Sociocultural Approach: Cultural Dimensions

Question 1

What are cultural dimensions?

Answer 1

• dimensions are how the values of a society affect behavior

Question 2

What is one cultural dimension?

Answer 2

• individualism vs. collectivism: the degree to which people are integrated into groups

Question 3

Kulkofsky et al (2011) can be used for…

Answer 3

role of cultural dimensions on behavior, role of culture on cognition, impact of emotion on cognition

Question 4

Berry (1967) can be used for…

Answer 4

research methods, role of culture on behavior, cultural dimensions

Question 5

Berry (1967) - background

Answer 5

• Berry’s research is based on earlier research by Barry, Child, and Bacon which suggested that hunting and fishing societies tend to be individualistic, whereas agricultural societies tend to be collectivistic

Question 6

Berry (1967) - aim

Answer 6

• to measure the level of conformity in two types of societies by applying a version of the Asch Paradigm (a series of experiments on conformity)
  1. Temne: a society that is based on rice farming
  2. Inuits: survives by hunting and fishing
• urban and rural Scots were used as a reference group

Question 7

Berry (1967) - procedure

Answer 7

• each group was made up of people who maintained the traditional way of life and people who were having a Western education/employment
• for the test, they were given a set of nine lines
• first 2 practice tests (to make sure they understood directions): were asked to match the line below that most closely matched the line on the top
• directions were given in their own language by a native interpreter using a pre-translated set of instructions and questions
• after the first 2 trials, there were 4 more trials
• on the 3rd trial, they were told a ‘hint’ - “Most Temne (or Inuit or Scottish) people say this line (experimenter pointed to a designated line) is equal in length to the one at the top. Which one do you say?”
• for the 3rd trial, the correct answer was given
• for trials 4 - 6, the wrong response was given, with each response being five lines away from the correct response
• DV: the number of lines that were away from the correct line
• IV: whether they were given false information about their culture’s consensus on the answer

Question 8

Berry (1967) - findings & conclusion

Answer 8

• the Temne (collectivistic) had a much higher rate of conformity when told what other Temne believed, even though it was incorrect
• the Inuits had an even lower rate of conformity than the Scots
• there was no significant difference within groups - it made no difference whether the participants were living the traditional life or were highly exposed to Western culture

Question 9

Berry (1967) - evaluation

Answer 9

strengths:
- researchers used a control condition to help strengthen the internal validity of the study
- they administered the test in the native languages of the different groups to make sure that language would not be a confounding variable
- etic study: the procedure is highly replicable and thus can be used to establish the reliability of the findings

limitations:
- study lacks ecological validity - the task is highly artificial
- quasi-experiment - although the researchers manipulated the IV, they could not be randomly allocated to conditions - which means that causality cannot be determined
- study is rather dated and so there are questions about its temporal validity - in a more globalized world with more access to media, it is questionable whether these conformity rates still are valid today
- important that we don’t make the ecological fallacy -
believing that since an individual is a member of one of these groups, they would be more or less likely to conform - the results of such research can lead to stereotyping about cultural groups