Paper 1 Sociocultural Approach

Question 1

Bandura

Answer 1

Aim: To demonstrate that if children passively witness aggressive behaviour demonstrated by an adult model, that they display imitative behaviour when given the opportunity
Participants: 36 boys, and 36 girls with a mean age of 52

Procedure:
- The participants were allocated to one of three conditions using a matched pair design, where children would be matched based on their baseline aggressive behaviour before being randomly allocated to the conditions.
- The conditions included a **control group, or an experimental group with either an aggressive adult model or passive adult model **
- The experimental groups were then further subdivided based on whether the adult model was the same-sex as the participants
- This would result in **8 experimental groups with 6 participants per group **

• The experiment had 3 stages
• Initially, children would be brought into a room where there would be a set of toys in a corner of the room for them to play with
• An adult model would then be assorted to the opposite corner of the room with another set of toys, including a bobo doll
• In the aggressive condition, after 1 minute of passively playing with the toys, the adult model would then begin to follow a script of aggressive physical and verbal behaviours towards the bobo doll. In contrast, in the passive condition, the adult model would simply continue playing with the toys
• After 10 minutes, the children would then be escorted to another room, where they would have their aggression stimulated by the researcher taking a set of toys away from the child
• Following being aggressively stimulated, the children were then escorted into a 3rd and final room where there would be another set of toys (aggressive and non-aggressive toys), and a bobo doll
• In this room, the child would be observed through a one way mirror for 20 minutes
• The observers would look to see for imitative physical or verbal behaviour by the children, or imitative nonaggressive physical or verbal behaviour
• Additionally, the observers would also analyse the child if they displayed nonimitative aggressive behaviour such as punching the bobo-doll or using a toy gun

Results:
- The children with the aggressive model would display more aggressive behaviour than children with the passive model
- On average, boys would display more aggressive behaviour than girls
- Boys would display more aggressive behaviour with a male model than a non-male model
- Girls would display more physically aggressive behaviour with a male model, and more verbal aggression with a female model

Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the sociocognitive theory, as it demonstrates that behaviour can be acquired from the mere observation of models in the environment. It also displays how characteristics of the model can influence whether the behaviour of the children (e.g. if the model is same-sex or not)

Evaluation:
1. Strengths
- Cause and effect relationship
- Extremely controlled environment with a standardised procedure
- The study had used matched pairs design

2. Weaknesses
   - Low ecological validity as the study was highly controlled
   - Ethical considerations with the use of such young participants and aggressively stimulating them
   - Only 6 participants per condition
   - Small sample size

Question 2

Taijfel

Answer 2

Aim: To investigate if intergroup discrimination would occur based on the simple condition of having 2 groups
Participants: 48 boys which were aged 14–15 years old

Procedure:
- Initially, the participants were asked to rate a set of 12 paintings.
- Afterwards, the boys would be randomly allocated to one of two groups, but were told that their group had preferred one artist, whilst the other preferred another (this was deception.)
- Each participant would then be tasked with 2 point allocation systems
- In the** 1st point allocation system, the participant would be given a total of 15 points, and had to distribute the points to either a member of their own group, or a member of the other group. The boys had no other information about the members, besides which groups they were in. Depending on how many points given to one member, the remainder amount of points out of the 15 would be given to the other
- In the 2nd point allocation system, **the anonymity of the members the participant would allocate the points to were kept, however this time, if a high value of points was given to a member of their own group, the member of the other group would receive more points. In addition, if a middle range value of points was given to the member of their own group, the other group would receive the same amount of points. However, if the participant allocated a low value to their own group, the member of the opposite group would only receive 1 point

results:
- In the 1st point allocation system, the participants tended to award more points to the member in their own group
- In the 2nd point allocation system, despite having to award their own group with lesser points, the participants would attempt to maximise the difference in the points the other group would receive

Conclusion:
- This study demonstrated that individuals tend to favour their ‘in-group’
- The participants would create a positive social identify of their in-group by assigning their own group more points
- A ‘minimal group’ (a group with no meaningful/shared interactions or conflict with the individual) was all that was needed for intergroup discrimination to take place

Evaluation:
1. Strengths:
- High replicability
- High control over the conditions the participants were in
- Cause effect relationship established between group categorisation and in-group bias.

2. Limitations:
   - Low ecological validity
   - sample bias
   - low sample size
   - The boys may have perceived the task as competitive and tried to ‘win’ which introduced demand characteristics as they believed that giving their group the most points was appropriate and expected

Question 3

Steele and Aronson

Answer 3

Aim: To investigate the effect of stereotype threat on the test performance of African American students
Participants: **114 undergraduate university students **consisting of both male and females, and black and white students

Procedure:
- All participants were tasked with completing a test which assessed verbal ability, akin to that of the SAT test
- **All participants had their SAT scores collected beforehand to check to see if they were with the normal range to mitigate individual differences **
- The description of the tests however differed, and this was how the researchers created a test condition with a stereotype threat, and one without
- Description 1 would read: “this is a test to diagnose your intellectual capabilities”
- Description 2 would read: “this is a test of your problem-solving skills”
- Description 1 triggered a stereotype threat for African American participants by activating a prevailing negative stereotype at the time regarding their intellectual ability in comparison to White peers.
- The participants were randomly allocated to either or test condition, however, it was ensured that there was an even number of participants in each condition

Results:
- African Americans had performed more poorly on the test when compared to their white counterparts when they perceived the test to be of their ‘intellectual capability’
- African Americans had performed just as well on the test when compared to their white counterparts when they believed the test was on their ‘problem-solving skills’
- There were no significant variations across genders

Conclusion: Steele and Aronson provided evidence that stereotype threat can negatively influence the test performance of African Americans, despite being able to perform just as well as their white counterparts when not under the stereotype threat.

This result can be attributed to the feelings of stress and anxiety being prominent when an individual is believed to be tested on an ability which they are perceived to be weaker on. Moreover, this result can also be perceived to be a result of the heighten cognitive load that comes with performing under the pressure of a stereotype threat.

Evaluation:
1. Strengths:
- Large participant size
- Standardised tests
- Very controlled test
- All participants had individual differences checked beforehand

2. Weaknesses:
   - The sample size consisted of university students from just one university, so had low generalisability
   - Their feelings about their racial identity and their levels of stress during the exam were not measured

Question 4

Leuck and Wilson

Answer 4

Aim: To Investigate the potential variables which may serve as predictors of acculturative stress levels in a nationally representative sample of Asian Americans
Participants: 2095 Asian Americans. Roughly half of which who were 1st generations immigrants which had moved to the US at the age of 18, with the other half being children of 1st generation Asian immigrants who were born in the US.

Procedure:
- Researchers had conducted **semi-structured interviews ** on the participants in their native languages
- The interviews would be used to **determine the acculturative stress levels **of the participants
- The interviews also measure the impact of variables such as language proficiency, language preferences, discrimination, family cohesion, social networks, and social economic status on the acculturative stress levels of the participants

Conclusion/Results:
- A bilingual language preference was associated with lower acculturative stress. This was most likely due to participants have both the ability to communicate and form social networks with members both in and outside their community.
- Acculturative stress may arise when participants cannot discuss meaningful/purposeful topics with members of their community or outside their community due to the inability for language communication
- Having a language preference for only English was a variable associated with higher acculturative stress.
- Individuals who experienced negative treatment such as discrimination generally had much higher acculturative stress levels
- Sharing similar beliefs to family members and having a strong family cohesion was associated with lower acculturative stress
- Acculturative stress was significantly lower when individuals were satisfied with their socioeconomic opportunities in the US, and for those who said they would move to the US again if they had to make the decision.

Question 5

Wood

Answer 5

Aim: To investigate the enculturation of gender roles as a result of parenting ant toy selection
Participants: 24 boys, and 24 girls aged 24-72 months old

Procedure:
- Each child would have 3 play sessions at either their home, or preschool with an adult for approximately 15 minutes each.
- Half the girls would have a play session with their mother, a mother who wasn’t theirs, and a woman who wasn’t a parent, the other half would have a play session with their father, a father who wasn’t theirs, and a non-father male. The same conditions would be reciprocated for the male participants.
- In the room of the play session, there would be a line of 15 toys. 5 of the toys would be stereotypically masculine, 5 of the toys would be stereotypically feminine, and 5 of the toys would be gender-neutral
- During the play session, the researchers would then analyse the amount of time the child and adult would spend playing with each toy
- After the play session, the adults would then undergo a ‘gender sorting task’ where they were asked to categorise the toys as being either masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral

Results:
- Interestingly, the adults had actually had different perceptions of what the categorization of the toys were.
- Despite this however, it was still seen that when playing with boys, that most time was spent playing with masculine toys, and when playing with girls, that most time would be spent with feminine toys

Conclusion: This study provides evidence that gender roles of children may be reinforced by parents and toy selection

Question 6

Berry

Answer 6

Aim: To investigate the level of conformity of individuals from two distinct types of societies using the Asch Paradigm **
Participants: This study analysed 3 separate distinct cultures:** the Tenme who were collectivists, the Inuits who were individualistic, and the Scots as a reference group. Each group was made up of people who had never had a Western education and maintained the traditional way of life and people who were “in transition” - either having a Western education or employment. There were around **120 individuals per culture. **

Procedure:
- To test the level of conformity of these individuals, the researchers had used a design akin to the **Asch Paradigm **
- Participants would be brought into a room alone.
- For the first 2 tests, they were asked to select which line out of a set of 8 lines most closely reassembled a 9th line at the top of the set in terms of length
- After the first 2 trials, on the third trial they were informed that most people from their culture had believed a certain line out of the 8 to be the correct one (this was deception and false, however the ‘belief’ was correct)
- On the last 3 trials however, the same procedure as the 3rd trial was done however this time the answer said to be believed by the majority as correct was actually wrong

Results:
- The tenme, which were collectivist, had the highest rate of conformity when they were told that other tenme had ‘believed’ even though it was incorrect.
- The Inuit on the other hand had an even lowest rate of conformity
- There was no significant difference seen in the participants who were of the same culture but lead the more western lifestyle

Conclusion: This study provides evidence that the cultural dimensions of one’s culture, such as being individualistic or collectivist, can influence the behaviour of an individual of that culture.

Evaluation:
1. Strengths:
- Cause experiment helps improve internal validity of the experiment
- Used a reliable and used procedure, the ‘Asch paradigm’

2. Weaknesses
   - No cause effect relationship established as it was a quasi experiment
   - low ecological validity
   - Only applies to the cultural dimensions of the tenme, inuit, and scots