Sociocultural Level of Analysis

Social and Cultural Norms

Norms• Norm: a set of rules based on socially or

culturally shared beliefs of how an individual ought to behave– Norms regulate the behavior within a group

• When individuals deviate from norms, they may be punished, marginalized, stigmatized– However: Could also be seen as creative, a leader, and

affecting change!• Because humans are social animals, our need to

belong causes the desire to conform to group norms

Social Learning Theory• Albert Bandura• Humans learn behavior through observational

learning – People can learn by watching and imitating behavior

• Factors of Social Learning Theory:– Attention: Person must pay attention to the model– Retention: Observer must be able to remember the

behavior being observed– Motor reproduction: Observer must be able to replicate

the action– Motivation: Learners must want to demonstrate what they

have learned

Motivation

• Several factors can influence whether or not the observer decides to imitate/learn:– Consistency: if the model is always brave– Identification: if the model is like ourselves– Rewards/punishment: We see the consequences

of actions without having to carry them out (vicarious reinforcement)

– Liking: if the model is warm and friendly we’re more likely to learn behavior (Yarrow et al. 1970)

Bandura et al. (1961)• Aim: – See if children would imitate aggression modeled by

an adult– See if children were more likely to imitate same-sex

models• Method:– Boys and girls from 3-6 y/o– One group shown adult who modeled aggression with

a “Bobo” doll– One group shown adult who was non-aggressive– One group served as the control

Bandura et al. (1961)• Results:

– Those shown the aggressive adult were significantly more aggressive (physically and verbally)

– Children showed signs of observational learning– More likely to imitate same-sex adult

• Girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression• Boys more likely to imitate physical aggression

• Evaluation:– Low ecological validity– Does little to predict repeated exposure to aggression– Aggression of adults was not standardized– Children may have been affected by demand characteristics– Ethics of showing and teaching violence to children!

Application of Social Learning Theory

• There is a chance that violence on television will lead to more violent children– Results of studies on effects of TV violence are consistent

• TV aggression:– Kids learn how to be aggressive in new ways– Draw conclusions on whether or not aggression will bring them

rewards or punishment• Huesmann and Eron (1986): Longitudinal study found a

positive correlation between hours of violence watched on TV as a child and aggression demonstrated as a teenager– Those who watched a lot at 8 y/o more likely to be arrested

TV Violence• Other considerations:– Could there be another explanation to the correlation

between TV shows and aggression?– Maybe children who watched violence on TV also lived in

families which facilitated violent behavior?

• Positive TV Influence:– Sesame Street can help children learn positive behaviors– Bandura’s “Let’s Go with the Times” in Tanzania led to

increase in safe sex, women’s status, and family planning

Evaluation of Social Learning Theory

• Helps explain why behaviors may be passed down in a family or within a culture– How children acquire behaviors without trial-and-error

learning• Difficult to establish the connection 100% – Child may learn something from a model and not exhibit

that behavior for some time• Some people still never learn a behavior!• This theory has evolved into social cognitive theory

and self-efficacy theory– Focus is on beliefs and influence on behavior

Social Influence: Compliance

• Conformity: Occurs when the situation does not exert direct pressure to follow the majority, but individuals perceive pressure and it influences their behavior

• Compliance: The result of direct pressure to respond to a request, even though the direct pressure may not be apparent to the individual– i.e. buying certain products

Compliance Techniques• Robert Cialdini and psychology of persuasion– Ways in which individuals are influenced to comply

with the demands/desires of others• Six factors that influence compliance:– Authority: Using famous people in adverts– Commitment: Have people agree to one thing so later

on they will comply with similar requests– Liking: They’ll listen to people they like!– Reciprocity: Feel they need to “return a favor”– Scarcity: Limited Time offer/less readily available– Social Proof: See others doing it

Reciprocity

• Compliance technique outlined previously• Reciprocity Principle: Social norm that we should

treat others the way they treat us– Person must try to repay what another has provided

• Reciprocity is one of the most widespread and basic norms of human culture

• What is given to another is not lost, but rather a sign of future obligation – Enables the development of various relationships and

exchanges

Reciprocity

• Feelings of guilt play a key role in reciprocity• Lynn and McCall (1998): Customers given a

mint or treat with bill leave higher tips• Reciprocity can also be caused by the feeling

that because the other person has already compromised, this compromise should be acknowledged with some behavior

Door-in-the-Face Technique

• A request is made which will surely be turned down

• Second request is made which asks for less• People are more likely to accept this second

request because they feel the person has already lowered the request to accommodate them

Cialdini et al. (1975)• Demonstrates Door-in-the-face Technique• University students asked to chaperone juvenile

delinquents on a zoo day-trip– 83% refused

• Asked to work 2 hours per week as a counselor for 2+ years– 100% refused

• Asked this second group to chaperone the zoo trip after this extreme request– Only 50% refused!

Commitment

• Commitment: Being consistent with previous behavior

• Once people make a choice or take a stand, they will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment

• Goal gradients: Longer a person commits themselves to something, less likely they are to abandon the goal

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

• Get a person to commit to something small• Persuade them to agree to something larger• Dickerson et al. (1992)– University students asked to sign a poster about

taking shorter showers– Measured shower times were significantly shorter

than normal shower times of the university• Could be that the people signed the poster because

they already showered quickly beforehand!

Low-Balling

• Cialdini et al. (1974)• Asked college students interested in

psychology to meet up– One group was told up front it would meet at 7AM

• Only 24% were willing

– Other group not told time• 56% were willing

–When later told it was at 7AM no one backed out (even when given the option)

– 95% showed up as promised!

Hazing

• Shows power of compliance techniques• Hazing: Series of initiation rites in order to join an

exclusive group – Potentially dangerous and humiliating– Still used in African societies for passage into manhood

and military boot camp training!• Individual must choose to join the group, knowing

hazing initiation will be necessary• Must rationalize “this is worth it”• Gives a sense of accomplishment; proven loyalty

Aronson and Mills (1959)

• Two groups of female college students– First group had to go through a severely

embarrassing initiation– Second group did not

• Both placed in a boring/uninteresting meeting• Those who had been hazed (Group 1) found

the meeting “extremely valuable”• Those who had not been hazed (Group 2)

found it “worthless and uninteresting”

Social Influence: Conformity

• Conformity: Tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings, or behavior in ways that are in agreement with those of a particular individual or group, or with expectations (social norms)– An indirect form of social influence that passes

down society’s values and behaviors– i.e. “Peer pressure”

Asch (1951) Line Test• Conforming to an incorrect answer

on a test if the response from the other group members was unanimous– See if confederates could influence the

participant’s answers when visually comparing lines

– Even when their answers were obviously incorrect

• 75% agreed with incorrect confederates at least once

• 32% agreed with incorrect confederates in at least half of the trials

Asch (1951) Line Test

• Participants reported feeling self-doubt• Conformers knew their responses were

incorrect, but went along with it anyway• Why?– Didn’t want to ruin the results– The human need to belong!• The desire to be part of the group > desire to give the

correct answer

• Known as Asch paradigm

Asch Paradigm• Asch’s study has been repeated with different factors• Group Size: (Asch 1955) More likely to conform in groups

with 3 confederates than with 1 or 2.– Groups larger than this did not increase the rate of conformity

• Unanimity: (Asch 1956) Conformity was most likely when all confederates agreed

• Confidence: (Perrin and Spencer 1988) Individuals who felt more competent to make a decision in that field of expertise are less likely to conform

• Self-esteem: (Stang 1973) High self-esteem = less likely to conform with incorrect responses

Asch Paradigm• Question of artificiality and ecological validity– Accurate representation of real life situations?

• Demand characteristics– Participants may act in a way that they feel is required by

the experiment• Culture could also limit the validity of the study (not

multicultural!)• Ethical considerations– Use of deception– Felt anxiety about their performance

• Friend et al. (1990) would rather figure out why some people didn’t conform than why some did

Asch Paradigm: Minorities

• Moscovici argues: When a minority maintains a consistent view, it is able to influence the majority

• Moscovici and Lage (1976)• 4 participants and 2 confederates– Confederates describe a blue-green color as green– Able to influence 32% of participants at least once

to give the wrong answer• Participants continued to give incorrect responses even

after the confederates left!

Minority Opinions

• How can minorities influence majorities?• Hogg and Vaughan (1995)’s reasons:– Dissenting opinions produce uncertainty and

doubt– Such opinions show alternatives exist– Consistency shows there is a commitment to the

alternative view• i.e. the Civil Right’s Movement!

Groupthink• Groupthink: Group members having a

unanimous opinion on an issue, and they do not seek out alternative or dissenting opinions– Described by Irving Janis– Why minority opinions are important!

• When someone suggests an idea and everyone accepts it without considering other options– Group is often blinded by optimism and is certain they

will be successful– Individuals doubt their own self-reservations and

refrain from voicing dissenting opinions

Why do people conform?

• Deutsch and Gerard (1955): • Conformity is a result of informational social

influence and normative social influence

Informational Social Influence

• Based on the way people cognitively process information/social comparison

• When we see others behaving differently than ourselves it causes cognitive dissonance– Anxiety when you realize you don’t conform• Response 1: Conform (or at least try to)• Response 2: Rationalize and accept your own opinion

Normative Social Influence

• Based on our nature as social animals– People have a need to be accepted and belong

• May conform to avoid rejection and to gain social approval

• If a dissenting opinion stands in the way of having friends, the need to belong to that group and have their friendship is more important

Cultural Aspects of Conformity

• Asians value and partake in conformity more than Americans do

• Americans often see conformity as negative– Even though its still a big part of being an American!

• Don’t slice the world into East versus West• Italians also have high levels of conformity• (Burgos and Dias-Perez 1986) Puerto Ricans like their

children to conform and be obedient

Smith and Bond (1993)

• Review of 31 conformity studies• Average level of conformity is 31.2%• Conformity was lower among individualist

cultures – i.e. North America, north-west Europe

• Than from collectivist cultures– i.e. Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America

Berry (1967)• Conformity of Temne people of Sierra Leone

vs. Inuit people of Canada– Temne conformed significantly more

• Can be explained by their economic practices– Temne have to survive on a single crop harvested

by the entire community• Requires cooperation, coordination of effort,

consensus, agreement– Inuit economy is based on hunting and gathering

on an individual level

Cultural Norms

• Culture: Complex concept that is used in many different ways– Food, clothing, rituals, communication, religion,

status, behaviors and habits

• “Surface Culture”: what is easily visible/apparent

• “Deep Culture”: related to beliefs/attitudes/values that underpin cultural manifestations

Cultural Norms

• Kuschel claims culture should not be used as an explanation of behavior– It’ll just lead to circular arguments

• Descriptions of cultural factors can be used to:– Understand how people have survived in the

environment– How they have organized life into social groups– What beliefs, attitudes, norms etc influence

behavior

Definitions of Culture

• Lonner (1995): Common rules that regulate interactions and behavior within a group, and a number of shared values and attitudes in the group

• Hofstede (2002): “Mental software”: cultural schemas that have been internalized so that they influence thinking, emotions, and behavior

The Role of Culture

• Understanding the role of culture is essential in a diverse, multicultural world!

• Etic Approach: Cross-cultural psychology where behavior is compared across specific cultures– Drawing on notion of universal properties of cultures

• Emic Approach: Looks at behaviors that are culturally specific– Challenged psychologists to re-examine their ideas of

“truth” with regard to culture

Matsumoto (2004)

• Defined culture as a dynamic system of rules (explicit and implicit) established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, beliefs, norms, and behaviors

• Dynamic because it changes over times and exists on many levels

Cultural Norms

• Cultural Norms: Behavior patterns that are typical of specific groups

• Often passed down from generation to generation by observational learning by the group’s gatekeepers– Gatekeepers: parents, teachers, leaders, peers

• Cultural norms include:– How marriage partners are chosen– Attitudes toward alcohol– Acceptance/rejection of physical punishment

Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Dimensions: Perspectives of a culture based on values and cultural norms

• Understanding these dimensions will help facilitate communication between cultures

• Dimensions:– Individualism vs. collectivism– Uncertainty vs. avoidance

Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualist societies: Ties between individuals are loose; people look after themselves and immediate family

• Collectivist societies: People are integrated from the beginning into strong in-groups (like extended families) that provide support and protection

Uncertainty vs. Avoidance

• Deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity

• To what extent does a culture program its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations?

• Avoidant cultures construct laws, rules, safety measures, beliefs about absolute truths to remove chances of ambiguities/surprises

Confucian Work Dynamism

• Bond (1988) argues Chinese culture replaces the uncertainty vs. avoidance dimension with Confucian work dynamism– Doesn’t focus on truth; focuses on virtue

Orientation

• Long-Term Orientation: China & other Asian cultures value loyalty, persistence, trustworthiness– Relationships are based on status– They have a need to “save face” and respect tradition

• Short-Term Orientation: Value personal steadiness and stability– Focus on the future instead of the past– Innovation is highly valued

Ecological Fallacy

• Hoefstede warns against the ecological fallacy• When one looks at two different cultures, it

should not be assumed that members from different cultures must be different– A single member of a culture will not always

demonstrate dimensions that are the norms of that culture

• These are just generalizations that allow discussions on the role of culture

Edward T. Hall (1966)

• Proxemic Theory: Culture’s need for “personal space”– Different cultures have different perceptions of

comfortable personal space distances• Time Consciousness: – Monochronic cultures focus on 1 thing at a time

• High degree of scheduling, punctuality, deadlines– Polychronic cultures have many things happening at

once• Focus more on relationships, interactions, interruptions are

expected, little frustration over tardiness/postponing