Paper 1- Sociocultural

Question 1

Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis.

Answer 1

Bobo
Festinger

Question 2

Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the sociocultural level of analysis.

Answer 2

Festinger
Milgram’s Obedience Trial

Question 3

Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior.

Answer 3

Bobo
Ross False Consensus

Question 4

Discuss two errors in attributions.

Answer 4

Ross False Consensus
Ross “game show” study

Question 5

Evaluate social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies.

Answer 5

Tajfel
Abrahms

Question 6

Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behavior.

Answer 6

Tajfel
Hamilton and Gilford

Question 7

Explain social learning theory, making reference to two relevant studies.

Answer 7

Bobo
Lowe et al (2004): Teaching kids to eat healthy using the social learning theory by providing models using media.

Question 8

Discuss the use of compliance techniques.

Answer 8

Festinger: Foot in the Door
Milgrams Obedience trials

Question 9

Evaluate research on conformity to group norms.

Answer 9

Asch
Abhrams et al

Question 10

Discuss factors influencing conformity.

Answer 10

Asch
Abhrams et al

Question 11

Define the terms “culture” and “cultural norms”.

Answer 11

Cole and Sabre
Kearins

Question 12

Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behavior.

Answer 12

Cole and Sabre
Kearins

Question 13

Using one or more examples, explain “emic” and “etic” concepts.

Answer 13

Cole and Sabre
Hofstede

Question 14

Bandura - Bobo Doll Experiment (1961)

Answer 14

Aim: demonstrate that learning can occur through observation of role models
Procedure:
36 boys and 36 girls ages 3 to 6 divided into groups according to an aggression evaluation from parents and teachers.
Group 1: exposed to adults who showed aggression by beating up a Bobo Doll.
Group 2 observed an adult who displayed no aggression.
Group 3 was a controlled group who did not see any model. (Control)
The children were then placed into the room with a Bobo doll after 10 minutes of watching the model.
Findings:
Children with the aggressive model showed more aggression
Boys were more likely to imitate physical aggression.
Girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression.
Social Learning Theory demonstrated through observational learning

Question 15

Festinger 1956

Answer 15

The aim of the observation was to see how the members of the religious cult behave and what their beliefs are.
Procedure: Covert observational study
1. Leon Festinger and his colleagues wanted to observe the cult members, however their beliefs stated that they needed to stay isolated from non-believers
2. They joined the cult in order to be able to observe them
3. On December 21, when the world was supposed to end, they observed how the people reacted when it didn’t
4. They monitored the group members doubt, debate, and rationalization of what had taken place
Findings:
The world did not end on December 21
Members of the cult considered this pass as a result of their prayers
The members still remained in their cult’s beliefs even when the world did not end, making up a theory that God saved them through their prayers so that they could maintain their self-esteem
Cognitive dissonance
The members blindly followed what they heard

Question 16

Asch

Answer 16

Aim: To investigate the extent to which a majority had influence over a minority
Procedure:
1. Asch used a lab style experiment to conduct the study
2. 50 male students participated in what they believed was a “vision test”. In each condition, a single participant was put in a room with seven confederates
3. In a series of 18 trials, the participant and the confederates were shown a set of lines and were asked to state out loud which line on the right matched the line on the left. In 12 of the trials, the confederates deliberately gave the wrong answer
Results:
In 12 of the trails, 32% of the participants conformed throughout the trails. 75% of the participants conformed on at least one trial, and 25% of the participants did not conform at all
A majority group can have a significant influence on a minority group through both normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 17

Hofstede (1973)

Answer 17

Aim: To investigate cultural norms in the workplace
Procedure: Survey
Employees of multinational cooperation IBM from 40 nations (not many from Africa or communist block)
Asked, in their native language, about the workplace. Questions in 4 categories
* Demographics
* Satisfaction in workplace (how they have it now & if they like it)
* Perception of workplace (how an ideal workplace should look like)
* Personal goals and beliefs
Researcher then did a content analysis, where several researchers analysed it independently to look for trends in the answers of participants from the same culture. If they found the same trends, it was seen as real.
Results: There were trends in the attitudes of people from the same cultures, and differences between cultures.
Hofstede developed cultural dimensions theory by grouping together these trends into different dimensions, that were defined as specific related values. The countries where then scored on each dimension depending on to what extent they embraced those values. Some dimensions that were defined were, for example, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and power distance. More dimensions have been added later.

Question 18

Lee Ross False Consensus Study

Answer 18

• Sandwhich costume

Question 19

Ross Game Show Study (1977)

Answer 19

Aim: to investigate whether the allocated social roles in a quiz show would affect the judgement of the participants.
Procedure: 18 pairs of students were randomly allocated either the role of the ‘questioner’ or the ‘contestant’ in a simulated quiz game. There were 24 observers that watched the recorded quiz. The questioner were asked to compose 10 questions. The questioner was than instructed to act the question and wait 30 seconds for a response. If the contestant did not answer correctly the questioner gave the correct answer. After the completion of the quiz all participants and the observers were asked to rate “general knowledge” of the participants.
Results: The contestants averaged a score of 4 out of 10. The contestants and the observers all consistently rated the general knowledge of the questioner to be superior to that of the contestant. However the questioners did not show the bias.

Question 20

Milgram

Answer 20

Aim: To test the hypothesis that obeying orders to kill another human was specific to extreme obedience and that it wouldn’t happen again - specifically, U.S. citizens in the 1960s to administer electric shock to others.
Procedure:
1. Participant arrives at the same time as another person
2. They draw lots to determine their role which are rigged so that the participant is always the teacher. The other person is a confederate and plays the part of the learner.
3. Learner and teacher are in separate rooms connected by intercom
4. Learner has to learn a series of word pairs
5. Teacher then presents the learner with test words and the learner must reply with the pair word
6. For each wrong option the learner receives an electrical shock
7. For each wrong answer the teacher must move up 15 volt.
8. As the shocks increase the learner expresses pain, objections and even requests to be let out
9. But at the same time the experimenter works to pressure the participants to continue
Findings: 1963: Out of 40 ordinary people 26 go all the way - they apply a potentially lethal shock. 65% would murder someone.

Question 21

Kearins (1981)

Answer 21

Aim: To see whether Aboriginal people might might perform better on tests that took advantage of their ability to encode with visual cues. In other words, to see the affects of culture on memory.
Procedure: Quasi-experiment (the IV- culture- cannot be manipulated)
-Matched participants
-44 Aboriginal adolescents aged 12-16 (27 boys, 17 girls). All from desert Aboriginal descent raised under semi-traditional tribal conditions, and spoke English as a second language.
-44 white Australian adolescents (28 boys, 16 girls) from the inner suburbs of Perth.
-As the concept of “standard” testing situations is culturally foreign to Aboriginal student, no testing was done until students had time and opportunity to ask questions. This study was done outdoors.
-Kearins placed 20 objects on a board divided into 20 squares. Each student were told to study the board for 30 seconds.
-They were told that the subsequent task was reconstruction of the board with the objects in the same arrangement.
-Then, all the objects were heaped into a pile in the centre of the word
-Children were then asked to replace the items in their original locations.
Findings: -On all four tasks, the Aboriginal children performed better than the white Australian children.
-The least difference between the two groups was on the A/D array. This is the task on which the white Australian children scored the highest.
-Aboriginal children showed no significant difference whether the task was artificial or natural. The objects themselves therefore didn’t affect the results.
-Aboriginal students- 20 item arrays: 44/88 did perfectly. 20-item arrays: 1/5. 75% got at least one perfect score, whilst 41% got two or more perfect scores.
-White students: less than 5 percent of perfect performances on both arrays. None obtained two or more perfect scores. 18% managed one perfect score.

Question 22

Odden and Rochat (2004)

Answer 22

Aim: to investigate how Samoan children were ‘enculturated’ by obersving their parents, other adults, older siblings, and peers
(the role of social cognitive learning on the development of cultural norms in Samoa)
Procedure:
28 children (4-12 years) in a single Samoan village (as well as their caretakers and other adults surrounding these children)
the researchers carried out a longitudinal study for 25 months
researchers observed children in different contexts and conducted semi-structured interviews with adults and children
the researchers looked at the behavior of line fishing and conceptual understanding of rank and hierarchy
the also carried out a multiple-choice test
Findings:
researchers found through interviews that many of the children’s skills (household chores like cooking and washing and fishing) had been acquired through observational learning.
they found that young males spent a lot of time watching the adult males fish, receiving no direct instruction.
they also found that children of around 10 years old would borrow the adults’ fishing equipment and experiment on their own without any adult supervision.
by age 12, most children were able to fish on their own
children were skilled and learned from observation of adults and older children.
Samoan children could learn rather abstract concepts by observing and listening to adults
the children also had a reasonably good understanding of the complex hierarchal system although no one had taught them.
it appeared that they also learned social rules regarding how to behave with people of higher rank according to observational learning as well.
the children had a broad understanding of the concepts and the rituals of their society (according to multiple choice test)

Question 23

Cole and Scribner (1974)

Answer 23

Aim:To investigate how education, which is influenced by cultural values, affects memory
Procedure: Children from the US and Children of the Kpelle people in rural Liberia.
Quasi Experiment, and cross-sectional.
In Experiment 1 - the different age groups of children were presented with a free recall task asking them to recall as many words as possible from a list of 20. The words were organised into 4 categories. They carried out multiple trials on each child, allowing the children to practice the memory task.

In Experiment 2 - The experimenters presented the same words describing objects, but in a meaningful way, as part of a story (narrative). They then tested participants recall of the objects
The researchers took an emic approach to conducting this cross-cultural research, adapting the memory tasks to make them suitable for a different culture. They observed the Kpelle people and collaborated with local college-educated people who worked as the experimenters, to produce a list of words for a free recall test: these were common words the Kpelle people were familiar with.
Findings:Exp 1: Unlike the children from the US, Kpelle children aged over 10 years, did not perform better than younger Kpelle children, following practice, unless they had attended school for several years. Kpelle children remembered an average of 10 words on the 1st trial, and only two more on the 15th trial/ Those who had attended school performed comparably to the US group, with older children improving far more rapidly, with practice than younger children.

Exp 2: Illiterate (non-schooled children) were able to easily remember the information

Question 24

Tajfel (1971)

Answer 24

Aim: To test whether the simple act of grouping was enough to produce prejudice between groups of very similar people even when there is no history or competition between the groups.
Procedure:
An opportunity sample of 64 14-15 year old boys from a Bristol comprehensive school was used, who supposedly already had a cohesive (one) group identity.
1) tested in a laboratory in eight separate groups of eight boys.
2) taken to a lecture room and told that the study was investigating visual judgements.
3) shown 40 different dot clusters on a screen and asked to estimate the number of dots in each cluster.
4) then divided into two experimental groups. Condition 1 - over-estimators
Condition 2 more accurateIn
5)They were then told they were required to take part in further investigation on other kinds of decision-making.
6) assigned to groups according to the judgements they had made about the number of dots.
7) They were randomly allocated to groups and in condition 1, boys were designated as ‘overestimators’ or ‘underestimators’, in condition 2 they were split into ‘better’ or ‘worse’ accuracy groups.
8) They were told that the task involved money in rewarding and punishing the other boys and they had to choose how much to reward or punish the other boy, whether they were in their own group or the other group, or whether one was in his group and the other was not.
9) They were taken to separate cubicles and in each cubicle there was a booklet with a matrix which had two rows each with 14 numbers, with each number in a box.
10) The numbers represented the amount of money they were either rewarding or taking from the other boys.

Results:
It seemed that when decisions involved boys in the same group, the choices were fairer than when decisions were made about 2 boys in different groups.
When decisions involved boys from different groups (in-group/out-group), the results were closely distributed around the point of fairness, with the average score being 7.5. For intergroup decisions (in-group/in-group or out-group/out-group) Tajfel found that the large majority of participants gave more money to members of their in-group, with the average score being 9/14.

Question 25

Abrams et al

Answer 25

Aim: conducted a study to determine if in-group identity would affect one’s willingness to conform. It also looks at the role of SIT on the level of conformity.
Procedure: Fifty undergraduate students (23 males and 27 females) enrolled in an introductory psychology course participated.
At the start of the experiment, the three confederates were introduced as either first-year students from the psychology department of a prestigious university (in-group) or as students of ancient history (out-group) from that same university. The participants were instructed not to talk to each other. As in the Asch paradigm, the participants were shown a stimulus line, and then three other lines - one of which was the same length as the stimulus line. The task was to identify which of the three lines matched the stimulus line. There were 18 trials. In nine of the trials, the confederates gave the correct response. In nine of the trials the confederates gave a unanimous, incorrect response. In each session the confederates and one naive participant sat in a row. The participant was always placed at one end of the row and always answered last. In the public condition all members of the group gave their judgments aloud, and the experimenter recorded the real participant’s responses. In the private condition, however, the experimenter asked if one of the participants would note down the responses. The real participant, who ‘happened to be nearest’, was asked if he or she would like to record responses. The real participant recorded the cofederates’ responses on a score sheet along with his or her own, privately.
Findings: Seventy-seven per cent of all participants conformed to the erroneous confederate judgments on at least one trial. There were no gender differences observed. Conformity was maximized in the in-group public condition, however, the in-group private and out-group private conditions did not differ significantly

Question 26

Hamilton and Gifford (1976)

Answer 26

Aim: To investigate illusory correlation of group size and negative behaviour
Procedure:39 people, 26 in A 13 in B
Groups A and B
- # A ppl = 26, # B ppl = ½ of A = 13
- Groups had same proportion of positive vs negative traits
- - Researchers asked participants to read descriptions about two made-up groups (Group A) and (Group B).
- Descriptions were based on a number of positive and negative behaviours.
o Group A (majority group) - twice as many members than B; performed 18 positive and 8 negative behaviours.
o Group B (minority) - performed 9 positive and 4 negative behaviours.
- Asked to attribute behaviours to group.
Results:
- Although there was no correlation between group membership and the types of behaviours exhibited by the groups, in that the proportion of negative and positive was the same for both groups, the participants did seem to have an illusory correlation.
- More of the undesirable behaviours were attributed to the minority Group B, than the majority of Group A.