Lesson 5: Culture and Social Behavior I Flashcards
Attribution
attribution: the inferences people make about the causes of events or behaviors of others/ourselves
causal attribution
when an event happens, we tend to explain “why” it happened
locus of causality (central issue of causality)
the central issue in causality is whether to attribute an outcome as “internal” or “external”
Neumonic: locusts outside or inside
Internal (dispositional) attributions
attributions that specify the cause of behavior as within a person-
known as dispositional attributions because they are about people’s dispositons
- ex: irresponsibillity, laziness, not likeing you anymore, etc
External (situational) attributions
causes outside a person
ex: heavy traffic, death of a family member, etc
Discounting principle
the role of a given cause in producing a given effect is discounted if other plausible causes are also present
elaboration of attribution theory: locus on Causality and Stability (Weiner, 1979)
Weiner adds Stability as a dimention to add to the locus of causality:
Some internal or external causes are either stable or unstable
stable: the cause is a relatively permanent feature
* ex: rules, laws, occupational roles, etc
unstable: the cause is rather unpredictable
* ex: weather, mood, luck, etc
according to Weiner (1979), attributions can be one of 4 types
- internal and stable: ability
- internal and unstable: mood
- external and stable: task difficulty
- external and unstable: Luck
question: are these examples, or types?
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
the tendency to overly attribute an outcome to “internal”/ “dispositional” reasons (Ross 1977)
ex: brusque, unhelpful clerk => we think he’s a cold/unfriendly person.
* we don’t think about if there are external reasons he may be that way
overattribution to dispostions (and underestimation of situations is known as FAE (or correspondence bias) and is believed to be a universal “truth” in psych
Jones and Harris (1967)
study on attribution theory
- participants read essay “written by another student” either for or against an important social issue (weed legalization)
- particpants were told the writer was required to take that stance
- when asked to estimate essayist’s real oppinion, participants tended to infer the writer’s oppinion was the same as the essay, ignoring that the writer was told to write that.
Neumonic: junie B jones writing an essay for weed legalization
how does FAE or Correspondence Bias function in non-western cultures? examples
the difference btwn East Asians and Westerners resides in the sensitivity to “external” or “situational” reasons in attribution
examples:
* morris and peng (1994)
* Miller (1984)
Morris and Peng (1994)
in explaining mass murders, americans focused on internal negative dispositions of the murderer
chinese focused on situational, contextual and societal factors
Miller (1984)
in explaining someones behavior
americans did it in terms of (internal) personality traits
asians did it in torms of social roles, obligations, environment, and contextual facors
Can East Asians commit FAE? if so? when?
Choi & Nisbett (1998) + Norenzayan et al. (1998)
* suggested that East Asians can also commit FAE when situational cues are not salient (prominent)
* when there are situational cues, East asians are less likely to commit the FAE
* suggests that the difference btwn East Asians and Westerners resides in the sensitivity to “external” or “situational” reasons in attribution, rather than internal resasons
Cultural dimensions
framework that allow us to better understand the differences in social behavior across cultures
Hofstedt’s (1980) four cultural dimensions
- indivualism-collectivism
- power distance
- masculinity-feminity
- uncertainty avoidance
Triandes et al. (1988,1995) specified the nature of I-C
individualism-collectivism is on the cultural level
idiocentrism-allocentrism is at the personal level
characteristics of Individualism (or US idiocentrism) (relation to ingroup)
- greater concern for one’s goals than the ingroup’s goals
- less attention to the view of ingroups
- self-reliance with competition
- emtional distance from ingroups
- deciding on one’s own > asking others
- hedonism is important
- able to enter and leave new social groups (friends doesn’t mean intimate aquaintances)
Collectivism characteristics
- greater concern for ingroup’s goals
- interdependence btwn ingroup
- reliance on ingroup and cooperation is emphasized
- ingroup members are a part of the self
- others’ views are important for personal decisions
- sociability is emphasized
- difficult to enter and leave new social groups (“friends” are lifelong intimate relationships with many obligations)
Caveats in individualism and collectivism
differences btwn I-C should not be seen as “fixed” or “clear-cut”
important to understand the nature of these cultural differences are more **probabalistic **
- deterministic vs probablistic (always true vs probably true)
- **realistic **vs normative ( not everyone is like this in reality , but it is the norm to be so)
Trianis & Gelfand (1998) addition to I-C: a new dimension:
- Horizontal:(emphasizes equality) one’s self is more or less like every other self
- Vertical: (emphasizes hierarchy) ones self is different from other selves
individualism and collectivism can be either horizontal or vertical, giving us four possibilities
Horizontal Individualism
- american individualism
- people want to be unique
- highly self-reliant
- not especially interested in being distinguished or high status
**
Vertical Individualism
less common
- swedish individualism
- people want to be distinguished/ acquire status
- have individual competitions with others
- “I want to be the best”
Horizontal Collectivism
- israeli kibbutz
- see themselves as being similar to others
- one person, one vote
- emphasize common goals w others, sociability and interdependence
- doesn’t submit easily to authority
Vertical Collectivism
- korean or japanese
- emphasize integrity of the ingroup
- willing to sacrifice personal goals for ingroup goals
- easily submit to authorities
channels for interpersonal communication
-Verbal communication
-nonverbal communications
- facial expressions
- movements or gestures
- posture/lean/body orientation
- gaze/ eye contact
- touching
What is interpersonal communication influenced by?
both verbal and nonverbal communication are heavily influenced by culture (cultural knowledge, expectations, asusmptions, implicit rules
what are appropriate forms of communication in the US (when we speak to someone)
- look straight in the eye
- faces/hands are animated
- sit or stand at distance (3/4 feet)
- ## gental touch is acceptable (tapping on shoulder, high five)
study of # of touches in outdoor cafe in an hour
- san juan: 180
- paris: 110
- gainesville florida: 2
- london: 0
Schema (Fiske & Taylor 1991)
a cognitive structure that includes knowledge about a person, role or event
- schema allows us to know what is expected/ appropriate in a given situation
examples of schemas
funeral schema:
- wearing black
- sad/ serious countenance
- crying
- laughing not exceptable
restaurant schema:
- receptionist leads you to table
- server gives you menu
- drink then dish
- asking for check
- pay bill w tip
types of schemas
- person Schemas
ex: president, doctor, “self” - role Schemas
ex: professor, receptionist, lover - event schemas
- relational schemas
advantages of schemas
the structural characteristics of schemas can help us process info
- simplifies and organizes complex bodies of info
- helps us remember
- speeds up processing time
- fills in knowledge gaps
- helps us interpret/evaluate new info
what is schema influenced by?
greatly influenced by the culture you live in
different schemas in different cultures can lead to:
- missunderstandings and confusion in cross-cultural interactions
types of culture and relational schemas (example, boss-employee relationship)
- task-focused orientation
- socioemotional orientation
in western cultures boss relationship conversations are task-focused but in collectivistic cultures, it can be more socioemotionally focused
what is “american” schema? how are amreicans perceived w people in other countries?
traits most associated
- industrious
- inventive
- energetic
- friendly
least associated
- lazy
- sexy
- sophisticated
- honest
