HL Socio-cultural Studies
IB Course Companion and Study
Guide References
Festinger et al (1956)
• Festinger and his team covertly observed a religious
cult in Chicago that believed the world would end on
December 21st and that they would be rescued by
flying saucers if they followed the rituals and texts.
When the prophesy did not take place, the cult decided
that God had not destroyed the world because of their
prayers.
• World predicted to end at midnight although it did not,
so discounted counter evidence as being a minute shy
of midnight and they went to belief that they were
spared because they were the light of humanity.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails
•
Attributions in the sports pages.
By Lau, Richard R.; Russell, Dan
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 39(1),
Jul 1980, 29-38
Abstract
• Extended the generality of attribution research by exploring several
important issues in a highly involving real-world setting in which
attributions naturally occur: athletic competition. 107 newspaper
accounts of baseball and football games were coded for attributional
content. These data support a motivational or self-enhancement
explanation for the tendency to make internal attributions (talent or
hardwork) for success and external attributions (injuries or bad weather)
for failure. No support was found for D. T. Miller and M. Ross's (1975)
contention that this tendency is mediated by expectancies. It was also
found that more attributions were made after unexpected, as opposed to
expected, outcomes. There was a tendency for relatively more stable
attributions to be given after expected outcomes. The advantages and
disadvantages of studying attributions in archival data and the possibility
of attributions justifying rather than explaining behavior are discussed. (25
ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
•
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1981-23644-001
Greenberg et al. (1982)
• Self serving bias protects self esteem.
– It boosts our self-esteem to attribute our successes to dispositional
factors.
– It boosts our self-esteem to attribute our failures to situational factors.
– For example, when a student remembers a class, he or she remembers
good grades earned.
– Study: 46 male undergraduate students aged 18-24, IV: favorable or
unfavorable test scores and IV: public versus private performance, 12
out of 20 correct; then rated how well they did; those in the favorable
group liked the study a lot more and those in the public group were
more dependent on the experimenter; those in the private group were
more individualistic
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222165219_The_SelfServing_Attributional_Bias_Beyond_Self-Presentation
Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction?
Miller, Dale T.; Ross, Michael
Psychological Bulletin, Vol 82(2), Mar 1975, 213-225.
• If we expect to succeed, and we do, we attribute it to our skill and ability.
If we expect to succeed and do not, then we feel it is bad luck or external
factors.
• A review of the evidence for and against the proposition that self-serving
biases affect attributions of causality indicates that there is little empirical
support for the proposition in its most general form. Some support was
found for the contention that individuals engage in self-enhancing
attributions under conditions of success, but only minimal evidence
suggested that individuals engage in self-protective attributions under
conditions of failure. Moreover, it was proposed that the self-enhancing
effect may not be due to motivational distortion, but rather to the
tendency of people to (a) expect their behavior to produce success, (b)
discern a closer covariation between behavior and outcomes in the case of
increasing success than in the case of constant failure, and (c) misconstrue
the meaning of contingency. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012
APA, all rights reserved)
• http://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/biases/82_Psychological_
Bulletin_213_(Miller).pdf
Kashima and Triandis (1986)
• 202 US undergraduate and 34 Japanese graduate students
• Asked participants to remember details of 15 slides of
scenes from unfamiliar countries Israel, Greece, and Iran
• 5 minute recognition test, 5 slides from life in India, 3
minute test, randomly assigned to success (12 of 15) or
failure (5 of 15) group, attribution questionnarie
• When asked to explain their performance, Americans
tended to attribute success to ability and failure to external
factors—SSB while the Japanese tended to explain their
failures in terms of their lack of ability—modesty bias.
http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/17/1/83.abstract
Bond, Leung, and Wan (1982)
Chinese students who exhibited the modesty bias instead of
the SSB were more popular with their peers.
. One possible explanation for this link is that modest behavior
can help to deflect attention from ways in which individuals
stand out from their group, thus promoting harmonious
interpersonal relations within collectivist societies (see also
Bond et al., 1982).
Study: 56 student participants (224 American and 240 Chinese
across two replications) watched confederates do an
intellectual task (one competent and one incompetent who
would give self enhancing or self effacing attributes);
participants would rate -7 to +7 likeability, competence,
and anxiety; self effacing better liked but less competent
http://spmoodle23.aisgz.org/pluginfile.php/55870/mod_reso
urce/content/0/Attribution%20Theory.pdf
Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory
• Social categorization
• In-group, out-group
• Social comparison—benefits of belonging to
in-group versus out-group
• Sherrif—Robbers Cave study and Tajfel—Klee
and Kandinsky and dots studies
http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/why-groupsand-prejudices-form-so.php
Cialdini, R. B., et al. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field
studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375.
•
The idea of associating oneself with successful others was described by Cialdini and his coauthors as a relatively "true to life" theoretical phenomenon without much empirical
support. In this classic article, the tendency to "bask in reflected glory (BIRG)" or associate
oneself publicly with successful others was investigated by using a series of experiments with
football fans from large prestigious football schools (e.g., Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre
Dame). In an attempt to demonstrate BIRGing, the researchers conducted a field experiment
(in large lecture halls across 7 different schools) where they observed student
clothing/apparel on a Monday following a big football game. The researchers found that
students tended to wear more apparel associating themselves with their own university (e.g.,
jersey or sweatshirt) when the football team won compared to when they lost. Based on
these findings, the researchers sought to further understanding BIRGing effects and did so by
randomly calling students and interviewing them about the performance of their schools
football team following a game.
• The researchers found that people tended to use the pronoun "we" more to describe their
team when they won and "they" more when the team had lost. In some of these
experiments, the researchers manipulated the feelings of the participants by employing
distraction tasks and giving positive/negative feedback. By way of this manipulation, the
researchers were able to show that people tend to associate with positive others most
closely when their own public image is threatened. This article is classic because it clearly
demonstrated that people associate themselves with positive others even when they have no
clear connection to the success of the positive others, which is essentially the BIRG
phenomenon.
http://www.bps.org.uk/system/files/images/cialdinietal1976.pdf
Moscovici (1973)
• Social representations—shared beliefs and
explanations held by the society in which we live
or the group to which we belong—are the
foundation of social cognition, helps us to make
sense of and master the world, enable
communication of community by providing a
social exchange and naming/classifying code
• Fundamental cultural schemas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_representation
'So, you're from Brixton?': the struggle for recognition and esteem in a multicultural
community
Howarth, Caroline (2002) 'So, you're from Brixton?': the struggle for recognition and
esteem in a multicultural community. Ethnicities, 2 (2). pp. 237-260. ISSN 1468-7968
• Focus group interviews
• The first section illustrates how identity is constructed through and against
the representations held by others within particular social contexts.
Focusing on the varying strategies that different young people adopt in
constructing a positive identity reveals the salience of racist
representations in the social construction of Brixton. The second section
examines the effects this can have on the self-image and self-esteem of
many in the study, looking in particular at strategies used to contest
negative versions of blackness. This points to the racializing and gendering
within the (re)production of local youth identities. The concluding section
illustrates how some young people collaboratively develop the social and
psychological resources to protect themselves against the prejudices of
others. Together, this material reveals how social relationships and
institutional cultures empower/disempower Brixton's youth in their
collaborative struggle for recognition and esteem. This allows us to
consider how new multicultures address, incorporate and resist new
racisms and prejudices towards a locality.
• http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/2435/
Jane Elliott
• In grouping and out grouping via blue eyes
and brown eyes
http://www.janeelliott.com/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/classdivided/
Stereotype Threat—Steele and
Aronson 1990s
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_thre
at
Spotlight anxiety causes emotional distress and
pressure that may undermine performance.
STEREOTYPES AND THE PERCEPTION OF GROUP DIFFERENCES.
CAMPBELL, DONALD T.
American Psychologist, Vol 22(10), Oct 1967, 817-829.
• EMPHASIZES "THE WAY IN WHICH BOTH ANTHROPOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
AND LEARNING THEORY PREDICT THAT IF THERE ARE GROUP DIFFERENCES
OR DIFFERENTIALS IN SOCIAL INTERACTION, THESE WILL TEND TO APPEAR
IN THE STEREOTYPES GROUPS HAVE OF EACH OTHER." (PsycINFO Database
Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• Sources of stereotypes: personal experience with individuals and groups
and gatekeepers—media, parents, and other members of our culture.
• Grain of truth hypothesis: an experience with an individual from a group
will then be generalized to the group
Search via Campbell in
http://perso.uclouvain.be/vincent.yzerbyt/Yzerbyt%20et%20al.%20Group%20
Perception%202004%20Chap%201.pdf
Hamilton and Gifford (1976)
• Stereotypes are the result of an illusory correlation—
people see a relationship between two variables even
when there is none. Illusory correlation cognitive bias
(relationship between two variables when there is
none)confirmation bias (seek or remember information)
• Study: reading task of 39 hypothetical characters (26 in
group A, 13 in group B, but in both ratio to good to bad
behavior was the same), 18 good behavior in group A but
17 perceived, 4 bad behaviors in group B but 6 perceived—
How many people in each group performed good and bad
behaviors?
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_correlation
Snyder and Swann (1978)
• Confirmation bias study
• http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Faculty/Swann/public
ations.htm
• 58 female University of Minnesota students told that they would
meet an introverted or extroverted person and then asked to
prepare 12 questions—chosen from a list of 26—10 introvert
oriented, 11 extrovert oriented, 5 neutral—not labeled. Four
conditions given—combinations of introverted and extroverted and
high certainty or low certainty.
• Participants came up with questions that confirmed their
perceptions, for example, what do you dislike about parties or are
there times you wish you could be more outgoing or what do you
do to liven up a party.
Bandura’s social learning theory
• Learn norms via observational learning
• Includes attention, retention, motor
reproduction, and motivation
• Imitation and learning influences: consistency
of model, identification with model, rewards
and punishment—vicarious reinforcement,
liking the model
Imitation of nurturant and nonnurturant models.
Yarrow, Marian R.; Scott, Phyllis M.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 23(2), Aug 1972,
259-270.
• Investigated influences of the model-child relationship on the
child's imitation in a laboratory setting. 118 preschool children were
in small play groups under the supervision of either a nurturant or a
nonnurturant caretaker. 2 female adults carried out both roles with
different groups. In these contrasting contexts, the models
performed standard responses incidentally during group play; other
responses were performed in a play task, with Ss' attention directed
to the model. Model nurturance and nonnurturance (a) had no
effect on gross frequency of imitation; (b) had an influence on the
content of imitated acts (nurturance was emphasized under
nurturant models; nonnurturance, under nonnurturant models);
and (c) were related to frequency of delayed and generalized
imitation. Both nurturance and nonnurturance were significantly
greater with nurturant models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012
APA, all rights reserved)
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/23/2/259/
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1483257770
Bandura and Ross (1961)
• 36 boys and 36 girls, 37 to 67 months old, 8
experimental groups, 6 participants in each
• http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobodoll.html
Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their
aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992.
Huesmann, L. Rowell; Moise-Titus, Jessica; Podolski, Cheryl-Lynn; Eron,
Leonard D.
Developmental Psychology, Vol 39(2), Mar 2003, 201-221.
• Although the relation between TV-violence viewing and aggression
in childhood has been clearly demonstrated, only a few studies
have examined this relation from childhood to adulthood, and
these studies of children growing up in the 1960s reported
significant relations only for boys. The current study examines the
longitudinal relations between TV-violence viewing at ages 6 to 10
and adult aggressive behavior about 15 years later for a sample
growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Follow-up archival data (N=450)
and interview data (N=329) reveal that childhood exposure to
media violence predicts young adult aggressive behavior for both
males and females. Identification with aggressive TV characters and
perceived realism of TV violence also predict later aggression. These
relations persist even when the effects of socioeconomic status,
intellectual ability, and a variety of parenting factors are controlled.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev-392201.pdf
Kimball and Zabrack (1986)
Three towns in Canada; children studied and found that
they were more aggressive two years after the
introduction of television; gender stereotyping
increased; academic success decreased in the form of
test scores
• http://books.google.com/books?id=kUxCx79KpUAC&p
g=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=kimball+zabrack+1986+canada
&source=bl&ots=UB_XSSXC-B&sig=h2u545uSu3tkv1Yo6pLxCa6aXY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VmfwUqu
SF4qy2QXW4ID4AQ&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage
&q=zabrack&f=false
Charlton, Gunter, and Hannan (2002)
• http://www.questia.com/library/104941544/bro
adcast-television-effects-in-a-remote-community
• On St Helena island television was introduced in
1995, so cameras were set up in playgrounds of
two primary schools and behavior of children
aged 3-8 was observed before and after TV
introduction (natural experiment). Experimenters
also interviewed teachers, parents, and some
older children. There was no increase in
aggressive or antisocial behavior—5 years later,
too.
Compliance techniques—result of
direct pressure (Cialdini)
• Authority
• Commitment
• Liking
• Reciprocity
Lynn and McCall (1998)—Mint increases tip; Cialdini et al. (1975) door-in-theface technique:
http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/cialdini_door_face.
html; Dickerson et al. (1992) foot-in-the-door technique: university
students to conserve water in dorm showers, first asked to sign a poster,
then asked to do a survey about own water usage, then shower time was
monitored; students who had signed the poster and completed the survey
spent on average 3.5 minutes less in the shower
• Scarcity
• Social proof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw
Conformity
• Sherif’s conformity to the perceived group norm
(1936)—point of light illusion, looks like it moves
but does not, as individuals 2-6 inch moving
estimate, in groups agreement to 4 inches
• Asch’s conformity to the majority (1951)
• http://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.ht
ml and http://www.simplypsychology.org/aschconformity.html
Moscovici and Lage (1976)
• Blue Green Study and minority influence:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/minorityinfluence.html
As opposed to groupthink in which group
members have a unanimous opinion on an
issue and do not seek out alternative or
dissenting opinions
Why conform?
• Deutsch and Gerard (1955)—informational
social influence and normative social influence
• Festinger (1954)—social comparison—what
others do and cognitive dissonance
Counter conformity studies
•
Bond and Smith (1990s) meta-analysis of conformity studies using
an Asch-type line judgment task (1952b, 1956) was conducted to
investigate whether the level of conformity has changed over time
and whether it is related cross-culturally to individualismcollectivism. The literature search produced 133 studies drawn from
17 countries. An analysis of U.S. studies found that conformity has
declined since the 1950s. Results from 3 surveys were used to
assess a country's individualism-collectivism, and for each survey
the measures were found to be significantly related to conformity.
Collectivist countries tended to show higher levels of conformity
than individualist countries. Conformity research must attend more
to cultural variables and to their role in the processes involved in
social influence.
• http://www.radford.edu/~jaspelme/_private/gradsoc_articles/indiv
idualism_collectivism/conformity%20and%20culture.pdf
Berry (1967)
• Temne people of Sierra Leone conformed significantly
more than the Inuit people of Canada. He explained
this in terms of differences in economic practices—
Temne single crop and therefore
community/consensus/agreement reliance and Inuit
continual hunting and gathering on an individual basis.
http://www.appsychology.com/IB%20Psych/IBcontent/St
udies/Berry.htm
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1968-03891-001
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0495600385
Defining Culture
• References a book that analyzed 128 definitions of culture,
“a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit,
established by groups in order to ensure their survival,
involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors”
(Matsumoto, 2004)
• Surface culture
• Deep culture—beliefs, attitudes, and values (Kuschel, 2004)
• Common rules that regulate interactions and behavior in a
group, as well as shared values and attitudes (Lonner, 1995)
• Mental software—internalized cultural schemas that
influence thinking, emotions, and behavior i.e. collective
mental programming (Hofstede, 2002)
• Etic (universal) vs. emic (culturally specific)
Hofstede (1973)
• 88, 0000, multinational IBM company employee
surveys about morale in the workplacetrends
from the 40 most represented countries in the
surveysculture is a collective phenomenon
distinguished by dimensions
• Culture as mental programming or mental
software
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede's_cultural
_dimensions_theory
• Confucian work dynamism: instead of focusing
on truth, some cultures focus on virtue (Bond,
1988)
• China and other Asian countries—long-term
orientation—value persistence, loyalty, and
trustworthiness
• Finland, France, Germany, and the US have a
short-term orientation (Hofstede).
Mead (1935)
• New Guinea observations
• Three cultures: one of which men and women
had similar nonaggressive behaviors, second men
and women both unpleasant and ruthless, third
women were dominant and men cared about
physical appearance and were more emotional;
gender roles vary between cultures;
compromised findings due to outsider influence
(Hawthorne effect)
• http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mead/fieldsepik.html