Sociocultural approach Flashcards
name 5 sociocultural approach assumptions
- Human beings are social animals and we have a basic need to belong and nurture social connections with others
2.culture affects behaviour
3.Social identities are an important part of who we are, and many human behaviours can be determined by certain group memberships (family, community, nationality etc)
4.Reciprocal determinism - when behaviour is influenced by others even when believe that we’re acting independently
5.The relationship between individual and the group is **bidirectional **: the individual can affect the group behaviour as well as the group behaviour can affect the individual
what was the aim of the festinger study?
How the members of a UFO cult would would cope when they realised their predicted apocalypse would not happen. In other words, prove levels of cognitive dissonance
what were the ethical considerations of the festinger study?
- Deception because they didn’t know they were being studied
- Undue stress because of the anxiety caused afterwards
- Anonymity because we don’t know their identities
- No consent granted to the participants
- Therefore no right to withdraw
describe the procedure of festinger studyand goal of the study
Festinger and his team carried out a covert participant naturalistic observation. It was covert because the members of the cult were unaware that the researchers were studying them. It was participant observation because the researchers became members of the group that they were studying and interacted with them
The cult had a belief of the “flood prophecy” which believed that a flood would be imminent, but spacemen would rescue those who were “true believers”
The cult was located in two homes. In order to gain entry they decided to pretend that they were true believers, and after telling a fake story on how they had started believing in the “flood prophecy”, they all got an invitation to a Seeker’s meeting (name of the cult).
There were eight observers, two of each gender in each house, and all of them were students or staff members in the department of psychology and had had previous experience in interviewing and observation techniques.
The goal of the observations was first to determine the level to which each member was truly convinced of the belief system of the cult. Additionally, they were documenting what specific actions had been taken by the members up to this point, and what further actions they would take as the predicted date of the flood approached. This is called the foot-in-the-door paradigm, which means the level of commitment exhibited by the members. The theory was that the more of a commitment they had made, the less likely they were to change their behaviour even after realising that the prophecy was a hoax.
The observations were difficult because of the lack of regular pattern activities; they would justify being alone as the only opportunities to take notes. After the meetings they would usually dictate their notes into a tape recorder
what is the result of festinger study, in turn, what is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance theory is the theory that when two beliefs are inconsistent, individuals experience negatively arousing cognitive conflict called dissonance. In this case, the members had extreme anxiety after realising the predictions were wrong after sacrificing so much (both personally and professionally) to join the cult. One way to alleviate this anxiety was to justify their behaviour by irrationally accepting Ms Keech’s automatically written message that they have saved the world. This ultimately has to do with maintaining self-esteem and alleviating cognitive dissonance.
what are the three assumptions of social identity theory?
- social categorisation
- social identification
- social comparison
what is social categorisation?
Membership to social groups
how we develop a sense of identity according to the group we are in in comparison with other groups
what is social identification?
- In the group we behave as the other members behave
- We take on the group’s identity
- A positive social identity can increase one’s self esteem
what is social comparison?
- Comparing our group (ingroup) to another (outgroup)
- Ingroup favouritism being when you view your group in a positive light vs
- Outgroup discrimination being seeing members of another group in a negative light simply becaus they do not belong to your group
what is the minimal group paradigm?
The mere fact of belonging to two different groups can trigger ingroup or outgroup discrimination or favouritism
what is foot in the door paradigm?
the level of commitment exhibited by the members. The theory was that the more of a commitment they had made, the less likely they were to change their behaviour even after realising that the prophecy was a hoax.
Aim and method with participants of Tajfel study
Aim is to investigate if intergroup discrimination would happen when being put into two different groups. Tajfel hypothesised that categorisation and discrimination would be present automatically when being put into groups, even if there wasn’t any prior prejudice.
The method is an experiment containing 48 male student participants aged 14-15 from England. They all came from the same school and knew each other very well.
what is pluralistic ignorance?
the belief that other members within your group comparably hold less or more or less extreme behaviours or beliefs
what is social influence?
the concept that people are heavily influenced by other people, or more specifically, social groups
Procedure of Tajfel without award point allocation
The participants were randomly allocated into groups, and were asked to rate 12 paintings by two painters, and told that they had to prefer either Klee or Kandinsky : Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. The participants did not know who their group members were and had no face to face contact. Each boy was then given the task to award points to two other boys, one from his group and one from the other group, with the only information about them being the code numbers and name of the group of each of the boys.
what were the different award point allocations of Tajfel study
Point allocation system 1
The scores for each boy were linked so the overall sum of two scores were fifteen. For example, if the first boy had 8 points, the other would automatically get 7. Ultimately, if the score for the participant increases, the score of the other boy decreases
Point allocation system 2 - the manipulated system by Tajfel
- If a Klee member chose a high-value for another Klee member, it would give a higher profit to the out-group
- If a Klee member chose a mid-range value for another Klee member, it would give the same points to the outgroup
- If a Klee member chose a low value for another Klee member, it would award only 1 point to the other team.
what were the results of Tajfel study?
In the first system point allocation, the boys awarded more points to the members of their ingroup, showing in-group favouritism. While in the second system of the point awarding, the boys willingly gave their in-group less points to maximise the difference between their ingroup and outgroup.
This concludes that there is a natural tendency of members of a group to favour their ingroup
Despite the meaningless groupings created by the experimenters, the participants were able to identify with their groups and create a positive social identity by giving their ingroup members more points
Tajfel demonstrated that a minimal group is all that’s needed for individuals to show negative discrimination towards an outgroup.
factors contributing for social cognitive theory observational learning
- attention
- Attraction of the model
Authority of the model
Desirability of the behaviour - retention
- The observer must be able to remember the observed behaviour in order to produce that same behaviour immediately after, or after some time. - motivation
- Consistency of the model’s behaviour
Identification with the model in terms of age and gender
Linking the model as cold and unfriendly or friendly and warm
4.reproduction/ potential
physically/ mentally able to carry out the behaviour
Belief that you are able to accomplish the task
what is vicarious reinforcement
when the frequency of certain behaviours increases as a result of observing others being rewarded for the same behaviour.
Huesman and Eron aim
To study the relation between television exposure and children’s aggressive behaviour
Huesman and eron method
A longitudinal study monitoring children’s behaviour over a 15 year period.
