collectivism has to do with the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. There are two categories based on what is valued in a culture; the needs, goals and interest of the group or the needs, goals and interests of the individual. Individualism is high in societies where the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. Members of the culture are more concerned with their own needs than the needs of the groups they belong to. Individualistic cultures tend to have more in-groups. (Because numerous in-groups are available to individuals, members are not strongly attached to any single in-group. Members of these cultures tend to drop out of groups that are too demanding, and their relationships within their groups are marked by a high level of independence or detachment.) Collectivism is high in societies where people are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families, which provide them with support and protection. If an individual does not live up to the norms of the family or the larger social group, the result can sometimes be severe. (Collectivistic cultures depend much more on the effective functioning of groups and a member's commitment to an in-group is greater. They keep stable relationships with their in-groups no matter what the cost and exhibit a high level of interdependence with members of their groups.

Describe the concepts of "emic" and "etic"

The two concepts "emic" and "etic" differ in the emphasis given to the role of cultural factors in behaviour. In a multicultural world it is important to understand the role of culture in behaviour. The distinction between the terms emics and etics has to do with the extent to which research aims to establish what is common to all humans (etic approach to research) and what is unique to specific cultures (emic approach to research). Most studies throughout the history of psychology have had an etic approach, but now many researchers have realised the importance of emic studies. Etic: What is common to all humans. Assumes that humans are generally the same and seeks to investigate what is universal when it comes to behaviour, but acknowledges that there are cultural differences and may compare cultures. In etic studies theories developed in one particular culture (usually western) are tested cross-culturally. As the researchers rely on theories and techniques developed in their own culture to study another culture, such studies are often said to use the imposed etic and they are often ethnocentric (meaning a certain culture's norms and beliefs are, perhaps incorrectly, taken as the standard when investigating other cultures). Use Hofstede (1977) to illustrate an etic approach. Comparing cultures. Emic: Does not aim to compare cultures, but rather to investigate culture-specific behaviours and what is unique to a culture by studying it in depth and from within the culture. The assumption is that it is important to understand the culture in order to understand the behaviour. Emic studies look at behaviour that are culture specific and they do not intend to compare cultures bit to describe the one culture they are investigating without imposing their own prior knowledge about what they should expect. They try to understand the culture without imposing their own ideas because they understand that the cultural context shapes behaviour. Use Manson et al (1985) on the development of the American Indian Depression Scale. Through interviews with native informats (meaning that the researchers used poeple from that culture to develop the insturment they use to diagnose depression), the researchers derived the following five (translated) Hopi illness categories relevant to depression: worry sickness, unhappiness, heartbroken, drunken-like craziness, disappointment. The best approach would involve both etic and emic components. In the derived etic approach, for example, it is assumed that although the phenomenon under study is the same across cultures, its development and expression may well show cultural influences. For example, depression exists in all cultures, but how it is expressed is influenced by culture.