Sociocultural Psycholgoy

Outline principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis. (8)

Sociocultural level of analysis: SCLOA is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings and thus behaviours are influences by actual, implied or imagined presence of others. Principles: 1. Culture influences behavior. Chen et al. = 2. We all have an individual self Johnson et al. = 3. We all want a sense of connectedness and belonging with others. Asch =

Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behavior. (22)

Geert Hofstede established certain cultural dimensions after an IBM survey he did on 60,000 employees. These include; collectivism vs. individualism, masculinity-femininity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The collectivism vs. individualism cultural dimension was established through a measure whether people prefer to work in groups or alone and the degree of social integration. This resulted in these definition of collectivism and individualism: Collectivism is when benefiting the group plays a large role in a person's belief. An example of this is when a person's decisions are made to benefit the family rather than focus on oneself. This is common in the asian cultures. Therefore, the tendency to conform in these cultures is much higher than individualistic cultures. On the other hand, individualism is where the individual's interest prevails the interest of the group. Therefore, the ties between other individuals tend to be loose and extend mainly to the immediate family only. This is common in the western culture where one focuses on becoming a lone successor. One effect of this cultural dimension is the rate conformity. A study conducted to demonstrate the effect of collectivism and individualism on behavior was the Smith & Bond study in which they analyzed Asch's paradigm experiment in 17 different countries around the world. The subjects assigned to individualistic cultures had lower rates of conformity and the subjects assigned to collectivist cultures had higher rates of conformity. This demonstrates that the cultural dimension influences behavior, in this case the rate of conformity. The meta-analysis was conducted on over 133 studies, therefore making the results very reliable. Because of the lab setting of the experiment, it was easily to be controlled and therefore consistent in every study, but doesn't make the studies very ecologically valid. Although this analysis demonstrates a conformation of Hofstede's theory that cultural dimensions influence behavior, the ecological validity of the study should be improved before we can generalize this to all cultures and demonstrate that it is really a cause-effect relationship. Another effect of collectivism-individualism can been seen on attributional biases. A study conducted by Kashima and Triandis investigated whether collectivism or individualism influences self-serving bias. American and Japanese participants were asked to respond to pictures of unfamiliar countries and then asked to recall details. It turned out that the American students attributed their success more to dispositional factors, self-serving bias, while the Japanese students attributed their failure to dispositional factors (modesty bias). As America can be seen as an individualist culture and Japan as a collectivist culture this demonstrates that biases in attribution are influenced by our cultural dimensions. This study is however difficult to generalise as it only demonstrates the difference between two countries.

Define the terms "culture" and "cultural norms". (8)

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Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior. (8)

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Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the sociocultural level of analysis. (22)

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Discuss factors influencing conformity. (22)

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Discuss the use of compliance techniques. (22)

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Discuss two errors in attributions. (22)

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Evaluate research on conformity to group norms. (22)

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Evaluate social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies. (22)

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Explain social learning theory, making reference to two relevant studies. (8)

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Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behavior. (8)

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Using one or more examples, explain "emic" and "etic" concepts. (8)

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Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis. (22)

Different types of research methods are used to analyse human behavior. In sociocultural the main ones are: - Meta analysis (analysis of data of other studies) - Observational research (covert/overt) - Lab experiments Meta analysis + Wide variation + More studies - more reliable, accurate + Check emic / etic + Generalized + Trend/patterns in behavior - Publication bias - Time-consuming - Correlational not necessarily causal results - Quantitative - can lose qualitative properties Bond and Smith = 133 studies from 17 countries on Asch's experiment, collectivist/individualist cultures. Found that conformity is lower in individualist cultures. Observational research (Covert) + Normal, usual behavior + Rich qualitative data + Deeper understanding + Ecologically valid - Often reliable on memory - Ethical violations of privacy and consent - No debrief - Researcher bias in analysis of data - Culture bias Festinger et al. = convert observations on cult members that believed world was going to end. Found that the cult blamed their prayers for the world not ending (self-fulfilling prophecy) Observational research (Overt) + More ethical than covert + More ways of data collection - Conformation bias Zimbardo = prison experiment, assigned people role of prisoners or guards. Found demonstration of social identity theory. Lab experiment + Controlled - can be replicated + More generalizable + Less time-consuming - Low ecological validity - Demand characteristics - Social norms may interfere - High researcher bias Asch = asked participant to judge line after non-participants had judged line. Participant had higher level of conformity depending on the amount of people in the line that conformed.

Explain how principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis may be demonstrated in research. (8)

Sociocultural level of analysis: SCLOA is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings and thus behaviours are influences by actual, implied or imagined presence of others. Principles: 1. Culture influences behavior. Chen et al. = 2. We all have an individual self Johnson et al. = 3. We all want a sense of connectedness and belonging with others. Asch = Conclusion: Views from all levels of analysis need to be taken into account before reaching a determined decision on influences on human behaviour, as sociocultural factors such as the environment are not the sole cause of the behaviour, but certainly play a role in the interaction between itself and behaviour.