THE SOCIOCULTURAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS

The Sociocultural Level of Analysis (SCLOA)

1. Principles and Research Methods of the SCLOA

A. Principles of the SCLOA

B. Research Methods of the SCLOA
C. Ethics and Research Methods at the SCLOA

2. Sociocultural Cognition
A. The role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour.
B. Errors in attribution.
C. Social identity theory.
D. Stereotyping.

3. Social Norms
A. Social learning theory.
B. Compliance techniques.
C. Conformity to group norms.

4. Cultural Norms
A. Cultural norms, cultural dimensions and behaviour.
B. “Emic” and “etic” research.

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1. Principles and Research Methods of the SCLOA

A. Principles of the SCLOA

Human behaviour can only be understood if examined within the social context in which it occurs.
The presence of others affects our behaviour, just as we affect theirs. The Sociocultural Level of
Analysis (SCLOA) moves the focus from the individual to the ways in which the presence of others
shapes, and is shaped by, our own behaviour. Behaviours such as conformity to society’s norms and
values, altruism, learning and labelling are among some of those considered to be human social
behaviours. Researchers working at the SCLOA have an important role in explaining the role of
culture in human behaviour and thus helping us to move towards more intercultural understanding.

The main principles of the SCLOA are:

• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.
• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.
• Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.
• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.

Please see your Psychology Guide pages 18-19 for further details of the SCLOA.
Remember, it is generally agreed that there is a role for individual biology, cognition and social factors
in understanding human behaviour. A synthesis of the biological, cognitive and sociocultural levels of
analysis holds out the greatest promise of bringing us closer to the goal of more fully understanding
the nature of the complex interacting systems that make up human beings.

Learning Outcome:

Outline principles that define the sociocultural level of analysis.

Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.

We all want to be accepted by others and to be part of a
social group, even if we do not always express this directly.
This need is explained in different ways: as an evolutionary
adaptation because social groups offer protection and
support; as the means of boosting our self-worth; as a pre-
requisite for normal human development.

Theories concerning social identity, conformity and

stereotyping are all based on the principle that we are social
animals.

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Study demonstrating the principle that human beings are social animals with a basic need to
“belong”.

Carvallo and Gabriel (2006) investigated the need to belong theory that proposes that all
individuals need social connections. They researched “dismissive avoidant individuals” who
claimed to be comfortable without close relationships and appear to be indifferent to how
other people think of them, by examining the association between dismissing avoidant
behaviour and the desire to feel accepted by others. In their first study, highly-dismissive
participants reported experiencing higher than average levels of positive mood and self-
esteem after learning that other participants accepted them. In the second study, highly-
dismissive participants felt better about themselves and experienced higher levels of positive
mood after learning that in the future they would be successful in interpersonal areas. The
results of these studies suggest that dismissive avoidant people do not represent a challenge
to the hypothesis that all human beings have a fundamental need and desire to belong. They
are merely denying that they have this need and desire.

Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

Social psychologists and cultural anthropologists conduct
research into the interaction between culture and human
behaviour. Culture is defined in the Encarta dictionary of
English as “the beliefs, customs, practices, and social
behaviour of a particular nation or people”. While it is not
surprising that these should affect our individual attitudes
and behaviour, it is something that is easily ignored or
forgotten, until we meet somebody from a culture that is
very different from our own. It is then that we can
experience a “culture shock”, as when we travel and find
that people stand what we feel is “too close” or are “always
touching us when they speak to us” or believe that “dinner
at 8pm” really means “turn up any time after about 8.30”.
We think of ourselves as culture-free and others as culture-bound. It is only when we really get into
the sociocultural level of analysis that we realise that we are all culture-bound: no human behaviour
can ever be context-free and our wider context is our culture.

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Study demonstrating the principle that culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

Hsu and Alden (2008) conducted a study in North America, into culture-related influences on
willingness to seek treatment for social anxiety in first- and second-generation students of
Chinese heritage and their European-heritage counterparts. Participants completed measures
that assessed their willingness to seek treatment for various levels of social anxiety. Results
showed that participants were similar on willingness to seek treatment at low-and high-
severity levels of social anxiety; however, at moderate levels, first-generation Chinese
participants were significantly less willing to seek treatment compared to their European-
heritage counterparts, even though they found the mid-level of social anxiety just as impairing
as did the students of European heritage. The reluctance of first-generation Chinese
participants to seek treatment was associated with greater Chinese-heritage acculturation.
The findings support the general contention that Asians in North America tend to delay
treatment for mental health problems.

Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.

People do not only have an individual identity, but also a
collective or social one. Social identities are very important
to the definition of who we are, and many behaviours are
determined by membership of groups such as family,
community, club or nationality. The relationship between
the individual and the group to which they belong is
bidirectional: as an individual is affected by being part of a
group, the individual can also affect behaviour in the group.

Study demonstrating the principle that because humans are social animals they have a social
self.

Buckingham et al. (2013) drew on social identity theory to investigate how recovery group
membership can introduce a new social identity associated with recovery, compared to the
social identity associated with addiction. (Social identity theory is described later in this
section: it is a person’s sense of who they are, based on their group membership, in this case,
their membership of “recovering addict” or “ex-smoker”).

Study 1 recruited members from United Kingdom based mutual aid groups of Alcoholics
Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Study 2 recruited ex-smokers from online sources.
Both studies found that being able to differentiate between the old individual identity and the
new social identity was significantly related to higher feelings of *self-efficacy, lowered relapse
and reduced addictive behaviour. These results suggest that developing a social identity as a
“recovering addict” or an “ex-smoker” and subsequently highlighting the difference between
such identities may be a useful strategy for reducing relapse among people with problems
associated with addictive behaviour.

*self-efficacy= the belief in one’s abilities to achieve a goal or outcome.

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People’s views of the world are resistant to

change
A world view can be defined as the way the world is
understood: how it is supposed to work, why it works the
way it does, and what values are essential in the world
community. Clearly, culture helps to shape our world view
and our communities instil in us values which have been
passed down from generation to generation. Just as we are
not necessarily aware of the effect that our culture has on
us, so we often believe that we hold individual opinions that
are unique to us and that we have the flexibility to change
our world view in the face of contradictory evidence.
However, psychological research has shown that this is not
the case.

Study demonstrating the principle that people’s views of the world are resistant to change.

Festinger et al. (1956) investigated a cult in Lake City area of Chicago that believed that a
st
huge flood would end the world on December 21 , but that the cult members would be
rescued at midnight just before the flood by flying saucers.

The researchers conducted a cover participant observation study by posing as believers.

st
They remained with the cult up to and beyond December 21 , when there was no flood
that signalled the beginning of natural disasters, and no rescue by flying saucer. The cult
members rationalised this by believing that their fervent prayers had resulted in God’s
mercy and the world had been spared.
While the cult lost a few members, who were disillusioned, the majority remained
convinced.

B. Research Methods of the SCLOA

Research methods at the Sociocultural Level of Analysis are based on the principles already
described. They are:

• Case studies
• Field experiments

• Natural experiments

• Observation

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Learning Outcomes:

Explain how principles that define the Sociocultural Level of Analysis may be demonstrated in
research (through theories and/or studies).

Discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the Sociocultural Level of Analysis.

Case studies
In the SCLOA, case studies are used to gain a
detailed picture of an individual or small group of
people through in-depth study, often using
triangulation of methods (more than one method) of
research.

Case studies are particularly useful in revealing the

origins and the personal experience of abnormal
behaviour, for example. In fact some forms of
psychotherapy rely on building up a long and detailed
case history as an aid to understanding and helping
the client. Case studies allow psychologists to look at people in situations which could not have been
produced artificially, such as when experiencing mental trauma. Case studies usually provide an in-
depth picture producing rich data with real relevance to a participant’s life. See the section on
research methods for more details on case studies.

Why are case studies used at the SCLOA?

Researchers from the SCLOA believe in taking a holistic approach to studying human behaviour, and
argue that it cannot be explained solely by either the action of neurons or individual cognition. All
humans are social animals, and as such human behaviour needs to be looked at in a social context,
with all details of a person’s interactions, beliefs and values being important.
How are case studies used at the SCLOA?

Because case studies are used at the SCLOA to provide a deeper understanding of a person’s
behaviour, by looking in detail at the context in which it occurs, researchers will often take an emic
approach (looking at the participant’s life from their perspective). Some case studies have been built
up over a number of years, with a friendly relationship being developed between the researcher and
the participant. As mentioned above, they are particularly useful, and originate from the area of
health.

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A case study at the SCLOA

Lovell and Lee (2011) investigated the effect that bullying had on the emotional and physical health
of both the victim and a witness to the bullying. The study aim was to determine whether bullying
caused poor health for a victim and a witness from the same workplace in westernCanada. The
method used was a longitudinal case study comprising semi-structured interviews conducted over a
period of two years. The interviews were transcribed, analyzed, and arranged into chronological
order. The victim felt targeted because she represented a threat to the bully, with victim and witness
both experiencing negative health outcomes. The researchers suggest that wellness programmes
should place greater emphasis on mental health promotion to discourage workplace bullying.

Principles that this research method example could be used to demonstrate:

• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.
• Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.

Field experiments
Field experiments are one of the research methods used in
the SCLOA. This is research conducted in participants’
own environment, and although it involves manipulation of
an independent variable (IV) and measuring the effect on
the DV, participants are often unaware that they are in an
experiment.

Why are field experiments used at the SCLOA?

Field experiments are much less artificial than laboratory experiments and therefore there is less
chance of participants behaving unnaturally. They are therefore more ecologically valid, though a lack
of control over extraneous variables (the unexpected ‘happenings’ of everyday life) means that they
cannot be used to infer a cause and effect relationship.

How are field experiments used at the SCLOA?

Field experiments are often used in researching the behaviour of people in everyday situations. These
could include children in school or people in hospital or various health institutions, where an observer
or interviewer is often so much accepted as part of the routine that it causes minimal disturbance.

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A field experiment at the SCLOA

Ronay and von Hippel (2010) conducted a field experiment with skateboarders, demonstrating
that physical risk taking by young men increased in the presence of an attractive female. This
increased risk taking led to more successes but also more crash landings in front of a female
observer. Later analysis suggests that this increase in risk taking is caused in part by elevated
testosterone levels of men who performed in front of the attractive female. In addition,
skateboarders’ risk taking was predicted by their performance on a *reversal-learning task,
reversal-learning performance was disrupted by the presence of the attractive female, and the
female’s presence moderated the observed relationship between risk taking and reversal
learning. These results suggest that men use physical risk taking as a sexual display strategy.
*In reversal learning, the individual first learns to make a discrimination, such as choosing a black
object in a black–white discrimination problem, and then is supposed to learn to reverse his
choice—i.e., to choose the white object. Such reversals tend to be difficult for most learners
since there are negative transfer effects; e.g., the individual tends to persist in responding to the
black object that was originally correct. (See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013 for more details).

Natural experiments
In natural experiments the independent variable is often
one such as gender or age, and cannot be manipulated.
These experiments therefore lack the random allocation
of participants to experimental conditions and also usually
lack the researcher’s control over the independent
variable.

Why are natural experiments used at the SCLOA?

Researchers at the SCLOA are interested in how such variables as ethnicity, age, gender, and
affiliation to a particular group affect human behaviour. Our age, gender, political inclinations, sporting
preferences, etc. are often the criteria for membership of certain social groups and markers for certain
types of social behaviour. Therefore it makes sense to study the effects of these variables, either in a
laboratory or (preferably) in a real world setting.

Principles that this research method example could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.
• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.

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How are natural experiments used at the SCLOA?

Interviews and observations form part of the natural experiments. Participants are not always aware
that they are being studied and, if they are not laboratory experiments, they take place in settings
such as schools, social events, medical centres and other such locations.

Natural experiment at the SCLOA

Phillips et al. (2001) conducted a natural experiment to determine whether cardiac mortality
(death from heart attacks or heart disease) is abnormally high on days considered unlucky:
Chinese and Japanese people consider the number 4 unlucky, and Americans from other ethnic
groups do not. The researchers examined cardiac and non-cardiac mortality on and around the
fourth of each month in 209,908 Chinese and Japanese participants and compared this with the
mortality rates of 47,328,762 American control participants in the US between 1973 and 1998.
The authors measured the ratio of observed to expected numbers of deaths on the fourth day of
the month. Cardiac mortality in Chinese and Japanese people peaked on the fourth of the month.
The peak was particularly large for deaths from chronic heart disease and still larger for deaths
from chronic heart disease in California. Within this group, inpatients showed a particularly large
peak on the fourth day. The peak was not followed by a compensatory drop in number of deaths.
The control group, matched on age, sex, marital status, hospital status, location, and cause of
death, showed no similar peak in cardiac mortality. Findings of excess deaths from heart
problems on "unlucky" days are consistent with the hypothesis that cardiac mortality increases on
psychologically stressful occasions.

Principle that this research method example could be used to demonstrate

• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.
• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

Observation
As outlined in the section on research methods, observation can
be participant or non-participant, covert or overt. Because
researchers at the SCLOA are concerned to investigate human
behaviour in circumstances that are as natural as possible, many
of their studies have used covert observation. This has led to
some concerns regarding ethics, which will be discussed later.

Why is observation used at the SCLOA?

Researchers at the SCLOA are not so much concerned with the
inner workings of the human brain or mind, but more with how
people behave in social situations and how they reflect on their
actions and negotiate boundaries. The first step to
understanding behaviour is therefore observing it.

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How is observation used at the SCLOA?

More recently there has been a shift away from covert observation to either participant or non-
participant overt observation. New filming techniques have allowed for observation and recording to
be much more unobtrusive than previously, with the result that participants may give consent and
then later behave in a natural way, as they have forgotten about the tiny camera or recorder in the
corner of the room. Observation is used to gather data about human interaction and as part of a
triangulation of methods, often being compared with what participants say in interviews.

Ethnographic studies into culturally diverse groups often use observational methods.

A study using observation at the SCLOA

Alverson et al. (2006) conducted an ethnographic study employing participant observation methods
to identify critical differences in styles of searching for competitive employment among people with
severe mental illness. Engaging in active job seeking was strongly associated with younger age, with
participants' involvement in interdependent kin networks or households, with ethno-racial minority
background, and with capacity for coherent discourse (speech and discussion). Active job seekers
did particularly well in a supported employment programme, but also were able to find employment
when assigned to other programmes; passive job seekers had little success in any vocational
programme. The authors discuss several implications of these findings for vocational services.

Principle that this research method example could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

C. Ethics and Research Methods at the SCLOA

Learning Outcomes:

Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the Sociocultural Level of Analysis.

Ethics refers to a system of moral values or the way people distinguish right from wrong. The
American Psychological Association (APA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) require all
their members to adhere to its code of ethics, which applies to the treatment of both humans and
animals.

The desire to investigate human behaviour under natural circumstances has sometimes led to ethical
problems associated with the research methods at the SCLOA. They are mainly related to informed
consent, access to the research after the data has been collected and causing distress to participants,
albeit after the event when they find they have been deceived. A significant amount of research is
naturalistic – that is “as it really is” and has involved covert participant observation, which has come
under heavy criticism. Many historical studies at the SCLOA would not pass the scrutiny of current
ethics committees. See this link for some of them. These studies have contributed significantly to
knowledge regarding human behaviour, leading some to argue that the end justifies the means.

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However, nowadays it is more difficult to find examples of unethical experiments at the SCLOA, so
the example given is less up-to-date than usual, though a classic.

Example of an unethical experiment at the SCLOA

Zimbardo et al (1973) set up the Stanford Prison experiment in 1971 to study the psychological
effects that role-playing could have on behaviour. A mock prison was constructed in the
basement of the psychology building of Stanford University and 24 male students were randomly
selected to play the role of either a prisoner or prison guard for two weeks. All participants signed
an informed consent form, but this could hardly prepare them adequately for what happened.

The guards succeed in enforcing control and become more authoritarian, while the prisoners
become increasingly docile. Punishments were meted out for breaking rules and sometimes for
no reason at all. Punishments include doing push-ups, being stripped naked, having legs
chained, and being repeatedly wakened during the night. After 6 days the experiment (which had
been originally designed to run for two weeks) was terminated due to the extreme stress and
depressed behaviour exhibited by the prisoners. Ethical guidelines of the day had been followed.
However, we must take into consideration that ethical guidelines were not as thorough when the
study was conducted, and experiments like this that have led us to believe that humans are more
fragile than previously expected, and therefore precautions have to be taken in order not to
cause undue distress.

Principles that this example could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.

2. Sociocultural Cognition
This section looks at SCLOA research into:

A. The role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour.

Learning Outcome:

Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour.

Attribution theory. As humans, we are always trying to
understand each other’s actions. “Why did she do that?” is a
very common question to ask, and when we do not know the
answer, we try to guess, based often on our experience of
similar situations. We attribute reasons to explain other
people’s behaviour and our own behaviour. The way in
which we do this has been studied by psychologists at the
SCLOA who developed attribution theory to explain this.

When we try to explain our own or others’ behaviour, we

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have a choice of using explanations based on situational factors or dispositional factors. Situational
factors are externally created by the situation, such as poor weather or transport breakdown making
us late for an appointment. Dispositional factors are internally created by the nature of the person:
s/he is late because they are a disorganised person with no regard for punctuality.

We often explain behaviour differently depending if we are explaining our own behaviour, or that of
others. This is called the actor-observer effect, and arises because we know less about the other
person than about ourselves.

To demonstrate attribution theory Heider and Simmel (1944) asked participants to simply describe the
movement of abstract geometric shapes. They found a general tendency to describe the movement in
terms of human intentions and motives (see here for a copy of the original film). This readiness to
ascribe human intentionality to things that we know have little or no capacity for such intention is a
common characteristic of how we think. In animal studies, it is called anthropomorphism.

Zimbardo’s study, described earlier in this section, can be used to illustrate how situational factors can
outweigh dispositional ones when it comes to human behaviour. The participants were all
interviewed, tested and declared perfectly “normal” before the experiment. They were randomly
assigned to either prisoner or guard roles, and very soon their behaviour, as they conformed to the
situational expectations of their role, was anything but normal. Prisoners “experienced a loss of
personal identity and the arbitrary control of their behaviour which resulted in a syndrome of passivity,
dependency, depression and helplessness” (Zimbardo et al, 1973, page 69). Guards “experienced a
marked gain in social power, status and group identification” (ibid, page 69). The result was that half
of the eight prisoners (who all tested as non-depressed a few days’ earlier) developed such an acute
emotional disturbance that they had to be “released” (Zimbardo’s term) early. Their dispositions had
been seriously affected by their situation.
Another study that shows how people’s dispositions can be affected by a particular situation is that of
Stanley Milgram, who investigated the power of the inclination to obey authority, in an effort to
understand how seemingly kind people can commit aggressive acts when instructed to do so by
someone in a position of authority. The need to be obedient to an authority figure, which is part of the
socialisation of most children by their parents, can override the most humane feelings of many adults.
His experiment suggested that we all have the capability of acting in an inhumane way when
instructed to by someone whom we believe we should obey. The situation is more powerful than our
disposition.

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Study demonstrating the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour.

Reijntjes et al. (2013) looked at the interaction between situational and dispositional factors in
influencing displaced aggression. People often displace their aggression against innocent targets.
However, before this research, the role of situational and dispositional factors in this was unclear. It
was also unclear whether engaging in direct aggression increases or decreases displaced
aggression.

To address these gaps, the researchers investigated how situational factors (the nearness and
intensity of the provoking person) and dispositional factors (*callousness, trait aggressiveness)
jointly influence displaced and direct aggression in male adolescents. Participants (N = 175, mean
age = 13.1 years) completed a personal profile that was allegedly evaluated by peer judges. After
randomly receiving either mild or strong negative feedback, participants could either show
aggression against these peer judges (direct aggression) as well as against other innocent peers
(displaced aggression) or against innocent peers only (displaced aggression).

Results showed that displaced aggression occurred only when the negative feedback was strong
and participants could not retaliate directly (situational factors). Higher levels of callousness
(dispositional factor) specifically predicted more displaced (but not direct) aggression. However, the
potentiating effects of callousness emerged only when the negative feedback was strong
(interaction between dispositional and situational factors). This finding highlights the importance of
examining dispositional and situational interactions in displaced aggression research

*Callousness = having no concern for the feelings of others.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

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B. Errors in attribution.

Learning Outcome:

Discuss two errors in attribution.

Fundamental attribution error. This is the tendency to overestimate
the effect of disposition or personality and underestimate the effect of
the situation in explaining social behaviour. When we are talking
about our own behaviour, we tend to attribute any problems to
situational factors, and successes to dispositional factors, but the
reverse is true when talking about others. As in the example given
above, if there is a problem with another person, we tend to blame
his or her nature or personality. This an example of the fundamental
attribution error. The social psychologist Lee Ross (1977) introduced
the term and the original journal article of the research described in Crane and Hannibal (page 105) is
here.

Study demonstrating the fundamental attribution error

Vignovic and Thompson (2010) demonstrated through their study how the absence of contextual or
situational information may cause e-mail recipients to commit the fundamental attribution error, and
form dispositional explanations for behaviour that might in fact be driven by unseen situational
constraints. To gain insight into the manner in which e-mail recipients explain behaviour, the
authors conducted an experiment examining how technical language violations (i.e., spelling and
grammatical errors) and deviations from etiquette norms (i.e., short messages lacking a
conversational tone) affect a recipient’s perceptions of an e-mail sender’s conscientiousness,
intelligence, agreeableness, extraversion, affective trustworthiness, and cognitive trustworthiness.
This study also investigated whether the effects of technical and etiquette language violations
depended on the availability of information indicating the e-mail sender is from a foreign culture.
Results revealed that participants formed negative perceptions of the sender of an e-mail
containing technical language violations. However, most of these negative perceptions were
reduced when participants had situational information indicating that the e-mail sender was from a
different culture. Conversely, negative attributions stemming from etiquette violations were not
significantly reduced by knowledge that the e-mail sender was from a foreign culture.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

Self-serving bias. We tend to equate our successes with dispositional and failures with situational
attributes (Miller and Ross, 1975). If we get a promotion at work, we are likely to believe that this
success is due to our hard working disposition, intelligence and dedication. But if we are fired or
demoted from our position, we are likely to attribute it to an unfair boss, or poor decision-making.

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Self-serving bias is more common in individualistic societies, though there is no firm rule, as a lot of
this depends on self-report studies, which are not always a good way of finding out what people really
think. It is a method of protecting our self-esteem, by taking personal credit for our successes and
little or no responsibility for our failures.

Study demonstrating self-serving bias

Duval and Silvia (2002) further developed and refined the theory of self-serving bias. They argued
that evidence for the self-serving bias (attributing success internally to dispositional factors and
failure externally to situational factors) is inconsistent. Their research showed that although internal
success attributions are consistently found, there were both internal and external attributions for
failure. They found that success and failure attributions are moderated by self-awareness and by
the ability to improve. Success is consistently attributed internally (dispositional factors). However,
failure is attributed internally when people perceive that they can improve, but externally (blamed
on situational factors) when people feel unable to improve. This implies that the person accepts
personal responsibility for improvement when it seems possible. Duval and Silvia point out that
initially blaming oneself for failure results in a lowered self-esteem, but if one then improves, then,
self-esteem returns to the level it was before the failure. This adds another element to the
explanation of the operation of self-serving bias.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.

C. Social identity theory.

Learning Outcome:

Evaluate social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies.

Social identity theory

Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based

on their group membership(s). Henri Tajfel (1979)
proposed that the groups (e.g. ethnic group, family, sports
team etc.) to which people belong are an important source
of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us our sense of
social identity, a sense of belonging.

In order to feel good about our social selves, we enhance

the status of the group to which we belong. We may believe that our country, our team, our school is
better than any other, and therefore other groups and their members are inferior. We divide the world
into “them” (the “out-group”) and “us” (the “in-group”) based through a process of putting people into
social groups (social categorization). Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate
against the out-group to enhance their own self-image.

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Group identity is a vital part of being human. We see the group to which we belong (the in-group) as
being different from the others (the out-group), and members of the same group as being more similar
than they are. This discrimination between groups results in prejudice against the out-group, maybe in
the form of racism, snobbery or sexism. Taijfel’s theory can be used to explain the process of
stereotyping and the development of prejudice, which is discussed later.

The development of identification with the in-group has three stages:

1. Categorization – we categorize objects in order to organize our thinking and to understand and
identify things and people (including ourselves). Social categories such as young, old, teacher, bus
driver, Asian, student, etc. are useful as they tell us things about people. We also find things out about
ourselves by knowing to which groups we belong, and defining appropriate behaviour according to the
norms of our groups. We all belong to many different groups and appropriate behaviour as a student
might differ somewhat from appropriate behaviour in the family or appropriate behaviour in a group of
friends at a nightclub.
2. Social identification is when we adopt the identity of “our” group. If for example you have
categorized yourself as a student, the chances are you will adopt the identity of a student and begin to
and conform to the norms of the “student” group. There will be an emotional significance to your
identification with this group, and your self-esteem will become bound up with group membership.

3. Social comparison. If our self-esteem is to be maintained our group needs to compare well with
other groups. This is critical to understanding prejudice, because once two groups identify themselves
as rivals they are forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their self-esteem.
Competition and hostility between groups can be a matter of competing for resources like jobs but it is
also the result of competing identities.

Study demonstrating social identity theory

Verkuyten (2005) found that members of ethnic minority groups were more likely than majority
group members to endorse multiculturalism (respecting and valuing ethnic and cultural
differences) more strongly and assimilationist thinking (belief that ethnic minorities should be
absorbed and integrated into the majority culture) less strongly. His research was based on
social identity theory and results from four studies (correlational and experimental) provide
support for this theory among Dutch and Turkish participants living in the Netherlands.

His research showed that the more minority groups supported the idea of multiculturalism the
more likely they were to identify with their ethnic in-group and to show positive in-group
evaluation. In contrast, the more majority group members endorse multiculturalism the less
likely they were to identify with their ethnic group or to show negative out-group evaluation. The
conclusion was that group position (as a minority or majority group) and inter-ethnic ideologies
affect ethnic group identification and moderate the effects of social identity theory.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.

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D. Stereotyping.

Learning Outcome:

Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behaviour.

Cardwell (1996) defines a stereotype as a fixed, over-
generalized belief about a particular group of people.
The word “stereotype” originally described a solid plate of
type-metal, that was used for printing instead of the
original. Over time it became a metaphor for developing
a set of unchanging and often exaggerated ideas about
others. “All women are bad drivers” would be an example
of an inaccurate stereotype with no truth behind it. In fact,
often car insurance for women is less expensive as they
have fewer accidents than men. “All men are physically
stronger than women” is an example of a stereotype with
some truth behind it. Because of their ratio of muscle to fat and bone, most men are physically
stronger than most women.

Stereotypes can be both positive or negative, but they fail to consider any variations from one
individual to another. A stereotype can be considered a schema, as we categorize people into a group
and apply general characteristics, forming a schema of how members of this group behave. If we limit
our perceptions of others to the definitions of the stereotypes, and do not add specific information for
each person, then we can develop biases against whole groups of people.
Our social world is very complex and has a great deal of information, and so, to avoid information
overload, we use stereotypes because they save energy and can easily be applied to people.We all
use categories—of people, places, things—to make sense of the world around us. But stereotypes
can be too much of a good thing. In the course of stereotyping, a useful category—say, women—
becomes coloured by additional associations, sometimes negative. We take in the gender, age and
ethnicity of others and our minds respond with messages that say things like “weak, sentimental,
hostile”. It is these qualities that do not reflect reality, and instead of stereotypes being an aid to
understanding, they can become an aid to misunderstanding.

Just for fun, here is a link to a page showing that many of our stereotypes regarding gender are very
recent inventions.
Formation of stereotypes – there are several theories regarding how this happens.

1. Social identity theory. One explanation of the formation of stereotypes which we have already
examined is Tajfel’s (1979) social identity theory. This proposes that the process of categorization in
to in-group and out-group and the subsequent favouring of the in-group leads to a positive
stereotyping of the ingroup as (for example) “cool, intelligent, motivated” etc. and a negative
stereotyping of the out-group members as “losers, stupid, slow” and so on. This is necessary for the
self- esteem of members of the in-group.

Brigham (1986) conducted a study that supports social identity theory. He researched eyewitness
identification procedures and found that white people were more likely to stereotype African
Americans as criminals than other whites in eyewitness identification. This is likely due to thetendency
to view people that belong to our group more favourably, while we tend to view members of other
groups as having undesirable qualities.

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2. Illusory correlation. Hamilton & Gifford (1976) developed this theory, which distinguishes
between stereotyping as the encoding of new information and stereotyping as the application
ofexisting knowledge. They focused on the formation of new stereotypes in terms of distinctiveness-
based illusory correlation and they do not deny the importance of socially-learned or culturally-
transmitted bases of stereotypes. However, their main argument is that “cognitive factors alone can
be sufficient to produce differential perceptions of social groups” (1976, page 405).

The cognitive process underlying the illusory correlation effect is triggered by the co-occurrence of
two fairly infrequent situations or events. This automatically triggers the observer’s attention and these
events are better encoded and remembered. Therefore they are more accessible to retrieval.
Accordingly, following Tversky and Kahneman’s (1973) availability heuristic, the more easily they are
retrieved, the more we perceive them to be numerous and we overestimate their frequency until they
become “true”. If we see a car driven by a young man mount the kerb and narrowly miss hitting a
child, we only need to see a young man driving a little erratically a few days later to become
convinced that “all young people are bad drivers”. Illusory correlations can lead to people
remembering information that confirms the expected relationship. This is due to confirmation bias, or
when one favours information that supports one’s preconceptions.

Illusory correlation is often used to explain a perceived relationship between minority groups and
negative behaviour, and to test their theory, Hamilton and Gifford performed an experiment in which
participants read desirable and undesirable trait adjectives about the members of one majority group
and one minority group. Proportionally, there were the same amount of desirable and undesirable
traits for each group. However, they found that after the experiment in the evaluative tasks,
participants over-estimated the frequency of undesirable traits in the minority group. This corresponds
closely to attribution error, which we have looked at earlier.
3. Grain of truth hypothesis and gatekeeper theory. Campbell (1967) states that stereotypes can
be formed from two sources; from a person’s own experiences with that group of people or through
gatekeepers like the media, parents and friends. In both cases, there is often a small amount of
evidence (“grain of truth”) that gets exaggerated and generalized. Gatekeepers use stereotypes to
define groups and their members, and these stereotypes become part of the culture and seen as
“true”.
4. An individual (cognitive) explanation. As early as 1954, Gordon Allport claimed that the
cognitive processes of prejudiced people, who form negative stereotypes about others, were different
from the cognitive processes of tolerant people (1954, page 170). This means that a person’s
stereotyping and prejudice is unlikely to be just directed towards one partiucular group, but is more
likely to be a feature of the prejudiced person’s personality. Schaller et al. (1995) conducted two
studies that confirmed the existence of the “prejudiced personality”, but emphasised that more
research needed to be done into the effects of social context in either mitigating or increasing the
tendency to develop negative stereotypes about others.

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Study demonstrating the formation of stereotyping

Risen et al. (2007) conducted four studies to explore the phenomenon of “one-shot” illusory
correlations--in which a single instance of unusual behaviour by a member of a rare group is
sufficient to create an association between group and behaviour. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, unusual
behaviours committed by members of rare groups were processed differently than other types of
behaviours. They received more processing time, prompted more attributional thinking, and were
more memorable. In Study 4, the authors obtained evidence from two implicit measures of
association that one-shot illusory correlations are generalized to other members of a rare group.

The results suggest that one-shot illusory correlations arise because unusual pairings of
behaviours and groups uniquely prompt people to consider group membership as the explanation
of the unusual behaviour. (i.e. “The only reason for this strange behaviour must be that they are
members of this particular unusual group”).

Principles that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.

• Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.

Effects of stereotypes

Stereotypes can lead to biases, distortion, generalization, and can unconsciously affect our
judgement and memory, which in turn can affect our behaviour.
1. Memory. Cohen (1981) performed an experiment to determine whether stereotypes can affect the
people’s memories. Participants were shown a video, and half were told the woman in the video was
a waitress; half were told she was a librarian. When participants recalled details about the video, they
remembered details that seemed to be consistent with the commonly accepted stereotypes of the
careers. Those who thought she was a librarian were more likely to remember she wore glasses, and
those who thought she was a waitress were more likely to remember her drinking alcohol. Therefore,
stereotypes can affect the type of information we focus on and what we remember.
2. Stereotype threat. Steele and Aronson (1995) described a phenomenon called stereotype threat,
a situational predicament in which individuals suspect their behaviors could be judged on the basis of
negative stereotypes about their group instead of personal merit. According to this work, one of the
reasons African American students tend to perform worse than Caucasians do is that stereotypes are
“in the air” (Steele, 1997, p. 613), arousing deep-seated fears and distracting them from doing as well
as they could. When people consider stereotypes that target their groups, their performance tends to
suffer in the stereotyped domain. This then results in a self-fulfilling prophecy – they then perform
worse and thus confirm the stereotype.

In Steele and Aronson’s study participants were placed in a situation where they could be found to
conform to the stereotype. Participants were asked to take a problem-solving test. Participants were
African Americans and European Americans. When African Americans were told that the test would
represent their verbal skills, they performed worse than European Americans. But when they were
told that the test was just for studying how problems are generally solved, they performed as well as
the European Americans. Steele and Aronson claim that stereotype threat, due to knowledge of a
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negative stereotype, can cause emotional distress and pressure that leads to the self-fulfilling
prophecy that the participants fear. Stereoype threat has been used in educational psychology to
explain the underachievement of girls in problem-solving tasks when boys are present in the
classroom (see Inzlicht and Ben-Zeev, 2000).

Study demonstrating the effects of stereotyping

Inzlicht and Kang (2010) investigated how stereotype threat, which they identify as a threat to one’s
social identity, affects aggression, eating, decision making, and attention. They argue that
“stereotype threat spillover” occurs when coping with the stress of stereotype confirmation and this
results in a lack of self-control in a variety of domains.

They conducted four studies in which they had participants cope with stereotype threat and then
measured their performance in domains in which stereotypes were not “in the air.” In Study 1 they
examined whether taking a threatening maths test could lead women to respond aggressively. In
Study 2 they investigated whether coping with a threatening maths test could lead women to
indulge themselves with unhealthy food later on and examined the moderation of this effect by
personal characteristics. In Study 3 they investigated whether vividly remembering an experience
of stereotype threat results in risky decision-making. Finally, in Study 4 they asked whether coping
with threat could directly influence attention to a task, as assessed by EEG.

The results indicated that stereotype threat can spill over and impact self-control in a diverse array
of non-stereotyped areas, revealing the power of stereotype threat and demonstrating that its
negative consequences might extend further than was previously thought.

Principles that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.

• Because humans are social animals, they have a social self.

3. Social norms

A. Social learning theory.

Learning Outcome:

Explain social learning theory, making reference to two relevant studies.

In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states
behaviour is learned from the environment through the
process of observational learning. Children observe the
people around them behaving in various ways. This is
illustrated during the famous Bobo doll experiment
(Bandura et al., 1961), which is described in your
textbook.

In society children are surrounded by many influential role

models, such as family members, television characters,

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friends and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behaviour which are observed
and, under certain circumstances, imitated.

A child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself, either the
same age and or the same sex. If a child imitates behaviour and the consequences are rewarding, the
child is likely to continue performing the behaviour. If a parent sees a little girl consoling her doll and
says “what a good girl you are”, this makes it more likely that she will repeat the behaviour. Her
behaviour has been reinforced. Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or
negative. If a child wants approval from parents or friends, this approval is an external reinforcement,
but feeling happy about this approval is an internal reinforcement. Finally, the child will also take into
account what happens to other people when deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions. This
is known as vicarious reinforcement. If s/he sees someone punished for imitating behaviour, the child
will learn the behaviour, but will not display it.

Identification with the role model occurs and involves adopting observed behaviours, values, beliefs
and attitudes of the person with whom the child is identifying.

Social learning theory has remained popular, as it seems to explain how children raised by aggressive
or racist households grow up to be aggressive or racist adults (there is a strong link to stereotype
formation here); how teenagers can turn to peer role models that are either conformist or non-
conformist and how some television programmes and video games for example are deemed not
suitable for children under a certain age, because they will imitate the violence shown.

Berry (2003) explored how social learning theory and the cross-cultural images and portrayals on
television might influence the multicultural attitudes, values, and beliefs of children and argued for
more culturally diverse role models on North American television: “[children] need to understand from
television that to be female, disabled, or religiously and ethnically different does not make you
‘disadvantaged,’ ‘deprived,’ or ‘inferior,’ and that it is important for all children to take pride in their
unique customs, skin colour, language, and lifestyle” (page 365).

Theories of child development state that adolescents are especially likely to look for role models to
identify with because they are in the process of developing their own identities. This has led to an
application of social learning theory to understanding the effect on young people of playing violent
video games. Most research has concluded that the highly interactive nature of these games leads to
identification with the role models and subsequent imitation of their behaviour.

Critique of social learning theory

Social learning theorists are committed to the controlled experimental approach and this results in
studies that allow inferences about cause and effect to be drawn. However, this does mean that some
of the studies lack ecological validity, as the research has been conducted in artificial settings. It is
possible to argue that the children in Bandura’s study may have been influenced by demand
characteristics to deliberately produce the behaviour that they thought the experimenters wanted.

Because the social learning approach takes into account cognition as well as social pressures, it has
contributed a lot to understanding of processes like the learning of aggression, and gender role
development. It has also formed the basis of treatments for phobias, with modelling-based therapies.

Some criticisms of social learning theory arise from its commitment to the environment as the main
influence on human behaviour. For example, there are several gender differences that appear to be
universal, such as preferences for particular characteristics in a potential heterosexual partner. Men
prioritise youth and fertility, while women prioritise status and resources. Researchers from the BLOA
would argue that this reflects genetic influences.

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Study demonstrating social learning theory

Konijn et al. (2007) tested the hypothesis that violent video games are especially likely to
increase aggression when players identify with violent game characters. 112 Dutch adolescent
boys with low education ability were randomly assigned to play a realistic or fantasy violent or
nonviolent video game. Next, they competed with an ostensible partner (seemingly a true
partner, but in reality a stooge) on a reaction time task in which the winner could blast the loser
with loud noise through headphones (the aggression measure). Participants were told that high
noise levels could cause permanent hearing damage. Habitual video game exposure, trait
aggressiveness, and sensation seeking were controlled for. As expected, the most aggressive
participants were those who played a violent game and wished they were like a violent character
in the game. These participants used noise levels loud enough to cause permanent hearing
damage to their partners, even though their partners had not provoked them. These results
suggest that identifying with violent video game characters makes players more aggressive.
Players were especially likely to identify with violent characters in realistic games and in games
in which they felt immersed.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

B. Compliance techniques.

Learning Outcome:

Discuss the use of compliance techniques.

Compliance refers to the act of responding favourably to an

explicit or implicit request by others. The request may be explicit,
such as a direct request for a charity donation, or implicit, such as
an advertisement promoting some product without directly asking
for purchase. In all cases, we realise that we are being urged to
respond in a desired way. See your textbook for Robert Cialdini’s
list of principles underlying the decision to comply.

Here we will look at two of them in more detail: reciprocity and

commitment.

Reciprocity

We all tend to do something for someone who has already done

something for us. If someone does something for you, such as
giving you a free sample of a product, then you feel more obliged
to do something for them, and buy the product.

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Commitment

If we make a small commitment, then we are more likely to commit to something larger in the future.
For example, if we just buy a single DVD from an online store then we are more likely to buy other
DVDs that they send us.

Manipulating people to comply. Compliance is known to be enhanced by a number of situational

manipulations such as foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, low-ball and ingratiation. Again, please see
your textbook for explanations of the first three.
Ingratiation

This is a compliance technique in which the persuaders get their target person to like them first,
through flattery and presenting themselves as like their target, and then attempting to gain compliance
with some request. While flattery might seem the most obviously successful, doing small favours,
using appropriate body language and exploiting similarities between themselves and the target, are
also successful.

Study investigating the use of a compliance technique

Grant et al. (2010) conducted two studies to test if compliments work as a compliance tactic and
to explore whether liking could account for their effectiveness. Both studies provided evidence
that compliments increased compliance relative to a control condition. Although receiving a
compliment did tend to increase liking of the requestor, this increased liking was not responsible
for enhanced levels of compliance. This research provided some of the first direct evidence of
the effectiveness of compliments as a means of securing compliance, but also challenged the
assumption that this is because an increased liking for the person paying the compliments
induced compliance.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.

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C. Conformity to group norms.

Learning Outcomes:

Evaluate research on conformity to group norms.

Discuss factors influencing conformity.

Unlike compliance, conformity is when we behave in a

similar way to others without direct pressure to do so.
Whenever we change our behaviour, our beliefs and our
attitudes in response to the norms (expected behaviour) of
a group to which we belong, or want to belong, this is
conformity. Why we conform is a topic of great interest to
social psychologists. The research of Solomon Asch and
the later studies generated by his findings are outlined in
your text. His studies, and those of Muzafer Sherif (1935;
1936), have demonstrated two main types of conformity:
informational and normative.

Informational conformity often occurs in situations in which there is high uncertainty and ambiguity.
In an unfamiliar situation, we are likely to shape our behaviour to match that of others. The actions of
others inform us of the customs and accepted practices in a situation. Others inform us of what is right
to do, how to behave in new situations.

Normative conformity is when we conform because we want to be liked by the group. This is the
dominant form of social conformity when we are concerned about making a good impression in front
of a group. Though we may disagree secretly with the group opinion, we may verbally adopt the group
stance so that we seem like a team player rather than a deviant. Peer pressure amongst teenagers is
an example of normative conformity; most young people of this age are particularly vulnerable to
influence because they long to be accepted by their peers.

Research on conformity to group norms

An example of informational conformity is Sherif’s (1935) study into the autokinetic effect. The
autokinetic effect (moving light) occurs when a stationary light is visible, but the surrounding
environment is not. The light appears to move. Subjects were seated alone in a dark room with a
single spotlight projected onto a screen. They were asked to estimate how far the light moved, and
these estimates were used as the operational definition. While the subjects believed the light was
moving, in fact it was stationary. Because the human eyeball constantly makes small involuntary
movement, the brain does not know how to perceive what seems to be a moving light without context.
The subjects in Sherif’s experiments reported a wide variety of answers when alone, and unaware of
what other participants had estimated.

The subjects were then placed into groups of three with two people who reported similar observations
and one with a different answer. The participants were then tested in groups of three. Sherif
manipulated the composition of the group by putting together two people whose estimate of the light
movement when alone was very similar, and one person whose estimate was very different. Each
person in the group had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved.

Sherif found that over numerous trials, the group converged to a common estimate, as the person
whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other two in the group conformed to the
majority view. Sherif said that this showed that people would always tend to conform. Rather than
make individual judgments they tend to come to a group agreement. These results show that when in

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an ambiguous situation (such as the autokinetic effect), a person will look to others for guidance (i.e.
adopt the group norm). They want to do the right thing but may lack the appropriate information.
Observing others can provide this information.

Asch’s (1955) study into how powerful the need to conform was in influencing human behaviour
gained results that confirm normative conformity. The answers given by the majority regarding the
length of the lines used (see your textbook) were unambiguously wrong, so this was not an example
of a lack of information. Rather, people conformed to the incorrect answers in order to avoid
embarrassment and out of a need not to stand out from the crowd. The need to be part of the group
was stronger than the desire to give the correct answer. Demand characteristics could also have
played a role. Those participants who conformed said that they knew their responses were incorrect,
but they went along with the group because they did not want to ruin the experimenter’s results, as
well as not wanting to appear to be against the group.

Evaluation of research on conformity to group norms

The experiments used by researchers examining conformity to group norms are somewhat artificial,
and therefore lack ecological validity. The stimuli were also meaningless, and carried no importance
for the participants. There was a gender and culture bias in that only male US participants were used
in both Asch’s and Sherif’s original studies. Therefore we cannot generalise from these studies.

However, the tendency of young people to commit more deviant acts when in a gang than when
acting individually, suggests that the theory of normative influence can be applied to social situations.
(See research by Thornberry and Krohn, 1997 and Dishion et al., 1999).

Factors influencing conformity

Following Asch’s research, a large number of studies were conducted, exploring the question of why
such a large percentage (75%) of his participants in all his trials went along with the social pressure
and conformed at least once. Many variables were found to be relevant: gender, historical context,
ethnicity, self-esteem, professional confidence, age, group size, position of naïve participant’s seat,
and the effect of having a second person disagree with the incorrect answer. Several of these studies
are described in your textbook. Please see below for a few more.

Group size

Social impact theory (Latané, 1981) points out that each additional member adds pressure to
conform, although each new member’s influence is proportionally less. The social influence model
agrees that the first few people added exert the most pressure to conform. However, this model also
goes on to argue that conformity levels off with additional members. For example, if the first nine
group members don’t convince someone, neither will the tenth. Asch varied the size of his groups,
using 1 to 15 confederates in his many studies. Once the size had increased beyond 3 or 4
confederates, the effect of adding more was very slight.
Confidence

Perrin and Spencer (1980) suggested that the Asch effect was a "child of its time". They carried out
an exact replication of the original Asch experiment using engineering, mathematics and chemistry
students as subjects. The results were clear: on only 1 out of 396 trials did an observer join the
majority and make a wrong estimation. They argue that a cultural change has taken place in the value
placed on conformity and obedience and in the position of students. In America in the 1950s students
were assumed and encouraged to be conforming members of the society, and follow majority opinion.
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That changed later, especially from the late 1960s, as student groups began to be at the forefront of
demands for social change, and questioned the norms and values of society. Moreover, these
students of technical subjects could be expected to compare the length of lines more accurately and
have more confidence that their estimations were correct.
Culture and Ethnicity

Neto, F. (1995) investigated whether conformity in Asch’s experiment was particularly related to
American culture and less likely to be replicable elsewhere. He replicated the experiment using
women psychology students in a Portuguese university as a minority of one, unanimous majority
group, and control participants. The original procedure was re-enacted as similarly as possible using
a computer programme. Among participants in the experimental condition 59% conformed at least
once, 28% yielded three to twelve times. Among participants in the control condition 27% erred at
least once, and 3.3% made more than three errors. The differences between the experimental and
control group were significant. Thus this shows that a degree of conformity to a unanimous peer-
group opinion remains observable among women in Portugal, though at a lower rate than originally
found by Asch in his research with US male students.

Minority influence

Minority influence takes place when a majority is influenced to accept the beliefs of a minority. In real
life, if the minority always went along with the majority, there would be no change in society. For
change in ideas to occur, there are times when a minority of people with different views have to exert
their influence on the majority. This minority influence brings about a change both in public and
privately held opinions. Minority influence can be affected by the sizes of majority and minority
groups, the level of consistency of the minority group and situational factors (such as the affluence or
social importance of the minority). It most often operates through informational conformity (as
opposed to normative conformity), when the majority is slightly uncertain in an ambiguous situation.
Moscovici and Zavalloni (1969) conducted a classic experiment to show how this can occur.

32 groups of 6 female participants took part in this study on “perception”. . Each group was presented
with 36 blue slides differing in intensity of shade and was asked to say what colour the slides are.
However two each group were stooges who answered in one of two ways: they either always said the
slides were green, or they said the slides were green on two thirds of occasions. The result was that
when the stooges were consistent and said “green” every time, 8% of the majority agreed. When the
stooges were less consistent, only 1.25% of others agreed.

Surprisingly, if participants were allowed to write down their answers (private response) as opposed to
the usual verbal (public response) you may be surprised to find that conforming to a minority actually
increased. Participants were more likely to agree secretly with a minority than do so openly. Moscovici
concluded that the reason more people didn’t conform in the original study, was because they didn’t
want to be seen going along with a minority view, though secretly they were being convinced.
Moscovici stated that the most important aspect of minority influence is the consistency with which
people hold their position. Being consistent and unchanging in a view is more likely to influence the
majority than if a minority is inconsistent and changes their mind.
However, Nemeth (1986) found that flexibility and compromise had more effect than consistency. His
experiment was based on a mock jury in which groups of three participants and one confederate had
to decide on the amount of compensation to be given to the victim of a ski-lift accident. When the

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consistent minority (the confederate) argued for a very low amount and refused to change his
position, he had no effect on the majority. However, when he compromised and moved some way
towards the majority position, the majority also compromised and changed their view.

See this link for an article concerning some recent research into conformity, using fMRI scans to
observe changes in the brain as participants conform to or resist the majority influence in a perception
task. The researchers found that social conformity showed up in the brain as activity in regions that
are entirely devoted to perception. But independence of judgment - standing up for one's beliefs -
showed up as activity in brain areas involved in emotion, the study found, suggesting that there is an
emotional cost for going against the group.

Study demonstrating conformity to group norms

Wood et al. (1997) demonstrated that conformity to group norms does not only result in
acceptance by the group, but also in self-acceptance and positive feelings about oneself.

The participants were 89 male and 164 female psychology students at a Texas university, who
completed a questionnaire as part of the normal psychology class. The first question asked
them to think of an interaction with another person in which they acted in a "dominant,
powerful, and assertive manner" or in a "warm, caring, close-to-others manner." After they had
identified such an incident, participants provided a written description of the event. The
remainder of the questionnaire consisted of a series of scales on which they rated their
feelings and their self-views.

The results suggested that positive feelings about the self in a social interaction depended on
the extent to which the interaction reflected the stereotypic sex role norms of dominance for
men and warmth and intimacy for women. A second experiment under laboratory conditions
with a different group of participants confirmed the findings.

The researchers point out that the self-concept plays an important role in conformity to gender
norms. Normative beliefs that men are powerful, dominant, and self-assertive and that women
are caring, intimate with others, and emotionally expressive represent possible standards for
whom people ought to be and whom they ideally would like to be. In their research, to the
extent that sex role norms were personally relevant for participants, conforming experiences
(i.e., those involving dominance for men and emotional expression for women) yielded positive
feelings and brought their actual self-concepts closer to the standards represented by their
“ideal selves”.

Principle that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Human beings are social animals with a basic need to “belong”.

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4. Cultural Norms
A. Cultural norms, cultural dimensions and behaviour.

Learning Outcomes:

Define the terms “culture” and “cultural norms”.

Examine the role of two cultural dimensions on behaviour

Culture and cultural norms

Matsumoto (2004) defines culture as "a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by
groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and behaviours." A
dynamic culture is by definition constantly shifting in response to environmental and social changes.

Cultural norms are part of the culture. They are behaviour patterns that are typical to specific groups
and are passed down through the generations by "gatekeepers" such as parents, teachers, elders etc.
Cultural norms influence almost every element of life, either visibly (as in the particular form of the
marriage ceremony) or less visibly (as in assumptions about whom you may marry).

Cultural dimensions

Most of the more recent research on cultural dimensions comes from Hofstede’s original research in
the 1960s and 1970s, which is described in your textbook, and here on Geert Hofstede’s website.
Just to recap and extend what is in your text, Hofstede originally distinguished four “cultural
dimensions” by which life in a society is organised. They are:
Power Distance – the extent to which people in societies accept, or do not accept, a hierarchical
order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification.
Individualism versus Collectivism – the extent to which people prefer a loosely-knit social
framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families
or a tightly-knit framework wherein individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular in-
group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. A society's position on this dimension
is reflected in whether people’s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “we.”
Masculinity versus Femininity – the extent to which a society is competitive (masculine) or
cooperative (feminine).
Uncertainty Avoidance - the extent to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with
uncertainty and ambiguity. The fundamental issue here is how a society deals with the fact that the
future can never be known. A society high in uncertainty avoidance tries to control people’s behaviour
through rigid codes of belief and is intolerant of unconventional ideas.
Two dimensions were added later:
Long-Term Orientation - a fifth cultural dimension (coming from and also known as, Confucian
dynamism) added in 1991. It measures a society’s attitude to what is virtuous and what is “truth”.
Societies with a short-term orientation show great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity
to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results. In societies with a long-term orientation,
people believe that truth is relative, depending on context and they show an ability to adapt traditions
to changed conditions, a strong inclination to save and invest, and perseverance in achieving results.
Indulgence versus Restraint – this is a final dimension that was added in 2010. It expresses the
attitude of a society to the gratification of natural human drives related to enjoying life and having

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fun. Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates drives by
means of strict social norms.

As you might notice, there are dimensions that seem to overlap and form clusters. There.is a strong
chance, for example, that societies scoring high on uncertainty avoidance might also score high on
restraint and on short-term orientation.

Later research and critiques of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Relevance of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions nowadays

In an article written in 2011 for the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Hofstede
acknowledges that critics argue that his country scores based on IBM company branches in the
1970s are out of date. But he points out that this is a comparative (etic, see below) approach and
studies correlating the old country scores with related variables available on a year-by-year basis in
many cases find no weakening of the correlations. This is because the country scores on the
dimensions do not provide absolute country positions, but only their positions relative to the other
countries in the set (2011, page 21). He concludes that “many differences between national cultures
at the end of the 20th century were already recognizable in the years 1900, 1800 and 1700 if not
earlier. There is no reason why they should not play a role until 2100 or beyond” (ibid, page 22).
However, Bond argued as long ago as 1997 for an alternative to the “values construct”, noting that
because it was the sole argument for so many years this meant that “many cautionary studies within
mainstream psychology were ignored; alternative psychological constructs of possible use were
ignored” (pages 220-221). It is this that Gelfand et al (below) are trying to address.

Societal tightness–looseness. Gelfand, et al. (2006) developed the idea of societal tightness–
looseness as relevant to the comparative analysis of different cultures. They argue that most of
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are cultural values and “despite the intuitive appeal of values, there
has been growing skepticism that values can fully explain cultural differences in behaviour” (2006,
page 1225). Instead, they propose that it is the structure of a society and of sub-groups within it,
rather than its values, that predicts how people within it will act. Societal tightness–looseness has two
key components: the strength of social norms, or how clear and well-developed norms are within
societies; and the strength of sanctioning, or how much tolerance there is for deviance from norms
within societies. A “tight” society (they give the example of Japan) has clear boundaries, less
tolerance of ambiguity and difference and stronger socialization of children into these norms, than has
a “loose” society (the USA).

The researchers argued that tightness–looseness is distinct from individualism–collectivism,

uncertainty avoidance, and power distance. There is variation in tightness–looseness across societies
and within societies (e.g., by region and/or ethnic group). While their article applies their concept to
work organizations, they see it as also applying to informal organizations. For example, “an
understanding of tightness–looseness may help to understand such diverse groups as the Taliban,
the military, and perhaps inner city gangs—in terms of the organizational practices and psychological
attributes that make them up” (2006, page 1239).

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Study investigating the effects of cultural dimensions on behaviour

Taras et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis of Hofstede’s original 4 cultural dimensions, using
data from 598 studies representing over 200,000 individuals.
They found that the cultural dimensions were relevant at an individual level, but that their predictive
power of how people would act in certain circumstances in an organization was significantly lower
than that of personality traits and demographics for certain outcomes (e.g., job performance,
absenteeism, turnover) but was significantly higher for others (e.g.,
organizational commitment, identification, citizenship behaviour, team-related attitudes, feedback
seeking). Cultural dimensions were most strongly related to emotions, followed by attitudes, then
behaviours, and finally job performance. They were more strongly related to outcomes for
managers (rather than students) and for older, male, and more educated respondents.
This research provided support for M. Gelfand, L. H. Nishii, and J. L. Raver’s (2006)
conceptualization of societal tightness–looseness, finding significantly stronger
effects in culturally tighter, rather than looser, countries (see above).

Principles that this study could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.
• People’s views of the world are resistant to change.

B. “Emic” and “Etic” research.

Learning Outcome:

Using one or more examples, explain “emic” and “etic” concepts.

The words emic and etic refer to two different approaches

to researching human beings. The terms originated in
linguistics and anthropology in the 1950s and 1960s, and a
general definition is given below:

The emic approach to research takes as its starting point

the perspectives and words of research participants. This
means that a researcher using an emic approach will use
accounts and descriptions given in the very words used by
the members of the culture being studied. It is focused on
the culturally specific. The researcher tries to put aside psychological theories and let the data from
the participants “speak for itself”. This approach is the basis for “grounded theory” in which the theory
grows out of the material, rather than the theory being used to examine if the data supports it or not.
The data creates the meaning. Therefore, the emic approach is often used when researching topics
that have not yet been heavily theorized. Some of its strength lies in its appreciation of the

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particularity of the context being studied, in its respect for local viewpoints, and its potential to uncover
the unexpected.

An example of emic research

Koerner et al. (2013) examined the role of religious/spiritual beliefs and practices among Latino
family caregivers of Mexican descent. They posed an open-ended survey question to 58
caregivers, who described how their spiritual beliefs and practices have been important or
meaningful in their role as a caregiver. The majority of the caregivers were women caring for
an adult son or daughter with disabilities. (52 out of 58 caregivers were women and 48 of those
cared for were adult sons or daughters with disabilities). Inductive thematic analysis conducted
by a bilingual-bicultural coder, and confirmed by a second coder yielded six thematic
categories:

• Reference to a divine being or spiritual system

• Methods of religious or spiritual practice,
• Timing of practices,
• Beliefs/spiritual perspective as related to providing care,
• How religious/spiritual beliefs and practices help caregiving.
• Reasons for believing/practising

Findings clarify why religious/spiritual involvement seems to have a consistently beneficial

effect for Latino caregivers. For example, interviews revealed a reliance on positive forms of
religious coping; emphasis on personal engagement and private practice; incorporation of
religiosity/spirituality into the daily stream of life; perceived connection of religion/spirituality to
family; and experience of close attachment to God, some other divine being, or an affirming
spiritual order. These are the sorts of issues that would not be uncovered in an etic approach
to research.

The etic approach to research is the exact opposite, although both types of research are often
combined to give a holistic picture of human behaviour within and across cultures. It is focused on the
universal. The etic approach uses as its starting point theories and concepts from outside of the
setting being studied. A researcher who takes an existing theory or conceptual framework and
conducts research to see if it applies to a new setting or population is taking an etic approach. The
categories used are those that have meaning for the researcher. One of the strengths of the etic
approach is that it allows for comparison across contexts and populations, and the development of
more general cross-cultural concepts.

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An example of an etic approach to research

Becker et al. (2012) examined the construction of a distinctive identity in individualistic and
collectivistic cultures. The motive to attain a distinctive identity is sometimes thought to be
stronger in, or even specific to, those socialized into individualistic cultures. They conducted a
meta-analysis of data from 4,751 participants in 21 cultural groups (18 nations and 3 regions),
and tested this hypothesis. The results showed that the distinctiveness motive was not
weaker—and, if anything, was stronger—in more collectivistic nations. However, individualism–
collectivism was found to moderate the precise ways in which feelings of distinctiveness were
constructed: distinctiveness was associated more closely with difference and separateness in
more individualistic cultures and was associated more closely with social position in more
collectivistic cultures. Multilevel analysis confirmed that it is the prevailing beliefs and values in
an individual's context, rather than the individual's own beliefs and values, which account for
these differences.

Combining the approaches

While in some cases researchers prefer one approach over the other, many try and combine these
approaches. A completely etic approach risks blinding oneself to potentially new and groundbreaking
concepts. At the same time, since all researchers come with previous ideas, perspectives, and
commitments it may be impossible to be purely emic. (See Cheung, 2012, for a discussion of the
benefits of a combined approach).

Etic and emic can also refer specifically to codes, such as those used in thematic analysis to label
sections of text according to the themes and patterns (Boyatzis, 1998). An etic code is one developed
from the literature or prior research, while an emic code arises from the data and is often built from a
participant’s own words. See the textbook for further details of inductive content analysis (an emic
approach).

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An example of a combined emic-etic approach to research

Fedor et al. (1999) investigated 102 nurses' reactions to a peer rating system. Predictors of
system acceptance were: perceived purpose, recipient outcomes, opportunity to voice opinions
or concerns regarding own performance, rater outcomes, demographics, and rating experience.
A combined emic-etic approach was taken. Participants' level of system acceptance was
assessed with both quantitative and qualitative measures, and participants were asked, in an
open response format, what issues and concerns they had regarding peer appraisals.

The results indicated that those who perceived the system to be more for developmental
feedback purposes, who had positive experiences as raters or as recipients of peer feedback,
and who felt the system gave them a chance to voice concerns about performance reported
higher levels of acceptance. Content analysis of the participants' comments revealed four main
themes: the need for additional training; biases believed to influence peer ratings; the time
required to perform the ratings; and the criteria used for those ratings. Acceptance, perceived
purpose, recipient outcomes, and voice were related to the specific concerns participants
mentioned.

Principle that these studies could be used to demonstrate:

• Culture (social norms and values) influences behaviour.

Just as there are strong connections between the BLOA and the CLOA, especially in the field of
cognitive neuroscience, so there are many overlaps between the CLOA and the SCLOA, especially in
the area of social cognition. For example, social learning theory looks at the effects of cognition on
human behaviour, as well as the effects of environment. Psychologists from all areas are agreed that
nowadays a combined approach, albeit with sometimes more weight given to one LOA than the
other/s, is necessary to move towards a complete understanding of human behaviour.

__________________________________________

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