Mayli Yang 05 March 2014 Psychology Outline the principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis.

INTRODUCTION: SCLOA is the scientific study of how peoples thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by actual, implied, or imagined presence of others. It is the scientific study of individuals and groups in social and cultural conditions. Principles of SCLOA: 1) Humans are social animals and thus have a need to belong. 2) Culture influences behavior. 3) Humans have a social-self. 4) Peoples views of the world are resistant to change and developed by the community and culture. These principles show how our environment can influence our behavior and how behavior can be caused or influenced by social factors. BODY: Principle 2: Culture influences behavior (so does the environment). Culture can be defined as the norms and values that define a society. Example: you eat with a knife and fork whereas in some other places/cultures, you may eat with chopsticks or a spoon and fork. Study: Asch Paradigm (1951) Aim: Solomon Asch (1951) conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. Procedure: Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity, whereby 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a vision test.Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven participants were also real participants like themselves. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trails. Asch's experiment also had a control condition where there were no confederates, only a "real participant". Results: On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. Over the 12 critical trials about 75% of participants conformed at least once and 25% of participant never conformed. In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.

Conclusion: People conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence). Evaluation: Biased sample. Lacks population validity results cannot be generalized to females or older groups of people. Ecological validity. Ethical issues deceit can lead to psychological stress.

Principle 3: Humans have a social self and how we construct our social identity depends on the types of groups that we belong and identify with. This principle gives rise to the fact that people not only have a individual identity but also a collective or social one. Our social identity defines who we are and our behaviors are determined by social groups (such as memberships, communities, clubs, nationality or family). Study: Zimbardo Prison Study (1973) Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life. Procedure: Zimbardo used a lab experiment to study conformity. 21 male college students (chosen from 75 volunteers) were screened for psychological normality and paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment. The prison simulation was kept as real life as possible. Prisoners were treated like real criminals (arrested at their own homes, fingerprinted, photographed, etc.). Guards were given clothes to play the part. No physical violence was permitted. Zimbardo observed the behavior of the prisoners and guards. There were 3 guards to the 9 prisoners, taking shifts of eight hours each (the other guards remained on call). Findings: Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily. Within hours of beginning the experiment some guards began to harass prisoners. They behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it. Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented. The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behavior too. They talked about prison issues a great deal of the time. They told tales on each other to the guards. Conclusion: people will readily conform to social roles that they are expected play. Ethics: fully informed consent, participants were not protected from psychological and physical harm. Shows that our social self is constructed by our own conceptions (prisoner or guard) and thus we will act in a way that fits with these conceptions.