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.