Learning outcomes: General Learning Outcomes Outline principles
that define the sociocultural level of analysis. Explain how
principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis may be
demonstrated in research (that is, theories and/or studies).
Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the
sociocultural level of analysis. Discuss ethical considerations
related to research studies at the sociocultural level of
analysis.
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SCLA: Sociocultural cognition Describe the role of situational
and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour. Discuss two
errors in attributions. Evaluate social identity theory, making
reference to relevant studies. Explain the formation of stereotypes
and their effect on behaviour.
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SCLA: Social Norms Explain social learning theory, making
reference to two relevant studies. Discuss the use of compliance
techniques. Evaluate research on conformity to group norms. Discuss
factors influencing conformity.
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Cultural Norms Define the terms culture and cultural norms.
Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behavious Using one
or more examples, explain emic and etic concepts.
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The 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. Thus
it is; The scientific study of individuals and groups in social and
cultural conditions How we think, feel and thus act in the presence
of others And thus how this presence of others affects our
behaviour
Slide 7
The principles of the SCLA There are four overarching
principles of the SCLA Principle 1: Humans are social animals and
thus have the need to 'Belong' Principle 2: Culture influences
behaviour Principle 3: Humans have a social-self Principle 4:
People's views of the world are resistant to change and developed
by the community and culture
Slide 8
Purpose of the Principles These principles are the main ideas
that have driven focused research on specific areas of how our
environment can influence our behaviour in the SCLA. They also
allow us to understanding how behaviour can be caused or influenced
by social factors.
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Experiment time Visual estimation
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Principle 1: Sociocultural psychologists believe that social
and cultural environment influences behaviour. States that
behaviour can be influenced by the social and cultural environment.
For Example: In a Social and Cultural Environment: you eat with a
knife and fork whereas in some other places/cultures, you may eat
with chopsticks or a spoon and fork This further reinforces the
idea that the real or imagined pressure of others influence
behaviours Culture can be defined as the norms and values that
define a society Research into conformity outlines social norms and
also how, in the form of internalized standards of behaviour, they
regulate our social behaviours Conformity also shows that strong
situational influences may cause us to put our own believes, values
and morals to the side in order to fit in and be accepted by our
social world (thus influencing behaviour) This principle is further
supported by research conducted by Asch (1951)
Slide 15
Asch experiment in more depth Aim: Solomon Asch (1951)
conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social
pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
Procedure: Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity, whereby
50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in
a vision test. Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive
participant in a room with seven confederates.
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More Asch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA Results:
Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed to the
majority view. On average, about one third (32%) of the
participants who were placed in this situation went along and
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 participant never conformed. In
the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates,
less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.
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Asch Conclusion: Why did the participants conform so readily?
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". A few of them said that they really did believe the
group's answers were correct. Apparently, people conform for two
main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative
influence) because they believe the group is better informed than
they are (informational influence).
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Asch Explained This study thus shows that our social and
cultural environments may affect us thus result in conforming to a
group or social norm May result in a change in behaviour
Significance Shows that social settings affect how one behaves.
Also has important implications for conformity and understanding
the process of conforming. Why do we want to conform? Normative and
informational reasons.
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Evaluation of Asch Biased sample. All male college students.
Lacks population validity. Artificial task to measure conformity -
judging line lengths. This means that study has low ecological
validity. Ethical issues: participants were not protected from
psychological stress which may occur if they disagreed with the
majority. Ethical issues: Cross-cultural and temporal issues.
Slide 20
Principle 2? Culture influences behaviour. The SCLA assumes
that we construct our individual and social self through our
conceptions. This social self is how we construct our social
identity and is also dependent on the types of groups that we
belong and identified with. These identities reflect the influence
of society on oneself and have been seen to extensively affect our
behaviour. Building who we are around our culture and environment
(studies have shown that 'norms' considered in one culture may be
completely opposite in another).
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Principle 2 contd This principle gives rise to the fact that
people not only have a individual identity but also a collective or
social one. Likewise our social identity is important as it defines
who we are and these behaviours are determined by social groups
(such as memberships, communities, clubs, nationality or family). A
study that supports this principle is Zimbardo et al. (1995).
Connection of Study to Principle Showing that our social self is
constructed by our own conceptions (prisoner or guard) and thus we
will act in a way that fits with these conceptions.
Zimbardo: The Lucifer Effect
http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_p
sychology_of_evil#t-160521
http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_p
sychology_of_evil#t-160521
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Important Concepts to Remember Concerning behaviour and evil in
particular Dispositional factors: Characteristics that within the
individual; personality traits that may make a person lean towards
cruel and hurtful actions Situational factors: Factors about the
situation that increase the likelihood that cruel acts will take
place. i.e. anonymity Orders by authority Conformity to group
norms
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Ethics and the Stanford P.Ex. Highly stressful Not allowed to
leave despite demanding to be let out Abusive and degrading
treatment Far beyond that which is acceptable in psy. research
Lasting traumatic experience for both guards and prisoners Guards
shocked by their own potential for cruelty A valued study but still
debatable and hard to justify
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Research Methods in Soc Psy Discuss how and why particular
research methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis.
What is a research method? / What is the purpose of research
methods in Psychology Researchers need to have a method for
collecting and analysing data. There are many different/various
methods researchers and psychologists use to conduct their studies.
Research methods are ways that researchers use and manipulate to
conduct their studies
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6 main research methods used in psychology Experiments Case
Studies Observational Studies Interviews Surveys/Questionnaires
Correlational Studies
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Triangulation When researchers incorporate the use of 2 or more
research methods of investigation to explore the same aspect
Triangulation increases credibility. There are 4 main types of
triangulation: Data Researcher Theoretical Methodological
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Biases in Psy research Researcher bias: - The researcher/s sees
what they are looking for, in which the expectations of the
researcher consciously or unconsciously affect the findings of the
study. Observer bias - The participant/s act differently or
accordingly due to the consciousness of being observed by people
(researchers), which may influence the nature of the study.
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An important premise about Soc Psy In sociocultural psychology,
testable theories, and assumptions of a humans social self and how
we come to communicate and interact with the environment are
observed through the social environment. Different from CLA of BLA
Tested via the different research methods listed above.
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Experiments Experiments are used to determine the cause and
effect relationship between two variables (independent (IV) and
dependent (DV) variables). Researchers manipulate the independent
variable (IV) and measure the dependent variable (DV) Attempt to
control as many extraneous variables as possible to provide
controlled conditions (laboratory experiments) Experiments are
considered a quantitative research method, however qualitative data
may be collected as well
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Types of Experiments
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Experiment types contd
Slide 34 therefore, changing the amount of people to represent
a group sample to test the level of conformity in the group, in
relation to their estimated answers. DV: Their estimate on how far
the light moved (except for the fact that the light didn't really
move which is an issue, because how can you test conformity to
something that doesn't actually happen).">
Example of a Lab experiment(Sheriff 1935) A: To demonstrate
that people conform to group norms when put in an ambiguous
situation IV: The autokinetic effect the distance of how far a
light beam "appeared" to move in a dark room --> therefore,
changing the amount of people to represent a group sample to test
the level of conformity in the group, in relation to their
estimated answers. DV: Their estimate on how far the light moved
(except for the fact that the light didn't really move which is an
issue, because how can you test conformity to something that
doesn't actually happen).
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Sheriff contd. Testing conformity, much like Asch did. Allowed
a cause and effect relationship to be developed and recognised
Cause: The group situation formed when Sheriff brought the
participants together to tell the answer in front of the group.
Effect: Level of conformity between the individuals in the group
(How many people conformed to the answer which was the most
popular, from their first or original guess). Experiment most
useful here because a clear cause-effect relationship is hard to
find in a real life setting. Hard to control variables. Again, Asch
is also an experiment.
Laboratory Observation Organized Well controlled settings and
variables Can lack ecological validity Subject to the observer
effect Examples 2 way mirror Polygraph Sleep studies
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Ethological Observations Out of lab studies with people in
normal settings Pros Higher validity Occur in natural field setting
Cons Difficult to carry out Hard to repeat Observer effect a
problem Difficult to concisely record dataqualitative mostly
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Participant Observation Dual role researcher. Psychologist
Active member of the specific group being studied Pros Excellent
qualitative data Emic understanding Cons Objectivity issues
Difficult to record and record keep (sometimes impossible in i.e.
covert observations). A lot of ethical issues concerning
deciept
Slide 40
Example of participant observations Festinger 1956 "When
Prophecy Fails" Joins a doomsday cult A religious cult believed
that the world would end on 21 December, and that they would be
rescued by flying saucers if they followed the rituals and read
sacred texts As day comes and goes, able to interview participants
and examine how beliefs had been adjusted to fit reality.
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Ethical Issues with Festingers study Privacy may be violated by
the researcher. Informed consent was not obtained Participants were
not informed of their right to withdraw Researchers used deception
to study the group"s behaviour Participants were not
debriefed.
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Important notes about Festingers findings Disconfirmation
Expectancy Dissconfirmation expectancy is a psychological term for
what is commonly known as a failed prophecy. disconfirmed
expectancies create a state of psychological discomfort because the
outcome contradicts expectancy. Upon recognizing the falsification
of an expected event the individual must either discard the now
disconfirmed belief or justify why it has not actually been
disconfirmed. The people in the cult told everyone that the reason
it did not happen was that the groups faith caused the event to not
take place.
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Important Study Asch (1951)
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SCLA: Cultural Norrms
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Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on
behaviour. Our social world is very complex and thus presents us
with too much information. Since our capacity to process
information is limited, our social world needs to be simplified.
One way to avoid this information overload is through social
categorisation. The information is used in social categorisation is
stereotypes.
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A stereotype A "stereotype" is a mental representation and a
form of social categorization made about specific individuals or a
group and its members. Once a set of characteristics is used to
describe a group of people, those characteristics are often
attributed to all members of the group, thus affecting the
behaviour of the people or individual who hold the stereotype, and
those who are labelled by a stereotype. Gender, race, political
stance, and personality contribute to the stereotypes we place on
others, but they are generally based on race and gender.
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Give example, in terms of (+) & (-) stereotypes This
generalization may either be positive or negative, based on certain
group membership or physical attributes, however most stereotypes
of today are negative, exaggerating the quality and
cognitively-associating such trait to all individuals that are part
of the group leading to discrimination and prejudice, thus
increasing self-esteem about themselves and their in-group. For
example, white people can"t dance; black people are stupid and
uncivilized; Jewish people are greedy; women are organized, etc.
However, some positive stereotypes may exist such as, Asians are
intelligent; Christians are good people; women are bad drivers; old
people have grey hair, etc.
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Stereotypes are similar to schemas Stereotypes are now also
argued to be a schema process that conditions those who hold the
stereotype and also those labelled after the stereotype, as they
are organized internal representations of individuals and or
groups, therefore guiding how people act towards them.
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Theories of stereotype formation - -> leading to affected
behaviour Old Theory Social Categorization & Social Identity
Theory Earlier on, Tajfel (1971) argued that stereotypes developed
through a natural process of social categorization, which is when
people categorize groups of people based on common traits or
characteristics. However, this does not explain how it actually
happens
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Illusory Correlation (Social Cognitive Theory) Hamilton and
Gifford (1976) argued instead that stereotypes formed through a
type of cognitive bias, a person"s tendency to make errors in
judgement based on cognitive factors, which is known as illusory
correlation.
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Cognitive bias may be relevant to stereotypes After illusory
correlations are formed, people actively seek to confirm and
support their beliefs by looking for evidence in a "biased" way,
which is known as confirmation bias. Illusory correlation comes in
many forms such as culturally based prejudice about social groups.
Cognitive bias may cause us to reinforce previously developed
stereotypes Therefore making this bias, stereotypical thinking
resistant to change.
Slide 52
Hamilton and Gifford (1976), A study done by Hamilton and
Gifford (1976), argued that stereotypes are a result of an illusory
correlation, because people see a relationship between two
variables even when there is none, e.g. "blonds" or "women," etc.
That is, for example, that people can form false associations
between membership of a social group and specific behaviours.
Slide 53
Hamilton and Gifford (1976), AimTo investigate illusory
correlation of group size and negative behaviour. Method
Researchers asked participants to read descriptions about two
made-up groups (Group A) and (Group B). Descriptions were based on
a number of positive and negative behaviours. Group A (majority
group) twice as many members than B; performed 18 positive and 8
negative behaviours. Group B (minority) performed 9 positive and 4
negative behaviours. Asked to attribute behaviours to group.
Slide 54
Results: Although there was no correlation between group
membership and the types of behaviours exhibited by the groups, in
that the proportion of negative and positive was the same for both
groups, the participants did seem to have an illusory correlation.
More of the undesirable behaviours were attributed to the minority
Group B, than the majority of Group A.
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Results: Although there was no correlation between group
membership and the types of behaviours exhibited by the groups, in
that the proportion of negative and positive was the same for both
groups, the participants did seem to have an illusory correlation.
More of the undesirable behaviours were attributed to the minority
Group B, than the majority of Group A.
Slide 56
Grain of truth hypothesis Supporting Researcher 2: Campbell
(1967) Campbell (1967) states that there are two keys to
stereotypes and are formed through, personal experiences with the
groups and people we stereotype gate keepers (parents, media, other
members of our culture) This is what forms his grain of truth
hypothesis, in which he argued that experiences are generalized and
passed on to groups, as a result of an experience shared with an
individual of the group or stereotype that are categorized to.
However, this theory has been criticized, since errors in
attribution are common.
Slide 57
Supporting Study 3: Synder and Swann (1978) study of
confirmation bias Method In a research study by Snyder and Swann
(1978), female participants were told that they would meet a person
who was either introverted or extroverted. They were asked to
prepare a set of questions for the person they were going to meet.
Results: The study showed that the participants wrote questions
that were consistent with whom they were expecting to meet.