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Baumeister and Leary (1995)

Belongingness Theory. Humans are


motivated to form and maintain interpersonal
relationships and human culture, is to some
extent, adapted to enable people to satisfy the
psychological need to live together.

Howarth (2002)
[Principle 1]

Berry (1967)
[Principle 2]

Social Identity Theory


Tajfel and Turner (1979)

Focus group interviews with adolescent


girls in Brixton to study how the girls
described and evaluated themselves. She
found that they had a positive view of
being from Brixton which contrasted
the views of people living outside of
Brixton. This can be seen as an example
of creating a positive social identity
based on group belonging.
Investigated how conformity may be related to culture.
He used a modification of the Asch Experiment with
adults from tow different cultures: The Temne culture of
Sierra Leone, who rely on agriculture for survival, and
adult Inuits from the Baffin Islands in Canada, who live
on hunting and fishing. Temne people have to cooperate
in order to grow a successful crop to feed the community,
so they learn conformity and compliance from an early
age. The inuits must be able track and hunt animals and
fish on their own so children in the culture learn
independence. Berry found that Inutis were almost non
conforming whereas the Temne showed a high degree of
conformity

Suggests that group-based social


identities are based on categorization into
ingroups (a group to which one belongs)
and outgroups (a group to which one
does not belong) Ingroups are generally
seen as more positive than outgroups and
ingroup favouritism is common. The
outgroup is generally seen in a more
negative light (outgroup negative bias).

Lau and Russel (1980)

Found that American football coaches and


players were more likely to attribute success
to dispositional factors (e.g. talent or hard
work) and failure to situational factors (e.g.
injuries or bad weather).

Tajfel (1970)
[Principle 3]

Emic

Suggested the minimal group paradigm. He performed


experiments with boys who were randomly divided into
two groups. They were told that it was based on their
estimation of dots or preference for paintings to award
points to members of the groups, but in reality it was totally
random. The boys just believed that they had been grouped
according to their estimation and preference for paintings to
award points to members of the groups; they consistently
demonstrated ingroup favoritism by awarding more points
to members of their own group. The experiments showed
that a kind of social identity can be established even as a
consequence of a minimal and unimportant task.
Studies one culture alone to understand culture-specific behavior.
Researchers try to study behavior through the eyes of the people
who live in that culture. The way the phenomenon is linked to the
culture (structure) and the meaning it has in this particular cultural
context is emphasized.
The focus is on the norms, values, motives, and customs of the
members of the culture as they interpret and understand it
themselves, explained in their own words.
Studies:
Bartlett 1932 cattle and recognizing your own
Yap 1967: culture bound syndrome- a disorder that can only be
understood by a specific culture Yoruba and possessions of a
persons soul.

Etic

Compares psychological phenomena across cultures


to find out what could be universal in human
behavior. The purpose of the research is to compare
and contrast cultural phenomena across cultures to
investigate whether phenomena are culture specific
or universal.
Kashima and Triandis (1986): Japanese vs
Americans, self effacing behavior versus
individualistic traits.
Berry (1967): Temne in Sierra Leone vs. Inuits on
Baffin Island.

Lonner (1995): Common rules that regulate


interactions and behavior in a group as well as a
number of shared values and attitudes in the group.
Hofstede (1995): A collective mental programming
that is the software of the mind that guides a group
of people in their daily interactions and distinguishes
them from other groups of people.

Definition of Culture

Matsumoto (2004): A dynamic system of rules,


explicit and implicit, established by groups in order to
ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values,
beliefs, norms and behaviors.

Definition of Cultural Norms

The rules that a specific group uses for stating


what is seen as appropriate and inappropriate
behaviors, values, beliefs, and attitudes.
Cultural norms give people a sense of order and
control in their lives as well as a sense of safety
and belonging. Cultural norms may encompass
communication style, whom to marry and how,
child-rearing practices, or interaction between
generations.
Cultural norms can be explicit (legal codes) or
implicit ( conventional practices and rituals).

To test whether participants who had received a favour from another would be
more likely to help this person than if they had not received a favor.
Two people looking at paintings. The experimenter leaves, and purchases two
bottles of coke, giving one to the other person. In the control group the second
person does not receive a coke. Later the experimenter tells the participant that
he is selling raffle tickets for a car and that even the smallest amount will help.
Those who received the coke bought twice as many tickets as those who had not
received the coke.

Regan (1971)

Follow up of the experiment was investigation into how much the participant had
liked the experimenter. Liking was associated with buying more tickets in the
control. In the experiment there was not connection to liking the person. Even to
the point where those who did not like the experimenter still bought just as many
tickets as those who liked him. Even if people dont like someone they will
return a favor.
Laboratory experiment with a high level of control. Easy to establish the
reciprocity process. May be artificiality as well as sample bias. Limits the
possibilities of generalization findings have been supported by observations in
real life.

Tiger and Fox (1971)

Suggested the reciprocation (mutual


indebetedness) could be a result of
evolution. The feeling of future
obligation has made an important
difference in human social evolution,
because it meant that one individual could
offer something (food, care) to another
individual and be confident that he or she
could expect something in return.

Showed that children learn altruistic


behavior (helping others for no
personal gain) better from people with
whom they have already developed a
friendly relationship than from people
they dont know.

Yarrow et al. (1970)

Campbell (1967)
Grain of Truth Hypothesis

Rogers and Frantz (1962)

Campbell (1967): Maintains that there


are two key sources of stereotypes:
personal experience with individuals an
group and gatekeepers (the media,
parents, and other members of society.
Also states that some stereotypes have a
basis in some reality. Grain of Truth
Hypothesis: an experience with an
individual form a group will then be

Found that white immigrants to


Rhodesia developed more stereotypes
and prejudice against the local people
the longer they stayed there. The argue
that this is because they adopted the
social representations that were
dominant in the group they were
joining.

Bandura (1977)

An extension of existing learning theories. Based on the


assumption that people learn behaviors, attitudes and
emotional reactions and norms through direct experiences
but also through observing other humans (models).
We learn consequences of behavior form watching what
happens to other humans. Once such information is
stored in memory it serves as a guide to future actions.
People are more likely to imitate behavior that has
positive consequences.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning can be direct via instructions or indirect


(role models).

Social Desirability Effect

Four factors of social learning

Group think

Stereotypes

Makes it difficult to carry out research on


stereotyping. Research shows there is a
decrease in stereotyping, but it is hard to
know if it is due to changes in society or
whether it is just politically incorrect
today to make such statements. Researchers
are moving away from self-reporting, and
looking for new ways to study this behavior.

1.

Attention: Paying attention to the model is a


condition for learning

2.

Retention: Remembering what the model did


is a condition for imitating the models
behavior

3.

Reproduction: People must have the capacity


(e.g. skills) for imitating the behavior

4.

Motivation: People must be motivated to


imitate behavior (e.g. importance of model or
reward)

Characterized by group members having a


unanimous opinion on an issue, and they do
not seek out alternative or dissenting
opinions. Often the group is blinded by
optimism that their decisions will be
successful. Members of the group come to
doubt their own reservations and refrain from
voicing any dissenting opinions.

Stereotypes are a part of our social and cultural


environment. We learn them through daily
interactions, conversations and through the
media.
Stereotypes are, to some extent, based on
individual experiences but cultural and social
factors also play role, ie. Stereotypes are
contextualized and not simply the result the
results of individual cognitive processing.
Stereotypes can be shared by large sociocultural
groups as social representations.

Adler (1990)

If you ask a Russian mother to describe what


it means for her child to share, she will
describe her children playing together with a
toy at the same time. An American mother,
however, will describe her children taking
turns to play with the same toy.

Argued that it is important to


distinguish between knowledge of a
stereotype and accepting it.
According to her the Princeton trilogy
does not take this into account.

Devine (1989)

Posner and Snyder (1975)

Darley and Gross (1983)

Stereotyping is, to a large extent,


an automatic cognitive process
(i.e. it occurs without intention,
effort, or awareness and is not
expected to interfere with other
concurrent cognitive processes).
Performed an experiment where the researchers
showed videos of a girl to participants. In video 1 the
girl was playing a poor environment (poor
stereotype); in video 2 the girl was playing in a rich
environment (rich stereotype) Then they saw the girl
in a video of what could be an intelligence test.
When the participants were asked to judge the future
of the girl they all said the rich girl would do well
and the poor girl would do less well. Based on a
few details from the first video, participants formed
an overall impression of the girls potential future
based on stereotypes.

Greenberg et al. (1982)

Argue that we use the SSB to protect our


self-esteem. If we can attribute our
success to dispositional factors, it boosts
our self-esteem, and if we can attribute our
failures to factors beyond our control, we
can protect our self-esteem. The SSB is
self-protection.

Lau and Russel (1980)

Found that American football coaches


and players were more likely to
attribute success to dispositional
factors (e.g. talent or hard work) and
failure to situational factors (e.g.
injuries or bad weather).

OReilly (2000)

Studied British Expatriates in Costa Del


Sol. Used overt observations. The belief
was that they were unhappy and wanted
to return home. She found this not to be
true, while getting to know them through
her observations. She had to establish
trusting relationships, and be nonjudgmental in order to get them to share
openly with her.

Posey and Smith (2003)

Performed an SSB experiment with children. They


were asked to do maths problems, sitting either with
a friend or a non-friend. Although they sat in pairs
the children had to do the maths problems alone, but
the total score of the pair was noted. After the test
the children were asked who did the better job. The
results showed that children who worked with
friends and failed were less likely to give their
friends credit when they succeeded. Children who
worked with a non-friend were more likely to
demonstrate the SSB.

Strengths:

Strengths and Limitations


of the SSB

The theory can explain why some people


(mostly from individualistic cultures) explain
their failures as being caused by situational
factors.
Limitations:
The theory is culturally biased. It cannot
explain why some cultures emphasize a selfeffacing attribution (modesty bias).

Lipmann (1922)

Stereotypes are simplified


mental images which act as
templates to help interpret the
social world.

Simmel (1994)

Evans-Pritchard (1976)

Bond, Leung, and Wan


(1982)

Performed an experiment where he


showed moving geometric figures to
participants and asked them to
describe the movement of the figure.
The participants all described them as
if the geometric figures had intentions
to act in the way they did.

Described how the Azande people of


Central Africa believed that it was
witchcraft that killed people when a
granary doorway collapsed. The door
had been eaten through by termites,
but the Azande believed that it was
fate that made those people sit in the
doorway just when it collapsed.
Argued that a possible explanation for the
modesty bias in collectivist cultures could
be a cultural norm in Chinese societies to
maintain harmonious personal
relationships. A person how makes selfeffacing attributions could expect to be
better liked.
Cultural Consideration in the SSB

Is a method for designing and producing readio

Sabido Method

and television drama that aims to change peoples


behavior. Sabido applied social learning theory
to soap operas in order to influence viewers
attitudes towards literacy. Has been widely used
worldwide to change views on safe sex, family
planning, and gender equality.
Another example of this: Sesame Street can help
children learn behaviors such as sharing,
empathy, and academic curiosity.

A first year group of psych students asked to

Cialdini (1974)
Low Balling

volunteer to be part of a study on cognition that


would meet at 7am. Only 24% were willing to
leave their beds that early in the morning. The
second group were asked the same, but not told
a time. 56% agreed to take part. After being
told it would at 7am none of them backed out
of the commitement. 95% of the students who
had committed to come actually attended.
Low Balling

Motivation to Imitate Behavior


(Bandura)

Ciadini et al. (1976)

Several factors are involved:


1.

Consistency: if the model behaves in one way


consistently this behavior is likely to be imitated.

2.

Identification with the model: There is a tendency to


imitate models who are like ourselves for example in
terms of age and gender

3.

Rewards and Punishment: People can learn from


observing others that they dont have to experience the
consequences themselves. Vicarious reinforcement.
observational learning

4.

Linking the model: Warm and friendly models are more


likely to be imitated than cold, uncaring models.

After a successful football match the


supporters were more likely to be seen
wearing college insignia and clothing than
after defeats. It is assumed that our need for a
positive self-concept will result in a bias in
these intergroup comparisons, so that you are
more positive towards anything that your
group represents.
Benfits of belonging to the in-group versus
the out-group

Ting and Toomey (1986)

Compared reciprocity in three individualistic


cultures (Australia, USA, France) with reciprocity
in two collectivist cultures (Japan, China). She
found that the principle of reciprocity is universal.
This could support the evolutionary argument but
reciprocity is displayed differently in the two types
of culture. In individualistic cultures: reciprocity is
voluntary so people are free to choose if they want
to return a favour. In collectivist cultures:
obligatory reciprocity is the norm. It is seen as a
moral failure if reciprocity is not honoured.

When an individual identifies with a


particular social group (ingroup) and
conforms to a prototypical group
norm increase in similarity between
ingroup members as well as
difference to outgroup.

Conformity

Hogg and Vaughan (1995)

Argue that some of the reasons for the


influence of a minority group:

Dissenting opinions produce


uncertainty and doubt

Such opinions show that alternatives


exist

Consistency shows that there is


commitment to the alternative view

Womens movement as an example.

Moscovici and Lage (1976)

Bond and Smith (1996)

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)

When a minority maintains a consistent view,


it is able to influence the majority.
4 participants and 2 confederates. Minority of
two confederates described a blue-green color
as green. The minority was able to influence
about 32% of the majority to make at least one
incorrect judgment about the colour of the
slides they were shown. The participants
continued to give incorrect responses even
after the confederates left the experiment.
performed a meta analysis of 133 studies in
17 countries on the Asch paradigm. They
found higher conformity levels in
collectivistic cultures than in individualistic
cultures. The level of conformity (i.e.
percentage of incorrect answers) ranged
from 15% in an experiment with Belgian
students to 58% among Indian teachers in
Fiji. They also found that generally the
conformity was higher when the majority
group was large.
Argue that conformity is a result of informational social
influence and normative social influence. Information al
social influence is based on the way people cognitively
process information about a situation. People evaluate
their ideas through social comparison looking at what
others do. When one notices that the others are not
behaving in the same way, or that they think differently,
it causes anxiety. This is called cognitive dissonance.
Normative social influence: based on our nature as social
animals. People need to be accepted by others and to
belong. They may conform to avoid rejection and gain
social approval.

Cialdini (1993)
The Norm or Rule of Reciprocity

Spencer et al. (1997)


Stereotype threat

The Norm or Rule of Reciprocity:


The social norm of reciprocity
requires that we treat other people the
way they treat us. People are
socialized into returning favors and
this powerful rule underpins
compliance.

Students under stereotype threat often underperform and this


can naturally limit their educational prospects. Gave a
mathematical test to men and women and who were both
strong in mathematics. Predicted that the women under
stereotype threat would underperform compared to men
taking the test. (coming from the stereotype that womens
mathematical abilities are lower than mens) This stereotype
can interfere for women even who are more able than men.
Found this was true the women significantly
underperformed compared with equally qualified men on the
difficult mathematics test. However the opposite was true for
literature tests.

Covert observation in Chicago of a religious cult that believed


that the world would end on 21 December. They believed that
when the natural catastrophes began, they would be rescued by
flying saucers, as long as they followed the prescribed rituals
and read the sacred texts. They also had to remain isolated from
the all non-believers. This made it very difficult to be studied by
psychologists. Festinger and his team became cult members in
order to carry out a participant observation. They remained with
the cult up to 21 December. When nothing happened Festinger
monitored the group members doubt, debate and rationalization
of what had taken place. The members of the cult, as a part of
their self esteem, decided that God had not destroyed the world
as a result of their prayers. (example of a covert observation)

Occurs when people overestimate personality traits


(dispositional factors) and underestimate environmental
factors when they explain other peoples behavior.

Leon Festinger et al.


When Prophecy Fails (1956)

It makes life more predictable if peoples


behavior is mainly caused by their
personality. This gives the impression that
people are understandable and easy to deal
with

Explanations based solely on personality are


incomplete. It would be wrong not to
consider the power of situation.

Ross (1977) The Fundamental


Attribution Error

Kashima and Triandis (1986)

showed slides from unfamiliar countries to


American and Japanese students and asked them
to remember details. When the students were
asked to explain their performance, the Americans
explained their own success with internal factors,
such as ability, and failure with external factors.
The Japanese tended to explain their failure with
lack of ability. This is called the modesty bias
and is a cultural variation of the SSB
Cultural Consideration in the SSB

Suedfeld (2003)

Only 34% of the survivors made dispositional attributions (e.g.


psychological strength and determination) compared to 71% in the
control group. This indicates that personal experiences during the
Holocaust influenced survivors attributions because they had
witnessed that it was actually often luck or help from others that
determined who survived and who didnt. The survivors had a clear
picture of the power of the situation during the Holocaust.

Norenzayan et al. (2002)


Cultural Bias in the FAE

Investigated attributions made by Holocaust survivors. The


researchers gave questionnaires to members of Holocaust survivor
groups and age-matched Jewish participants who had not personally
experienced the Nazi persecution (control). The two groups were
asked for their views on possible factors in survival during the
Holocaust. 91/% of the survivors made situational attributions (eg.
Luck and help from others) compared to 51% in the control group.

Tested whether information given to Korean


and American participants would influence their
attributions. When participants only received
information about individuals, both groups
made dispositional attributions. When
situational information was also provided, the
Koreans tended to include this information in
their explanations much more than the
Americans did. This indicates that there may
be universal features in the FAE and that
available information influences attributions.

Cultural Bias in the FAE

Culture seems to be a determinant in attribution style.



In collectivist cultures the emphasis is on


the primary social relationships of an
individual (family, social role, cultural
activities.

In individualistic cultures the emphasis on


the individual as the primary cause of action
leads to dispositional attributions. The
individual is seen as the main cause of
success and failure.

Strengths:


The theory has promoted understanding of common
errors in explanation of what happens in the world

Strengths & Limitations

Limitations:


The theory is culturally biased with too much focus
on individualism

of the FAE

The theory has proven very robust and has been


supported by many research studies

Much research on the theory has been conducted in


laboratories and with a student sample (problems
with generalization of findings)

refers to peoples tendency to evaluate themselves positively by taking


credit for their success. (I am intelligent) and attribute their failures
to situational factors (the teacher is not competent)
Self handicapping Example: students who expect to fail an exam
can openly make situational attributions before the exam by saying
that they have hangovers or that they havent slept the whole night.

The Self-Serving Bias

Explanations: SSB could be a way to uphold self-esteem (selfprotection). People see themselves as responsible for success but not
for their failures because they want to see themselves this way.
SSB occurs when people dont have enough information and limit
themselves to the available information. People typically expect to
succeed and correlate success with their own effort and exaggerate the
amount of control they have (Miller and Ross, 1975).

Miller and Ross (1975)

Cognitive factors play a role in SSB. We usually expect to succeed


at a task. If we expect to succeed and we do succeed, we attribute
it to our skill and ability. If we expect to succeed and do not
succeed, then we feel that it is bad luck or external factors that
brought about this unexpected outcome. This also explains why it
is not always one way or another. If we expect not to do well, and
in fact we do not do well, then we attribute it to dispositional
factors; if we expect to fail, and we are successful instead, we tend
to attribute our success to external factors and luck.
Culturally so in the Western World
Those who are depressed tend to make more dispositional
attributions, thus blaming themselves for feeling miserable.

Halls Proxemic Theory


(1966)

Cultures need for personal space. Different cultures have


different perceptions of the amount of personal space that is
required to be comfortable. People only allow their closest,
most intimate friends into this bubble of space. In the US
people engaged in conversation will have a distance of 10-15
cm. But in Europe the expected distance is half that.
Monochronic cultures: focus on one thing at a time high
degree of scheduling, punctuality and meeting deadlines.
Polychronic cultures: many things happen at once. Focus more
on relationships and interactions. Interruptions are expected as a
part of life, and there is little frustration experienced when
things are postponed or late.

Qualitative research to compare perception of conflict resolution


in Australian and Chinese students.
In relation to collectivist vs individualist dimension and longterm vs. short term orientation.

Basset (2004)

Bachelor students of business and management. Asked to


analyse a potential conflict situation between Japanese supervisor
and Canadian visiting teacher. Same question answered by 30
students each from their own cultural perspective.
Generally confirmed Hofstedes individualistic and collectivist
dimensions, but not all data could be explained. As for long term
ves short term orientation, the Chinese data confirmed this in
understanding behavior.

Survey of 88,000 IBM employees in 66 countries.


Culture should be seen as a collective phenomenon that may
distinguish one group from another on specific dimensions.
Culture is seen as mental programming or mental software.

Hofstede (1980)

An individuals mental software will determine the way the


person acts and thinks and the mental software is resistant to
change. Unlearning what is once learned and internalized is
very difficult.
According to Hofstede, understanding the influence of cultural
dimensions on human behavior can facilitate international
understanding and communication.

Informational Conformity
(informational influence)

Normative Conformity
(normative social influence)

When an individual turns to members


of a group to obtain information about
what is right (when the available
information is ambiguous.
(Sherif 1935)

When an individual conforms in


order to be accepted by or liked by
other members of the group.
People have a need for social
approval and acceptance
Asch (1951)

Kagitcibasi (1984)

Studied socialization patterns in nine different countries


(Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore,
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the USA and Germany). The
study included 20,000 interviews with parents on the
qualities they considered most desirable in children.
Parents from Turkey and Indonesia found it important that
children obeyed them and did not emphasize independence
and self-reliance. The opposite pattern was found in the
USA. Parents in Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand also
tended to emphasize self reliance rather than obedience.
The consequence of modernization is, to some extent, a
breakup of the extended family system seen in collectivist
cultures and placing more emphasis on individual effort
and responsibilities.

An aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures:


Collectivism and Individualism: In individualistic countries
people see themselves as individuals who must take care of
themselves. Ties between individuals are loose and voluntary.
Typical values are freedom, personal challenge and personal time.
In collectivist countries the individual is tied to social groups such
as families or clans throughout their lifetime. This extended social
group provides safety in return for loyalty.

Cultural Dimensions on
Behavior

Long-term orientation and short-term orientation (Hofstede


and Bond 1988) Values such as persistence, loyalty,
trustworthiness, respect for tradition and conservation of face are
central to this dimension.

Some had to go through an embarrassing initiation to join,


while others joined with no ceremony. When finally
attending, the meeting was led by confederates who made the
meetings as boring as possible. The women who went
through the initiation found the meetings valuable. Those
who had not recognized that the meetings were worthless and
uninteresting. Those who endured pain as part of their
initiation were more likely to find their group interesting,
intelligent, and desirable.

Aaronson and Mills (1959)

to see if someone who has had to endure trouble or pain to


join a group will value it more highly than someone who was
able to join the group with no effort. Female college students
were asked to join a sex discussion group.

Hamilton and Gifford (1976)


Illusory correlation

People see a relationship between two


variables even when one is not there. For
instance the example with women and
mathematics people overestimate the link
between the two variables. This is a cognitive
bias that is a persons tendency to make
errors in judgment based on cognitive factors.
Attribution errors are also examples of
cognitive bias.
Illusory correlation

Steele and Aronson (1995)


Spotlight anxiety

Snyder and Swan (1978)


Confirmation Bias

Performed an experiment using African Americans


and European Americans, who did a verbal
performance test based on difficult multiple-choice
questions. When told that it was a test on verbal
ability, African Americans scored lower than
European Americans. When told that it was task used
to test how certain problems were generally solved,
African Americans scored higher and matched scores
of European Americans. The researchers concluded
that the stereotype threat could affect behavior in any
stereotyped group if the members themselves believe
in the stereotypes.
Spotlight anxiety

People tend to overlook information that contradicts


what they already believe. Socially they pay
attention to behaviors that confirm what they believe
about a group and ignore those behaviors contrary to
their beliefs. Study told female college students that
they would meet someone who was either
introverted or extroverted. They were then asked to
prepare a set of questions for the person. Generally
participants came up with questions that confirmed
their perceptions of introverts and extroverts; this
confirmed participants stereotypes of each
personality type.
Confirmation Bias

Tajfel (1960) Social


Categorization

Most common cognitive process in


stereotyping. Seems to be fundamental
to human nature and it helps to make
the world more predictable. Once
stereotypes are formed they act as
cognitive schemas in information
processing.

Karlins et al. (1969)


Princeton 3

Gilbert (1951)
Princeton 2

Replicated the Katz and Braley study.


Many students objected to the task but this
time there was greater agreement on the
stereotypes assigned to the different groups
compared with the 1951 study. The
researchers interpreted this as a reemergence of social stereotyping but in the
direction of a more favourable stereotypical
image.
Replicated the Katz and Braley study. This time there
was less uniformity of agreement, especially about
unfavorable traits, than in the 1933 study. The stereotypes
still demonstrated an ingroup bias. Stereotypes about
Japanese were extremely negative and this was explained
by the negative press about Japan after Pearl Harbour, so
the original hypothesis about stereotypes as cultural
products was confirmed.
Many students expressed irritation at being asked to make
generalizations at all, and this could indicate a social
change (e.g. that it was no longer as acceptable to express
stereotypes openly).

Katz and Braley (1933)

The results showed agreement in stereotypes, especially of


negative traits. 84% of the students said that Negroes were
superstitious and 79% said that Jews were shrewd. They
were very positive towards their own group (ingroup bias).
Since most of the students did not have any personal contact
with members of the ethnic group s they had to rate, it was
suggested that stereotypes are learned (e.g. through the
media or by gatekeepers, i.e. they are cultural products).

Princeton 1

Moscovici (1973)
Social Representations

Investigated whether traditional social stereotypes had a


cultural basis by asking 100 male students from Princeton
University to choose five traits that characterized different
ethnic groups (Americans, Jews, Japanese, Negroes) from a
list of 84 words.

Social representations are shared beliefs and


explanations held by the society in which we live or
the group to which we belong. Are the foundation of
social cognition - help us make sense of the world
and to master it; they also allow for communications
among community members to take place, by
providing them with a code for social exchange and a
code for naming and classifying the various aspects of
their world and their individual and group history.
Cultural Schemas that are fundamental to the identity
of the group and provide a common understanding for
communication within the group.

Failures are seen in a lack of personal ability, even if this is not true.
Common in Eastern societies: Kahima and Triandis argue that
because of the collectivist nature of Asian societies people derive
their their self-esteem nor from individual accomplishment but
from group identity, and they are less likely to use SSB.

Modesty Bias

Kashima and Triandis (1986) see other card.


Chandler et al. (1990) observed the same thing in Japanese students
Watkins and Regmi (1990) same thing in Nepalese students
Bond, Leung, Wan (1982) Chinese students who showed the
Modesty Bias were more popular with their peers.

Did a field experiment where they asked university


students to conserve water in the dormitory
showers. The researchers first asked a group of
students to sign a poster supporting shorter
showers to save water. Then they asked the
students to do a survey asking them to think about
their own water usage. Finally the students'
shower time was monitored. Students who had
signed the poster and had done the survey spent
an average of 35 minutes less in the shower
compared to the rest of the students in the
dormitory.

The real and larger request is followed by a smaller one. The FITD
technique has been used in fund raising and to promote environmental
awareness.

Dickerson et al. (1992)


(Foot-in-the-door technique)

Evaluation of: Compliance with a small request increases the likelihood


of compliance with a second, much larger request. This can perhaps be
interpreted in terms of commitment. Once people have said yes, they
perceive themselves as committed and want to behave consistently with
their commitment.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Pro-social requests are generally more likely to be accepted with this


technique. It is more likely that the second request is more successful if
it is an extension of the first request, instead of something different.
Could be linked to a need for people to have self-consistency.
Most powerful when a persons self image is related to the request a
request need to be kept close to issues which the person is likely to to
care about and support, such as helping other people or protecting the
environment.

Can conformity research reveal


anything about conformity in
real life?

Nicholson et al. (1985): Suggest that participants now tend to


conform less in Asch-like experiments. This could indicate that
levels of conformity are context dependent and may change over
time. Second conformity patterns may be different in other cultures.
Moscovici (1976): Argues that traditional conformity research
cannot explain the minority influences on the majority, which have
been observed in real life. (various successful independence
movements) Ingroup minorities have a greater chance of exerting
influence that outgroup minorities.

The Asch Paradigm

Moghaddam et al. (1993) Argue that the research may have a social
and cultural bias. Sherifs study was conducted in the USA in a time
when conformity was the norm and this may have changed since.

The Asch Paradigm: factors that are likely to influence conforming to


the group:
Group size: 1 confederate: increase of 3%; 2 confederates: increase of
14%; 3 confederates: increase of 32% - did not rise with more
confederates. Large groups in some cases decreased the conformity.
Unanimity: Most likely when all the confederates agreed. If one
disagreed, the participants was less likely to agree.
Confidence: When individuals are more confident about making the
right decision, they are less likely to conform (Engineers and medical
students almost nil conformity)
Self-esteem: Found that participants with high self-esteem were less
likely to conform to incorrect responses.

Sherif (1936)

Use of auto kinetic effect where a light seems to be moving, but is doing so
because of eye movements. Half of the participants watched on their own and
estimated how much the light moved and in which direction. These participants
estimated on their own frame of reference. The other participants were split up
into groups of 3-4 participants. They used each others estimates as a frame of
reference and they converged into almost identical estimates. A group norm had
developed, which participants conformed to once it had been established.
Then the other half of participants performed the estimation task alone. Sherif
found that participants continued to estimate based on the group norm when they
did the task alone. The results showed that social norms emerge to guide behavior
when people find themselves in uncertain situations.
Strengths: influential study that has generated very many other studies.
Demonstrates how a group norm can be established and continue to influence a
persons judgment even when the social influence is no longer present.
Limitations: conducted in a laboratory. Artificial task and ambiguous. Ethics
participants were not informed of the purpose of the experiment, but this was not
the norm at the time of the experiment.

Introduction to television in a remote community. A study to see if children would


develop more aggressive behavior after the introduction of television to the island
in 1995.
A natural experiment. Children aged 3-8 were observed before and after television
was introduced through cameras on the playgrounds of two primary schools. The
aggression shown on TV matched that of what UK children saw regularly.
Interviews with teachers, parents and some older children.
There was no increase in aggressive or antisocial behavior. This was also the case
after 5 years.

Charlton et al. (2002)

Showed that children did not change their behavior after television had arrived.
Parents and teachers said that anti-social behavior was not accepted on the island,
and there was a strong level of social control in the community. It shows that
people may learn aggressive behavior, but may not exhibit it for several reasons.
Social and cultural factors also play a role in what behaviors are acceptable
Researched a real event and has high ecological validity. Does not question SLT,
but rather the results of Bandura and Ross. The results also confirm that people
must be motivated to imitate behavior.

Strengths:

Strength of

SIT assumes that intergroup conflict is not


required for discrimination to occur. This
supported by empirical research (Tajfel (1970).

SIT can explain some of the mechanisms


involved in establishing positive
distinctiveness to the ingroup by maximizing
differences to the outgroup

SIT has been applied to understanding


behaviours such as ethnocentrism, ingroup
favoritism, conformity to ingroup norms, and
stereotyping

Social Identity Theory

Limitations:

Limitations of

Minimal group research has been criticized for artificiality.


The experimental set up is so far from natural behavior that
it can be questioned whether it reflects how people would
react in real life. This could limit the predictive value of the
theory.

Social Identity Theory

SIT cannot fully explain how ingroup favoritism may result


in violent behavior towards outgroups.

It is reductionist fails to address the environment that


interacts with the self.

SIT cannot explain why social constraints such as poverty


could play a bigger role in behavior than social identity.

Describes but does not accurately predict human behavior

Asch (1951)

to investigate if perceived group pressure by a majority can


influence a minority in an experimental set up that is not
ambiguous.
7 male students placed around two white cards. One card had
three lines (A, B, C) and another had one line. They had to say out
loud which of the 3 lines on the right had the same length as the
line on the left. There was one real participant and 6 were
confederates who gave unanimous wrong answers. Done in 12 of
the 18 trials. Control group of 37 participants for comparison.
75%of the participants agreed with the confederates incorrect
responses at least once during the trials
In the control group 35 participants did not make an error.

Strengths of Asch (1951)

Limitations of Asch (1951)

Strengths: A high degree of control


ensures that a cause effect relationship can
be established between variables, results
have replicated several times, conformity
rates can to some extent explain why
people conform to social and cultural
norms in real life, conformity may be
universal to some degree, but conformity
rates vary cross-culturally.

Limitations: Laboratory experiment and


cant generalize to real life situations due to
ecological validity; conducted in the US
with only male subjects; can only explain
how a majority might impact a minority, but
not the other way round; participants
deceived and exposed to embarrassing
procedures ethical issues.

Survey on collectivism vs. individualism on conflict resolution styles.


600 managers working in companies in Singapore were randomly selected for
the survey. Four groups: Japanese, Americans, Chinese, Singaporeans.
Higher the score in the individualist dimension the more likely the manager
was to adopt a dominating conflict resolution style. American managers were
generally more likely to adopt a dominating conflict resolution style and less
likely to adopt an avoiding conflict resolution sylte than Asian managers.
Asian managers did not always adopt an avoidant conflict resolution style as
predicted. In some cases American managers who had been in Singapore
longer had adopted Asian management styles.

Wei et al. (2001)

Only somewhat confirmed. Conflict resolution styles are complex and


cannot be reduced to cultural dimensions alone.
Large and representative survey of managers in Singapore, so the results can
be generalized. Relies on self reporting so may be an issue of reliability, but
overall is reliable.

Investigate whether knowledge of allocated social roles in a quiz


show would affect participants judgments of peoples expertise.
Eighteen pairs of students from an introductory class at Stanford
University participated in a simulated quiz game where they were
randomly assigned to the roles of either questioner or contestant. In
the experimental conditions the role of questioner or contestant was
randomly allocated to one person in each pair. 24 observers watched
the quiz. The questioners were asked to compose 10 questions based
on their own knowledge and the contestants were asked to answer
these questions.

Ross et al. (1977)

The questioner asked each question and the waited 30 seconds for a
response. If the contestants did not answer correctly the question
gave the correct answer. After the quiz, all participants and the
observers were asked to rate general knowledge of contestants and
questioners.

Ross et al. (1977)


Results

The contestants consistently rated the general knowledge of the


questioners in the experimental condition as superior. The
observers did the same. The demonstrated the FAE. The
contestants and the observers attributed the questioners ability
to answer the questions to dispositional factors and failed to take
into consideration the situational factors that gave the
questioners an advantage. The questioners themselves did not
rate their knowledge as being superior to that of the contestants.
The experiment gave an opportunity to demonstrate attributional
biases because the questioners made up their own questions and
this was known by all participants. The participants were
university students so there may be sampling bias and it is
difficult to generalize the results. The ecological validity could
also be raised.

Learning aggression from a model. To see if children would


imitate the aggression of an adult model and whether they
would imitate same-sex models more than opposite sex
models.
36 boys and 36 girls from Stanford University Nursery school.
Divided into 3 group matched on levels of aggressiveness
prior to the experiment. One group saw the adult behave
aggressively to a doll, the other watched the adult assemble
toys, and the last group was a control group.

Bandura and Ross (1961)

There were also groups who saw the same sex adult and
others that didnt.
They watched the adult play, and then were brought into the
same room where they were told not to play.

Those who had seen the adult being aggressive to the doll
also exhibited the same behavior. Children also were more
likely to imitate same sex models.
Supports Social Learning Theory. Aggressive behavior can
be learned through observational learning. Not possible to
conclude that children always become aggressive when
they watch violent models. Research supports that they
imitate same sex models.

Bandura and Ross (1961)


Results

Low ecological validity due to the laboratory experiment.


The aggression here is artificial and there may be demand
characteristics. The children were very young (4.4 in age)
and there is criticism due to ethical considerations.

Heider 1958: Attribution Theory is based on the assumption that


people are nave scientists who try to explain observable behavior. An
essential feature of the original attribution theory is a fundamental
distinction about internal and external causes of behavior.
Attribution theory is based on the assumption that people:

Attribution Theory
Heider 1958

Attribution Theory

Tend to look for causes and reasons for other peoples


behavior because they feel that there are motives behind
most of their own behavior

Are intuitive psychologists who construct their own


causal theories of human behavior

Construct causal theories because they want to be able to


understand, predict, and control the environment around
them.

Why?

People seem to have a need for causal explanations


because this makes the world more predictable.

Most cultures have constructed causal explanations


for the origin and meaning of life (e.g. myths and
religions).

The tendency to see motives and dispositions


behind human actions may be so automatic that
people sometimes find it difficult to override it
even when motives and dispositions dont really
apply (e.g. when people attribute motives to objects
in computer games or believe in fate or witchcraft)

Resaons

Principles that define SCLOA

1: Human beings are social animals with


a basic need to belong
2: Culture influences human behavior
3: Humans have a social self which
reflects their group members

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