Sociocultural Approach - Case Studies Flashcards
Harris & Fiske (2006)
- Lab experiment social identity theory-
Aim: To observe the role of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala in response to extreme out groups.
Method: 22 princeton university students divided into 2 groups. Half shown images of people and half shown images of object. Before entering fMRI, particpants were shown netural photos for different emotions (pride, envy, pity, disgust) on a computer screen to make sure they understood the task. Once in the fMRI, there were shown six sets of 10 photos. These included people with disabilities, rish businessman, older people, olympic athletes, homeless people. The participants were shown a response screen after each screen and asked to choose which of the four emotions they felt was just displayed.
Results: a clear difference was found i brain acitivty when they rated pictures of addics or homeless people. Amygdala was activated and their brains set off a series of reactions associated with disgust. The insula was activated, which is usually a response to non-human objects. The medial frontal cortex was not activated even though it normally is when we think about other people.
Conclusion: indicates that some social groups seem to be dehuanized, as shown by the absence of neural signoture for social recogition.
Bandura (1961)
- lab experiment social congitive theory-
Aim: To investigate the effect if children’s exposure to an aggressive model.
Method: 72 children (mean age 4) participated and it took place in a university. The children were pre.tested on how aggressive they were by observation in nursery and rating on a 5-point scale. They were then matched in each group so they had similar levels of agggression. (Matched pairs design)bfor inter-rater reliability, two raters independently rated the children and were compared which showed a high reliability correlation showing they had agreement. The study had 3 major coniditions: a group exposed to an aggressive model, a group exposed to a passive model and a control group. The children were further subdivided by their gender and the gender of the model they espoesed to. 8 experimental groups and a control group of 24 was formed as there were 3 IVs. They observed the adul model based on their conidition and gender. Then they were individually brought to another room with tors and an inflatable doll and their behaviour was observed behind a one-way mirror for 20 mins.
Results: children who observed aggressive models had an increase frequency of aggressive behaviour. Girls more likely to imitate verbal aggression while boys were more likely imitate physical aggression. The imitation was more likely to occur when children observed same-sex models.
Conclusion: support modelling and the social cognitive theory. Learning can be indirect and new behavuours can be learned by observation.
Sherif (1954)
- field experiment social identity theory -
Aim: To study informal groups and see the spontaneous development of group organization and group norms.
Method: 22 middle shcool white boys were told they were attending a summer camp. For the first phase, they were split into 2 groups which were randomly selected. The boys were then kept seperate to establish group identity by the use of group activities, creating a name for the group, painting a lag and shirts. After establishment of group identity, for the second phase, the researchers created a group conflict, by the use of games, were one group beenefited at the consequences of another. The boys were constantly observed by cameras and the observers throughout this whole experiment. For the third phase, increasing contact was trialed a s away of reducing conflict. After several activities were unsucessful, superordinate goals were introduced.
Results: For the first phase, the boys develop a strong in-group identity and a clear leader was established. The second phase started with hostility. One of the groups burned the flad of the other after losing. Agme, food fights and damage to property emerged. Friendship choices were mostly in-group. The third phase showed that contact alone was not enough to reduce hostility and prejudice. The superordinate goals reduced hostility and the two seperate out-groups became one in-group.
Conclusion: the results proved realistic conflict theory. Social hierarchies and leaders were quickly formed and solidarity of the in-group increased in competitive situations, along with hostility toward out-group. Mere presence of an out-group doesnt reduce hosility. Even though inter-group condlict is inevtiable in the presence of competition, it can be reduced,
Fein & Spencer (1999)
- stereotyping -
Aim: To investigate if stereotyping and prejudice would increase when a group of men had their self-image challenged by scores on an intelligence test.
Method: 61 male psych students from uni. Participants came independently and did not interact with other pariticipanrts. They were randomly allocated to negative feedback condition or control condition. They were asked to take an online test with made up questions not always possible to answer. The control group was told the test was a fake intelligence test while the negative condition believed it to be true. The negative feedback group recieved low scores which they found disappointing. Then they took a social judgement task where they given one of two scenarios about a struggling artist named Gred who finally reciev a large part in a play. Scenario 1 was that gred is living with gf anne and in scenario to with his ”partner”. the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire on his personality, rating traits on a scale of 0-10. Seven straits were stereotypical of gay men. They were also asked if they would like Greg as a friend TWE they found themselves similar to him.
Results: participants who recieved negativefeedback on the intelligence test rated the ”gay implied” Greg more stereotypically than those who did not. They also rates themselbes as likely to be like Greh compared to those in the neutral condiition. Dislike was strongest in the ”gay implied” condition.
Conclusion: Self-image maintenance processes play an important role in stereotyping and prejudice. When individuals evaluated a mmember of a stereotypes group, they were more likely to evaluate that person stereotypically if their self images had been threatened by negative feedback.
Steele & Aronson (1995)
- effects of stereotypes -
Aim: To see how sterotype threat affects African American’s test performence
Method: 114 participants black and white, male and female, uni undergards. Divided into 2 conidtions: diagnostic and non-diagnostic). They were given a standardized test of verbal abilities (similar to SAT) and told it was either diagnostic of intellectual ability (stereotype threat) or test of problem-solving ability. The test was 30 mins and was difficult enough to be at the upper limits of the participants abilities.
Results: in the diagnostic condition, black participants performed worse despise doing just as well as white participants in the non-diagnostic conidition. There was no significant difference betwee male and female participants.
Conclusion: This suggests that stereotype threat had an impact on their performence.
Odden & Rochat (2004)
- observational study on traditions, enculturation , sct -
Aim: To observe the development of cultural norms, specifically the behaviour of line fishing and conceptual undersating of rank and hierarchy, in Samoa
Method: an observational longitudinal study (25 months) of 28 children in one Samoan village. In Samoan clture, adults tend to have a non-interventionist approach to their children, believing that children can learn important skills and values on their own. Thus, this culture is provided a unique opportunity to assess the role of observational learning. Observations were of the children’s behaviour over 25 months, and at the end of the study, the children completed a multiple choice test that tested their knolwedge of the Samoan society.
Results: The children were not taught how to fish due to limited equipment, but they observed the adults. when they were 10, they began borrowing fish equipment (without supervision) and by 12 most were capable fishermen. The test demonstrated that most children had a basic understanding of the concepts, rites, and rituals of their society, despite not being explicitly taught these. They were able to learn the norms of their culture siply by observing and overhearing the conversations of others.
Conclusion: Observational learning plays a significant role in enculturation. It is possible for children to learn the values, norms and behaviours of their culture simply by observation and imitation.
Kulkofsky et al. (2011)
- survey for cultural infleunce on behaviour and cultural dimensions -
Aim: The researchers studied 5 countries - china, germany, turkey, UK, USA - to see if there was any difference in the rate of flashblub memories in collectivistic and individualistic culture.
Method: 274 middle class adults from 5 different countries. They were given 5 minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events in their lifetime. They were then given a memory questionnaire from this list of events, which included questions of what they remembered about when they had experienced the event (ex. Who were you with, when did you hear, where did you hear, how, etc.) they were also asked to answer questions about the importance of the event to them personally. All questions were provided in the native language of the participants.
Results: it was found that in collectivistic cultures, like china, personal important and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting flashblub memories, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individuals involvement and emotional experiences. Because focusing on the individuals own experience is own de-emphasized in the Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the triggering event compared with partisipants from other cultures - thus a lower chance of developing a flashbulb memory. However, it was found that if the event was of national importance, then there was no significant difference in the creation of flahblub memories.
Conclusion: personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting flashblub memories, compared with individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individuals personal involvement and emotional experiences.
Berry (1967)
- natural experiment with independent measures design for cultural dimensions -
Aim: To investigate whether rates of conformity were higher in individualist or collectivity cultures.
Method: Focused on 2 societies with subsistence-level economies based on daily needs for food and shelter: The Temne from Sierra Leone and the Inuit from Canada. He then applied the Asch paradigm to both groups.
Results: It was found that conformity was higher in collectivity Temne culture. In theory, this happens ebcause an agricultural economy demands a higher degree of cooperation and therefore conformity, while a hunting-fishing economy does not - its not only possible, but prefferable, to do it alone.
Conclusion: Level of economic independence may shape social norms and this in turn may impact behaviours like conformity.
