Sociocultural Terms

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9 Terms

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Social Identity Theory

  • Suggests that there are two aspects of the self

    • Personal identity is known only to oneself and close friends/family

    • Social identity is the self defined by group memberships (eg. gender, ethnicity)

  • Based on three principles

    • Individuals strive to maintain and enhance self-esteem

    • Membership to social groups may have negative and/or positive associations

    • Social comparisons with other groups are made to asses an in-group’s value

  • Individuals may also move between social groups (permeability)

Permeability

  • The ability of an individual to change/move between social groups

  • May be caused by dissatisfaction with current in-group

  • Impermeability is the inability to move between groups and may lead to discrimination against out-groups

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Social Cognitive Theory

  • Suggests that individuals can learn behaviours through reciprocal determinism

    • Behaviour is connected to society and cognition

  • Contains four parts

    • Attention and retention allow for recollection of observed actions for later repetition

    • Reproduction of observed actions requires self-efficacy (if an individual believes they can reproduce the behaviour)

    • Motivation determines if the behaviour will be further reproduced based on rewards and punishment

  • Television and other media provides an outlet for individuals to encounter more models

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Stereotypes

  • Over-simplified and generalized abstractions about in-groups and out-groups

  • Can be conscious or unconscious

  • Based on social schema and can therefore be altered based on gatekeepers, accessibility, and priming

    • Accessibility is the ease of accessing schemas from previous use

    • Priming determines the recent events influencing schema

Stereotype Threat

  • Anxiety/apprehension towards a situation where a stereotype may be reinforced/confirmed

    • May also experience anxiety towards not being able to confirm a positive stereotype

  • Identity contingencies can increase or decrease this feeling

Illusory Correlations

  • Cognitive bias causing people to find correlations between unrelated variables

  • A behaviour of a single individual may be attributed to the entire group

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Social Cognition Principles

  • Humans are cognitive misers (have limited cognitive resources)

    • Demonstrated through heuristics and dual-process theory)

  • People engage in controlled (system 2) and automatic (system 1) thinking

  • Humans seek consistency in behaviour

  • Self-esteem guides human behaviour (SIT)

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Cultural Dimensions

  • 6 aspects of culture as defined by Hofstede

    • Define a set of values existing on a continuum

    • Generally shared by members of a culture

Individualism/Collectivism

  • Individualism is characterized by looser ties between members and a stronger sense of self

    • Has less distinction between in-group and out-group (universalism)

    • Inuit culture is more individualistic because of low food-accumulation traditions

  • Collectivism is characterized by stronger ties between members and a sense of unity within the group

    • Has inherent exclusiveness because out-group members are considered “others”

    • Temne culture is more collectivist because of a high food-accumulating community

PDI

  • The extent to which less powerful members of a group expect and accept the unequal distribution of power

    • Likely originated from agricultural society where acceptance of leadership is needed to coordinate the community’s lives

  • High PDI counties have stricter social hierarchies and deference to elders/authority

  • Low PDI countries have a flatter social structure, low tolerance for inequality, and a willingness to question authority

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Enculturation

  • The process where individuals learn the norms and values of their own culture

    • Happens through interactions with peers, family, and community

    • Can occur through direct tuition or observational learning (SCT)

    • Parents may encourage or deter behaviour based on perceived appropriateness through canalization

  • Impacts behaviour (music preference, food choice) and cognition (social relationships, gender roles)

  • Constantly ongoing

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Acculturation

  • Cultural change resulting from interactions between different cultures

    • Caused by increased globalization as contact between cultures increases

  • Berry’s model of acculturation includes integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization

    • The resulting type of acculturation depends on the aims of the dominant and subordinate cultures

Acculturative Stress

  • Stress associated with being a migrant/immigrant and undergoing acculturation

  • Risk factors and protective factors can increase or decrease acculturative stress respectively

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Research Methods

Observation

  • Aim to examine how individuals react to specific situations

    • Generally occur under uncontrolled conditions to allow for participants to make a wide range of choices

  • Data collected may be quantitative or qualitative

  • Observations may be covert or overt

    • Covert observations ensure that observed individuals do not know they are a part of the study

    • Covert research is thus often done in public spaces so that consent is not required

    • Overt observations ensure that individuals know that they are being observed and provide informed consent

  • There is no manipulated independent variable, something common in research on culture

    • It is difficult to directly manipulate culture to discover its effects

    • Observations thus provide an important alternative

True Laboratory Experiment

  • Used to establish a cause and effect relationship between variables

    • Researcher manipulates the independent variable to observe its effect on the dependent variable

    • Usually measures are put in place to diminish the impact of confounding variables

  • Participants are often randomly allocated and the study’s environment is controlled to reduce the impact of extraneous variables, improving internal validity

  • Results can often be quantified, allowing for researchers to determine if the data is significant

Semi-Structured Interviews

  • Researchers provide verbal questions to the participants and collect qualitative data

    • They will have a set of questions (interview schedule) that must be answered although researchers can also ask follow-up questions 

    • This allows for further depth into the topic examined → important for research on culture since there may be nuance lost in structured interviews that do not provide unique questions for different participants

  • May also have greater chances of interviewer effects by focusing more or certain topics due to personal biases

    • The quality of the interview depends somewhat on the experience/abilities of the interviewer

    • This means that interviews are often not consistent across participants

    • Having multiple interviewers does limit the effect of individual biases though

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Ethics

Undue Stress or Harm

  • Any stress that exceeds what participants ay experience in everyday life

    • Small amounts of embarrassment and discomfort may not constitute as undue stress or harm

  • Researchers have the responsibility of minimizing harm on participants, something achievable through informed consent

    • Participants are then aware that they may withdraw if they feel uncomfortable

    • Also ensures participants understand that their data is anonymous and will therefore be more willing to participate and provide accurate data

  • This is especially important for research on culture since these studies often involve minority groups

    • These individuals may face discrimination or may not possess a citizenship, increasing the risk of deportation or harm if their information is doxed

    • Researchers must store data in an anonymous manner to prevent this from occurring and causing harm

Deception

  • Refers to intentionally misinforming or withholding information from participants

    • Generally used to conceal the experiment’s true aim and thus avoid demand characteristics

  • Undermines the concept of informed consent and violates the trust between researchers and participants

    • May worsen people’s perception of the field of psychology

    • May increase the chances of participants withdrawing data

  • Debriefing after the experiment restores trust, provides justification for deception, and ensure no harm occurred

  • May be necessary to carry out certain research