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SOCIOCULTURAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS:SOCIOCULTURAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS:
SOCIOCULTURAL COGNITIONSOCIOCULTURAL COGNITION
Principles that define
the sociocultural level of analysis
1. Human beings are social animals with a basic need to
belong.
2. Culture influences behaviour. (norms and values)
3. Humans have a social self which reflects their group
memberships (not only individual identity, but also a
collective or social one).
Be reflective…
• Create a list of groups to which you belong to.
• How important are these groups in your personal identity?
• What needs do these different groups fill in your life?
Research methods
at the sociocultural level of analysis
• The goal of sociolutural studies: how people interact with each other
• To evoid studies that are lack of ecological validity – psychologists
use naturalistic methods
• Reseraches are done in enviroment in which the behaviour is most
likely to take place
• Participant observation, interviews, and focus group
• „To see the world through the eyes of the people being studied” –
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION (overt and covert observation)
• Leon Festinger (1956) - Covert observation
• Marian Keech and UFO religion that
believes the end of the world is at hand.
1. If you were a reporter what questions would you
ask Festinger and his team?
2. Discuss the ethical concerns you would have with
this research.
What do you think about those
situations.
1.Why that man behave like this?
2.Why her boyfriend is late?
Attribution theory
• Attribution theory (Heider 1958)
is based on the assumption that
people are naive scientists who
try to explain observable
behaviour.
Fritz Heider (1896 - 1988)
Attribution theory
Attribution theory is based on the assumption that people:
•tend to look for causes and reasons for other people's behaviour
because they feel that there are motives behind most of their own
behaviour
•are "intuitive psychologists" who construct their own causal theories
of human behaviour
•construct causal theories because they want to be able to
understand, predict, and control the environment around them.
Why attributions?
• People seem to have a pervasive 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. in 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 where motives and dispositions don't really
apply (e.g. when people attribute motives to objects in computer
games or believe in fate or witchcraft).
The fundamental attribution error (FAE)
• FAE occurs when people overestimate personality traits
(dispositional factors) and underestimate environmental
factors when they explain other people's behaviour.
• According to social psychologist Susan Fiske (2004), people
rely too much on personality in explaining behaviour and
they underestimate - or never consider - the power of
situations.
The fundamental attribution error (FAE)
• In Western societies it could be because of the ideology that:
people get what they deserve.
• It makes life more predictable if people's behaviour 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.
Read study (in a frame) – page 105
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.
Evaluation of FAE
Strengths of the FAE Limitations of the FAE
• The theory has promoted
understanding of common errors
in explanation of what happens in
the world.
• The theory is culturally biased with
too much focus on individualism.
• 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).
The self-serving bias (SSB)
• The SSB (i.e. a self-enhancing strategy) refers to people's 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").
• The SSB could be a way to uphold self-esteem (self-protection).
People see themselves as responsible for success but not for their
failures because they want to see themselves in this way.
Empirical research
• 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).
Cultural considerations in the SSB
• Some argue that the SSB is primarily linked to individualist
cultures but others believe it is can be found in both
individualistic and collectivist cultures.
Cultural considerations in the SSB
• 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 considerations in the SSB
• Bond, Leung, and Wan
(1982) 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.
Social identity theory (SIT)
• SIT is a theoretical framework developed by
Tajfel and Turner (1979) for the analysis of
intergroup relations.
• SIT is linked to the idea of self-categorization
theory (Turner 1991).
• Social identity can be defined as the part of
one's self-concept based on the knowledge of
membership in social group(s) in combination
with the value and emotional significance
attached to that membership.
John Turner
Henri Tajfel
Social identity theory (SIT)
• Individuals strive to maintain a positive self-concept as well as
a positive social identity.
• People make comparisons between ingroup and outgroup on
valued dimensions to establish, maintain, and defend positive
ingroup distinctiveness (social comparison).
• When a social comparison results in a positive outcome for the
ingroup, the need for a positive social identity is satisfied but the
opposite may also happen (e.g. for low-status minority groups).
Social identity theory (SIT)
• Intergroup discrimination can
be one way to uphold a positive
social identity for the ingroup
(for example when women earn
less than men for the same work
or when whites think they are
superior and discriminate against
other ethnic groups).
CATEGORIZATION
people are categorized based on shared
characteristics (group membership) – ingroups &
outgroups
INGROUP:
group members
seen as individuals +
positive traits (-
ingroup favouritism)
Social comparison
to obtain positive
distinctiveness of
ingroup
OUTGROUP:
group members
seen as similar +
negative traits (-
discrimination)
Tajfel - experiment in intergroup discrimination (1970)
Wassily Kandinsky
Paul Klee
Social represenations
• Moscovici developed the ideas of group theory with
his concept of social represenations – shared
beliefs and explanations held by the society in
which we live or the group to which we belong.
• Social representations are, in a sense, cultural
schemas that are fundamental to the identity of the
group , and they provide a common understanding
for communication within the group (for example:
social representation of success, beauty or
intelligence).
Social represenations
• Howarth (2002) performed focus group interviews with adolescent
girls in Brixton in London to study how the girls described and
evaluated themselves.
• She found that the girls had a positive view of "being from Brixton"
which contrasted with how people living outside Brixton perceived
people from Brixton (creative, diverse, vibrant).
• This can be seen as an example of creating a positive "social
identity" based on group belonging.
• Be a thinker – look at page 107
Evaluation of Social Identity TheoryStrenghts of SIT Limitations of SIT
SIT assumes that intergroup conflict is not
required for discrimination to occur. This is
supported by empirical research, e.g. Tajfel
(1970).
Minimal group research has been criticized for
artificiality. The experimental set-up is so far
from natural behaviour that it can be questioned
whether it reflects how people would react in
real life. This could limit the predictive value of
the theory.
SIT can explain some of the mechanisms involved
in establishing "positive distinctiveness" to the
ingroup by maximizing differences to the
outgroup.
SIT cannot fully explain how ingroup favouritism
may result in violent behaviour towards
outgroups.
SIT has been applied to understanding
behaviours such as ethnocentrism, ingroup
favouritism, conformity to ingroup norms, and
stereotyping.
SIT cannot explain why social constraints such as
poverty could play a bigger role in behaviour than
social identity.
Stereotyping
• What is stereotype?
• What kind of stereotypes do you know?
• How those stereotypes influence to your behaviour?
Stereotyping
• A stereotype is defined as a social perception of an individual in
terms of group membership or physical attributes.
• It is a generalization that is made about a group and then attributed
to members of that group.
• Generalization can be either positive or negative.
• Stereotyping is a form of social categorization that affects the
behaviour of those who hold the stereotype, and those who are
labelled by a stereotype.
How do stereotypes form?
• Stereotypes are a salient part of our
social and cultural environment.
• We learn them through daily
interactions, conversations and through
the media.
How do stereotypes form?
• Stereotypes are, to some extent, based on
individual experiences but cultural and
social factors also play a role, i.e.
stereotypes are contextualized and not
simply the results of individual cognitive
processing.
• Stereotypes can be shared by large
sociocultural groups as social
representations.
How do stereotypes form?
• The most common cognitive process involved
in stereotyping is social categorization (Tajfel,
1969).
• Categorization (and 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.
Look at empirical research:
The Princeton Trilogy (1933, 1951, 1969)
Evaluation of research Princeton Trilogy.
• Devine (1989) argued that it is important to distinguish
between knowledge of a stereotype and accepting it.
• According to her, the Princton Trilogy does not take this
into account.
STEREOTYPES
• Stereotypes are simplified mental images which act as
templates to help interpret the social world
• Stereotyping is, to a large extent, an automatic cognitive
process (i.e. it occures without intention, effort, or awerness
and it is not expected to interfere with other concurrent
cognitive processes. )
Steele and Aronson (1995)
• 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 a task used to test how certain problems are
generally solved, African Americans scored higher and matched the scores
of European Americans.
• The researchers concluded that the stereotype threat could affect
behaviour in any stereotyped group if the members themselves believe in
the stereotype. Page 108
Spotlight anxiety
• Stereotype threat turns on spotlight anxiety,
which couses emotional distress and pressure
that may undermine performance.
• Look at page 108• Read: Spencer at al. (1977) study
Be empathic
• In 1994, a controversial book, The Bell Curve
(by Richard J. Herrnstein) was published,
discussing the IQs of different ethnic groups.
• One of the stereotypes it perpetuated was
that Asians are very intelligent. In spite of
this being a rather „positive” stereotype,
how could this also be an example of
stereotype threat?
• What are the negative effects of such a
stereotype?
What is the effect of stereotypes on behaviour?
• Social groups are categorized into ingroups and outgroups.
Once people are categorized as belonging to one group rather
than another they tend to emphasize similarities to
individuals in that group and exaggerate differences between
groups. Stereotypes of outgroups are often central to group
identity.
What is the effect of stereotypes on behaviour?
• People tend to pay attention to stereotype-consistent
information and disregard stereotype-inconsistent
information - confirmation bias.
– Look at page 109 – read Snyder and Swann (1978) study
• Negative stereotypes may be internalized by stereotyped
groups (stereotype threat).
Darley and Gross (1983)
• performed an experiment where the researchers showed videos of a girl
to participants.
• In video 1 the girl was playing in a poor environment (poor stereotype);
• In video 2 the girl was playing in a rich environment (rich stereotype).
• Then they saw a video of the girl in what could be an intelligence test.
• When the participants were asked to judge the future of the girl they all
said that the "rich" girl would do well and the "poor" girl would do less
well.
• Based on a few salient details from the first video, participants formed an
overall impression of the girl's potential future based on stereotypes.
HOMEWORK
• Find two examples of stereotypes in the media – newspaper,
magazines, books, products, posters or films.
• Bring the image to class, and explain why the image
represents a stereotype and why do you think this image
persists.