The Sociocultural Level of
Analysis
4.1 Sociocultural Cognition
Principles
1. Human beings are social animals and we
have a basic need to belong
2. Culture influences behaviour
3. 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
4. People’s views of the world are resistant to
change
CULTURE
• Culture can be defined as the norms and
values that define a society
Be Reflective
1. Brainstorm a list of the groups to which
you belong.
2. How important are these groups in your
personal identity?
3. What needs do these different groups
fill in your life?
Research Methods
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More qualitative
Naturalistic
Participant observation
Descriptive data
Overt observation
Covert observation
*handouts
Participant Observation
• Overt Observation: example – O´Reilly 2000
studies British expatriates on the Costa del Sol
• Ethical considerations
Covert
• Covert: Example – Leon Festinger et al’s When
Prophecy Fails 1956 in Chicago – a religious
cult
• Ethical
considerations
Attribution Theory
• Attribution is defined as how people interpret
and explain causal relationships in the social
world
• Humans have a need to understand why things
happen
Example: 1. Explain why to this scenario: You are
sitting in an restaurant, waiting for your date to
show up. He or she is late. What is your explanation
to why he or she is late?
2. You received a high grade on a test. What is your
explanation to the high grade?
Attribution Theory
• Who (or what) is responsible?
For poverty? For unemployment?
For alcoholism? For my math grade?
whether we help and how we help
– “Who is responsible for the problem?”
– “Who is responsible for the solution?”
The Actor-observer effect
When people discuss their own behaviour, they
tend to do attribute it to situational factors
(external) “bad luck” “had a cold”
The tendency to think: "If others make mistakes,
it's their fault. If I do it, it's not my fault.
It's due to the situation I'm in."
When people observe someone else’s behaviour,
they are more likely to attribute it to dispositional
factors (internal) “he is so nice” “she is so smart”
Errors in Attributions – illogical
conclusions
The Fundamental attribution error
• Is when people overestimate the role of
dispositional factors in an individual’s
behaviour, and underestimate the situational
factors
• “she helped me – so she must be nice”
• “what an idiot,
he didn’t say hello today”
• Example: Lee at al. 1977 p. 105
Errors in attribution
• Self-Serving bias (SSB)
The tendency to make personal attributions for
successes and situational attributions for failure
For example: a good grade – I am so smart!
A low grade – bad teacher/ been sick/ wrong
questions…
Example: Lau & Russel 1980 American football coaches
Why do we do this? (Greenberg et al. 1982)
Strength of bias depends on…
• If one is depressed – the thinking pattern
• Which culture one is from, for example:
Americans show greater tendency to make personal
attributions for other people’s behaviours. In contrast,
participants from India show an increased tendency to
make situational attributions. (graphs)
• Modesty bias – cultural differences in SSB (US
and Japanese students)
Attitudes
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Do our attitudes influence our actions?
– More so when we are made self-conscious
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Do actions influence our attitudes?
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Cognitive dissonance (Festinger)– when attitudes and
behavior contradict each other … what changes?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korGK0yGIDo
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Homework Quiz - Monday
• Because you were so great at role-playing, I
want you to create a role-play that shows
1. Actor-observer effect
2. The fundamental attribution
3. Self-serving bias
4. Cognitive dissonance
Biases in Judgment
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Implicit Personality Theory
– People assume that certain aspects or traits go
together
• Halo effect: We assume people we like have good
characteristics, even if we haven’t seen them, or perceive
more characteristics as positive as well without knowing
• An example would be judging a good-looking person as more
intelligent.
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Self-concept bias
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Primacy effects
– What we consider important in ourselves is often what
we consider important in others
– People are influenced more by info they receive early in
an interaction than by info that appears later
– We will even re-interpret new information so that it
fits our earlier impression of people
Social Identity Theory
Social Identity Theory
• Henry Tajfel developed this theory
• Which assumes that individuals strive to improve
their self-image by trying to enhance their selfesteem based on either personal identify or
various social identities
• In other words, We also enhance the sense of
identity by making comparisons with out-groups.
• Social identity is different from personal identity,
which is derived from personal characteristics
and individual relationships.
Social Identity Theory
• Example: When abroad, especially in countries
which have particularly different languages
and cultures, we feel our nationality far more
keenly than when we are at home. We will
tend to band together in national groups,
perhaps making comments about the
strangeness of the natives.
• Recognize yourself?
Social identity Theory
• Based on Social categorization
• In-group (us) – out-group (them) and by social
comparison one maintain one’s self-esteem
• This is done automatically, as soon as we
consider us being part of a group, even when
it is by chance/casually assigned. Is there one
between DP1A and DP1B?
Evaluation
• absence of competition – not necessarily a
negative outcome
• Describes
• Does not predict
• In Some cases our personal identity is stronger
• Fails to address the environment
Social Representations – foundation of
social cognition
• The shared beliefs and explanations held by
the society in which we live or the group to
which we belong (Moscovici 1973)
• “cultural schemas”
Stereotypes & Prejudice
• Write down the first thing that comes to your
mind when I say the following…and be honest.
• WE all have stereotypes!
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Swedes
IB student
IV student
Malmö
Doctor
Blond girl
Men
Fairy tales
Scientist
Women
Americans
Chinese
Stereotypes
• Is defined as social perception of an individual
in terms of group membership or physical
attributes. It is a generalization that is made
about a group and then attributed to
members of that group.
• Can be either positive or negative.
Implicit Association Test (Harvard)
• Online test that tests your attitudes (implicitly)
• Prejudice: unfavorable opinion or feeling formed
beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or
reason.
• any preconceived opinion or feeling, either
favorable or unfavorable.
• unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes,
especially of a hostile nature, regarding a racial,
religious, or national group
Another teacher who wanted to teach
through role-playing…
• Jane Elliot –A Class Divided
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfX
V0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UbNp15z
DtE&feature=related
Formation of stereotypes
• Stereotyping is form of social categorization
that affects the behaviour of those who hold
the stereotype and those who are labelled by
a stereotype.
• Schema processing
Formation of stereotypes
Social categorization (Tajfel)
Personal experience and gatekeepers (the
media, parents…)
Campbell: grain of truth hypothesis
Hamilton and Gifford: stereotypes are the
result of an illusory correlation – people see a
relationship between two variables even
when there is none
Formation of stereotypes
o Confirmation bias – seek out support for the
stereotype, which makes stereotypical
thinking resistant to change
o Snyder and Swann (1978) conducted a study
which showed just that with female college
students
o Methods one use to study stereotyping,
prejudice and discrimination…? Due to social
desirability effect
Stereotype Threat
• The effect of stereotypes on an individual’s
performance
• Spotlight anxiety (Steele 1997)
• Women and Math
• Ethnicity and different abilities
Videos on the blog