SAQ: Cultural (social) groups

When writing about cultural dimensions, the following concepts should be explained:

Cultural norms: The shared expectations, values, and rules that guide behavior of people within a cultural group.  These norms are passed down from generation to generation.

Cultural dimensions: A continuum of values onto which members of different cultures can generally be grouped; they describe broad patterns of differences between cultures, rather than individual differences.

Ecological fallacy: When a conclusion is made about individuals based on group-members.  For example, assuming that because John is an American, he is individualistic.

Individualism-collectivism: I-C is one of Hofstede's cultural dimensions.  Individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole. Collectivism emphasizes the importance of the group and social cooperation.

Long term/short term orientation: Long-term orientation is when you are focused on the future.  Short-term orientation is when you are focused on the present or past and consider them more important than the future. If you have a short-term orientation, you value tradition, the current social hierarchy, and fulfilling your social obligations.

\ Berry

Aim: to investigate whether there is a difference in the degree of conformity between the Temne people of Sierra Leone and Baffin Island Inuit (Eskimo).

Procedure: Berry (1967) studied the role of the individualism-collectivism dimension on one's likelihood to conform. The sample was made up of three different cultures.

• Temne from Sierra Leone, a society that is based on rice farming.
• Inuit people from Baffin Island in Canada, which survive by hunting and fishing.
• Scots - a group that scores as "undefined" on the I-C scale.

Each group was made up of people who had never had a western education and maintained the traditional way of life - and people who were "in transition" - either having a Western education or Western employment.

Each individual was brought into a room by him or herself.  For the test, they were given a set of nine lines and they were asked to match the line below that most closely matched the line on the top.  These were the two practice tests to make sure that the directions were understood.  The directions were given in their own language by a native interpreter using a pre-translated set of instructions and questions.

On the third trial, the researcher pointed to an incorrect line and told the participant that this is what most people from their culture chose on this trial.

Findings: The Temne, which is the collectivistic culture, had a much higher rate of conformity when told what other Temne believed, even though it was incorrect.  The Inuits, on the other hand, had even a lower rate of conformity than the Scots.

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