Sociocultural Flashcards
(29 cards)
Social Identity Theory
Argues that a person has not just one ‘personal self’ but rather several social selves that correspond to group membership
Used to understand who we are and so that we know our value in social contexts, therefore, we categorise ourselves in terms of group membership
Predicts that when one of our social identities becomes salient, it will influence our behaviour.
Salience
Individual consciously thinks about their group membership/it comes to the forefront of their mind.
Four psychological mechanics of SIT
Social categorisation (the process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics)
Social identification (adopting the norms of group and taking on its characteristics)
Social comparison (justifying group membership by comparing with others)
Positive distinctiveness (comparing in-group with out-group to improve self esteem)
Conformity
Act of behaving in a way that is consistent with the group or adjusting one’s behaviour so as to be consistent with social norms.
Informational social influence + Normative
need for certainty, in ambiguous situations, we engage in social comparison to figure out how to behave
+
need for social acceptance and approval to be accepted and fit in
Study: Rogers and Frantz (1961)
Aim: To investigate whether the attitudes of European settlers about Africans would be inversely correlated to the amount of time that they had lived in Zimbabwe — as the length of their residence increased, they would more strongly want to maintain the existing system of racial segregation.
Procedure: Sample consisted of 500 White Europeans, living in Zimbabwe for less than five years to 40+ years. They used a survey containing examples of laws and customs in which White Europeans and Africans were treated differently, including racial segregation of lands, political representaion, and relationships. Four response choices were provided, 0, 2, 4, or 6 — 2 meaning that it is very important to maintain current systems and 6 meaning that it is very important to discontinue the law.
Results: Most Europeans in Zimbabwe favoured the retention of the status quo. Europeans who supported the status quo least strongly were those who had lived in Zimbabwe for fewer than five years. The scores indicate that new arrivals tend to change their attitudes over time.
Link to SIT: Social categorisation means that people tend to exaggerate the difference between themselves and the outgroup, while feeling that members of our group share a common set of traits of race. Thus, the Europeans were more likely to conform to preexisting beliefs.
Social Cognitive Theory
Suggests behaviour is modelled by other members of a group acquired through observation or imitation based on consequences of a behaviour.
Vicarious reinforcement
watch to see if behaviour is reinforced or punished
Conditions for SCT
Attention (to learn, observers must attend to modelled behaviour)
Retention (to reproduce behaviour, observers must be able to remember features of behaviour)
Motivation (“” observers must want to and expect a certain outcome)
Potential (“”observers must physically and/or mentally be able to carry out behaviour)
Factors which affect SCT
stands out in contrast to other models
behaviour is consistent and reinforced
model is liked and respected by observers
observers perceive similarity between self and model
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy:
One’s beliefs in own ability to succeed accomplishing a task
High self-efficacy = more likely to believe they can master challenges and recover quickly from setback
Study: Bandura (1961) - Bashing bobo doll
Aim: To investigate if children would learn aggressive behaviour by imitating an adult model.
Procedure: Children aged 3-6, matched pairs design on pre-existing aggressiveness rated by teachers, placed into different conditions.
3 IV: gender of child, gender of model, whether there was aggression displayed by model. Children tested individually. 12 of each sex placed in control where they watched a room with no model.
Non-aggressive condition: adult model played with toys and ignored Bobo doll.
Aggressive condition: adult model violently attacked and acted verbally aggressively to Bobo doll. After seeing model, child led to a room full of appealing toys that they were not allowed to play with to evoke frustration. Finally, each child taken room containing “aggressive” toys including a mallet and a Bobo doll and “non-aggressive” toys including dolls and trucks. Researchers observed the child’s behaviour in the room and judged each child’s levels of aggression.
Results: Boys engaged in more than twice as much physical aggression than girls. Children who saw aggressive model made more aggressive acts than children who saw non-aggressive model. Boys in aggressive conditions showed more aggression if model was male compared to female. Girls in aggressive conditions also showed more physical aggression if the model was male but more verbal aggression if the model was female, apart from the aggressive act of punching the Bobo doll.
Link to SCT: This study supports the social cognitive theory in the sense that behaviour such as aggression in this study can be learned simply by observing and imitating others; this also supports the prediction of the theory that behaviour will be imitated when there is identification with the model.
Stereotypes
Often acquired indirectly from other people and social norms, not from personal experience
Social perception of an individual in terms of their group membership/attributes (generalisation)
Due to heuristics (mental shortcuts) because we are cognitive misers, we are more inclined to less effortful thinking
Prejudice + Discrimination
Judgement/emotions/attitude about individuals with very little information about them except for thor group membership
Behaviours based on prejudice.
Cause/Formation of stereotypes
Social categorisation means that people tend to exaggerate the differences between themselves and the outgroup, while feeling that members of our group share a common set of traits of race.
Thus, in this study the White Europeans over time felt a greater difference between themselves and black Zimbabwe residents.
Study: Martin + Halvorsen
Aim: To investigate whether existing gender stereotyping would influence recall of memories depending on the consistency with the stereotypes.
Procedure: Children’s knowledge of traditional sex-roles assessed using 16 images. Then each child individually shown 16 pictures of actors (males + females) in activities either consistent or inconsistent with gender role schemas. 1 week later, child tested for their memory of the pictures and for how confident they were of the memory.
Results: The children easily recalled the sex of the actor for the pictures in which actors performed gender consistent activities. When the actors’ behaviours were inconsistent, the children often distorted the picture and recalling that the actor’s sex was the gender stereotype related to the activity.
Link to stereotypes: This shows the effect of stereotyping on behaviour as the study shows gender stereotyping influences the behaviour of memory because the children remembered more details and demonstrated less memory distortion when the pictures were consistent with the existing gender stereotypes.
Culture
‘software of the mind’ which guides a group in their daily interactions which distinguishes them from other cultural groups; a collective identity which a group shares. Groups characterised by different ‘norms’ and conventions
Cultural norms
a set of rules based on socially/culturally shared beliefs of how an individual ought to behave to be accepted within the group
Socialisation
The process which people learn rules of society
Cultural dimensions
Different categories to classify culture based on different values and beliefs.
Individualism
Prioritises ndependence and self-reliance
Achievement oriented, priority for individual tasks and goals
Meant to aim for individual success over relationships with each other.
Obligations/rights to self
Competition between individuals
Individuals do things for themselves with the exception of close family (not extended family)
Collectivism
Prioritise group membership and achievement of the group.
Relationships > personal interests
Have firm roles within culture, they know their role/identify strongly with.
Live and care for extended family
Disagreements wanted to be settled so that the group can be in unity
Great in-group vs. out-group comp
Maintaining in-group harmony is important
Study: Kulkofsky et al.
Aim: To see if there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivist (China, Turkey) and individualist cultures (Germany, UK, USA)
Procedure:
Sample: adults from five different countries.
All participants identified “middle class”. Participants given 5 mins to recall memories of public events in their lifetime which occurred at least one year ago. Researchers used this list of events to create questionnaire.
Questionnaire included questions regarding their surroundings and emotions at the time of the event, its national and personal importance, and how often they talked about event to indicate level of emotion, personal relevance and rehearsal. Questionnaire constructed in English, then translated + back-translated into the different languages by bilingual researchers to guarantee that the translation not a confounding variable.
Results: National importance equally linked to FBM formation across cultures. In a collectivistic cultures, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on individual’s personal involvement and emotional experiences.
Link to culture: This shows that the behaviour of memory is affected by the cultural norms/dimensions because an individual’s own experiences are less important in a collectivistic culture, therefore, less rehearsal of the event would occur compared with participants from individualistic cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing a FBM. Cultural values of each culture influences the behaviour of flashbulb memory.
Enculturation + Gender role
Process of adopting/internalising the schemas of your culture. Goal is to learn specific rituals, expectations, and the language of culture to function smoothly within.
A gender role/sex role is a social role encompassing a range of behaviours and attitudes generally considered acceptable or desirable for people based on their biological or perceived sex.
