Berry 1967 (Sociocultural) Flashcards
Main topic being explored
Cultural dimensions
Researchers and year
Berry 1967
Aim
Measure the level of conformity in these two types of societies by applying a version of the Asch Paradigm.
Sample
Three distinct cultures.
- Temne of Sierra Leona (rice farming)
- Inuit people in Canada (hunting and fishing)
- Scots (control group made of both urban and rural scots)
Each culture had approximately 120 participants
Berry carried out a _____-_____ study of _____
cross-cultural, conformity
Procedure
- Each participant was brought into a room and given a set of 9 lines. Then they were asked to select out of the lines the one that fit the length of the line at the top the most.
- There would be 6 of these sets, the first 2 would just be trials. In the 4 sets after the participant was told that a particular line in the set was most commonly chosen by their culture.
- In the 3rd trial, the correct answer was given. For trials 4-6, the participant was told the wrong answer, with each response being five lines away from the correct response.
Results
The DV was how many number of lines the participants responses were away from the correct line (Total score could range from 0 to 15)
Compared to the other cultures, the Temne, which is collectivist culture, had a much higher rate of conformity when told what other Temne believed, despite their answers being incorrect.
Evaluation
Strengths:
- Use of a control condition to improve internal validity
- Test was administered in native languages through the use of an interpreter so language would not be a confounding variable.
- No random allocation (quasi) means that causality cannot be determined
Limitations:
- Asch paradigm makes the study highly replicable, can be used to establish the reliability of the findings.
- Dated study. Low temporal validity.
- Can lead to ecological fallacy. The results can lead to stereotyping about cultural groups.
Research Method
Quasi Experiment
