SAQs sociocultural studies outline

Abrams et al outline

A study that wanted to test social identity theory is  Abrams et al.

Partecipants had to complete the Ash paradigm. Participants were in groups and they were made of confederates and one naive participant.

the group is shown a line and then asked to match it with a line of the same lenght in a set of 3 lines.

In half of the trials, confederates gave the correct answers, in the other half, they did not.

In one condition partecipants were told that the rest of the participants were  their fellow psychology students, in the other condition partecipants were told that the rest of the participants were history students from a competitor university.

Results showed that participants conformed 50% when they thought the others partecipants were part of  their in-group, while conformed only 5% of the time when they thought that the partecipants  were part of their out-group.

Bandura (1961) outline

A study that wanted to test SCT is made by Bandura, conducting the famous Bobo Doll experiment (1961).

The sample was made by 72 kids aged from 3 to 6, (36 boys and 36 girls). There were put in 3 groups:

1 as control

1 observed a model (a person) being agressive and kicking a bobo doll

1 observed a model be kind with the bovo doll

Results showed that kids in condition 2 were more aggressive towards the bobo doll. Re-yap( children aquired behaviour by watching/ mimecking

Steele and Aronson (1995)

It was an experiment.

The sample was made of undergraduate Stanford students, thus they should have the same level of verbal ability.

The partecipants did a test on verbal abilities, and were divided in 3 conditions. In one condition they were not told nothing, in the second condition they were told that that test was testing their verbal abilities, and in the third condition (from a follow up study ) participants were told to explicit their race.

In the last two conditions African Americans performed worse than White Americans.

Kearins (1981) outline

Kearins (1981) wanted to study Aboriginal and Australian children's spatial memory

memory test done outdoors

20 objects in 20 squares on a board

Could study it for 30 seconds

 

Alboriginal did better than Australian.

18% Australian had 1 perfect score, 0 %had 2 perfect scores

75% of Alboriginal had 1 perfect score, 40 %2 perfect scores

Berry et al (1967) outline

Partecipants Temne farmers form Sierra Leone (collectivistic society)  / Inuit hunters form Canada (individualistic society) 

Had to do Ash experiment ( given one line, and had to match the line with another line form a set of three lines which had the same lenght).

Participants put in 2 conditions:

Control: nothing was said to them

Experimental: participants were said: “a member of your society gave this (wrong)  answer to this test, what do you think?”

Findings: temne people conformed more than Inuit people, supporting the idea that they desire social harmony/ value interdependence
 

Fagot et al (1978) outline

Aim: see how parents influence gender dentity (shaped by biological factors but by cultural norms too) and parental reaction to behaviour tyhat didn’t seem appropriate for child’s gender.

Natural observation of 24 families ( 12 boys/ 12 girls) in USA

Found: parents were more favourably for theiur kid to play with toys that acted accordingly to gender norms and expectations (bla bla)

Miranda and atheny (2011) outline

Aim: find which factors most affect acculturative stress in latino immigrants in the USA.

Procedure:

200 participants had to complete a questionnaire to test their level of acculturative stress / factors that influence it.

Findings:

good english/ strong family structure=> less acculturative stress, positive effect on mental health .

Lueck and Wilson (2000) outline

Aim: measure the acculturative stress on asian immigrants in america

Procedure:

Large sample

Semi structured interviews

Face to face / online

Findings:

70% of the sample had acculturative stress

There are protective factors ( good English / good relationships with parents/ satisfaction with economic status/ still being able to speak origfinal langauge with parents/ family/ outsiders)

There are stress factors ( racism/ not being able to talk one's original language)

Festinger outline

Festiger carried out a covert observation of a cult.

Aim: He wanted to see the reaction of the members of the cult when their profency of end of the world, Doomsday, would not arrive.

Procedure: In order to do this, him and other researchers infiltrated in the cult and faked to be followers. They took notes and when Doomsday did not arrive, they tried to justify themselves for feeling less ashamed and cognitive dissonance. They rationalised that their prayers had postponed Doomsday.