Transcript 4.1 Socio-cultural Level of Analysis: Socio

Principles that Define the
Sociocultural level of analysis
 Principle 1: Humans are social animals and have a
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need to “belong”.
Principle 2: Culture influences behavior.
Principle 3: Humans have a social self
Principle 4: People’s views of the world are resistant to
change and developed by community and culture.
Be Reflexive pg. 102
Research Methods at the
Sociocultural level of analysis
 Quantitative or Qualitative?
 Naturalistic to preserve ecological validity
 Participant Observation
 Interviews
 Focus Groups
Participant Observation
 Overt
 Participants know
 Trust factor
 “see the world throught their eyes”
 O’Reilly (2000) British expatriates
 Covert
 Potential hostility
 Might not be open and honest
 Deceit is used (lack of consent)
 Difficulty taking notes
 Potential for Distortion (relying on memory)
 Festinger et al. (1956) End of World Cult
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Ethical considerations?
Attribution Theory
 Attribution: how people interpret and explain causal
relationships in the social world.
 People want to know: Why do things happen?
 Explain how people have different ways of attributing
causes to events.
 Actor-observer effect
 Situational factors (external)
 Dispositional factors (internal)
Errors in Attributions
 Fundamental attribution error
 Lee et al. (1977) Gameshow
 What does this study reveal?
 Overestimate dispositional factors
 Why do people do this?
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Self-serving bias
Greenberg et al. (1982)
Miller and Ross (1975)
Modesty Bias
Kashima and Triandis (1986)
Bond, Leung, and Wan (1982)
 Why do Asians tend to exhibit modesty bias vs. SSB
Social Identity Theory
 Individuals strive to improve their self-image by
enhancing self esteem
 Personal achievement
 Successful group affiliation
 Indicates the importance of social belonging\
 Social Categorization
 Used to explain
 Ethno-centrism
 Stereotyping
 In-group conformity
 Inter-group competition
 Discuss Tajfel’s arguments about belonging to a group?
 In-group
 Out-group
 Favoritism
 Social Comparison
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Influences self-esteem
 Can you think of real world examples where this happens?
 Research Findings
 Kadinsky vs. Klee
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The boys looked more favorably on members of their “in” group.
Limitations of Social Identity
Theory
 Describes but does not accurately predict human
behavior.
 Reductionist
 Doesn’t address the environment
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Cultural expectations
Rewards and motivators
Societal Contraints (poverty)
Which plays a greater role?
Social Representations
 Shared beliefs and explanations held by the society in
which we live or the group to which we belong.
 Cultural schemas
 Provide common understanding for communication
within the group
Stereotyping
 Social perception of an individual in terms of group
membership or physical attributes.
 Stereotype Threat
 Fear of being judged stereotypically or doing something
to confirm a stereotype
 Spotlight Anxiety
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Pressure that undermines performance
Formation of Stereotypes
 Social categorization
 Natural cognitive process that forms stereotypes
 Campbell (1967) Two main sources
 Personal Experience
 Gatekeepers: Media, parents, and members of our culture
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Grain of Truth Hypothesis: Experiences become generalized
 Hamilton and Gifford (1976)
 Illusory correlation: people see correlation when there is
none.
 Confirmation Bias: people tend to seek out or remember
information that confirms the bias.