5.2 Outline principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis 1.

. Social psychology is the scientific attempt to understand and explain how thoughts and behaviors of one individual are influenced by presence of another human being. 2. Human behavior is explained by social situation more than by individual personality. 3. The importance of the social situation evolved as the most important adaptation for survival. 4. There are core motives that interact with the social situation to help us survive in groups. belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing the self and trusting 5.3 Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis 1. Experiments - The only method showing cause and effect - Clarify theory and are supposed to be artificial - Randomly assign participants to conditions and tightly control all variables influencing the independent variable 2. Surveys and questionnaires - Frequently used in correlation studies - The purpose is to collect information and relate it to a selected variable 3. Naturalistic observation - The purpose is to view participants in natural settings - Gather rich detailed knowledge about behavior through observation, interviews and small focus groups 4. Interviews - Used both as a primary way to gather data and in ethnographies - It cannot be assumed that having interviewers with the same cultural background and language as the participants will produce data consistent with Western expectations about getting individual opinions 5. Idiographic research - Case studies of individuals that represent a larger group 6. Cross-cultural research 5.4 Define the terms culture and culture norms 1. Culture is a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life 2. Norms are the expected behavior. Cultural norms are the rules of a cultural group. 5.5 Using one or more examples, explain emics and etics 1. Etics are the universal behaviors. marriage, kinship principles, concepts of intelligence, time orientation 2. Emics are the culture-specific behaviors. definitions of marriage and of kinship rules, value of intelligence, monochromic/polychromic time orientation

3. An interview study about etics/emics and depression - Tabassum, 2000 - The study explored womens mental health needs and clarified the inconsistencies about the frequency of mental disorder, and attributions contributing to attitudes about mental illnesses - Participants: first/second generation Pakistani women accompanied by men - Results: Showed an emic description of mental disorder centering on physical symptoms 63% viewed aggression as a main symptom of abnormality 63% also viewed stress as a primary factor 25% attributed mental disorders to supernatural causes Prevalent belief that families should cope with mental health problems by themselves - Conclusion: the study successfully identified barriers that women face in getting mental health services - Implications: physician training and future collection of data 5.6 Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behavior 1. A dimension of culture is an aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures. The dimensions categorize behavior on a social level of analysis rather than on an individual level. 2. The dimensions of culture are etics, and anything that is an etic can be a dimension of culture. 3. Examples of cultural dimensions: - Individualism vs. collectivism - Masculinity vs. femininity Identified by Hofstede - Power distance - Uncertainty avoidance - Long- and short-orientation 5.8 Examine the contribution of Geert Hofstedes analysis of the IBM survey to our understanding of the dimensions of culture Hofstede identified his dimensions of culture by analyzing the scores of an existing IBM survey. He performed an ecological-level study (study of countries). Hofstede examined a body of survey data about the values of people in about 50 countries yielding about 100,000 questionnaires from IBM workers. The goal of the research was to find factors that might explain the observed relationships between peoples scores on several tests of subtests. After participants filled out a questionnaire, correlations were calculated between all possible pairs of responses in the test and arranged in a matrix. A computer program then took these data and found sets of factors that correlate in a meaningful way. He used a statistical technique called factor analysis to identify those sets or clusters of values that distinguished national organization groups of people. A factor analysis takes individual test questions and relates them to a larger concept. In this case, the factor analysis identified four clusters that later became Hofstedes dimensions of culture. 5.9 Examine the contribution of Edward T. Hall to our understanding of the time orientation dimension of culture.

1. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall perceives time orientation as occurring in two opposing categories: monochromic and polychromic. He believed that time and culture have a reciprocal relationship: time was central to culture, but culture had an impact on time. Monochronic: Probably correlated with individualism People do one thing at a time People focus on time commitments The culture is low-context; people are more likely to make dispositional attributions People think about deadlines and stick to plans People follow privacy rules, respect property, emphasize promptness People focus on verbal language Polychronic: Probably correlated with collectivism People do many things at once People are easily distracted The culture is high-context; people are more likely to make situational attributions People think in terms of goals People put relationships first, care more about the ones closely related and they readily borrow and lend, and promptness is based on relationship factors

2. The study on effects of time orientation - Jones and Brown (2004) - The study assessed the effects of an individuals past, present and future orientations on academic achievement - Hypothesis: there will be a correlation between future orientation in African-American students and academic achievement, but correlation will be mediated by perceptions about future value of education and perceptions of social inequality - Method: Temporal Orientations Scale 15-question self-report questionnaire - Results : High score on future orientation: higher grades, valued education, had high personal efficacy to achieve future goals Low score on future orientation: lower grades, had perceptions that school systems are unfair 5.11 Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior 1. Even though people claim that they would never do anything harmful to another person, the validity of this claim largely depends on situational factors. 2. Social psychologists study two types of attributions which are the way that we assign causes to behavior - Dispositional causes reflect internal things like mood, personal traits, values or intentions - In contrast, situational factors are external causes such as physical, role, rule, norm and laws 3. Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment - Zimbardo, basement of the Stanford University, 1971 - Assumptions: most people underestimate the influence of the situation on behavior; people have a good-bad dichotomy that they use to view themselves and others that emphasizes dispositional factors;

it is more realistic to think of our attributes in degrees, such as the degree of evil or honesty that we show in different situations the tendency in individualist societies is to attribute behaviors to dispositions

Participants: 24 healthy male participants, and randomly assigned to act as guards or prisoners. Results: Assigned roles overtook participants quickly. Prisoners experience loss of personal identity and arbitrary control from guards, many were also deprived of adequate sleep and privacy; guards became excessively abusive. Half are released early due to developed emotional/cognitive disorders that disappear once returned to normal lives. Study ended after six days instead of two weeks Conclusion: hypothesis supported, situations are significant.

Limitations: No control group (no establishment of direct cause) rather a demonstration. Data is analyzed with correlations. Different university-guard shifts meant inconsistent interaction between guards and prisoners. There are some huge ethical considerations regarding this experiment. - Implications: Guards and prisoners conform to their assigned roles. Prisoners report more negative moods than positive mood during the study. 5.12 Discuss two errors in attribution 1. The correspondence bias - Also called the fundamental attribution error - Even though people do not totally ignore the role of situations, there is far more of a tendency to make attributions according to dispositions 2. The correspondence bias experiment - Riggs and Gumbrecht (2005) predicated that, when expectations were violated, use of the correspondence bias would increase or would cause participants to search for situational factors to make a decision - Method: The participants had to make judgments on a paper a student wrote on their reaction to 9/11 Assigned groups were given different information: participants read either an anti or proAmerican essay by a student named John Miller or named Mohammad Fatah, and they were told that the person could either choose a position or it was assigned The only variable that seemed important was the name of the student John Miller showed an extreme use of correspondence

Results:

Correspondence bias disappeared in Fatahs paper situational factors were more important Conclusion: Participants reading Fatahs paper were considered about exhibiting prejudice

Unrealistic expectations in Millers paper affected perception 3. The self-serving bias - People are more likely to attribute success to themselves but place blame for failures on the situation - People are likely to use self-serving attributions when their self-worth is challenged 4. The cross-cultural correlational study on the self-serving bias - Higgins and Bhatt (2001) considered whether there would be differences in how people from individualist and collectivist societies made casual attributions

Participants from Canada and India filled out an open-ended questionnaire that allowed researchers to gather information relevant to the persons specific culture Results: There were both emic and etic aspects of casual attributions Both groups used the self-serving bias to explain negative events in terms of the situation Participants from India used the most contextual explanations for both positive and negative events

Both groups used the self-serving bias for taking credit for positive events 5.13 Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behavior 1. Stereotypes are cognitive inter-group biases. Blatant stereotyping is primarily controlled and conscious. Subtle stereotyping is primarily automatic and unconscious. 2. Subtle stereotypes occur primarily in ambiguous and ambivalent situations, and stem from inner conflict. Everyday cognitive processing, such as selective attention attributions, concept formations contribute to the automatic nature of subtle stereotypes. 3. The rapidness of automatic categorizing and interpreting ambiguous situations causes stereotypes to form. 4. A Longitudinal study on effects of subtle stereotyping on behavior - Herbert and Stipek believed that children internalize stereotyped messages from parents about their mathematical abilities - Through interviews and achievement tests they came up with these predictions: Boys will rate their mathematical abilities higher than girls but wont do better Girls will rate their verbal abilities higher than boys The parents and the teachers will rate the girls higher on verbal abilities, and will rate the boys higher on mathematical abilities

The parent and teacher rating of abilities will predict the childrens own rating Results: Boys rated their mathematical abilities higher starting in 3rd grade. Performance was similar. Girls performed better than boys on verbal tests but rater their performance lower. Teachers, but not parent, rated girls verbal skills higher. Parents, but not teachers, rated boys mathematical skills higher.

Parents rating of mathematics performance by the 5th grade were correlated with their own childs self-rating. 5.14 Evaluate the social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies. 1. The social identity theory is one of psychological theories of group social identity and it refers to favoring ones in-group 2. SIT and the self-categorization theory (SCT) unite our understanding of group behavior and the cognitive processes that determine a wide range of intra-and inter-group behaviors 3. SIT by itself emphasizes the role of categorization in maintaining ones self-esteem but it is limited unless it is studied with SCT because of the integration of the adaptive behavior and self-categorization 4. Two research studies on culture and SIT/SCT - Hypothesis: both US and Japanese participants would trust the in-group member the most and would trust the out-group member the least

Procedure: Participants had to decide whether to trust an unknown person (from in-group, from out-group with a potential connection, from out-group) with watching luggage at the airport, lending money and buying concert tickets online Part of hypothesis confirmed (trust in-group) Japanese sample trusted out-group with potential

Results:

Participants were told they were a part of an online allocation game in which they had to split money they could either accept a small amount or allow allocator (from in-group, from outgroup with a potential connection, from out-group) to pick amounts US students trusted in-group the most Japanese students trusted the ingroup and the potential out-group

connection Conclusion: cultural differences exist in in-group processing