IB Psychology - Sociocultural Approach studies

Berry (1967): Aim

Measuring the level of conformity in individualistic and collectivistic societies by applying a version of the Asch Paradigm.

Berry (1967): Sample

3 distinctly different cultures:
- Temne people (rice farming)
- Inuit people (hunting and fishing)

Each group was made up of people who had never had a western education and maintained the traditional way of life - and people who were "in transition" - either having a Western education or Western employment.

Scots were used as a reference group
- the control group was made up of both urban and rural Scots
- approximately 120 participants in each group.

Temne: traditional (90) and Transitional (32)
Inuits: traditional (91) and Transitional (31)
Scots: Rural (62) and Urban (60)

Berry (1967): Procedure

- Each individual was brought into a room by him or herself.
- Test: given a set of 9 lines
- First two test: asked to match the line below that most closely matched the line on the top.
- Directions were given in their own language by a native interpreter using a pre-translated set of instructions and questions.
- On the 3rd trial, they heard the following directions:
"Here is another sheet with the nine lines on it, one here on the top and eight beneath it. This time I am going to give you a hint. Most Temne (or Eskimo or Scottish) people say this line (experimenter pointed to a designated line) is equal in length to the one at the top. Which one do you say?"
- 3rd trial: correct answers were given.
- 4th -6th trial: the wrong response was given, with each response benign 5 lines away from the correct response.
- DV: the number of lines that they were away from the correct line.
- Total score: 0-15

Berry (1967): Findings

- The Temne had high conformity levels.
- The Inuit had the lowest conformity rates.
- Temne traditional: 9.04
- Temne transitional: 8.61
- Inuit traditional: 2.75
- Inuit transitional: 2.25

Berry (1967): Conclusion

- High conformity amongst the Temne because they had an agricultural economy and needed to depend on cooperation in farming. Also, their culture emphasised obedience in child-rearing practices.

- Lower conformity among the Inuit results from the often hunting alone. As such, they must be able to make their own decisions. Also, Inuit child-rearing practices emphasise self-sufficiency since that is needed within their culture.

- The cultural dimension of I-C affected conformity levels.

Berry (1967): Evaluation

- Lacks ecological validity; highly artificial - Asch paradigm

- Experimental method (control condition)
Tested in native languages of different groups; language would not be a confounding variable.

- Etic study: using a version of the standardised Asch paradigm. The procedure is highly replicable and thus can be used to establish the reliability of the findings.

- Rather dated study (temporal validity) - a more globalised world with more access to media, it is questionable whether these conformity rates are still valid this day.

- It is important that we don't make the ecological fallacy, believing that since an individual is a member of one of these groups, that he would be more or less likely to conform. The results of such research can lead to stereotyping about cultural groups.

Kearins (1981): Aim

To see whether Aboriginal people might perform better on a test that took advantage of their ability to encode with visual cues / to investigate the effects of culture on memory.

Kearins (1981): Sample

- Quasi-experiment (IV- culture cannot be manipulated)

- IV: Cultural backgrounds of adolescents aged 12-16 (Aboriginal vs white Australians)

- DV: the number of items correctly relocated.

- Matched participants
44 Aboriginal adolescents aged 12-16 (27 boys, 17 girls). Participants raised under semi-traditional tribal conditions and spoke English as their second language.

- 4 white Australian adolescents (28 boys, 16 girls) from the inner suburbs of Perth.

Kearins (1981): Procedure

- The study was done outdoors; "standard" testing situations is culturally foreign to the Aboriginal student, no testing was done until students had the time and opportunity to ask questions.

- Kearins placed 20 objects on a board divided into 20 squares. Each student was told to study the board for 30 seconds.

- They were told that the subsequent task was the reconstruction of the word with the objects in the same arrangement.

- Then, all the objects were haped into a pile in the centre of the word.

- Children were then asked to replace the items in their original locations.

Kearins (1981): Findings

- On all four tasks, the Aborignal children performed better than the white Australian children.

- The least difference between the two groups was on the artificial different array. This is the task on which the white Australian children scored the highest.

- Aboriginal children showed no significant difference whether the task was artificial or natural. The objects themselves therefore didn't affect the results.

- White students: less than 5% of perfect performance on both arrays. None obtained 2/more perfect scores.

- 18% managed one perfect score.

Kearins (1981): Conclusion

- The survival of Aboriginals in the harsh desert landscape had encourages and rewarded their ability to store and encode information using visual retrieval cues.

- This suggest that survival needs may shape and reward a particular way of encoding information in memory.

Kearins (1981): Evaluation

- Quasi experiment: IV (Culture) cannot be manipulated; findings are correlational in nature adn not able to establish a cause and effect relationship.

- Single sample: replications of the study would have to be done with other Aboriginal groups to determine the extent of correlation.

- Difficult to know exactly the reason behind the results. There must be an evolutionary root to this behaviour, however, it is very unlikely that their memory strategies are genetic. These children therefore, must've been raised to reflect traditional lifestyle- the exact components that influenced the students' memory is unclear.

- Qualitative data: a lot of qualitative data was collected when this research was carried out. She noted that the Indigenous Australian participants sat very still and did not engage in conversation with the researcher while they viewed the arrays set before them.

Kulkofsky et al (2011): Aim

Investigate if there is any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic cultures.

Kulkofsky et al (2011): Sample

- 274 adults from 5 different countries.

- all participants were identified as "middle class".

- China, Germany, Turkey, the Uk and USA.

- IV: Background / nationality of participant

- DV: What parts of the FBM were clearest / most important, measured through questionnaires.

- stratified random sampling.

Kulkofsky et al (2011): Procedure

- Participants were given 5 mins to recall as many memories as they could of public events occurring in their lifetime, must be from over 1 year ago.

- Researchers used this list to create a memory questionnaire similar to Brown and Kulik's 1977's questionnaire, based around the events they described.

- "What time of the day was it?", "How did you learn about it?"

- They were then asked to answer questions about the importance of the event to them personally.

- "How surprising was this event?", " How personally important was the event?"

- Surveys and instructions constructed in English and then back-translated into the different languages, removing the confounding variable of different languages.

Kulkofsky et al (2011): Findings

- Collectivistic culture (China), personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual's personal involvement and emotional experiences.

- because focusing on the individual's own experiences is often de-emphasised int he Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the triggering event compared with participants from other cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing a FBM.

_ However, it was found that national importance were equally linked to FBM formation across cultures.

Kulkofsky et al (2011): Evaluation

- A representative of the culture administered the test and the questionnaires were given in the native languages of the participants. This avoids interviewer effects. Participants were responding in their native language - and the language in which these memories were mostly created - the participants were more likely to recall these memories.

- The study used back-translation to make sure that the translation of the questionnaires were not a confounding variable. This increases the credibility of the study.

- There is the danger of the ecological fallacy - just because the participants come from the culture being studied, this does not mean that they necessarily share the traits of the culture's predominant dimensions - that is, just because I am American does not mean that I process FBM like other Americans.

- Etic approach to researching cultural difference. it is possible that cultural factors affected how information was self-reported. It cannot be verified in this study whether those personal memories actually exists but were not reported.

Hofstede (1973) - Aim

To identify dimensions underlying cultural differences in values, attitudes and behaviour.

Hofstede (1973) - Participants

117,000 IBM employees ( Hofstede founded the personnel research department of IBM Europe)

Hofstede (1973) - Method and procedure

- worldwide survey of values was conducted between 1967-73
- results of the survey were statistically analysed to identify hidden dimensions underlying observed patterns of responses
- a series of follow up studies are also conducted to confirm original findings and to generalise then to other population
- samples included students, pilots etc
- around this time countries were also profiled against the value dimensions.

Hofstede (1973) - Findings

- he originally identified 4 dimensions: I-C, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity vs femininity
- later research refined the theory and added two more dimensions: long-term vs short-term orientation and indulgence vs self-restraint.

Fagot (1978): Aim

To observe parental reactions to behaviour that wasn't deemed appropriate for the child's gender

Fagot (1978): Sample

- 24 families (12 with a boy and 12 with a girl)
- each family had only 1 child between 20-24 months.
- both parents lived at home and both parents were between 20-30 years old.
- all parents were white.
- 5 families lived in university housing and 6 lived in apartments; the rest lived in private homes.
- sample was varied in income; some parents were still students.

Fagot (1978): Procedure

- an observation checklist of 46 child behaviour and 19 reactions by parents.
- 5 60-minute observations completed for each family over a 5 week period.
- observer used time sampling, making note of the child's behaviour every 60 seconds and then noting the parents' response.
- two observers were used to establish inter-coder reliability.
- the agreement between the 2 observers on the child's behaviour was 0.93 and for parents' reaction 0.83.
- after the observations, each parent was asked to rate the 46 behaviours as more appropriate for girls, for boys or neutral.
- each parent also filled out a questionnaire on the socialisation of sex roles.

Fagot (1978): Findings

- boys were more likely to be left alone by their parents than girls.
- parents gave boys more positive responses when they played with blocks than they did girls.
- parents criticised girls more when they participated in large motor activities - eg, running and jumping.
- fathers were more concerned with appropriate sex-typing than mothers and both parents found more behaviours appropriate for girls only than for boys only.

Fagot (1978): Conclusion

- On the questionnaire, parents did not see asking for help as sex-preferred behaviour; however, they were more likely to act positively to a girl than a boy asking for help.
- This suggests that the parents were not fully aware of the methods they use to socialise their children.

Fagot (1978): Evaluation

- The study was naturalistic, done in the natural environment of the family, rather than in a lab (high ecological validity)

- 2 observers = we can verify that the observations are not influenced by personal biases. (high inter-rater reliability), meaning that they both recorded the same data during the observations.

- sampling bias; families were all linked to the uni, they were all white and American. 24 families is very small sample, the ability to generalise is limited.

- researchers found a short list of behaviours that result in the parents criticising the child. However, the families knew that they were being watched. This means that they have demonstrated demand characteristic. In reality, they may be more or fewer behaviours that the parents would normally criticise when they are not being observed.

Wood (2002): Aim

to examine gender role enculturation as a result of parenting and toy selection.

Wood (2002): Sample

This study is a modern variation of Fagot (1978) and Smith & Lloyd's (1978) studies.

- 48 children (24 boys and 24 girls), age 24-72 months) played with either his or her own mother or father, a mother or father of another child, and a man or woman who was not a parent.

- the adults were matched for age, educational level and occupation.

Wood (2002): Procedure

- children had 1-1 play session with an adult at the child's preschool / home.
- There were 3 play sessions in total for each child.
- 1/2 girls played with their mother, other mother or non-mother, the other half played with their father, other father or non-father.
- the boys were the same.
- each play session lasted 15 mins.
- 15 toys were arranged in a straight line in the room - with 5 stereotypically boy toys (basketball, truck), 5 stereotypically girls toys (baby doll, kitchen set) and 5 gender neutral toys (blocks, studded teddy bear, PlayDoh.
- during the play session, the amount of time children and adults played with gender-specific toys was recorded.
- after the session, the adults were given a "gender sorting task" in which they were asked to categorise each toy as a masculine, feminine or neutral toy.

Wood (2002): Findings and Conclusion

- The gender-sorting task showed that adults did not agree with traditional "expert" categorisations of some of the toys, which suggests a shift in the perceived function of some traditionally stereotyped toys.

- However, regardless of how parents sorted toys into categories, when playing with boys, most time was spent with masculine toys.

- With girls, on the other hand, there was greater flexibility in the categories of toys with which they played.

Wood (2002): Evaluation

- quasi- experiment: makes use of a naturalistic observation of children in their own home; high ecological validity.

- standardised observation, it may also be replicated, allowing others to test the reliability of the findings.

- naturalistic observation, there is lack of control over confounding variables in the study, although there are attempts to control for age/education of the adults who were not parents of the children.

- behaviour of parents and children may have been altered due to knowing that they are being observed.

- sampling bias: done in Canada: difficult to generalise the findings to other cultures.

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Aim

to investigate which factors in the lives of Latino immigrants to the US would decrease the level of acculturative stress.

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Participants

- random sample of 197 (63% females and 37% males) Spanish-speaking American immigrants (47% Mexican ancestry, 34% Central American, 19% South American) average age of 28.7 average age of migration to US was 22.5
- average length of residence in US was 3.9 years.

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Procedure

participants completed a questionnaire and tests to assess family cohesion, level of acculturation, acculturative stress, and coping strategies for stress.

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Findings

- Immigrants with effective coping strategies, good proficiency in English, and a strong family structure were less likely to experience acculturative stress.
- immigrants who spent a longer time in the US were less likely to demonstrate this stress and showed a higher level of acculturation (no quantitative data).

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Conclusion

- The result of this study support views of researchers such as Barry (1990) who contend that acculturative stress is influenced by multiple factors.
- The study showed that there are many protective factors that may influence the extent to which an individual acculturates and the effect this will have on mental health.

Miranda and Matheny (2000) - Evaluation

- social desirability - false responses
- low reliability (internal validity)
- no cause and effect relationship
- study does not exhibit fender bias as both men and women participated in the study, widening the generalisability and the scope of applications.
- the study was ethical because there was informed consent, the participants were not deceived.
- using an etic approach, thus generalising the results to the immersion of other cultures, the study bears no cultural bias as it involved the participation of diverse individuals of Latino descent.

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Aim

To investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrant and Asian Americans.

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Participants

- The sample consisted 2095 Asian Americans 1271 were first generation immigrants who were 18 years or older when they came to the US the rest of the sample was born in the US to first-generation immigrant parents.

- The sample consisted of several different Asian cultures (Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese)

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Procedure

- semi-structured interviews were conducted either face-to-face or over the internet by interviewers of a similar cultural/linguistic background of participants.
- random sample of participants was contacted to validate the data taken from the interviews.
- the interviews measured the participants' level of acculturative stress, the impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family cohesion, and socioeconomic status on this stress.

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Findings

of the 2095 participants, 1433 were found to have acculturative stress (70%)

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Conclusion

- A bilingual language preference contributes to lower acculturative stress because social networks can be constructed with family and friends - wider support system the preference for speaking only English is a predictor of high acculturative stress negative treatment contributes to higher acculturative stress.
- sharing similar values and beliefs as a family significantly contributes to lower acculturative stress.

Lueck & Wilson (2010) - Evaluation

- researcher bias
- difficult to replicate
- inability to generalise results to a wider population
- does not exhibit gender bias as both men and women participated in the study, widening the generalisability and the scope of applications
- study was ethical

Tajfel (1971) - Aim

to investigate of intergroup discrimination would take place based on being put into different groups.

Tajfel (1971) - Sample

48 boys, ages 14-15 years old

Tajfel (1971) - Procedure

- they were shown slides of paintings by Klee and Kandinsky and were told their preferences for the painting would determine which 2 groups they would join.
- the experimenters ensured that the boys had no idea who was also in their own group, what the grouping meant or what they had to lose or gain.
- each was then asked to distribute virtual money to the other members of both groups, with only the information concerning to which group the recipient of the money belonged.

Tajfel (1971) - Findings & Conclusion

- boys favoured their own group in the distribution of the virtual money
- thus demonstrating that the mere fact of being put in a group was enough to demonstrate loyalty to the group and discrimination against those outside the group.

Tajfel (1971) - Evaluation

- carefully controlled experiment demonstrated the strength of SIT and also the risks inherent if teachers split students into groups by gender, age or even ability: in-groups and out-groups will surely develop.
- SIT is not empirically shown to result in negative stereotyping of the out-group.

Dunham et al (2011) - Aim

to investigate their relevance of the minimal groups paradigm and consequential SIT for young children.

Dunham et al (2011) - Method

33 participants, 19 female and 14 male, with a mean age of 5.4 years and of primarily (79%) European-American background.
- each child was randomly assigned to the red group or the blue group by choosing a hidden red or blue coin from the experimenter's hand.

Dunham et al (2011) - Procedure

- The stimuli were 8 heads and shoulders photos of European-American children of similar attractiveness, wearing either red or blue t-shirts.
- They were then seated in front of a computer and taken through tests comprising measure of attitude, coin allocation, behavioural attribution and implicit association test.

Dunham et al (2011) - Findings

In the attitude, coin allocation and behavioural attribution tasks, participants showed a significant preference for their own gender with girls driving results.
- The IAT did not have a gender measure
- In all task except the behavioural attribution task, there was evidence for a significant in-group preference.
- in the attitude task, participants preferred children from their 'minimal' (red/blue) in-group, with a mean in-group rating of 4.3 and mean out-group rating of 3.8

Dunham et al (2011) - Conclusion

For young children, minimal in-groups are weaker organisers of evaluations than gender. This reinforces the central importance of gender as an organiser of social relation in their age range.

Dunham et al (2011) - Evaluation

- triangulation method, with closed questions being supplemented by free recall and implicit association tasked.
- the experiment tested a wide range of biases and demonstrated internal validity.
- even very young children have the experience of being split into binary groups for competitive reasons, and thereby acquire the perception of the group as better.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Aim

To investigate if children would generalise learning to other situations and perform the same actions even when a model wasn't present. Also to examine if children were more likely to imitate same sex models.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Method & Sample

- Lab experiment with observation
- 36 boys and 36 girls from Standard University Nursery
- 3-6 years old
- self-selected (advert)
- children were matched for their level of physical and verbal aggression and aggression towards objects.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Procedure

- 3 conditions (aggressive model, non-aggressive model, control group)
- condition 1: exposed to a model showing physical and verbal aggression towards an inflatable Bobo doll
- condition 2: non-aggressive model who assembled toys.
- condition 3: no model.
- the group were further subdivided into male and female subjects. Half the subjects in the experimental conditions observed same sex models, while the remaining subjects in each group viewed models of the opposite sex.
- the children were observed through 1-way mirror by her/him.
- measures were taken of physical and verbal aggression that imitated the earlier model.
- researchers also measured the child's non-imitative aggressive behaviour.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Findings

- children who observed the aggressive model showed significantly more aggression both physically and verbally.
- boys were more likely to imitate physical aggression.
- girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Conclusion

Social learning theory was demonstrated in this study because the children showed signs of observational learning.

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - Evaluation

- age group was appropriate for demonstrating social learning. This is a critical learning period for cognitive development and the child is sensitive to environmental cues.
- study was conducted in a controlled environment, able to study specific behaviour in detail.
- gender difference was addressed
- low ecological validity
- demand characteristics might have had a role to play.
- ethical considerations: encouraging violence in children is doubtful, as we don't know the long-lasting effects on this children.

Asch (1955)

- lab experiment to study conformity.
- 50 male students in USA.
- 1 naive participants and 6 confederates.
- on 1 card there was a single line and the participants were ask to choose the line on card 2 which has the same length as card 1.
- 6 confederates were asked to give wrong answers on certain trials.
- control: Asch had another condition where one participant answered all 18 trials without the confederates present and with only the experimenter in the room.
- after the experiment, interviews were carried out with each participants.
- over 12 critical trials, about 75% participants conformed at least once, and 25% of participants never conformed.
- control: less than 1% gave the wrong answer.
- interview: they thought they were wrong; they were not sure about their answer.

Steele & Aronson (1995)

- wanted to see how stereotype threats affect test performance in African Americans.
- 76 male and female (black and white undergraduates)
- 2 IVs: the race of the participant, test descriptions
- given a test of verbal ability and were told to focus on the "verbal ability" and "problem-solving"
- no significant difference between male and female participants
- AA performed less well than their white counterparts int he stereotype threat condition, but in the non-threat condition, their performance equaled that of their white counterparts.

Spencer (1999)

- to investigate stereotype threat, applied to women and maths performance.
- 28 men and 28 women, uni - done between a semester - relatively good grades.
- experiment 1: easy test, same performance between men and women, hard test, men performed better than women
- experiment 2: new test that would or would not show gender differences
- women did worse than men (emphasised when told that gender differences were being looked at)
- stereotype threat can affect women doing maths especially when gender assumptions are not dismissed.

Hamilton & Gifford (1976)

- to investigate illusory correlation of group size and negative behaviour
- 2 groups, 1 large group A and one small group B
- researchers asked participants to read descriptions about two made-up groups
- descriptions were based on a number of +ve and -ve behaviours.
- group A: performed 18+ve and 8-ve behaviours
- group B: 9+ve and 4-ve behaviours
- asked to attribute behaviours to other group.
- no correlation between group membership and the types of behaviours
- more of the undesirable behaviours were attributed tot he minority group B, than the majority of group A.
- Distinctiveness-based illusory correlations happen when a relationship is believed to exist between two variables due to focusing too much on information that stands out.