Sociocultural Level of Analysis:
Sociocultural Cognition
PART I
Principles of the Sociocultural Level of Analysis
1. Human beings are social animals and we have a
basic need to “belong.”
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The biological and cognitive systems that makeup the
individual are embedded in an even larger system of
interrelationships with other individuals.
The relationship between the individual is affected by being
part of a group is bidirectional: as an individual is affected by
being part of a group, the individual can also effect behavior in
the group.
Principles of the Sociocultural Level of Analysis
2. Culture influences behavior.
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Culture can be defined as the norms and values that define a
society.
In a multicultural society there is a need to understand the
effect of culture on a person’s behavior, because the study of
culture may help people better understand and appreciate
cultural differences.
Principles of the Sociocultural Level of Analysis
3. Humans are social animals, they have a social self.
People not only have an individual identity, but also a collective or
social one as well.
 Social identities are very important to the definition of who we are,
and many behaviors are determined by membership of groups
such as family, community, club, or nationality.
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Principles of the Sociocultural Level of Analysis
4. 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.
 According to psychologists the sense of self is developed within
social and cultural contexts.
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Research Methods at the Sociocultural Level of
Analysis
 In sociocultural research, the goal is to see how
people interact with each other. nature.
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Behavior of participants needs to be as realistic as possible.
A significant amount of the research is naturalistic- “as it really
is.”
Research is done in the environments in which the behavior is
most likely to take place.
Research Methods at the Sociocultural Level of
Analysis
 Participant observation – researchers immerses
themselves in a social setting for an extended period of
time and observe behavior.
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Overt observation: when the participants of a group know that they
are being observed.
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Researcher must obtain trust of the group being observed.
Covert observation: when the participants of a group do NOT know
they are being observed.
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Sometimes used with groups that would be hostile to an outsider
observing or would not want to be open and honest, or the activity is
illegal (e.g. drug use).
 Interviews
 Focus groups
When Prophecy Fails
Leon Festinger et al.’s (1956)
 When Prophecy Fails is a 1956 classic book in social
psychology by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley
Schachter about a UFO cult that believes the end of the world is
at hand.
 Festinger and his associates read an interesting item in their
local newspaper headlined "Prophecy from planet Clarion call
to city: flee that flood." A housewife from Chicago, named
Dorothy Martin, had mysteriously been given messages in her
house in the form of "automatic writing" from alien beings on
the planet Clarion.
 These messages revealed that the world would end in a great
flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. Martin’s cult
incorporated ideas from what was to become Scientology.
 The group of believers, headed by Martin, had taken strong
behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the
belief. They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given
away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on
the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true
believers.
When Prophecy Fails
Leon Festinger et al.’s (1956)
 Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated Martin’s
group and reported the following sequence of
events:
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Prior to December 20. The group shuns publicity.
Interviews are given only grudgingly. Access to Martin’s
house is only provided to those who can convince the
group that they are true believers. The group evolves a
belief system—provided by the automatic writing from
the planet Clarion—to explain the details of the
cataclysm, the reason for its occurrence, and the manner
in which the group would be saved from the disaster.
December 20. The group expects a visitor from outer
space to call upon them at midnight and to escort them to
a waiting spacecraft. As instructed, the group goes to
great lengths to remove all metallic items from their
persons. As midnight approaches, zippers, bra straps,
and other objects are discarded. The group waits.
12:05 A.M., December 21. No visitor. Someone in the
group notices that another clock in the room shows 11:55.
The group agrees that it is not yet midnight.
When Prophecy Fails
Leon Festinger et al.’s (1956)
 Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated Martin’s
group and reported the following sequence of
events:
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12:10 A.M. The second clock strikes midnight. Still no
visitor. The group sits in stunned silence. The cataclysm
itself is no more than seven hours away.
4:00 A.M. The group has been sitting in stunned silence. A
few attempts at finding explanations have failed. Martin
begins to cry.
4:45 A.M. Another message by automatic writing is sent to
Martin. It states, in effect, that the God of Earth has
decided to spare the planet from destruction. The
cataclysm has been called off: "The little group, sitting all
night long, had spread so much light that God had saved
the world from destruction."
Afternoon, December 21. Newspapers are called;
interviews are sought. In a reversal of its previous distaste
for publicity, the group begins an urgent campaign to
spread its message to as broad an audience as possible.
Attribution Theory
 Attribution theory is defined as how people interpret
and explain causal relationships in the social world.
 People may have different ways of attributing causes
to events.
 When people try to understand behavior, they
observe other people’s reactions, and make
inferences about intention and responsibility.
Attribution Theory
 Actor-observer effect – people tend to make an
attribution about a behavior depending whether they
are performing it themselves or observing somebody
else doing it.
 Situational factors – something to do with external
factors.
 Dispositional factors – something to do with
personal (internal) factors.
Errors in Attribution
 Fundamental attribution error – when people
overestimate the role of dispositional factors in an
individuals behavior – and underestimate the
situational factors.
 Self-serving bias (SSB) – people take their successes,
attribute them to dispositional factors, and dissociate
themselves from their failures, attributing them to
situational factors.
Errors in Attribution
Greenberg
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Greenberg et. al (1982) argue that the reason we do
this is to protect our self-esteem.
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If we can attribute our success to dispositional factors, it boosts our selfesteem, and if we can attribute our failures to factors beyond our control, we
can protect our self-esteem.
 Miller and Ross (1975) argued that cognitive factors
play a role in SSB, we usually expect to succeed at a
task.
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If we expect to succeed and we do, we attribute it to our skill and ability.
If we expect to succeed and fail, we feel that it was bad luck or external
factors
If we expect to fail and we don’t so well, we attribute it to dispositional
factors.
If we expect to fail and we succeed, we attribute it to external factors and
luck.
Errors in Attribution
Miller and Ross
 Miller and Ross (1975) argued that cognitive
factors play a role in SSB, we usually expect to
succeed at a task.
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If we expect to succeed and we do, we attribute it to our skill and
ability.
If we expect to succeed and fail, we feel that it was bad luck or
external factors
If we expect to fail and we don’t so well, we attribute it to
dispositional factors.
If we expect to fail and we succeed, we attribute it to external factors
and luck.
There is an exception – people who are severely depressed tend to
make more dispositional attribution thus blaming themselves for
feeling miserable.
Errors in Attribution
Kashima and Triandis
 Kashima and Triandis (1986) found there were
significant cultural differences between US and
Japanese students.
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In the experiment participants were asked to remember details
of slides of scenes from unfamiliar countries.
When asked to explain their performance, the Americans
tended to attribute their success to ability while the Japanese
tended to explain their failures in terms of lack of ability. This
is called the modesty bias.
Errors in Attribution
Modesty Bias
 Chandler et al. (1990) also observed this bias in Japanese
students, and Watkins and Regmi (1990) found the same
in Nepalese students.
 The role of culture is pivotal in understanding the
modesty bias.
 Bond, Leung, and Wan (1982) found that Chinese
students who exhibited the modesty bias indtead of the
SSB were more popular with their peers.
 Kashima and Triandis argue that because of the more
collective nature of many Asian societies: if people derive
their self-esteem not from individual accomplishment
but from group identity, they are less likely to use the
SSB