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Individual and the group (social identity theory (Tajfel study (evaluation…
Individual and the group
social identity theory
key terms
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social categorization: we categorise ourselves and other people into groups. Members of our group are called in-group and other out-group
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Tajfel study
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Procedure:
- 48 boys, randomly allocated into 3 groups
- asked to rate 12 paintings of Klee and Kandinsky
- told the participants that their group preferred Klee/Kandinsky
- each boy gave award points to 2 others (1 from his group, 1 from the other group)
- participants were only given code numbers and the group of the boys they needed to give points to
point allocation system 1:
- points given to both boys are linked and are gonna be equal to 15
- point allocation system 2:
- klee gives a high value to another klee = higher points to the out-group
- klee gives a mid value to another klee = same points to out-group
- klee gives low value to another klee = 1 point to out-group
Results:
- system 1: more points to member of their in-group
- system 2: willing to give fewer points to in-group to maximise the difference between in-group and out-group
Conclusion:
- natural tendency to favour their in-group
- showed in-group favouritism even when participants knew that the groupings were randomly allocated
evaluation
Strengths:
- Assumes that intergroup conflict is not required for discrimination to occur, other studies support this
- Has been applied to understanding behavior like in-group favoritism conformity
- Evidence is reliable
Weaknesses:
- The theory lacks in ecological validity as the situations the boys are put in were artificially made
- Adolescent boys are naturally competitive and they assumed that the researchers wanted them win
- Ethnocentric (culture biased)
- Reductionist (ignores biology)
Sherif study
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Procedure:
- boys were randomly allocated to one of the two group
- the two groups were kept separate from each other
- 1st stage: bonding stage (in-group)
- 2nd stage: competition stage (w/ out-group)
- 3rd stage: reducing friction stage
- through superordinate goals
Results:
- hostility was shown to the out-group (name-calling, fistfights)
- praises in-group
- talk badly about out-group
Conclusion:
- shows in-group favouritism
- out-group dislike
- conflict arises when competing for resources
Evaluation
Strengths
- high ecological validity (field experiment)
Weaknesses:
- could not control extraneous variables
- unethical
- does not reflect real life conflict
- sampling bias (only 12y/o boys)
Social cognitive theory
key terms
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Identification: a feeling of similarity with a role model that leads to imitation of their behaviour
Vicarious reinforcement: learning through the positive consequences of other people's actions rather than first hand
Self-efficacy: the more you believe in your own abilities, the easier it is to deal with setbacks and take on more challenges as the idea of failure will not be so crushing
Bandura study
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Procedure:
- 36 boys, 36 girls
- Ages 37 - 69 months
- Divided into 8 groups of 6 children
- 4 groups were exposed to aggressive behavior
- 4 other groups were exposed to non-aggressive behavior
- 1 control group that did not observe a model
- Female experimenter brought child into the room with toys
- Then the role model came into the opposite side of room with toys and the bobo doll
- Rated aggression from behavioral observations by experimenter and nursery teacher
- In aggressive condition:
- After 1 minute the model kicked the doll
- Repeated phrases like kick and pow
- After 10 minutes model left the room
- The child was taken into a separate room with toys and the bobo doll for 20 mins
- After 2 mins child was asked not to play with other toys to ensure child was not controlling aggression
- Behavior recorded in 5 second intervals
- Behaviors were classified as ‘imitative’ or ‘non-imitative’
Results:
- Both girls and boys who were exposed to aggression showed more aggression compared to other groups
- Suggests children imitate aggression
- Children show non-imitative aggression suggesting children were thinking of new ways to be aggressive
- Boys more likely to copy physical aggression from role models of same sex than girls
- Girls equally likely to copy verbal agression from same sex model
- Girls spent more time playing with dolls and boys played more with guns
- Bandura collected qualitative to explain that it wasn’t biological differences but children already had concepts of gender stereotypes
Conclusion:
- In absence of reinforcement, children learn through observations
- Children learn agression from adult role models especially if same sex
- Process of imitation shows aggression could be easily copied from anyone
- Reinforcement histories: Behavioral assessments and interventions are influenced by a participant's reinforcement history. A participant's exposure to various schedules or contingencies of reinforcement that are no longer in place.
Evaluation
Strengths:
- Standardized procedures
- Children matched into groups according to aggression so groups were all equal
Weaknesses:
- Demand characteristics because in unknown environment
- Experiment did not measure long term effects of aggression on children, causing ethical issues
Charlton study
Aim: To investigate the effects of television on children’s behaviour. The researchers were particularly interested to see whether television would cause the children to become more aggressive
Procedure:
- Studied children's behaviours 2 years before TV was introduced to the island.
- Natural experiment – this was not set up as TV was already being connected to the island.
- (IV= Tv before and after its introduction, DV= children's behaviour on the island)
- Collected data about the children's behaviour using various methods:
- Questionnaires asking teachers and parents about the children's behaviour
- Observations of the children's behaviour were made in the school playground
- Content analysis what and how much the children watched on TV
- Video cameras were placed in the school classrooms and playground.
Results: Found very little difference in the children's behaviour before and after the introduction of TV. The island had a very low rate of behavioural problems with children before the study, and this did not significantly increase because of watching TV. In St Helena parents have high control over their children's behaviour; the effect of TV was reduced. TV did not have the impact it could have had in a less isolated environment.
Conclusion: TV did not have a significant impact on children's behaviour. Even if violence was watched it was not copied. This was due high levels of community control and surveillance and parent's control over behaviour.
Evaluation
Strengths:
- Natural experiment- It has greater realism than a laboratory or field experiment.
- Discreet cameras were used so children would have acted naturally
Weaknesses:
- Close nature of the community may have affected results- children may have been more aggressive but teachers/parents unwilling to report this.
- Inconsistent programmes watched (different levels of violent content)
Stereotypes
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Key terms
Stereotypes: a social perception of an individual in terms of group membership or physical attributes
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Illusory correlation: seeing two variables as related, even though they aren't. The perception between a group and a trait, where there is no relationship
Steel and Aronson study
Aim: to investigate if stereotype threat would affect African American performance, and if so, if it was due to anxiety
Results: African Americans who were threatened with stereotype performed worse than those who were white. However, in the groups who were not threatened by stereotypes, African American participants and white participants performed to about the same level
Procedure: 20 black and 20 white female undergraduates from the same university were chosen and put into 2 groups, one group was threatened by stereotypes and one was not. Participant's time of response were using a computer test, and after the test, the participants took an anxiety test.
Conclusion: Stereotype threat occurs when an individual is in a situation which might involve them conforming to a stereotype, and when under the pressure of a more negative stereotype, performance is worse than that of a positive stereotype
Evaluation
Strengths: Study's design effectively highlighted the presence of stereotype threat, therefore meeting the aim of the research
Weaknesses: Laboratory experiment testing performance on a standardised test, therefore the ecological validity is low
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Culture
Culture dimensions
Key terms
Cultural dimensions: How the values of society affect behaviour. A dimension describes the trends of behaviour in a given culture
Individualism: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family
Collectivism: people are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families which provides them with support and protection
Berry study
Aim: to investigate conformity levels between two types of societies (specifically with differences in social norms and socialization practices)
Procedure:
- 3 cultures:
- Temne of Sierra Leone - based in rice farming (collectivism)
- Inuit of Baffin Island, Canada - based in hunting and fishing (individualism)
- Urban and rural Scots (control group)
- Individuals were placed in rooms and were asked to choose a line out of a set of lines that was most similar to a given line (similar to Asch's experiment)
- On the third trial, experimenter gave the individual a "hint" of what others in their culture chose
- Observed if the participants conformed to the answers of their peers
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Conclusion: High conformity among the Temne because they had an agricultural economy and needed to depend on cooperation in farming. Also, their culture emphasized obedience in child-rearing practices. Lower conformity among the Inuit results from them often hunting alone. As such, they must be able to make their own decisions. Also, Inuit child-rearing practices emphasize self-sufficiency since that is needed within their culture. Cultural dimension of individualism vs. collectivism affected conformity levels
Evaluation
Strengths:
- Controlled environment: causality
- Cross-cultural (etic): demonstrates conformity is not limited to a single cultural group
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Kulkofsky study
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Procedure:
- Researchers studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the UK and the USA - to see if there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic cultures
- 274 adults from five different countries in the “middle class”
- participants were given five minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events occurring in their lifetime that happened at least over a year ago
- researchers then used this list to create a "memory questionnaire."
- they were asked five questions about how they learned about the event that mirrored the original questionnaire used by Brown & Kulik (1977)
- they were then asked to answer questions about the importance of the event to them personally and the frequency of recalling the event. All the questions were answered using a likert scale from 1 to 7
Results: British people recalled the most memories with an average of 14.7 and the Americans following after in second place. The Chinese people recalled the least amount of memory with an average of 5.99. The FBM score was also the lowest within the Chinese with an average of 1.52 compared to the British who averaged 2.94
Conclusion:
- individualistic cultures has more emphasis on personal involvement and emotional experiences
- collectivistic cultures tend to control their emotions as it allows people to live harmoniously together
Evaluation
Strengths
- avoids interview effects
- high credibility due to using back-translation
Weaknesses
- ecological fallacy
- just because the participants are from a specific culture, they don’t necessarily share the traits of the culture
- etic approach
Enculturation
Key terms
Enculturation: process by which people learn the necessary and appropriate skills and norms in the context of their culture
Culture:
- long-lived, trans-generational
- more group-based
- more resistant to change
Society:
- short-lived, ephemeral
- more universal
- e.g. technology
Odden and Rochet study
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Procedure:
- 28 children (4-12yrs).
- Observed longitudinally (village life), adult influences on children were interviewed about their child's development and parenting.
- Simultaneously, 22 boys (5-12yrs) were observed in cultural learning of subsistence fishing.
- Semi structured interviews conducted on boys and their fishing relatives
Results: children appeared to learn chores by watching parents/older siblings. researchers deduced explicit instruction wasn't consistent with samoan way
Conclusion: cultural norms are not taught directly, but rather learned through the active observation by the children of the adults in the community although other cultures may have fewer status differences between parents and children, and although parents may tell and teach children about different aspects of their culture, it can be assumed that observational learning also plays a role in enculturation elsewhere
Evalutation
Strengths:
- Odden was a member of community therefore had access
- high credibility, aka internal validity (reliability, authenticity)
- high ecological validity (specific to this experiment)
Weaknesses:
- time-consuming
- difficult to generalize (emic study; low external validity)
- low external validity - difficult to replicate
- difficult to standardize
- researcher bias (researchers might have given more weight to observations that confirmed their hypothesis, and less weight to observations that challenged it → confirmation bias)
Fagot study
Results:
- 7 of the children’s behaviours on the checklist were found to be significantly more common on boys and girl. These behaviours are referred to as sex-preferred behaviours.
- Boys: playing with blocks, transport toys and manipulating objects
- Girls: playing soft toys and dolls, dancing and asking for help
- Interview: Parent's perception of their interactions with their children did not correlate with what was observed by the researchers; not a conscious behaviour
- Parental responses to behaviours:
- Boys were more likely to be left alone by their parents than girls.
- Parents gave boys more positive responses when they played with blocks than they did girls.
- Parents gave girls more negative responses when they manipulated an object than they did boys.
- Parents gave more positive responses to girls than boys for playing with dolls and more negative responses to boys.
- Parents criticized girls more when they participated in large
motor activities – e.g. running and jumping.
- Parents gave more positive responses to girls than boys when they asked for help and a more negative response to boys.
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Procedure:
- twenty-four families (12 with a boy and 12 with a girl). Each family had only one child between 20 and 24 months. Both parents lived at home and both parents were between 20 and 30 years old. All the families were white. Five families lived in university housing and six in apartments. The rest lived in private homes. The sample was varied in income; some parents were still students.
- 46 child behaviour checklist and a 19 parental reactions checklist was used by the observers during the study:
- Praise
- Criticism
- Physical punishment
- Joining in with play
- Stops play
- Explaining
- Neutral
- These reactions could be categorised as being positive or negative.
- Parents were told that the investigation was about parental reactions to children’s behaviour, although they were not explicitly told the aim was to investigate gender roles differences – overt observation: participants were aware that they were being studied.
- 5 x 60-minutes observation for each family over a 5-week period.
- Time-sampling observation method was used (every 60 seconds the child’s behaviour and parent reaction was recorded)
- Two observers were used to check reliability of parents reactions (83%) and children behaviours (93%) using the inter-coder method
- After the observations, parents rated the weather or not the each of the 46 behaviours on the checklist was more appropriate for a boy or a girl.
- A follow-up interview was given to parents about child rearing and attitudes to sex role socialisation.
Conclusion: Parents reacted significantly more favourably to the child when the child was engaged in same-sex preferred behavior; children were more likely to receive negative responses to cross-sex-preferred behaviours. Parents gave girls more positive responses when they engaged in adult-oriented, dependent behaviour.
On the questionnaire, parents did not see asking for help as a sex-preferred behavior; however, they were more likely to act positively to a girl than a boy asking for help. This suggests that the parents were not fully aware of the methods they use to socialize their children.
Evaluation
Strengths:
- Uses method triangulation (interviews & observations), increases the credibility of the findings
- Natural experiment
Weaknesses:
- Limited to a single culture (difficult to generalise)
- Suggests gender is passively acquired
- Not easily replicable
Acculturation
Key terms
Acculturation: the process by which someone comes into contact with another culture and begins to adopt the norms and behaviors of that culture
Acculturation stress: psychological, [physiological and social difficulties of acculturation, resulting in depression or anxiety
Reverse culture shock: feeling of disorientation, confusion, alienation or frustration experienced when people return to their home culture after living in another culture, and finding that they do not fit in as they used to
Lueck and Wilson study
Results: 1433 were found to have acculturative stress according to their acculturative stress score - that is, 70% of the sample.
Aim: to investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans
Procedure:
- The sample consisted of 2095 Asian Americans.
- 1271 of the participants were first-generation immigrants who were <18 when they came to the US.
- The rest of the sample was born in the US to first-generation immigrant parents and consisted of several different Asian cultures, including Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese.
- Semi-structured interviews. The interviewers had cultural and linguistic backgrounds similar to those of the sample population.
- Interviews were conducted either over the Internet or face-to-face.
- A randomly selected sample of participants was contacted to validate the data taken from their interviews.
- The interviews measured the participants' level of acculturative stress, the impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family cohesion and the socioeconomic status on acculturative stress.
Conclusion:
- A bilingual language preference contributed to lower acculturative stress.
- Asians who are able to use both languages equally with their friends are able to build up networks of support within and outside their community.
- Stress may arise if Asian Americans didn’t know native language to discuss sensitive issues with their families if they didn’t know english
- Negative treatment - including prejudice, xenophobia, harassment and threats - significantly contributed to higher acculturative stress.
- Sharing values and beliefs in the family lowered stress levels
- Stress was lower in the ones who liked their economic status in US and who would anyways choose US even among other options
Evaluation
Strengths:
- as the interviewers belonged to the same cultural background, the participants would've felt more comfortable to take about what causes stress to them
- a huge sample size contributed to ecological validity and increases reliability
- semi structured interviews maintain focus in the subject but allow flexibility
Weaknesses:
- semi structured interviews make data analysis time consuming
- interviewing has more chances of demand characteristics
- stress has to be qualitatively analysed as it is all based on observation of the participant and it cannot be measured.
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