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Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology

Lecture 13

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Announcement

In order to attend a conference on Friday, March 4th, I will have to move my office hours this week to Wednesday, March 2nd. My office hours will be held at the same time: 3:00-4:30. If you would like to see me this week but are unable to attend at this time, please e-mail me.

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Optional Paper

Topic due date: March 22 (Option A or B, 2-3 sentence summary; students with last names A-Q send to Kate at rogerskh@psych.ubc.ca; students with last names R-Z send to Will at wmhall@psych.ubc.ca).

Paper due date: April 5.

Option A: Review psychological literature on a topic not discussed in class that interests you.

Option B: Consider how a universally important activity, issue, or need is addressed in at least two different cultures.

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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love

1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup relations and (b) conformity to social norms.

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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences day-to-day interactions and attitudes toward ingroup and outgroup members.

2. discuss the relationship IC and conformity.

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How does culture influence ingroup-outgroup relations?

● Ingroup: A group of people with whom one shares a sense of belonging or a feeling of common identity (i.e., “us”).

● Outgroup: A group of people with whom one perceives dissimilarity or a lack of familiarity (i.e., “them”).

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● Theorists have come to believe that “individualism” leads people to develop relatively low levels of

commitment towards their ingroups and to view the distinction between ingroups and outgroups as relatively fluid or permeable.

● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop relatively high levels of commitment towards their ingroups and to view the distinction between ingroups and outgroups as relatively stable or fixed.

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● Among the studies that have provided support for this theory are those that have compared: (a) the

day- to-day interactions of people from different cultures and (b) the attitudes that people from different cultures have towards ingroup and outgroup members.

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● Research has shown that people from collectivistic cultures engage in fewer social interactions per day than people from individualistic cultures. Moreover, their social interactions are more likely to involve ingroup members than the social interactions of

people from individualistic cultures.

(a) Day-to-day interactions:

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● Example: Wheeler, Reis, and Bond (1989)

Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.

Had participants complete the Rochester Interaction Record (RIR).

The RIR requires that participants record details related to social interactions of 10 minutes or more.

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Sample Copy of a Rochester Interaction Record

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● Research has shown that, in contrast to people from individualistic cultures, people from collectivistic cultures are more likely to engage in subordinate behaviour when interacting with ingroup members, and superordinate and “dissociative” behaviour when interacting with outgroup members.

(b) Attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members:

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● Example: Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990)

Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.

Had participants rate their “social distance” from 20 stimuli (e.g., their father, their closest friend).

Had participants indicate how appropriate they believed subordinate behaviour, superordinate behaviour, and dissociative behaviour were when interacting with each stimulus:

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Relationship Between Subordinate Behaviour and Social Distance

* PRC = People’s Republic of China

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Relationship Between Superordinate Behaviour and Social Distance

* PRC = People’s Republic of China

16* PRC = People’s Republic of China

Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour and Social Distance

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How does culture influence conformity to social norms?

● For several decades, researchers have been interested in identifying the factors that lead people to

conform to social norms.

● The most influential research examining these factors was conducted by Asch (1951), who developed a line judgment task to study conformity.

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Asch’s Line Judgment Task

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Across several studies using this task, Asch found that American participants agreed with the group’s incorrect response (i.e., conformed) in 37% of trials.

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Subsequent research demonstrated that conformity was greatest when:

(a) the group was relatively large.

(b) the group provided a unanimous incorrect response.

(c) the participant admired, liked, or felt a sense cohesiveness or similarity among group members.

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● Bond and Smith (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of conformity studies in an effort to determine the

precise relationship between IC and conformity:

● Theorists have come to believe that individualism promotes a resistance to conformity, whereas

collectivism promotes a tendency toward conformity.

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133 experiments were included in the meta-analysis: 97 were conducted in the U.S., 1 was conducted in Canada, the remaining were conducted outside of North America (e.g., Brazil, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Zimbabwe).

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Examined:

(a) differences in conformity across individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures.

(b) changes in conformity across time in the U.S.

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Found:

(a) a negative relation between individualism and conformity, indicating that conformity is lower in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures.

(b) a negative relation between date of publication and conformity in the U.S. studies, suggesting that the U.S. is becoming increasingly individualistic across time.

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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love

1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup relations and (b) conformity to social norms.