Culture and its influence on behaviour and cognition - SAQ Flashcards
What is culture?
Culture is the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.
What is cultural norms?
This leads to cultural norms being formed which is the unique set of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours specific to a particular culture.
How are cultural norms communicated?
Cultural norms and values are communicated through the socialisation of children into culturally‐acceptable ways of behaviour.
What behaviours are affected by cultural norms?
This can influence different behaviours such as conformity whichinvolveschanging your beliefs or behaviours to fit in with a group.
What varies in different cultures?
Although there is some pressure to conform in every culture, the intensity of this pressure varies.
What is it in collectivistic cultures?
In collectivistic cultures such as Japan, the cultural norms value individuals to not stand out but instead to be similar to the society.
What is it in individualistic cultures?
In individualistic cultures such as the USA, there is less pressure on individuals to fit in, and in some cases they value individuality and uniqueness rather than conformity.
What study is used for culture effect on conformity?
Berry
When was Berry?
1967
What was the aim of Berry (1967)?
To investigate whether cultural differences in individualism versus collectivism affect conformity.
What were the 2 groups of participants?
Temne people of Sierra Leone
Inuit people of Northern Canada
Temne people
The Temne are a food accumulating society whose way of life promotes collectivism. They are rice farmers who harvest one crop a year. In order to survive until the next harvest they rely on sharing food among group members
Inuit people
The Inuits live as a hunting and fishing society. This way of life promotes individualism. People are responsible for their survival on a daily basis, and there is little accumulation of food in the society.
What did the study use as procedure?
Asch Paradigm
Procedure
Participants are shown a series of lines of varying length, with one target line on top of a page and several other line below. Participants are then asked to identify which of the other lines is of equal length to the target line. They are also tricked into believing that most of the other participants pick a particular line as the correct answer however, the line is actually not equal to the target line.
