IB PSYCHOLOGY M26: SOCIOCULTURAL

also includes two globalization studies

TAJFEL (1971) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: Investigate if intergroup discrimination would take place based on being put into different groups.

Sample: 48 boys British schoolboys aged 14 - 15

Design: Opportunity sampling. Laboratory experiment. Independent measures. Artificial task.

TAJFEL (1971) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Participants rated abstract paintings and were then randomly assigned to groups based on supposed preference for Painter 1 or Painter 2 (without knowing the true purpose). They then distributed points between an in-group member and an out-group member, knowing only their group membership.

Findings: Showed in-group bias, as participants gave more points to their own group. However, they also sometimes prioritized maximizing the difference between groups over overall rewards, even if it reduced their own group’s total points. This suggests people may favor relative group superiority over absolute gain.

CIALDINI (1976) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate social identity theory by examining whether people associate themselves more strongly with successful in-groups than unsuccessful ones.

Sample: Students from 7 U.S. universities.

Design: Opportunity sample. Field study. Quasi-experiment. Naturalistic observation.

CIALDINI (1976) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Researchers measured how often students used inclusive language (“we,” “us”) when describing their university’s football team. Data was collected on the Monday following football matches. Researchers compared both the language used after a win and after a loss. In one part of the study, students were also asked to wear university-branded clothing on days following wins or losses.

Findings: Students used the word “we” significantly more after their team won than after it lost. Students were more likely to wear university clothing following a win than a loss. After losses, students tended to distance themselves from the team (using “they” instead of “we”).

BANDURA (1961) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: First, the researchers wanted to see if children would imitate aggression modeled by an adult; and second, they wanted to know if children were more likely to imitate same-sex models.

Sample: 72 children, 36 boys and 36 girls, all ages 3 - 6. All from Stanford University Nursery School.
Design: Opportunity sample. Laboratory experiment. Independent measures.

BANDURA (1961) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Children individually watched an adult model act either aggressively (toward a Bobo doll using physical and verbal aggression) or non-aggressively with toys. After being briefly frustrated by not being allowed to play with attractive toys, they were placed in a room with a Bobo doll and their behaviour was observed.

Findings: Children who observed aggression were more likely to act aggressively themselves than those who saw non-aggressive models. They tended to imitate same-sex models more, especially boys copying male physical aggression. The study also found that children copied new aggressive behaviours, supporting the idea that aggression is learned through observation rather than direct experience. Boys showed higher levels of physical aggression overall than girls.

KIMBALL (1986) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: See if exposure to "normal television viewing" would lead to a change in the level of gender stereotyping in a Northern Canadian community.

Sample: 536 children from four communities.

Design: Opportunity sample. Natural experiment. Longitudinal. Quasi-experiment. Self-reported method.

KIMBALL (1986) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Children in four Canadian communities completed the Sex Role Differentiation (SRD) scale before and two years after television was introduced to a remote town. The study compared their results to data from a community that already had long-term TV exposure.

Findings: Before TV, children had relatively egalitarian gender attitudes, with girls being less stereotyped than boys. After two years of TV exposure, gender stereotyping increased significantly in both genders, eliminating initial differences between boys and girls. Boys showed a particularly strong increase in job-related stereotypes. Overall, the results suggest that television exposure contributed to increased gender stereotyping in children.

STEELE & ARONSON (1995) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate whether stereotype threat affects the test performance of African American students, specifically when a test is described as measuring intellectual ability.

Sample: 114 black and white undergraduate students from Stanford

Design: Opportunity sample. Laboratory experiment. Independent measures.

STEELE & ARONSON (1995) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Participants completed a standardized verbal ability test similar to the SAT. They were randomly assigned to one of two test-description conditions: 1, Stereotype threat condition: the test was described as a diagnostic test of intellectual/verbal ability. 2, Non-threat condition: the test was described as a problem-solving task unrelated to ability. Participants completed the test under standardized conditions. Test scores were recorded and compared across groups.

Findings: African American participants performed significantly worse than white participants when the test was described as a measure of intellectual ability. In the non-threat (problem-solving) condition, African American participants performed equally well as white participants.

BERRY (1967) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate whether levels of conformity differ across cultures, specifically comparing collectivist (agricultural) and individualist (hunting/fishing) societies, using a version of the Asch conformity paradigm.

Sample: Roughly 120 per group (~360)

Design: Opportunity sample. Cross-cultural study. Quasi-experiment. Laboratory experiment. Independent measures.

BERRY (1967) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Participants completed a line-judgement task adapted from Asch. First, participants completed two practice trials to ensure they understood the task. Instructions were given in the participant’s native language using trained interpreters and pre-translated scripts. In the test trials, participants were told what most members of their culture supposedly believed was the correct answer. On one trial the suggested answer was correct, and on subsequent trials the suggested answer was incorrect. Participants selected the line they believed matched the target line.

Findings: Temne participants (rice-farming, collectivist culture) showed the highest levels of conformity. Inuit participants (hunting/fishing, individualist culture) showed the lowest levels of conformity, even lower than the Scots. Scots showed moderate conformity. There were no significant differences within cultures between traditional and transitional groups.

KEARINS (1981) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate whether cultural and environmental factors influence spatial memory in Indigenous Australian and white Australian adolescents.

Sample: 44 Indigenous Australian adolescents (27 boys, 17 girls,) and 44 white Australian adolescents (28 boys, 16 girls.)

Design: Quasi-experiment. Independent measures. Opportunity sampling.

KEARINS (1981) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Conducted outdoors, not in classrooms, to respect cultural norms. 20 objects placed on a board divided into 20 squares. Participants had 30 seconds to study the board, then objects were removed and heaped in a pile. Participants were asked to replace the objects in their original positions. Four variations of the task:

1. Artificial Different: 20 man-made objects familiar to white Australian children.

2. Natural Different: 20 naturally occurring objects familiar to Indigenous children.

3. Artificial Same: 12 similar bottles arranged in 4×3 matrix

4. Natural Same: 12 similar rocks differing in size, color, and texture.

Findings: Indigenous Australian children consistently outperformed white Australian children across all tasks. Difference was smallest on the artificial different task, largest on the natural tasks. Many Indigenous children had perfect or near-perfect scores, especially on 12-item arrays. Performance was independent of object type, suggesting spatial memory skill is culturally and environmentally influenced.

ODDEN & ROCHAT (2004) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate how children acquire cultural skills and social norms in Samoa, specifically whether they are learned through observational learning rather than direct instruction. 

Sample: 28 children from a single Samoan village 

Designs: Longitudinal. Field study. Interview methods.

ODDEN & ROCHAT (2004) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Researchers observed children over time as they watched adults fish and interact within the social hierarchy, with little to no direct instruction provided. 

Findings: They found that children primarily learned by observing adult behaviour, gradually developing fishing skills and an understanding of the chief system through exposure rather than teaching, supporting the role of observational learning in cultural development.

FAGOT (1978) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate how parents socialize gender roles in young children by examining differences in parental responses to boys’ and girls’ behaviours. 

Sample: 24 families (12 with boys and 12 with girls), each with one child aged 20–24 months. 

Designs: Naturalistic observation. Questionnaire. Natural study.

FAGOT (1978) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Each family was observed for five 60-minute sessions over five weeks, during which children’s behaviours and parental reactions were recorded every 60 seconds. After observations, parents completed a questionnaire rating behaviours as male-typical, female-typical, or neutral, along with a survey on sex-role socialisation. 

Findings: Findings showed clear gender-based differences in parenting: boys were left alone more often, while girls received more positive reinforcement for doll play, help-seeking, and dependent behaviours. Parents also discouraged cross-sex behaviours and showed stronger reinforcement for same-sex gender-typed behaviour, with fathers being more focused on gender-appropriate behaviour than mothers. 

BECKER ET AL (2002) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate whether the introduction of television in Fiji led to changes in eating attitudes and disordered eating behaviours among adolescent girls. 

Sample: Approximately 60 Fijian girls aged 16–18 (cohorts in 1995/1998)

Designs: Natural experiment. Etic approach. Questionnaire. Interviewing method.

BECKER ET AL (2002) PROCEDURE + FINDINGS

Procedure: Participants completed the EAT-26 questionnaire, followed by semi-structured interviews to confirm symptoms of disordered eating, along with height and weight measurements. The later cohort also answered additional questions about dieting, body image, and cultural attitudes. 

Findings: A significant increase in disordered eating attitudes after TV exposure, with higher EAT-26 scores in 1998, increased dieting, body dissatisfaction, and emergence of purging behaviours, which were absent in 1995.

NORASAKKUNKIT & UCHIDA (2014) AIM, SAMPLE, DESIGNS

Aim: To investigate whether attitudes toward social harmony, conformity, and identity differ between Japanese university students at high vs low risk for hikikomori. 

Sample: 195 Japanese university students 

Designs: Correlational. Questionnaire. Independent measures.

NORASAKKUNKIT & UCHIDA (2014) PROCEDURE + RESULTS

Procedure: Study used questionnaires measuring attitudes toward social harmony and conformity across three levels (current self, ideal self, and perception of Japanese society), as well as measures of local (collectivist) and global (individualist) identity. Participants were grouped based on their risk level for hikikomori. 

Findings: Both groups viewed social harmony as important in Japanese society, but high-risk individuals rated their own and ideal levels of conformity and harmony lower than low-risk individuals. High-risk participants also scored lower on both local and global identity measures, suggesting a potential link between identity conflict, cultural expectations, and risk of social withdrawal.