SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH- Social identity theory

What is the social identity theory?

The social identity theory states that our identity and behaviour are affected by the social groups we belong to

What are the 4 psychological mechanisms involved in creating a social identity?

-Social Categorization

-Social Identity

-Social Comparison

-Positive Distinctiveness

Social Categorization

Process by which we identify to which groups we belong to, and which we do not.

Social Identification

Process of adopting the noms and taking on the characteristics of the group.

Social Comparison

comparing our in-group to other out-groups to justify our group membership

Positive distinctiveness

How people try to identify traits that make out-groups inferior to their in-group

Chen (2005) Aim

to investigate the role of Confucian Work Dynamism (Long-term orientation) on an individual's buying habits

Chen (2005) Procedure

- 149 bi-cultural participants from a Singaporean university

- Field experiment

- conducted online

-Random assignment to conditions

-participants were prepared in order to make either their Singaporean or their American identity more salient. They were made more aware of that identity.

- This was done through collages of photos that were emblematic of that culture.

- the participants were given a shopping scenario to buy a novel online

- They were told the price for standard delivery in Singaporean dollars, and that it would take 5 business days to arrive, but they were also told they could pay extra and receive the book in one day

- they were asked how much they were willing to pay

-finally the participants were asked to list the first three politicians that came to mind

Chen (2005) Results

- people whose western identity (USA) were made more salient during the priming placed higher value on immediate consumption

- the participants listed politicians that were relevant to the culture that they had been primed for.

Chen (2005) Implications

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY:

- shows how cultural identity influences behavior.

- The culture they were primed for became salient, and participants were more likely to display behaviours consistent with that culture.

- Confucian Work Dynamism played a role in their online shopping behaviour

- Western cultures are more short term oriented, these values are rooted in the present.

- Eastern cultures are more long term oriented, the future is more important than the now.

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS:

- Their Western/Eastern culture values affected decision making.

- American participants (short-term oriented) opted for immediate gratification, while Singaporean participants (long-term oriented) displayed behaviors emphasizing patience and future benefits.

Chen (2005) Evaluation

- The study was naturalistic: high ecological validity.

- As it was conducted online, it might've been difficult to control variables such as potential help from others or distractors in the environment.

- Highly standardized and can be replicated to determine reliability of the findings.

Tajfel (1979) Aim

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

Tajfel (1979) Procedure

Laboratory experiment

The participants were asked to rate 12 paintings by two abstract painters. They were not aware which painter had painted which. The participants were then randomly assigned to two groups and told they prefered either of the painters.

Each participant was then told to award points to a participant of their group and one that was not of their group. They could choose to give equal points to both boys, give the most points to the boy in their 'in-group' or give the most points to the boy in the 'out-group'

Taifel (RESULTS)

-1st system (scores for each boy had to sum up to 15): boys generally awarded more points to the members of their in-group.

-2nd system: boys were willing to give their own team fewer points to maximise point difference between the groups.

Tajfel implications

- Participants identified with their respective groups and created positive social identity through giving their in-group more points.

- Out-group discrimination is easily triggered as members have a natural tendency to favour their in-group members

- Negative stereotypes formed about the out groups to make in groups seem superior.

Tajfel EVALUATION

Strengths:

- High level of control

- confounding variables were minimised.

- Due to it being highly standardized, this study can be replicable to establish reliability.

Limitations:

-The task was highly artificial- lacked ecological validity. May not reflect behaviour in a real life situation.

- Boys might've interpreted the task as a competitive task and tried to win.

- Sampling bias- the study was carried out on British school boys. It is difficult to generalise difficult to generalize the findings of this study to other ages and cultures.