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cultural dimensions
a cultural dimension is a pattern of values and behaviour in a culture, they were developed by hofstede, in order to compare behaviours between cultures. one of these dimensions is the scale of individualism vs collectivism. individualist cultures focus on uniqueness, achievement and personal choice. while collectivist cultures do the very opposite, by focusing on group relations over individual goals as they value social harmony and interdependence.
stereotypes (formation and effects)
a stereotype is a person’s generalised impression o image of a group, person or thing. this idea is usually asked off of an oversimplified assumptions. this social perception can be both positive and negative.
formed = illusory correlation, by seeing a relationship between two unrelated variables (e.g. group size and undesirable qualities). effects = stereotype threat, being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype (e.g. african americans and intellectual ability).
social cognitive theory
social cognitive theory is the idea that people learn social behaviours, in large part through experiences, observations and instructions. in particular, observation and imitation are most apparent when humans are learning new behaviours of their culture. children often learn by watching models and imitating the behaviour. this behaviour can only occur if the learner is paying attention, retaining the information, trying to reproduce it and have motivation to do so.
social identity theory and social groups
social identity theory is based on the idea that we have an individual and a social self. it argues that one’s self esteem can come from their membership in social groups. their are 3 parts of a social self : categorisation (considering yourself as a member of the social group), social identifications (conforms to groups norms and values) and achieving self esteem (comparing to others - the in and out group), often seeing the out group as inferior and the in group as superior.
acculturation and assimilation
acculturation is the cultural change that take place due to contact between cultures and cultural groups. when moving to an alternative culture, we make a choice regarding the extent to which we maintain our old culture or adopt the new cultural norms and values. assimilation = adopting new beliefs (can lead to acculturation stress and negative mental health, detachment from home), integration = maintaining and adopting, marginalisation = failure to do both, separation = maintain but do not integrate.
enculturation
enculturation is the process of learning the shared behaviours and values of our own culture, we can learn cultural norms from our parents, school or the media. the process of learning a new behaviour is known as the social cognitive theory, and it states that learning can be from observations, experiences and instructions. we can see that children often learn through observations and imitations by learning through watching other people behaviours (e.g. gender stereotypes within society).
culture (groups and influence on behaviour/ cognition)
culture is defined as a set of attitudes, behaviours and beliefs shared by a large collective of people. cultural groups are characterised as collective which share the same norms and values; norms being the rules one how we are ‘supposed’ to behave. cultural groups can influence the cognition of it’s member (i.e memory and perception) as seen in the perception and conformity of the asch paradigm.
