Sociocultural

Question 1

Social Identity Theory

Answer 1

Argues that a person has not just one ‘personal self’ but rather several social selves that correspond to group membership
Used to understand who we are and so that we know our value in social contexts, therefore, we categorise ourselves in terms of group membership
Predicts that when one of our social identities becomes salient, it will influence our behaviour.

Question 2

Salience

Answer 2

Individual consciously thinks about their group membership/it comes to the forefront of their mind.

Question 3

Four psychological mechanics of SIT

Answer 3

Social categorisation (the process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics)
Social identification (adopting the norms of group and taking on its characteristics)
Social comparison (justifying group membership by comparing with others)
Positive distinctiveness (comparing in-group with out-group to improve self esteem)

Question 4

Conformity

Answer 4

Act of behaving in a way that is consistent with the group or adjusting one’s behaviour so as to be consistent with social norms.

Question 5

Informational social influence + Normative

Answer 5

need for certainty, in ambiguous situations, we engage in social comparison to figure out how to behave
+
need for social acceptance and approval to be accepted and fit in

Question 6

Study: Rogers and Frantz (1961)

Answer 6

Aim: To investigate whether the attitudes of European settlers about Africans would be inversely correlated to the amount of time that they had lived in Zimbabwe — as the length of their residence increased, they would more strongly want to maintain the existing system of racial segregation.
Procedure: Sample consisted of 500 White Europeans, living in Zimbabwe for less than five years to 40+ years. They used a survey containing examples of laws and customs in which White Europeans and Africans were treated differently, including racial segregation of lands, political representaion, and relationships. Four response choices were provided, 0, 2, 4, or 6 — 2 meaning that it is very important to maintain current systems and 6 meaning that it is very important to discontinue the law.
Results: Most Europeans in Zimbabwe favoured the retention of the status quo. Europeans who supported the status quo least strongly were those who had lived in Zimbabwe for fewer than five years. The scores indicate that new arrivals tend to change their attitudes over time.
Link to SIT: Social categorisation means that people tend to exaggerate the difference between themselves and the outgroup, while feeling that members of our group share a common set of traits of race. Thus, the Europeans were more likely to conform to preexisting beliefs.

Question 7

Social Cognitive Theory

Answer 7

​​Suggests behaviour is modelled by other members of a group acquired through observation or imitation based on consequences of a behaviour.

Question 8

Vicarious reinforcement

Answer 8

watch to see if behaviour is reinforced or punished

Question 9

Conditions for SCT

Answer 9

Attention (to learn, observers must attend to modelled behaviour)
Retention (to reproduce behaviour, observers must be able to remember features of behaviour)
Motivation (“” observers must want to and expect a certain outcome)
Potential (“”observers must physically and/or mentally be able to carry out behaviour)

Question 10

Factors which affect SCT

Answer 10

stands out in contrast to other models
behaviour is consistent and reinforced
model is liked and respected by observers
observers perceive similarity between self and model

Question 11

Self-efficacy

Answer 11

Self-efficacy:
One’s beliefs in own ability to succeed accomplishing a task
High self-efficacy = more likely to believe they can master challenges and recover quickly from setback

Question 12

Study: Bandura (1961) - Bashing bobo doll

Answer 12

Aim: To investigate if children would learn aggressive behaviour by imitating an adult model.
Procedure: Children aged 3-6, matched pairs design on pre-existing aggressiveness rated by teachers, placed into different conditions.
3 IV: gender of child, gender of model, whether there was aggression displayed by model. Children tested individually. 12 of each sex placed in control where they watched a room with no model.
Non-aggressive condition: adult model played with toys and ignored Bobo doll.
Aggressive condition: adult model violently attacked and acted verbally aggressively to Bobo doll. After seeing model, child led to a room full of appealing toys that they were not allowed to play with to evoke frustration. Finally, each child taken room containing “aggressive” toys including a mallet and a Bobo doll and “non-aggressive” toys including dolls and trucks. Researchers observed the child’s behaviour in the room and judged each child’s levels of aggression.
Results: Boys engaged in more than twice as much physical aggression than girls. Children who saw aggressive model made more aggressive acts than children who saw non-aggressive model. Boys in aggressive conditions showed more aggression if model was male compared to female. Girls in aggressive conditions also showed more physical aggression if the model was male but more verbal aggression if the model was female, apart from the aggressive act of punching the Bobo doll.
Link to SCT: This study supports the social cognitive theory in the sense that behaviour such as aggression in this study can be learned simply by observing and imitating others; this also supports the prediction of the theory that behaviour will be imitated when there is identification with the model.

Question 13

Stereotypes

Answer 13

Often acquired indirectly from other people and social norms, not from personal experience
Social perception of an individual in terms of their group membership/attributes (generalisation)
Due to heuristics (mental shortcuts) because we are cognitive misers, we are more inclined to less effortful thinking

Question 14

Prejudice + Discrimination

Answer 14

Judgement/emotions/attitude about individuals with very little information about them except for thor group membership
Behaviours based on prejudice.

Question 15

Cause/Formation of stereotypes

Answer 15

Social categorisation means that people tend to exaggerate the differences between themselves and the outgroup, while feeling that members of our group share a common set of traits of race.
Thus, in this study the White Europeans over time felt a greater difference between themselves and black Zimbabwe residents.

Question 16

Study: Martin + Halvorsen

Answer 16

Aim: To investigate whether existing gender stereotyping would influence recall of memories depending on the consistency with the stereotypes.
Procedure: Children’s knowledge of traditional sex-roles assessed using 16 images. Then each child individually shown 16 pictures of actors (males + females) in activities either consistent or inconsistent with gender role schemas. 1 week later, child tested for their memory of the pictures and for how confident they were of the memory.
Results: The children easily recalled the sex of the actor for the pictures in which actors performed gender consistent activities. When the actors’ behaviours were inconsistent, the children often distorted the picture and recalling that the actor’s sex was the gender stereotype related to the activity.
Link to stereotypes: This shows the effect of stereotyping on behaviour as the study shows gender stereotyping influences the behaviour of memory because the children remembered more details and demonstrated less memory distortion when the pictures were consistent with the existing gender stereotypes.

Question 17

Culture

Answer 17

‘software of the mind’ which guides a group in their daily interactions which distinguishes them from other cultural groups; a collective identity which a group shares. Groups characterised by different ‘norms’ and conventions

Question 18

Cultural norms

Answer 18

a set of rules based on socially/culturally shared beliefs of how an individual ought to behave to be accepted within the group

Question 19

Socialisation

Answer 19

The process which people learn rules of society

Question 20

Cultural dimensions

Answer 20

Different categories to classify culture based on different values and beliefs.

Question 21

Individualism

Answer 21

Prioritises ndependence and self-reliance
Achievement oriented, priority for individual tasks and goals
Meant to aim for individual success over relationships with each other.
Obligations/rights to self
Competition between individuals
Individuals do things for themselves with the exception of close family (not extended family)

Question 22

Collectivism

Answer 22

Prioritise group membership and achievement of the group.
Relationships > personal interests
Have firm roles within culture, they know their role/identify strongly with.
Live and care for extended family
Disagreements wanted to be settled so that the group can be in unity
Great in-group vs. out-group comp
Maintaining in-group harmony is important

Question 23

Study: Kulkofsky et al.

Answer 23

Aim: To see if there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivist (China, Turkey) and individualist cultures (Germany, UK, USA)
Procedure:
Sample: adults from five different countries.
All participants identified “middle class”. Participants given 5 mins to recall memories of public events in their lifetime which occurred at least one year ago. Researchers used this list of events to create questionnaire.
Questionnaire included questions regarding their surroundings and emotions at the time of the event, its national and personal importance, and how often they talked about event to indicate level of emotion, personal relevance and rehearsal. Questionnaire constructed in English, then translated + back-translated into the different languages by bilingual researchers to guarantee that the translation not a confounding variable.
Results: National importance equally linked to FBM formation across cultures. In a collectivistic cultures, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on individual’s personal involvement and emotional experiences.
Link to culture: This shows that the behaviour of memory is affected by the cultural norms/dimensions because an individual’s own experiences are less important in a collectivistic culture, therefore, less rehearsal of the event would occur compared with participants from individualistic cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing a FBM. Cultural values of each culture influences the behaviour of flashbulb memory.

Question 24

Enculturation + Gender role

Answer 24

Process of adopting/internalising the schemas of your culture. Goal is to learn specific rituals, expectations, and the language of culture to function smoothly within.
A gender role/sex role is a social role encompassing a range of behaviours and attitudes generally considered acceptable or desirable for people based on their biological or perceived sex.

Question 25

Martin+Halvorsen - Link to enculturation:

Answer 25

This supports the gender enculturation process which suggests that children are actively seeking out information and developing their gender schema. Childhood is a critical phase of development as biases and prejudices are hard to change at older age. This study supports the idea that through observation and experience we adapt our behaviour to the norms of our culture like how the children’s established gender norms affect the behaviour of memory.

Question 26

Acculturation

Answer 26

The process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more culture groups

Question 27

Four acculturation strategies

Answer 27

Integration - interest in adopting behaviours/values of new while maintaining original.
Assimilation - abandon original culture + adopt cultural behaviours/values of new.
Separation - migrants maintain own culture and minimise contact with new culture
Marginalisation - not really possible to maintain one’s original culture but due to discrimination or exclusion, it is not possible to assimilate into new culture

Question 28

Acculturative stress

Answer 28

psychological impact of adaptation to new culture. Acculturative stress = psychological, somatic and social difficulties that may accompany acculturation, often resulting in mental and physical stress. Long term may lead to loneliness, isolation and fatigue

Question 29

Study: Miranda and Matheny (2000)

Answer 29

Aim: To investigate what factors would decrease the level of acculturative stress in Latino immigrants to the USA.
Procedure:
Spanish-speaking Latino American immigrants completed a questionnaire to assess family cohesion, level of acculturation, acculturative stress, and coping strategies for stress.
Results:
Researchers found that immigrants with effective coping strategies, good proficiency in English, and a strong family structure were less likely to experience acculturative stress. In addition, immigrants who spent a longer time in the US were less likely to demonstrate this stress and showed a higher level of acculturation.
Link to acculturation: This study shows that there are many factors that may influence the extent to which an individual acculturates and the effect this will have on mental health.