sociocultural erq

erqs :(

tajfel aim

investigate whether intergroup discrimination would occur when put into different groups

tajfel procedure

• 48 boys: 14-15 years old

• asked to rate 12 paintings by painters Klee and Kandinsky

• randomly allocated to 1 of 2 groups, told the allocation was based on their painting preferences

• asked to play a game of points, where each boy had to give a number of points to a boy from their own group and a number of points to the another boy from the other group (without knowing who the boys are)

  • system 1:

    • the sum of the 2 numbers were linked to be 15 (eg. if boy from group A gave group A 8 points, group B would automatiially get 7)

      • this means if one score increases, the other will decrease

  • system 2, tajfel manipulation:

    • if boy from group A gives group A a high number of points, it will give that high number to the other group, and nothing to A

    • if boy from group A gives group A a mid number of points, both groups will get that amount

    • if boy from group A gives a low number to group A, group B will only get 1 point.

tajfel findings + conc

• with system 1, more points were awarded to their own groups - IN GROUP FAVOURITISM

• with system 2, the participants would consistently try to maximise the difference in points between the 2 groups, even if that meant giving themselves less points

  • it wasn’t about having more points, it was about maximising the diff between the groups

  • INCREASED VARIABILITY

• in a follow up study, they tried the same but told them that the grouping was random

  • they still showed the same results

  • MINIMUM GROUP PARADIGM

Dobbs & Crano aim

to investigate factors that influence the minimum group paradigm-based discimination

Dobbs & Crano procedure

• used the same points system as Tajfel, but some extra conditions (random allocation to groups with or without these conditions)

  • accountability vs no accountability (accountability condition told to explain the reasoning behind their points)

  • majority vs minority (told that their group represented the majority/minority)

  • competence (told the initial grouping was based on the accuracy in a line estimate task - instead of Tajfel paintings)

Dobbs & Crano findings & conc

• the least discrimination was in the majority and accountability condition

• the most discrimination was in the minority + no accountability condition

• therefore, the status of group affects discrimination

  • minority increased in group favouritism

• minimal group paradigm is not universal, it is dependent on several factors

Bandura aim

• see if kids will imitate aggressive behaviour

• see if kids will imitate a same-gender model more than a model of the opposite gender

Bandura procedure

• 36 girls, 36 boys, all 3-6 years old

• 1 female model 1 male model

• 3 ivs: level of aggression (passive vs aggressive), child gender, model gender

• kids randomly allocated to 1 of 8 groups (each with a diff combination of level of aggression + model gender IVs)

• matched pairs design → aggressive behaviour before main setup observed

  • observed by 3 diff researchers (TRIANGULATION)

• done in 3 parts:

1. child and model in the same room with toys, specifically a bobo doll. Model either played with it normally or was aggressive with it

2. child left in room alone. Told not to play with any toys for 5m bc it’s for other kids → done to instigate frustration

3. child allowed to play with the toys, behaviour observed

Bandura findings + conc

• aggressive condition showed aggressive behaviour, passive condition did not

  • in addition to the behaviours the model did, they also had new forms of aggressive behaviour

    • punching

    • imitative behaviour

    • gunplay (using other toys in the room)

• boys were more aggressive in general than girls

• all kids more physically aggressive if the model was male

  • guys were more aggressive in general if male model

  • but girls were more verbally aggressive if female model, and physically if male model

• therefore, we see how a behaviour like aggression is a learned behaviour

• not only do they imitate it, but they also find new ways to express it

Joy aim

investigate the impact of television on children’s aggressive behaviour

Joy procedure

• natural experiment

• 3 small towns in British Columbia, Canada

• in 1975, all 3 towns started receiving a certain channel

  • for 1 town, Notel, this was their first ever TV channel

  • The other 2 had TV before this

• 120 kids across the 3 towns

• they observed their behaviour before and after the channel started playing

  • observed behaviour in playground

  • peer and teacher ratings

  • looked for patterns of physical and verbal aggression

• correlated aggression with TV viewing habits

  • controlled for channels watched

Joy findings + conc

• aggressive behaviour increased in Notel, but not the other towns

• males more aggressive than females

• lack of familiarity leads to heightened arousal, which led to imitating the aggressive behaviour they were being newly exposed to

Hamilton & Gifford Aim

Investigate how the status of a group (minority/majority) affects stereotype formation

Hamilton & Gifford procedure

• randomly allocated to groups A or B

• A: 26 people, B: 13 people

• everyone was told of the amount of people in the groups

• given statements about each person in either group

  • either positive or negative

  • both groups had the same number of positive and negative statements overall

• participants asked to guess the number of negative and positive statements about each group

Hamilton & Gifford findings & conc

• significant overestimations of the amount of negative statements about group B

• people tend to think more negatively about minority groups

• H & G argue that this is because in a smaller group, negative traits seem more distinct, and therefore, easier to generalise to the whole group

Spencer Aim

Investigate the gender differences in stereotype threats

Spencer Procedure

• 28 women, 28 men

  • all uni students

  • all completed 1 sem of calculus (but not 1 year)

• exp 1:

  • given an easy and hard math test

• exp 2:

  • randomly allocated to exp or control group

  • exp group: told that there would be gender differences in test performance

  • control group: told that there would be NO gender diffs

  • everyone given another math test

Spencer findings & conc

• exp 1:

  • performance was relatively the same for easy test

  • women did poorer in hard test

  • could be that there is an inherent difference, or there is a subconcious level of stereotype threat

• exp 2:

  • women in exp group did signifincantly worse

  • no signifincant gender differences in control group

• therefore, when there is knowledge of a stereotype threat, people tend to get distressed and hence, perform poorer.

Kulkofsky aim

investigate how cultural groups differ in the formation of flashbulb memories

Kulkofsky procedure

• 274 adults from 5 different countries → some collectivist, some individualistic

• given 5 minutes to recall as many major public events as possible

  • for each, they had to fill a questionnaire about

    • how/when they heard about it

    • used this to give an FBM score based on detail provided

  • likert scale for personal importance, national importance, surpise and amount of memory they have of it

Kulkofsky findings + conc

• collectivist cultures had more FBM formation for public events

• individualistic cultures had more FBMs for events that had more personal significance

• Shows how culture/cultural groups/individualism vs collectivism influence on cognition/memory

Cole and scribner aim

investigate the influence of schooling on memory recall

Cole and scribner procedure

• Liberian school and non-school children + american school children

• shown objects in random order

  • non ethnocentric objects

    • pilot study conducted prior to ensure liberians were familiar with these objects

• asked to recall in any order

Cole and scribner findings

• school children (A + L)

  • able to use strategy of categorising them by similiarities and recalling them

  • improved memory performance over repeated trials

• non-school children

  • No clear strategy to recall, hence, poor recall of random objects

  • no significant improvement over repeated trials

  • but when given objects in a story format, they had much better ability to recall

Bond and Smith Aim

to investigate factors influencing conformity across individualistic vs collectivist cultures

Bond and Smith procedure

• meta analysis

  • 133 studies across 17 studies

  • all using the Asch conformity test

Bond and Smith findings + conc

• individualistic cultures had significantly less conformity rates than collectivist

• conformity in the US was decreasing overtime, indicating that individualism was increasing

• shows how culture, specifically level of individualism, influences conformity

Nap aim

investigate correlation between acculturation and severity of mental health symptoms

Nap procedure

• studied 5000 Moroccan, Surinamese, and Turkish migrant patients in a mental health facility in Netherlands

• inquired into the acculturation strategies and ways/levels of acculturating of each patient

• correlated ^ with the severity of mental health, general well-being and overall quality of life

Nap findings + conc

• statistically significant but moderate correlation between negative mental health symptoms and acculturative strategy

  • Often, the better the acculturation, the better the quality of life

Torres aim

investigate how perceived discrimination affects acculturative stress

Torres procedure

• 669 Latinos living in Midwest USA

• questionnaire about perceived discrimination, acculturative stress, and level of acculturation

Torres findings + conc

• more discrimination → more stress

• but better acculturation → less stress

• therefore, even with discrimination, a better strategy of acculturation would lead to less stress overall

Ogihara and Uchida aim

investigate how a change in values from collectivist to individualistic might affect one’s subjective well-being

Ogihara and Uchida procedure

• 114 students - from kyoto and wisconsin

• given questionnaires about values (individualistic vs collectivist), life satisfcation + happiness, number of friends

• correlated the factors with each other

Ogihara and Uchida findings + conc

• in Kyoto, the more individualistic their values were, the less friends they had and the poorer their life satisfaction was

  • this was not the case in America

• shows how the switch in Japan from collectivist → individualistic was primarily a shift in values, but they did not adopt the strategies/skills they need to keep from isolating themselves