Sociocultural Level

Study guide for the Sociocultural Approach

The following page is a study guide for students. I have created one that matches the unit
planner for this unit - but it is a good idea for students to tailor-make their own study
guide. Attached below you will find the form for students to fill in, but you may want to use the
study guide below - and the studies that are listed - as a means for organizing your own revision
of the unit.

List of studies
For this unit, I use the following studies. Notice that some of the studies are postponed until I do
the cognitive unit and focus on memory.

Studies for the sociocultural approach

Taught in the unit

1. Abrams et al (1990)
2. Asch (1951)
3. Bandura (1961)
4. Berry (1967)
5. Chui et al (2009)
6. Delafosse, Fouraste & Ghobouo (1993)
7. Fagot (1978)***
8. Joy, Kimball and Zobrack (1986)
9. Lueck and Wilson (2010)
10. Martin and Halvorson (1983)*
11. Miranda and Matheny (2000)
12. Norasakkunkit & Uchinda (2014)
13. Ogihara & Uchida (2014)
14. Payne (2001)
15. Tajfel (1970)
16. Williams (1986)***

Postponed until the cognitive approach

1. Cole and Scribner (1974)

2. Kearins (1981)
3. Kulkofsky et al (2011) **

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Studies in italics are for the HL extension only.

* Martin & Halvorson is highly versatile. It may be used for enculturation, stereotyping,
schema theory, the reliability of memory and in the developmental option, the formation of
gender roles.

** Kulkoffsky may also be used for the effect of emotion on memory. It s a good study on
flashbulb memory.

*** These studies could be used in the development unit to discuss gender role development.

Total: 15 studies for SL; 19 for HL

The individual and behavior

Content Research and theories
Deception: Asch, Berry, Tajfel
Ethics of sociocultural approach
Undue stress or harm: Asch, Bandura.
Experiments: Abrams et al (lab); Joy et al (natural)
Research methods in sociocultural
research
Interviews: Lueck and Wilson (semi-structured)
Social Identity Theory Tajfel; Abrams et al
Social Cognitive (Learning) Theory Bandura et al; Joy et al
Focus on memory distortion: Martin & Halvorson;
Stereotypes
Payne

Cultural origins of behavior and cognition

Content Research and theories
Individualism vs. collectivism: Berry (conformity); Kulkoffksy
Cultural dimensions
(Flashbulb memory)
Effect of culture on
Berry on conformity. Kulkoffsky on flashbulb memory
behaviour
Effect of culture on
Kulkoffsky; Cole & Scribner; Kearins
cognition

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Cultural influences on behavior
Content Research and theories
Enculturation Focus on gender roles. Fagot; Williams; Martin & Halvorson
Acculturation Lueck and Wilson; Miranda and Matheny

HL Extension: Globalization and behavior

Content Research and theories
Effect of globalization on Norasakkunkit & Uchida on hikikomori; Delafosse, Fouraste
behaviour & Ghobouo; Chui et al.
Local and global influences on
Norasakkunkit & Uchida; Ogihara & Uchida; Chui et al.
behaviour
Experiments: Chui et al.
Research methods on
globalization
Questionnaires: Ogihara & Uchida; Norasakkunkit & Uchida

Sociocultural approach
The sociocultural approach is one of the units in the core. The unit focuses on the role of
environmental factors and other people have an effect on our behaviour. The IB does not
specifically distinguish between social and cultural factors, as they are often the same.

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 Chapter 5.1 The individual and the group

This chapter looks at how other people affect our behaviour, even when

we think we are acting independently.

The key topics of study are:

• The relationship between the individual and a group

• The role of social identity on individual behaviour
• The role of social cognitive theory in explaining behaviour
• The origin of stereotypes and their effect on behaviour
• Research methodology in the sociocultural approach
• Ethical considerations in sociocultural research.

Chapter 5.2 Culture, behaviour and cognition

This chapter looks at how culture affects not only how we behave,

but how we think and remember. The key topics of study are:

• Definitions of culture
• How psychologists study culture
• The role of culture on cognition
• Cultural dimensions and behaviour
• Enculturation and acculturation - and their effect on identity

HL Extension Globalization and identity

HL students are asked to delve a bit deeper into how globalization

affects one's individual identity.

The key topics of study are

• Effects of globalization on identity

• Effects of globalization on attitudes
• Effects of globalization on behaviour
• How researchers study globalization

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1. The individual and the group
Essential understandings

1. Our behaviour is influenced by others, even when we believe that we are acting
independently.
2. We have both an individual and a social identity which influences our behaviour.
3. Behaviours our learned through our interaction and observation of others.
4. Stereotypes affect behaviour.

The sociocultural approach

Psychologists recognize that human behaviour can only be fully understood if the social context
in which behaviour occurs is taken into account. One assumption of the sociocultural approach is
that human beings are social animals and we have a basic need to “belong”. The biological and
cognitive systems that make up the individual are embedded in an even larger system of
interrelationships with other individuals. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes a lot of sense
that we rely on other people in order to survive, so belonging to a group is essential.

The sociocultural approach also assumes that culture influences behaviour. Culture can be
defined as the norms and values that define a specific group or even a society. In an ever more
multicultural society, there is a need to understand the effect of culture on a person’s behaviour,
because the study of culture may help us to better understand and appreciate cultural differences.

Another assumption that defines the sociocultural approach is that, because humans are social
animals, they have a social self. People do not only have an individual identity, but also a
collective or social one depending on their various group memberships. For example, when
Princess Diana died, people across the UK mourned as if she were part of their family. In the
Czech Republic, when the national hockey team won the gold medal in the 1998 winter
Olympics, one would have thought that every Czech had a brother on the team! You can

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probably find similar examples from your own country. Social identities are very important to
the definition of who we are, and many behaviours are determined by membership to groups
such as family, community, club, or nationality.

A final assumption of the sociocultural approach is that our behaviour is influenced by others,
even when we believe we are acting independently. In addition, the relationship between the
individual and the group is bidirectional: as the individual is affected by being part of a group,
the individual can also affect behaviour in the group – what Albert Bandura called reciprocal
determinism.

A lot of our behaviour is determined by social comparison. We look to others in a group in

order to determine how we are supposed to behave. We may do that because we don’t know
what is expected of us – for example, it is your first time at a debate club. You are not really
sure what the rules are and what the expectation is for participation. During the meeting you
look at how the other people are acting and then you understand the expectations and act the
same way. This is known as informational social influence. Sometimes, however, it is not
about figuring out what to do, it is about fitting in. Remember, this approach argues that we
have a need to belong. When we look to others to see how to behave so that we can be accepted,
we call this normative social influence.

When we adapt our behaviour to be in line with others, we call this conformity. Since some of
the examples in this unit will focus on conformity, it is important to understand how this
phenomenon was investigated in a series of ingenious experiments by Solomon Asch.

Research in psychology: Asch (1956)

Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity. His sample was made up of male students in
the USA. They were deceived and told that they were taking part in a ‘vision test’. In his
original research, the independent variable was the "number of confederates providing an
incorrect response" – and the dependent variable was "whether or not the participant conformed"
- that is, agreeing with the incorrect response.

The naive participant entered a room where there were six people and the researcher. The men in
the room were dressed like businessmen, in suits and ties. These men were part of the study, and
they were playing a role unknown to the participant. They were confederates that helped the
researcher to deceive the participant. The true aim of the study was to investigate how the naive
participant would respond to group pressure in a situation where confederates give wrong
responses to an unambiguous task. After the participant took his seat, he was shown cards similar
to the ones depicted here.

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 The participant was asked to select the line from the
second card that matched the length of the line on the first card. There were 18 trials in total; in
12 of these trials, the confederates gave wrong answers. The confederates had been instructed to
answer correctly for some of the trials, but to answer incorrectly for the majority of the trials.
The goal was to see if the participant would act independently and give the right answer or go
with the majority and give the wrong answer, even when it was very clear that this response was
incorrect.

To set up a control for the experiment, Asch had another condition where one participant
answered all 18 trials without the confederates present and with only the experimenter in the
room. Here the participants made errors in fewer than 1 percent of all trials.

The results showed that a mean of 36.8 percent per cent of the participants agreed with incorrect
responses in half or more of the trials. However, 24 per cent of the participants did not conform
to any of the incorrect responses given by the confederates. In variations of the experiment, Asch
showed that if there was one dissenter who gave the correct answer, while the other confederates
gave the wrong answer, the rate of conformity dropped to around 5% of participants agreeing
with the confederates at least once.

During the debriefing after the experiment, Asch asked the participants how they felt about the
experiment. All reported experiencing some degree of self-doubt about their answers. Those
participants who conformed said that they knew their responses were incorrect, but went along
with the group because they thought that they had misunderstood the instructions, and they did
not want to appear to be against the group.

ATL: Thinking critically

Different textbooks explain the results of the Asch experiment differently. Here are some ways
that the data is explained to students of psychology:

• 2/3 of the naïve participants conformed at least once.

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 • 25% of the subjects were completely independent and never agreed with the erroneous
judgments of the majority
• 36.8% of the participants conformed in more than half of the trials.

What different messages do these results send? Why could it be argued that the way this study is
often represented in textbooks is misleading?

According to Bond and Smith (1996) Asch's study does not only demonstrate conformity to
group processes. Asch intended to demonstrate factors that enabled resistance to group pressure,
and he saw these factors as rooted in a society's values and socialization practices. Although the
focus on Asch’s research is often on the level of conformity, what is most interesting is the high
percentage of participants who did not conform, in spite of the social pressure to do so.

ATL: Inquiry

There were several other variables that Asch investigated in his study of conformity. For each of
the following variables, what do you predict would be the effect on one’s likelihood to
conform? Be able to explain your prediction.

• The size of the group

• Whether the responses are made publicly or privately (written down)
• One’s level of self-esteem
• Gender of the participant

After you have made your prediction, do a bit of research and see what the research says about
the role these factors have on conformity. Were your predictions correct?

There have been several studies that use Asch’s procedure to test the effect of different variables
on the level of conformity. The original procedure is now called the Asch paradigm. We will
see two experiments in this unit that use this paradigm, so it is important to understand the
strengths and limitations of this original study.

The paradigm is easily replicated because it is a highly standardized procedure. Asch also used a
control group to make sure that the task was, in fact, not ambiguous – in other words, the average
person would have no problem identifying which two lines were the same length. Finally, Asch
carried out a debriefing that helped him to understand the choices made by the participants – that
is, whether they conformed or not.

There are, however, several limitations of this study. First, the task – judging the lengths of lines
- lacks any personal meaning for the participants. In addition, the participants did not know the
other people in the experiment. In real life, often conformity is a very personal choice that is
affected by people you know. You change the music that you listen to in order to fit in with your
friends; you may even change some of your daily routines or habits in order to fit into a new
culture. This lack of connection to real life examples and the high level of control in the
experiment means that it lacks ecological validity; it may not predict how people actually
conform in real life.

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Research on jury decisions shows just how powerful the role of conformity may be in reaching a
verdict. Waters and Hans (2009) examined data from about 3500 jurors in the US. The jurors
were asked, “If it were entirely up to you as a one-person jury, what would your verdict have
been in the case?” The researchers found that one-third of the jurors, privately, disagreed with
the jury’s decision in the case. It appears that conformity may have played a significant role in
their decision to vote against their own beliefs in the case.

There are several ethical considerations when evaluating the Asch paradigm. Asch used
deception by using the confederates; he put participants in an embarrassing situation where they
had to decide whether to believe their own eyes or conform to the opinion of the majority. It may
be argued that it would not be possible to study conformity without the use of
deception. Conformity is very difficult to observe under natural conditions. Although Asch used
deception, which means that they were not informed of the true aims of the experiment when
they have consent, this does not mean that the study was not ethical. To ensure that participants
were informed about the true nature of the study, Asch debriefed the participants, revealing the
deception and discussing the results with them.

Finally, it is difficult to isolate variables when studying conformity. Although the independent
variable of the original study was the “unanimous” or not unanimous response of the
confederates, it is not possible to exclude other variables. Since all of the participants and
confederates were men, it is possible that they conformed because they felt that this was “their
group” – known as an in-group. It is also possible that the size of the group played a role. We
also cannot exclude variables like culture, the fact that responses had to be stated publicly or the
gender of the participants. Asch recognized that several variables may influence conformity and
his later research attempted to investigate the role of these variables.

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2. Methodology in sociocultural

In sociocultural research, the goal is to see how people interact and influence each other. Various
research methods - both qualitative and quantitative - are used to study this behaviour.
Quantitative methods – such as experiments and surveys - are used extensively, but many
researchers within the field now also use qualitative methods - such as focus groups, participant
observations and semi-structured interviews. In case studies, method triangulation is used –
studying behavior by both quantitative and qualitative methods.

A key reason for the shift towards a more qualitative approach to studying social and cultural
phenomena is that qualitative studies tend to be more holistic, reporting much richer detail about
the lives of individual participants. Since the researcher often interacts with participants for a
longer period he or she may also get a much better understanding of the participants’ perspective.

Qualitative researchers are also concerned with the richness of data, that is that they take detailed
field notes and use descriptive data that can be analyzed in depth to really capture the subjective
world of the participants. This is a contrast to the numbers and figures in quantitative research
that uses statistics to analyze data.

Because researchers within qualitative research think it is important that the behaviour of the
participants is as realistic as possible, a significant amount of research is naturalistic - that is,
done in the environments in which the behaviour is most likely to take place. In spite of its
“realism”, however, it should be noted that the methods mentioned here do not manipulate an
independent variable so they cannot be used to determine cause-and-effect relationships.
However, the researchers can see trends in several similar studies and begin to see which
behaviors may be representative of certain groups in certain contexts.

Today, social psychologists frequently attempt to “see the world through the eyes of the people
being studied”. In order to do this, participant observation is often used. Participant
observation is when researchers immerse themselves in a social setting for an extended period
of time and observe behaviour. When the participants in the group know that they are being
observed, this is an overt observation. If the researcher does not inform the participants that they
are being observed, it is a covert observation.

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Overt observations require the researcher to gain the trust of the group that is to be observed.
For example, O’Reilly (2000) acted as a volunteer in local British clubs in Fuengirola on the
Costa Del Sol. In this role, she performed field research over a period of fifteen months and
studied how British expatriates saw themselves. Contrary to the prevailing belief at the time of
the migrants as paradise-seekers, going to endless cocktail parties; the study found that the
picture was much more complex. O'Reilly found that the way the migrants saw themselves was
full of contradictions. For example, they live fun, leisurely lives and talk about community as if
it includes the Spanish as well as other nationalities. And yet their behavior betrayed isolation
from the local community and an overall sense of boredom and loneliness. Although they
reported that they were in paradise, almost every day members of the migrant community were
choosing to go back to the UK. O’Reilly concluded that they deny their boredom and suppress
their loneliness as this contradicts the image they wish to portray of a happy, friendly and
exciting experience.

In order to uncover the complexity of their experience, she had to spend a significant amount of
time among the expatriates. She participated in everyday conversations, carried out several
interviews and observed their behaviour in many different situations. In order to guarantee that
they would discuss their lives openly with her, she had to develop a trusting relationship, in
which she was non-judgmental of her participants. She needed to try to see the world through
their eyes.

Covert observations are sometimes used with groups that would be hostile to an outsider
observing their behaviour, or who would not be open and honest, perhaps because of the illegal
nature of their activities—for example, drug users. Although the researcher must gain the trust of
the members of the group, this is done through deceit. The researcher does not disclose his or her
intentions to the members of the group, and then records the participants’ behaviour without
obtaining informed consent. In addition to these ethical concerns, covert observers have
difficulties taking notes and often have to rely on memory, meaning that their data are open to
distortion. Finally, unlike overt observations, interviews cannot be carried out, for fear of being
“discovered”.

Research in psychology: Festinger et al.’s When Prophecy Fails (1956)

Perhaps the most well-known covert participant observation in social psychology was carried out
by Festinger and his colleagues (1956). In Chicago, there was a religious doomsday cult that
believed the world would end on 21 December. The leader of the cult claimed to have received a
message from a distant planet that the world would end in a great flood, but the cult members
would be rescued by flying saucers, as long as they followed the prescribed rituals and read the
sacred texts. They were also to remain isolated from all non-believers. This made it very difficult
for psychologists to study them.

Festinger and his team decided to become cult members in order to carry out a covert participant
observation. It was covert because the members of the cult were unaware that the researchers
were studying them. They fully believed that Festinger and his colleagues were also believers in
the cult. It was a participant observation because the researchers became members of the group
that they were studying - and interacted with them. The researchers remained with the cult up to

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the fateful day of 21 December - when nothing happened. Festinger monitored the group
members’ response after realizing that the world would not end, in spite of the fact that they had
dedicated so much of their time and resources to the cult. The members of the cult were able to
justify their belief in the cult by deciding that God had not destroyed the world as a result of their
prayers. They now believed that they had saved the world. Festinger argued in line with
cognitive dissonance theory that the cult members had changed their beliefs to reduce their
feelings of dissonance – in this case, the anxiety created when they realized that they sacrificed
so much for something that seemed to be wrong.

You can read a more in-depth summary of the study here: Festinger (1956).

ATL: Thinking critically

If you were a reporter covering the study, what questions would you ask Festinger and his team?

Discuss the ethical concerns you would have with this research.

Possible SAQ

Explain the use of one research method used in the sociocultural approach.

Assessment advice

This question asks you to explain, which means you have to give a detailed account including
reasons or causes. You should describe the main features of the method you choose, outline one
example of a research study using this method and then explain why this particular method is
used in sociocultural approach.

3. Social Identity Theory

Social Identity Theory argues that a person has not just one “personal self”, but rather several
social selves that correspond to group membership. According to the theory, we need to
understand who we are and know our value in social contexts. This is why we categorize
ourselves in terms of group membership. So when an individual talks of himself as a male,
Australian, a student, member of a swimming team and a surfer, he refers to his social identities.
If the same person also said he played on the rugby team that won the last game, we will know

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that he can boost his self-esteem through both his personal achievement but also through
affiliation with this successful team.

ATL: Be reflective

Sometimes one of our "social selves" can become more salient - that is, we can become more
aware of that facet of identity. Social Identity Theory predicts that when one of our social
identities becomes salient, it will have an influence on our behaviour.

So, for example, as an American living in the Czech Republic, I find that I may take seemingly
contradictory positions. When Americans put down the Czech Republic, I find myself defending
the Czechs. In other words, my relationship to this country becomes more salient to me in this
situation and this part of my identity responds to the insults. If, however, the Czechs are being
very critical of Americans - for example, saying that they are all not intelligent - then my
American "self" takes over.

Why do our identities sometimes become salient?

Think of a time that you were very aware of your national or cultural identity. How did that
affect your behaviour at the time?

Social Identity Theory was proposed by Tajfel (1979). He identified three psychological
mechanisms involved in the creation of a social identity: Social categorization, social
comparison and the tendency for people to use group membership as a source of self-esteem.

Social identity theory is based on the cognitive process of social categorization. Social
categorization is the process of classifying people into groups based on similar characteristics,
whether it be nationality, age, occupation, or some other trait. This categorization gives rise to
in-groups (us) and out-groups (them). Tajfel argues that even when people are randomly
assigned to a group, they automatically think of that group as their in-group (us) and all others as
an out-group (them).

Tajfel found that when people are randomly assigned to a group - by the flip of a coin, the
drawing of a number from a hat, or by preference for a previously unknown artist - they see
themselves as being similar in attitude and behaviour, and this is apparently enough for a bond to
be formed among group members. In the famous Kandinsky versus Klee experiment, Tajfel et al.
(1971) observed that boys who were assigned randomly to a group, based on their supposed
preference for the art of either Kandinsky or Klee, were more likely to identify with the boys in
their group, and were willing to give higher awards to members of their own group. This is what
Tajfel referred to as in-group favouritism.

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Research in psychology: Tajfel et al (1971)

A sample of 48 boys, aged 14 – 15 years old, was asked to rate 12 paintings by the abstract
painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. They were not told during the test which artist had
painted which painting. The boys were then randomly allocated to groups and then told that they
had preferred either Klee or Kandinsky.

Each boy was then given the task to award points to two other boys, one from his same group
and one from the other group. The only information that each boy was given was code numbers
and the name of the group of the two boys they were supposed to award. There were two systems
of awarding points that were employed by the researchers.

Tajfel created a point allocation system to test how specific variables could influence the boys’
choices of reward: (1) maximum joint profit (giving the largest reward to members of both
groups), (2) maximum in-group profit (giving the largest reward to a member of the in-group),
or (3) maximum differences (giving the largest possible difference in reward between a member
of the in-group and a member of the out-group.

The way that this actually worked is as follows:

• If a Klee member chose a high value for another Klee member, it would give a higher
profit to the out-group.
• If a Klee member chose a mid-range value for another Klee member, it would give the
same points for the other group.
• If a Klee member chose a low value for another Klee member, it would award only 1
point to the other team.

The results showed that maximum joint profit had very little effect on the boys' choices.
However, when the boys had a choice between maximizing profit for all and maximizing the
profit for members of their in-group, they clearly favoured their own group. When they had the
choice of maximizing the difference in reward against profit for all, the boys were willing to give
their own team fewer points with the goal of maximizing the difference between their in-group
and the out-group. This was a bit surprising since it meant that the boys left the study with less
money than if they had all given each other the most amount of money possible.

Tajfel concluded that out-group discrimination is very easy to trigger and that once it has been
triggered, we have norms of behaviour which include discriminating against the out-group. One
of the most obvious conclusions that we can draw from this experiment is the natural tendency of
members of a group to favour their in-group. Tajfel demonstrated that a "minimal group" is all
that is necessary for individuals to exhibit discrimination against an out-group.

The Tajfel study is a highly controlled experiment. It is also highly standardized, so it is

replicable in order to establish reliability. However, the task was highly artificial and may not
reflect how the boys would have interacted in a more natural setting. In addition, the boys have
interpreted the task as supposed to be competitive and tried to win - thus showing demand

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characteristics. Finally, the study was done using British schoolboys - so it may be difficult to
generalize the findings of this study to other ages and cultures.

Once we categorize people into “us” and “them”, self-esteem is maintained by social
comparison—that is, the benefits of belonging to the in-group versus the out-group. Cialdini et
al. (1976) demonstrated this phenomenon among college football supporters. After a successful
football match, the supporters were more likely to be seen wearing college insignia and clothing
than after defeats. It is assumed that our need for a positive self-concept will result in a bias in
these intergroup comparisons so that you are more positive towards anything that your own
group represents. Tajfel calls this “the establishment of positive distinctiveness”.

There have been many applications of social identity theory – both to explain behaviour and to
change behaviour. An example of how SIT can be used to explain behaviour is a study carried
out by Abrams et al (1990) Abrams did a replication of Asch (1956) to see if, as Social Identity
Theory predicts, people are more likely to conform to the behaviour of people in their in-group.
Fifty introductory psychology students (23 males and 27 females) thought that they were taking a
test of visual accuracy. At the start of the experiment, three confederates were introduced either
as first-year students from the psychology department (in-group) or as students of ancient history
(out-group).

The participants were shown a stimulus line, and then three other lines - one of which was the
same length as the stimulus line. The task was to identify which of the three lines matched the
stimulus line. There were 18 trials. In nine of the trials, the confederates gave the correct
response. In nine of the trials, the confederates gave a unanimous, incorrect response. Abrams
and his team found that the participants conformed to the erroneous confederate judgments more
often when they believed the confederates were from their in-group. The average number of
conforming responses was 5.23 in the in-group condition and only 0.75 in the out-group
condition. The participants also revealed in the post-experimental questionnaire that they had
been less confident about their own judgment in the in-group condition. The results seem to
indicate that social categorization can play a key role in one’s decision to conform.

An example of how SIT has been applied is in crowd control during emergency
evacuations. Drury et al (2009) carried out an experiment using a virtual reality simulation of a
fire in the London underground. Participants could either push people out of the way to get out as
quickly as possible, or they could help others, but this would slow their escape from the fire. In
one condition, the participants were given a “shared identity” – for example, all fans of the same
football team. In the other condition, they were not given a shared identity – for example, “you
are on your way back from buying a pair of shoes.” The team found that those who shared a
common identity were more likely to help one another, even at risk to their own safety. Drury
has argued that making a collective identity salient by making announcements to “All
customers” or “Real Madrid Fans” or “Americans”, will cause people to act as a group and not
panic in an emergency situation. This is better than using sirens or other emergency signals.

Social identity theory appears to be a useful way of understanding human behaviour in a number
of areas. However, there are some limitations to the theory. First, it describes but does not
accurately predict human behaviour. Although the theory argues that whichever identity is most

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salient is most likely to determine our behaviour, why is it that in some cases our personal
identity is stronger than the group identity? Second, using the theory in isolation is
reductionist—it fails to address the environment that interacts with the “self.” Cultural
expectations, rewards as motivators, and societal constraints such as poverty may play more of a
role in behaviour than one’s own sense of in-group identity.

ATL: Thinking locally

Many schools make use of pep rallies in order to get their students “psyched up” days before an
upcoming sports tournament. At a pep rally, students cheer and praise the members of their own
team and they mock or criticize the members of the other team.

Do you think that pep rallies are effective? Why or why not? Support your answer using
knowledge from this chapter.

4. Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Learning Theory – formerly known as Social Learning Theory – assumes that
humans learn behaviour through observational learning—in other words, people can learn by
watching models and imitating their behaviour. Sometimes the model is trying to have a direct
effect on the learner—for example, when a teacher instructs children how to solve a problem—
but often models serve as indirect models, in that they are not trying to influence behaviour.
Unlike some learning that we do, we do not need positive reinforcement – that is, a reward – to
continue the behaviour. The fact that the model was rewarded or punished for a behaviour, is
enough for us. This is what Bandura calls vicarious reinforcement.

According to Bandura, social cognitive learning involves the following cognitive factors.

• Attention: In order to learn a behaviour, the learner must pay attention to the
model. There are certain factors that may influence whether attention is paid to the
model, including the attractiveness of the model, the authority of the model, or the
desirability of the behaviour.
• Retention: The observer must be able to remember the behaviour that has been observed
in order to produce that behaviour immediately or after some time.

16
 • Motivation: Learners must want to replicate the behaviour that they have observed. In
order to do this, they must understand what the potential outcome is if they repeat the
behaviour – what Bandura called outcome expectancies.

Motivation to imitate the behaviour of the model is quite complex. There are several factors that
may influence whether or not the observer decides to imitate and learn.

• Consistency: If the model behaves in a way that is consistent across situations—for

example, always being brave—then the observer will be more likely to imitate the model
than if the model behaves in different ways depending on the situation.
• Identification with the model: There is a tendency to imitate models who are like us —
for example, in terms of age and gender.
• Liking the model: Warm and friendly models are more likely to be imitated than cold,
uncaring models.

Finally, social cognitive learning theory argues that learning is most likely to occur if the
observer has high self-efficacy. Self–efficacy is one's belief in one's ability to succeed
accomplishing a task. Bandura and other researchers have found Individuals with high self-
efficacy are more likely to believe they can master challenging problems and they can recover
quickly from setbacks and disappointments. Therefore, self-efficacy plays a central role in
whether a learner will imitate the behaviour of a model. Those who have low levels of self-
efficacy will fear failure and are less likely to attempt imitating the behaviour of the model.

Social cognitive learning theory has been used to explain many things but particularly the role of
violence in the media on aggression in children.

Research in psychology: Bandura et al (1961)

In one of the earliest experiments, Bandura et al had two aims. First, the researchers wanted to
see if children would imitate aggression modelled by an adult; and second, they wanted to know
if children were more likely to imitate same-sex models.

Children aged 3 to 6 years (36 boys and 36 girls) were divided into groups. The groups were
matched with regard to aggression based on an evaluation by their parents and teachers. One
group was exposed to adult models who showed aggression by either bashing an inflatable
“Bobo” doll or using verbal aggression toward the Bobo; a second group observed a non-
aggressive adult who assembled toys for 10 minutes, and a third group served as a control and
did not see any model. In the first and second groups, some children watched same-sex models
and some watched opposite-sex models.

After watching the models, the children were placed in a room with toys. Very soon, they were
taken out of the room, being told that those toys were for other children, and then they were put
into the room with the Bobo doll. This was done so that all of the children experienced some
level of frustration that may lead to them showing aggression. The children were observed
behind a one-way mirror and their behaviours were recorded. Bandura’s group found that the
children who had observed the aggressive models were significantly more aggressive—both

17
physically and verbally. The children showed clear signs of observational learning. With regard
to the second aim, Bandura observed that girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression,
whereas boys were more likely to imitate physical aggression. When boys observed women
bashing the Bobo doll, they often made comments like “Ladies shouldn’t do that!” In other
words, the children were more likely to imitate the same-sex adult.

In spite of the fact that this study supports social cognitive learning theory, it is important to
critically evaluate the study with regard to both its method and its ethics. First, the experiment
has been criticized for low ecological validity. Not only was it carried out in a laboratory, but
there are also other factors that make the situation less than natural. There is only a very brief
encounter with the model, and the children are intentionally frustrated after they begin to play
with a toy. This situation does little to predict what happens if a child is repeatedly exposed to
aggressive parents or violence on television. One also has to question the actual aggression that
was observed. Does the aggression against a Bobo doll indicate learned aggression in general, or
it is highly specific to this situation?

Bandura, Ross and Ross (1963) carried out a follow-up study to see whether children were also
willing to imitate a model presented in the media. In this experiment Bandura exposed a group of
children to either a movie featuring the same aggressive actions as in the first experiment or a
cartoon in which a cat beat a Bobo doll with a hammer. There was also a control group that
watched no film. After the movie, he then placed the children in a room with a Bobo doll to see
how they behaved with it. Bandura found that the children who had watched the violent movie
showed more aggressive behaviour toward the Bobo doll, regardless whether there were real
people or cartoons. The control group demonstrated significantly lower levels of aggression.

In addition to the questionable ecological validity of Bandura’s two studies, there are other
methodological considerations. The aggression modelled by the adult in the first experiment was
not completely standardized, meaning that the children may have observed slight differences in
the aggression displayed. However, when the film was used, this behaviour was standardized,
eliminating confounding variables. Also, in spite of the attempt to match the participants with
regard to aggression, it was based on observations from teachers and parents, and this may not
have been completely accurate. Finally, there is the question of demand characteristics: the
children may have acted aggressively because they thought it would please the researcher.

One also has to consider the ethics of using young children in such an experiment. Observing
adult strangers act in such a violent manner might be frightening to children. Also, it is
questionable whether it is appropriate to teach children violent behaviour. There was no
guarantee that once violent behaviour was learned, it would not become a permanent feature of
the child’s behaviour, or be generalized to other situations.

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ATL: Thinking critically

A boarding school has asked for your professional advice. The school is concerned about the
number of young students who are playing video games in their free time. They are concerned
because they have heard that playing video games may lead to aggressive behaviour as teens.

1. What do you think about this claim?

2. How would you investigate this question in order to provide evidence for or against the
claim?
3. Find at least one study that investigates this question. What are the strengths and
limitations of that study?

Application of social cognitive learning theory in real life

According to social cognitive learning theory, there is a chance that violence on television will
lead to more violent children. But is this so? The results of studies on the effects of televised
violence are consistent. By watching aggression, children learn how to be aggressive in new
ways and they also draw conclusions about whether being aggressive to others will bring them
rewards or punishment. Huesmann and Eron (1986) carried out a longitudinal study, monitoring
children’s behaviour over a 15-year period. They found a positive correlation between the
number of hours of violence watched on television by elementary school children and the level
of aggression demonstrated when they were teenagers. They also found that those who watched a
lot of television violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and
prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.

However, because the study is only correlational, no cause and effect relationship can be
concluded. It also is not possible to eliminate dispositional factors from the study. Perhaps
children that had a biological predisposition to violence watched more television. The study
suffers from bidirectional ambiguity. We cannot know whether television watching makes
children aggressive or whether aggressive children watch more television.

In an important study carried out in Canada, children were found to have become significantly
more aggressive two years after television was introduced to their town (Joy, Kimball and
Zabrack 1986). The results of these two studies indicate a link between watching violent
television and aggressive behaviour, but we should critically consider the findings: could there
be another explanation?

Television is not always a negative influence. There is strong evidence that children’s shows
such as Sesame Street—developed to teach academic and social skills—can help children learn
positive behaviours such as sharing, empathy, and academic curiosity. A vast number of soap
operas have made use of social learning theory in order to affect change in society. The Sabido
Method uses Bandura’s social cognitive learning theory as the basis for television and radio
dramas that aim to prevent unwanted pregnancies, reduce the spread of HIV, promote literacy,
and empower women in developing countries. As a result of broadcasting the serial Twende na
Wakati (Let’s Go with the Times) in Tanzania between 1993 and 1996, researchers found
increases in safe sex, women’s status, and family planning.

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ATL: Thinking critically

The island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean has been the site of an interesting natural
experiment carried out by Charlton et al (2002). Television was first introduced on St Helena in
1995. Psychologists from the UK used this unique opportunity to investigate the effect of the
introduction of television on aggression in children. Cameras were set up in the playgrounds of
two primary schools on the island, and the behaviour of children (between the ages of 3 and 8
years) was observed before and after the introduction of television. A content analysis of the
television programs showed little difference in the quantity or level of violence watched, when
compared with children in the UK, so children on St Helena were exposed to exactly the same
level of violence.

Analysis of hundreds of hours of videotape, backed up by interview data from teachers, parents,
and some of the older children, showed no increase in antisocial behaviour among the children of
St Helena. The good behaviour evident before the arrival of television had been maintained even
after five years of exposure to violent television.

1 Find information about the people and culture of St Helena. What are the major differences
between this community and communities in the UK?

2 Discuss possible reasons why the results of this study are so different from the results of
the studies conducted by Bandura et al. and by Joy, Kimball & Zabrack.

Evaluation of social cognitive learning theory

Social cognitive learning theory helps explain why behaviours may be passed down in a family
or within a culture. It also explains why children can acquire some behaviours without trial-and-
error learning. However, although a behaviour may be acquired, it is not always demonstrated.
The child might learn something from watching a model but may not exhibit that behaviour for
some time. Because this gap exists between when one observes the model and when one may
demonstrate the behaviour, it is difficult to establish 100 per cent that the behaviour is the result
of observing the model. Neither does social learning theory explain why some people never learn
a behaviour, in spite of the above criteria being met.

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In spite of much of the research being experimental and rather artificial in nature, the theory
itself has been applied in many different ways – including health promotion programs and
therapy for anxiety disorders.

CAS

Make a plan using Social Cognitive Learning Theory to promote a higher level of environmental
awareness in your school community.

5. Stereotyping

A stereotype is defined as a social perception of an individual in terms of group membership or

physical attributes. It is a generalization that is made about a group and then attributed to
members of that group. Such a generalization may be either positive or negative. For example,
women are talented speakers or women are bad drivers. Stereotyping is a form of social
categorization that affects the behaviour of those who hold the stereotype, and those who are
labeled by a stereotype. Researchers explain stereotyping as a result of schema processing.

Apply your knowledge

Find two examples of stereotypes in the media—newspapers, magazines, books, packaging,

products, posters, or films. Bring the image to class, and explain why the image represents a
stereotype and why you think this image persists.

The formation of stereotypes

How is it that stereotypes develop? Although Tajfel argues that this is a natural cognitive process
of social categorization, this does not explain how the stereotype is actually formed. Schneider
(2004) argues that there are two ways that stereotypes develop: indirectly, as a product of our
culture or society or directly, as a result of own experience with other people. Campbell (1967)
maintains that there are two key sources of stereotypes: personal experience with individuals and
groups, and gatekeepers - the media, parents, and other members of our culture. He goes on to

21
argue that stereotypes thus have a basis in some reality. His grain of truth hypothesis argues
that an experience with an individual from a group will then be generalized to the group.

Hamilton and Gifford (1976) argue, instead, that stereotypes are the result of an illusory
correlation - that is, people see a relationship between two variables even when there is none.
An example of this is when people form false associations between membership of a social
group and specific behaviours such as women’s inferior ability in mathematics. The illusory
correlation phenomenon causes people to overestimate a link between the two variables, here
“women” and “ability in mathematics”. Illusory correlations can come in many forms and
culturally-based prejudice about social groups can to some extent be classified as illusory
correlations. Illusory correlation is an example of what researchers call “cognitive bias”, that is, a
person’s tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors. Attribution errors are
also examples of cognitive bias.

Research in psychology: Hamilton & Gifford (1976)

Hamilton & Gifford (1976) carried out an experiment where participants listened to a series of
statements made about people from two groups - simply called group A and B. There were twice
as many people in group A (26) as group B (13), so group B was the minority group. Each
statement was about one individual in one of the two groups; the statement was either positive or
negative. Each group had the same proportion of positive and negative comments.

Participants were then asked how many of the people in each group had positive vs. negative
traits. They overestimated the number of negative traits in the minority group. Hamilton &
Gifford argued that this was because the minority group was by nature smaller in number, their
negative behaviours appeared more distinct and appear to be representative of the group. So, one
minority male is caught stealing and it appears to be related to the fact that he is a minority. This
demonstrates why negative stereotypes may be more common for minority groups than for the
majority. Such research has led to the modern practice in many countries not to report the race
or ethnicity of people who have been charged with a crime.

Once illusory correlations are made, people tend to seek out or remember information that
supports this relationship. This is an example of confirmation bias. Generally, this means that
people tend to overlook information that contradicts what they already believe. In a social
context, they pay attention to behaviours that confirm what they believe about a group and ignore
those behaviours contrary to their beliefs. Confirmation bias makes stereotypical thinking
resistant to change. Snyder and Swann (1978) conducted a study in which they told female
college students that they would meet a person who was either introverted (reserved, cool) or
extroverted (outgoing, warm). The participants were then asked to prepare a set of questions for
the person they were going to meet. In general, participants came up with questions that
confirmed their perceptions of introverts and extroverts. Those who thought they were going to
meet an introvert asked, “What do you dislike about parties?” or “Are there times you wish you
could be more outgoing?” and extroverts were asked, “What do you do to liven up a party?” The
researchers concluded that the questions asked confirmed participants’ stereotypes of each
personality type so that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy - for example, because they believed
he was an introvert they asked him questions which made him appear to be one.

22
Stereotypes can also be formed as a means of taking on the in-group’s social representation of
the out-group. In other words, individuals may conform to the group norms with regard to the
“other”. Rogers and Frantz (1962) found that white immigrants to Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe)
developed more stereotypes and prejudice against the local people the longer they stayed there.
They argue that this is because they adopted the social norms that were dominant in the group
they were joining in order to fit in. The study, however, was cross-sectional. In other words, the
behaviour of the participants was not measured over time, but instead a "snapshot in time" was
taken and the data was compared. We cannot know if there was a significant change in the
stereotyping and prejudice of the participants over time as their original attitudes toward the local
people were never measured.

Effects of stereotyping

In the cognitive approach we learned that schema have an effect on behaviour. As stereotyping
is a form of schema processing, it should be no surprise to you that stereotyping can affect
behaviour. Two ways in which stereotyping may affect behaviour are stereotype threat and
memory distortion.

Stereotype threat occurs when one is in a situation where there is a threat of being judged or
treated stereotypically, or a fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that
stereotype. Steele and Aronson (1995) carried out an experiment to see the effect of stereotype
threat on performance. They gave a 30-minute verbal test, made up of very difficult multiple-
choice questions. When one group was told it was a genuine test of their verbal abilities, African
American participants scored significantly lower than European American participants. In
another group which was presented with the same test but told that it was not diagnostic of their
ability, African American students scored higher than the first group, and their performance was
not significantly different from the European American students. However, it was not possible to
argue that awareness of racial stereotyping was the actual cause of the difference, so they did one
more version of the experiment where the participants had to fill in a personal information
questionnaire. Half of the questionnaires asked the participants to identity their race. African
Americans who had to identify their race did poorly; those that did not, did just as well as their
European American peers.

Steele & Aronson argue that you don’t need to believe in a stereotype for it to affect your
behaviour. Stereotype threat turns on spotlight anxiety, which causes emotional distress and
pressure that may undermine performance. Students under the stereotype threat often
underperform and this can naturally limit their educational prospects. Spencer et al (1999) tested
the effect of the stereotype threat on intellectual performance. The researchers gave a difficult
mathematics test to students who were strong in mathematics. They predicted that women under
the stereotype threat would underperform compared to the men taking the test. The stereotype
threat that women experience in mathematics-performance settings originates from a negative
stereotype about women’s mathematics ability, which is quite common in society. For women
who are good at mathematics and see mathematics as an important part of their self-definition,
such a stereotype threat may result in an interfering pressure in test situations. Spencer et al.
found that this was true: women in the experiment significantly underperformed compared with
equally qualified men on the difficult mathematics tests. However, when the researchers tested

23
literature skills, the two groups performed equally well. This was because women are not
stereotype threatened in this area.

ATL: Be empathetic

Many stereotypes about groups are negative – but some can be surprisingly positive. For
example: Asians are very intelligent, Jews are very good with money or gay men enjoy good
food, the arts and travel.

At first glance, these stereotypes appear to be “harmless.” But look at them again. What are the
potential negative effects of such stereotypes on these groups?

Another effect of stereotyping is memory distortion. In a study carried out by Martin &
Halverson (1983), the researchers wanted to see if gender stereotyping would influence recall in
5 and 6-year-old children. Each child was shown 16 pictures, half of which depicted a child
performing gender-consistent activities (for example, a boy playing with a truck) and half
showing children displaying gender-inconsistent behaviours (for example, a girl chopping
wood). One week later, they tested the recall of the children to see how many of the photos that
they could recall accurately.

The results showed that children easily recalled the sex of the actor for scenes in which actors
had performed gender-consistent activities. But when the actor’s behaviour was gender
inconsistent, the children often distorted the scene by saying that the actor’s sex was consistent
with the activity they recalled - that is, they would remember that it was the boy playing with a
truck, when in fact they had been shown a photo of a girl playing with a truck.

In a classic experiment done in 1947, Allport & Postman wanted to see the effect of stereotyping
on recall. To carry out the experiment, the researchers showed a participant a drawing of a white
man holding a razor and threatening a black man on the subway. The participant was then asked
to describe what he had seen to another participant – a process called serial reproduction, one
of the same strategies used by Bartlett in his classic War of the Ghosts study. The process was
repeated for up to seven participants. The researchers found that in over half of the experiments,
at some stage the story was retold so that the black man was threatening the white man. It
appears that stereotyping had affected the retelling of the story. The study is very old, so is it still
relevant today? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

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In a study by Payne (2001), participants were first given a test of racial prejudice to eliminate
strong racial prejudice as a confounding variable. 32 non-black university students were asked
to sit at a computer screen. They would be shown a face - either a white or a black face
- followed by an image. They had only a second to choose whether the image was either a tool
or a gun. The study showed that priming the participants with black faces led to more errors in
identifying the image as a weapon rather than a tool. Thus, stereotyping affected perception,
which then had implications for memory. Several studies have shown that the race of an alleged
criminal influences memory of a weapon. The effect of stereotypes can be very serious indeed.

6. Culture, behavior and cognition

Essential understandings

• Culture can affect our cognition and behavior.

• The effect of acculturation and enculturation on cognition and behavior.
• Psychologists use both emic and etic approaches to studying culture.

Definitions of culture

A cultural norm is a set of rules based on socially or culturally shared beliefs of how an
individual ought to behave to be accepted within that group. Norms regulate behaviour within a
group. When individuals deviate from social or cultural norms, they may be punished,
marginalized, stigmatized, or—more positively—seen as creative and affecting change in the
society. Being social animals, the need to belong plays a strong role in the desire to conform to
group norms.

Culture is a complex concept that is used in many different ways. “Culture” is how we describe
food and eating habits, gender roles, rituals, communication patterns and use of free time within
a society. When we talk about culture, we refer to either surface culture or deep culture.

Surface culture is what we easily see as different when we have contact with another group. We
notice that their food is different, that men and women are separated at dinner or that the music
uses a different scale. What interests psychologists more is what is known as deep culture. Deep

25
culture is the beliefs, attitudes, and values of a group. These may include a group’s perception of
time, importance of personal space, respect for authority or the need to save money for the
future. These cultural factors may lead to specific kinds of attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.

ATL: International mindedness

When looking at many of the things that we do, we see examples of both surface and deep
culture. For example, think about restaurant behaviours in your culture. Here is a description of
some of the common behaviours in the Czech Republic:

• When you have a table reserved, it is for the whole evening. It is not expected that
someone is waiting to take your table when you are finished.
• It is very common that each person at the table pays his or her own bill. It is common for
the waiter to present separate bills to all people at the table simply by request. In many
places, it is actually expected that this will be the case.
• Tipping is not common. Czechs often simply "round up." So, if the bill comes to 290
crowns (approximately 12 USD), then it is rounded to 300 crowns. If the bill is 590
crowns, it would be rounded up to 600 crowns.
• It is common to have three courses, followed by coffee.

All of these are examples of surface culture. If we want to look at deep culture, we have to
consider the values of this culture that would lead to these behaviours.

Questions

1. What values of Czech culture do you think would explain the behaviours listed above?

2. How does your culture compare to the list above? What does this say about the difference in
values between your culture and Czech culture?

Culture could simply be defined as a set of common rules that regulate interactions and
behaviour in a group, as well as a number of shared values and attitudes in the group. Hofstede
(2002) described culture as “mental software”, that is, cultural schemas that have been
internalized so that they influence thinking, emotions, and behaviour. These schema are
developed through daily interactions and by the feedback from other members of the group. The

26
process of adopting or internalizing the schemas of your culture is a process known as
enculturation. This process is also known as socialization; it takes place more or less
unconsciously.

Culture is defined by Matsumoto (2004) as “a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit,
established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs,
norms, and behaviours”. This is a complex definition, so we will look at it piece by piece.

First, culture is dynamic - it changes over time in response to environmental and social changes.
In a globalized society, we see the movement of people from one culture to another – whether as
migrant workers, refugees or foreign students. In addition, we are exposed to various cultures
around the world through the Internet and film. As a result, most cultures are not isolated. By
interacting with other societies – either by choice or involuntarily – cultures evolve. The process
by which someone comes into contact with another culture and begins to adopt the norms and
behaviours of that culture is known as acculturation.

Key definitions

Acculturation: The process by which someone comes into contact with another culture and
begins to adopt the norms and behaviours of that culture.

Enculturation: the process of adopting or internalizing the schemas of your culture.

Although we often think of culture on a national level, any distinct group could have a culture.
So, we could talk about Italian culture, but also the culture of an individual school. A school or
other large institution can have a set of guidelines that it works by - some of which are written
(explicit) and some of which are simply understood (implicit). For example, it may be the rule in
your school that men are not allowed to wear shorts to school. That would be an explicit rule. It
is written in a handbook and there may even be some punishment for not following the rule. It
may also be the practice in your school that everyone greets each other in the morning with a
friendly hello. This is not a rule written in the handbook, but it is something that is implicitly
understood in the community. Those people who do not greet others may be seen as outsiders.

The study of culture

Understanding the role of culture in human behaviour is essential in a diverse, multicultural

world. Many of the founding theorists of psychology took a solely western view – in other
words, they were ethnocentric in their approach. They saw other cultures through the lens of
their own culture. They attempted to find universal behaviours—that is, they were looking for
“rules” of human behaviour that could be applied to all cultures around the world. This is an etic
approach to psychology. Etic approaches are typically taken within cross-cultural psychology
where behaviour is compared across specific cultures. Etic study involves drawing on the notion
of universal properties of cultures, which share common perceptual, cognitive, and emotional
structures.

27
Assuming that behaviours are universal means that you believe that depression in America is the
same as depression in China or in Papua New Guinea. This assumption about behavior has an
effect on how cultures are studied. An etic approach decides what to study and how to analyze it
before arriving in the culture. This is a deductive approach. The hypothesis is already decided
before the study begins. Theories that are from the researchers culture – as well as the tests
developed in that culture – will be used to study the people in the other culture. In addition, the
researchers are trained in a culture that is different from the culture being studied. If you were to
replicate Asch’s conformity study in Nigeria to see if you got the same results, this would be an
example of etic research.

There are some strengths to etic research. Since this type of research often uses standardized
procedures and materials, the research can be easily replicated, increasing its reliability. In
addition, since the researchers use the same surveys and tests, it increases the validity of the
study. We know that it was not because we used a different test that we observed a difference in
behavior. Finally, if we find that a behavior is universal, it means that there could be a global
application that could improve the lives of many people.

However, there are also limitations of etic research. The research may seem very “foreign” to the
culture; strangers coming in to do the research may be viewed with suspicion and the participants
may not be willing to disclose much to the researchers. In older research, psychologists often
assumed that their culture’s behavior was “correct” or “normal.” Their interpretations of the
participants’ behavior may have been biased. Today researchers have a greater awareness of
cultural differences and they try to minimize their own biases. However, researchers may be
somewhat blind to the complexities within cultures. For example, a researcher carrying out a
study on “Chinese” participants may fail to see significant cultural differences between different
subgroups – such as Chinese in Hong Kong, urban vs. rural Chinese or religious vs secular
Chinese.

Modern cultural psychologists often use an emic approach to look at behaviours that are
culturally specific. Emic approaches use a more inductive approach to the study of culture. They
challenge psychologists to re-examine their ideas of “truth” with regard to culture.

In an emic approach, the researchers first immerse themselves in the culture that they want to
study in order to develop understanding. Research questions are developed by interacting with
the local people. The researchers use local people with local knowledge of the culture and
language skills to help carry out the research. The researchers also adapt and create new tests in
order to carry out the research. For example, the researcher may come up with a different
“checklist” of symptoms for a disorder based on conversations with local people. The goal of
emic research is not to draw universal conclusions about human behavior, but to understand and
apply the findings to the culture in which the research was done. A researcher could, for
example, develop a culturally adapted psychotherapy for a specific population based on the
findings of an emic study.

Some of the strengths of an emic approach are that it is problem focused and comes up with
solutions that can be directly applied to the community being studied. In addition, the
researchers develop a relationship with the community so that there is a sense of trust and

28
openness that can be lacking in etic research. Finally, it is rare that a study is purely emic. It is
perhaps not reasonable to expect that researchers would immerse themselves in a culture with no
idea of what they would want to study and only develop a research question after a totally
objective long-term interaction with a local culture.

One significant limitation is that emic research takes a long time to complete and may have
limited application. And since the tests are created specifically for that culture, it is not possible
to establish a high level of reliability.

Etic vs Emic approaches

Etic approach Emic approach

Plans out research before arriving in the Develops research question after spending time with
field the local community
Applies their research findings globally; Applies their findings to the local community that is
assumes that behaviours are universal. being investigated.
Uses standardized tests and theories Develops tests in consultation with local experts to
from their own culture and applies them apply to the community. Theories are generated after
to the local people. spending time within the culture.
Begins gathering data as soon as they Collects data only after they are familiar with the local
arrive in the field. culture.

7. Cultural dimensions

In addition to cultural norms, another component of culture is dimensions. Dimensions are how
the values of a society affect behavior. A dimension describes the trends of behaviour in a given
culture. Hofstede’s classic research involved asking employees of the multinational company
IBM to fill in surveys about morale in the workplace. He then carried out a content analysis on
the responses he received, focusing on the key differences submitted by employees in different
countries. His research is an example of an etic approach and it looked at the 40 most represented
countries in the surveys. The trends he noticed he called “dimensions”.

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Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

1. Power distance index: the extent to which a culture respects authority and status.
2. Individualism vs. collectivism: the degree to which people are integrated into groups.
Sometimes referred to as an “I” vs. a “we” orientation.
3. Uncertainty avoidance index: a society’s tolerance for ambiguity. Tolerance for
ambiguity means less strict rules in society and an openness to change.
4. Masculinity vs. femininity: Masculine societies are defined by a focus on achievement,
competition and wealth; feminine societies focus on cooperation, relationships and
quality of life.
5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation: the connection to the past and attitude toward
the future. Short-term orientation means that traditions are kept. Long-term
orientation has more of a focus on the future.
6. Indulgence vs. restraint: Indulgent cultures allow people to enjoy life and have fun.
Restrained cultures have stricter control through strict social norms. Indulgent cultures
tend to believe that they are in control of their lives; restrained cultures are more
fatalistic.

Hofstede argues that understanding cultural dimensions will help facilitate communication
between cultures. It is important in international diplomacy as well as international business. For
example, imagine that you have just been given the position of a manager in company in
Korea. Korean culture has a very high power distance index - that is, there is a clearly
established hierarchy of power within the society and this hierarchy is expected. Coming from a
culture with a lower power distance, you make it clear in the first meeting that you like to make
decisions by consensus and that you think it is very important that you are not making decisions
for the entire company. You may find that your employees fail to respect your leadership. After
all, as the boss it is your job to make decisions which they need to respect. If, on the other hand,
you come from a high power distance culture and try to make decisions for employees from a
low power distance culture, you may find that morale suffers as they feel that they were "never
consulted" about these decisions.

This is just one example of why it is critical to understand other cultures you may be doing
business with, whether you are on a vacation in a foreign country, or negotiating a multimillion-
dollar business deal.

ATL: Be reflective

Hofstede has a site which shows his latest data on different countries around the world. Go to
his site and enter your country. Read through the description of the different dimensions and
how your country ranks.

To what extent do you agree with this description of your culture?

To what extent does this description describe you personally?

30
For the exam, you are required to know one cultural dimension. You may investigate any of the
dimensions above, but this chapter will focus on individualism vs. collectivism.

In individualist societies, the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look
after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. In collectivist societies, from birth
onwards people are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with
uncles, aunts, and grandparents), which provides them with support and protection. However, if
an individual does not live up to the norms of the family or the larger social group, the result can
sometimes be severe.Markus and Kitayama (1991) characterized the difference between US and
Japanese culture by citing two of their proverbs: “In America, the squeaky wheel gets the grease;
in Japan, the nail that stands out gets pounded down.” Markus and Kitayama argue that
perceiving a boundary between the individual and the social environment is distinctly western in
its cultural orientation, and that non-western cultures tend towards connectedness.

Individualism Collectivism
Uniqueness is valued. Social harmony is valued.
Speaking one's mind is important. Modesty is important.
Self is defined by individual
Self is defined by group membership
achievement.
Freedom and autonomy are valued. Common fate/history guide one's decision making
Self-actualization is a goal. Advancing the interests of the group is the goal.
Everyone has a right to privacy. Privacy is not expected.
Rule-breaking leads to guilt and loss of
Rule-breaking leads to shame/loss of face.
self-respect.
Shared responsibility and interdependence are seen
Self-reliance is seen as a virtue.
as a way of life.

ATL: International mindedness

Often, when people in western cultures talk about eastern cultures, the role of “saving face” is
seen as a key difference between the two cultures. The importance is placed on not lowering
one’s status, and not being embarrassed by failure.

1. Is the fear of “losing face” exclusively an eastern trait? Does it ever appear in western culture?

2. How could the need not to lose face affect an individual’s behaviour?

How does this dimension influence our behavior? In the last chapter, we looked at how social
identity can play a role in one’s level of conformity. What about the role of individualism and
collectivism? Berry (1967) carried out a study on conformity based on the Asch paradigm with
Temne from Sierra Leon, a collectivistic society based on farming, and Intuits from Baffin Bay,
an individualistic society based on hunting, to see if the dimension plays a role on the level of
conformity.

31
Research in psychology: Berry (1967)

For his sample, Berry used three distinctly different cultures. First, the Temne of Sierra Leone, a
society that is based on rice farming. And then the Inuit people of Baffin Island in Canada,
which survives by hunting and fishing. 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 have Western education or having Western employment. Lastly, he used
Scots as a reference group. The control group was made up of both urban and rural Scots. There
were approximately 120 participants in each group.

Each individual was brought into a room by him or herself. For the test, they were given a set of
nine lines. 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
instructions were read in their own language by a native interpreter.

After the first two trials, there were four more trials. On the third trial, they heard the following
directions: Here is another sheet with the nine lines on it, one here on the top and eight beneath
it. This time I am going to give you a hint. Most Temne (or Inuit or Scottish) people say this line
(experimenter pointed to a designated line) is equal in length to the one at the top. Which one do
you say?

For the third trial, the correct answer was given. For trials 4 - 6, the wrong response was given.
The DV was the number of lines that they were away from the correct line.

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.

Interestingly, there was no significant difference within groups - that means, it made no
difference whether the participants were living the traditional life or were highly exposed to
Western culture. It appears that when the participants were reminded of the cultural identity by
being told that another member of their culture had already given a response, the cultural
dimension played a more significant role in an individual’s level of conformity than their current
relationship with that cultural identity.

As you continue through the course, you will find several more examples of research that
demonstrate how this dimension influences behavior.

32
One does have to be careful, however, with applying the idea of dimensions too casually.
Hofstede warns against the ecological fallacy—that is, when one looks at two different cultures,
it should not be assumed that two members from two different cultures must be different from
one another, or that a single member of a culture will always demonstrate the dimensions which
are the norm of that culture. These concepts simply give psychologists a way to generalize about
cultures in order to better discuss the role that culture plays in behaviour. However, we have to
be careful of stereotyping, recognizing that these expectations of the behaviour of a member of a
different culture opens up the possibility of stereotype threat.

Hofstede (2001) has carried out extensive research since his original study. With scores obtained
over a span of 30 years, he claims that the results have stayed consistent. However, there are
some things to keep in mind when evaluating the theory of cultural dimensions. First, remember
that Hofstede was studying work environments. The attitudes of people toward the work
environment may not transfer to all areas of their daily lives. In addition, his research was done
by inductive content analysis. After receiving the questionnaires, the researcher and his team
went through the responses and looked for emerging themes. Researcher bias can play a
significant role in which trends are seen as significant. There is the danger that researchers see
what confirms their own biases. However, Hofstede worked as a team and was able to establish
inter-coder reliability - that is, there was no significant difference in the findings among the
different members of his team. Finally, the research is correlational in nature. It is not possible
to argue that culture causes these behaviors. That being said, using dimensions is a good way to
discuss cultural differences and to challenge us in our own ethnocentrism.

Possible essay question

Discuss the role of one cultural dimension on human behavior.

Assessment advice

The command term “discuss” asks you to present an argument using evidence. In this case, you
might look at the cultural dimension of individualism versus collectivism. How does the
dimension affect behaviour? What evidence is there for this? You may use research from the
options to support this.

Always explain the value and limitations of the research that you are using to support your
argument.

And finally, "thinking globally" about the question. This is the heart of a discussion. What are
the difficulties of answering the question of the role of culture? What are the general limitations
of research on culture? How useful is this research? To what extent can variables be
operationalized and measured? What are the assumptions that we have to make if we are to
accept the findings of the research?

33
8. Culture and cognition

Culture has many effects on our behaviour, our attitudes and our cognitive processes. Culture
plays a role in the creation of our schema - and these, in turn, affect what we
remember. However, it also affects how we remember. The following chapter explores how
culture affects the cognitive process of memory.

Research in psychology: Cole and Scribner (1974)

Cole & Scribner used an emic approach to see how culture could affect memory. They wanted to
see the effect that schooling would have on the strategies that children used to memorize lists of
words.

Cole & Scribner (1974) studied the development of memory among tribal people in rural Liberia
compared to children in the US. They looked at both Liberian children in school and those that
were not attending school. To overcome the barriers of language and culture, these researchers
observed everyday cognitive activities before conducting their experiments and worked closely
with the university-educated local people who acted as experimenters.

The aim of the study was to see if culture had a different effect on how one memorizes. They
were given a free-recall task people, in which they were shown a large number of objects, one at
a time, and then asked to remember them. This kind of memory is called “free” recall because
people are free to recall the items in any order they wish.

Below is a list of the 20 objects used in several of Cole and Scribner’s studies. The list shows
that the objects appear to fall into four distinct categories. To make sure that the list was not too
ethnocentric - and thus, foreign to the Liberian participants - the researchers ran a pilot study to
make sure that Liberian participants were familiar with the words.

34
The word list used in research by Cole and his colleagues
Plate Cutlass

Calabash Hoe

Pot Knife

Pan File

Cup Hammer
Potato Trousers

Onion Singlet

Banana Head tie

Orange Shirt

Coconut Hat

The researchers found that unlike the children in school, the children who were not attending
school showed no regular increase in memory performance after the age of 9 or 10. These
participants remembered approximately ten items on the first trial and managed to recall only
two more items after 15 practice trials. The Liberian children who were attending school, by
contrast, learned the materials rapidly, much the way schoolchildren of the same age did in the
United States.

School-children in Liberia and the United States not only learned the list rapidly but used the
categorical similarities of items in the list to aid their recall. After the first trial they clustered
their responses; for example, they would recall items of clothing, then items of food, and so on.
The non-schooled Liberian participants did very little clustering, indicating that they were not
using the categorical structure of the list to help them remember.

In a later trial, the researchers varied the recall task so that the objects were now presented in a
meaningful way as part of a story. The unschooled children recalled the objects easily and
actually chunked them according to the roles they played in the story.

Memory studies like these invite reflection. It seems that even although the ability to remember
is universal, strategies for remembering are not universal. Generally, schooling presents children
with a number of specialized information-processing tasks, such as organizing large amounts of
information in memory and learning to use logic and abstract symbols in problem solving. It is
questionable whether such ways of remembering have parallels in traditional societies like the
Kpelle children studied by Cole and Scribner. The conclusion is that people learn to remember in
ways that are relevant for their everyday lives, and these do not always mirror the activities that
cognitive psychologists use to investigate mental processes.

35
A quasi-experiment carried out by Kearins (1981) investigated why Aborigines tend to score low
on Western verbal intelligence tests. As a traditional society, Aboriginal people used to spend
most of their lives in the desert. Their survival depended to a large extent on their ability to store
or encode enormous amounts of environmental or visual information. Kearins wanted to see how
the Aborigines spatial memory compared to those of Australian children.

Kearins (1981) had a sample of forty-four adolescents aged 12 - 16 years (27 boys, 17 girls) of
desert Aboriginal origin and 44 adolescents (28 boys, 16 girls) of white Australian
origin. Kearins placed 20 objects on a board divided into 20 squares. Aborigine and white
Australian children were told to study the board for 30 seconds. Then the objects were gathered
together and placed in a pile in the center of the board and the children were asked to place the
objects on the board in the same arrangement. The results showed that the Aboriginal correctly
relocated more objects than did white Australian children. It appears that their way of life has a
significant impact on how and what they remember. Cole & Scriber's study showed, children
learned memory strategies through their formal education - but education is not only "in school"
but by the way that we are raised by our parents. Kearins argues that the first generation settled
parents raised their children in a way that reflects the traditional lifestyle and values - and this, in
turn, affects the way that they learn.

Here you can read a more detailed description of Kearins (1981) study.

ATL: Thinking critically

1. Why is this study considered a "quasi-experiment?" What are the limitations of this method?

2. If the children were not raised in the desert, how do you think that the parents may have
taught them this skill?

3. Do you think that you could develop the same skills that the Aboriginal children showed in
this study? How would you go about learning this skill?

A final example of the role of culture on cognition is a study by Kulkofsky et al (2011). The
researchers studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the UK and the USA - to see if
there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic
cultures. There were 274 adults from the five different countries.

Participants were given five minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events
in their lifetime. They were then given a memory question which was similar to the one used by
Brown & Kulik (1977). These questions included where they had learned of the event, what
time of day it was and what they were doing when they heard about it. They were then asked
questions about the importance of the event - including how personally important it was, how
surprised they were and how often they had spoken about it since it happened. All
questionnaires were provided in the native language of the participants.

The researchers found that in a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and
intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting flashbulb memories, compared with more

36
individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual's personal involvement and
emotional experiences. Because focusing on the individual's own experiences is often de-
emphasized in the Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the triggering event
compared with participants from other cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing a
flashbulb memory. However, it was found that if the event was of national importance, then there
was no significant difference in the creation of flashbulb memories.

You can read more about Kulkofsky et al (2011) here.

Kulkofsky et al (2011)

Kulkofsky et al (2011) carried out a study of the role of culture in flashbulb memory. You can
use this study for the following content in the cognitive and sociocultural approaches:

To what extent is one cognitive process reliable?

One theory of how emotion may affect one cognitive process.

The role of culture on cognitive processes.

The original study is available here.

Procedure

The researchers studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the UK and the USA - to see if
there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic
cultures.

The sample was made up of 274 adults from five different countries. All participants were
identified as "middle class."

First, the participants were given five minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public
events occurring in their lifetime. The events had to have occurred at least one year ago. The
researchers then used this list of events to create a "memory questionnaire." They were asked
five questions about how they learned about the event that mirrored the original questionnaire
used by Brown & Kulik (1977). The questions were:

37
 1. Where were you when you first learned of the event?
2. What time of day was it?
3. How did you learn about it?
4. What were you doing at the time that you learned about it?
5. Whom were you with?

They were then asked to answer questions about the importance of the event to them
personally. The questions included:

1. How nationally or internationally important was the event?

2. How personally important was the event?
3. How surprising was the event?
4. How many times have you talked about the event since it happened?

The survey and instructions were constructed in English and then translated and back-translated
into Mandarin Chinese, German, and Turkish by bilingual research assistants. For example, that
means that after they were translated into Mandarin Chinese by one of the research assistants, a
different native speaker would be given the questions and ask them to translate them back into
English. In this way, we can guarantee that the translation was not a confounding variable.

Results

The researchers found that in a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and
intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic
cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual's personal involvement and emotional
experiences. Because focusing on the individual's own experiences is often de-emphasized in the
Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the triggering event compared with participants
from other cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing a FBM. However, it was found that
national importance was equally linked to FBM formation across cultures.

Evaluation

• A representative of the culture administered the test and the questionnaires were given
in the native languages of the participants. This avoids interviewer effects. It also
meant that since they were responding in their native language - and the language in
which these memories were mostly created - the participants were more likely to recall
these memories.
• The study used back-translation to make sure that the translation of the questionnaires
was not a confounding variable. This increases the credibility of the study.
• There is the danger of the ecological fallacy - just because the participants come from
the culture being studied, this does not mean that they necessarily share the traits of
the culture's predominant dimensions - that is, just because I am American does not
mean that I process flashbulb memories like other Americans.

38
 • It is an etic approach to researching cultural difference. It is possible that cultural
factors affected how information was self-reported. It cannot be verified in this study
whether those personal memories actually exist but were not reported.

9. Culture and identity

A significant part of the development of our personal identity is the learning and maintenance of
the necessary and appropriate behaviours and norms of our own culture. This is a process called
enculturation. For example, for Asian American families, enculturation refers to the process of
becoming socialized into and maintaining the norms of the Asian culture.

In a globalized world, we often come into contact with other cultures. Some people move into a
majority culture – either voluntarily or involuntarily. For example, refugees and asylum seekers
may move involuntarily to another country because of war or persecution in their own country.

On the other hand, migrant workers, expatriates and sojourners move to a country
voluntarily. An example of a sojourner is a foreign student. They may move to another country
in order to get a more global perspective, improve foreign language skills, increase job
opportunities or because they feel that the education in their home country is not
adequate. When people move into another culture, they often begin to adopt the norms and
behaviours of the majority culture. If an individual changes their own cultural identity and adopts
the culture of their new country, this is called assimilation. However, globalization is a bit more
complex. We don’t often see people completely abandon their own culture and adopt
another. Culture is too much a part of who we are and is not easily changed. This is why
demands that immigrants should “be just like us,” is a rather unrealistic expectation.

Our contact with people from other cultures, either though migration, travel or the Internet, also
has an effect on the majority culture. Moving to a new culture may result in changes to
behaviour and thinking; exposure to another culture may do the same. This phenomenon where
groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous contact, which results in
change in the original culture patterns of either or both groups is referred to as acculturation. A
simple example is that today the British diet is much different from what it was in the
1950’s. Contact with other cultures – both through travel and by contact with immigrant
communities – has made curry a popular part of the British diet. However, acculturation has a
much more significant influence on us than simply our diet. It also influences our behaviour and
the way we think.

39
Enculturation

Babies are not born with a “culture.” They develop an understanding of the values, language and
expectations of the culture through interacting with gatekeepers – for example, parents, the
media and school. They also develop a culture through interaction with their peers. Enculturation
is not complete when you are five, thirteen or even fifty years old. It is a constant process that
reinforces your identity as a member of your culture.

When we discuss the effect of enculturation on behaviour, we are talking about musical
preference, participation in community rituals, language use, food choice and decisions about
how to spend one’s free time. When we discuss the effect of enculturation on cognition, we are
referring to attitudes about social relationships, gender roles, time orientation, beliefs about
health and illness, and beliefs about morality. This is also referred to as values enculturation.

Enculturation can occur through direct tuition – that is, your parents tell you what you are
supposed to do. In addition, as we have discussed earlier in this unit, Social Cognitive Learning
Theory – or observational learning – plays a key part in this development. Finally, what
psychologists call participatory learning is also important. In this type of learning, children
engage in an activity and then transfer that learning to later situations.

Research in psychology: Odden & Rochat (2004)

Odden and Rochat studied the role of Social Cognitive Learning Theory – or observational
learning – on the development of cultural norms in Samoa. In particular, they looked at the
behaviour of line fishing and conceptual understanding of rank and hierarchy. The researchers
carried out a longitudinal study of 25 months on 28 children in a single Samoan village.

Samoan culture is very hierarchical – it has a very high power distance index. This includes the
rank of a parent and a child. Social norms limit the amount of time spent between adults and
children. Parents have a largely non-interventionist approach to their children and their learning.
Samoan children are largely left to learn things on their own without adults attempting to
motivate or organize their learning.

40


As fishing lines, spears and nets are limited, children do not participate in fishing with adults.
Through both interviews and observations, the researchers noted that young males spend a lot of
time watching the adult males fish, but there is no direct instruction. They found that children of
around 10 years old would borrow the adult’s fishing equipment and experiment on their own
without any adult supervision. By age 12, most children were able to fish on their own.

It appears that this is also how they learn the social rules regarding how to behave with people of
higher rank – and how the chief system works on the island. There is no direct instruction about
the system until high school, but children observe parents and overhear their conversations about
the system. The researchers gave a multiple-choice test of basic knowledge about the chief
system to 46 twelve-year-olds and found that the majority of the children had a broad
understanding of the concepts and the rituals of their society.

It appears that the cultural norms are not taught directly, but rather learned through the active
observation by the children of the adults in the community.

Links to options

Enculturation is also the process by which we learn gender roles in a society. For more on the
enculturation of gender, see the sociocultural arguments for gender identity in the development
unit. The research was a naturalistic observation carried out by Fagot (1978) and a correlational
study by Sroufe et al (1993).

Acculturation

According to Berry (2004) acculturation is the process of cultural and psychological change that
takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups.. At the individual level, it
involves changes in a person's behaviour. Berry (1974) proposed four different acculturation
strategies used by individuals: assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization.
Assimilation is when an individual abandons their original culture and adopts the cultural
behaviours and values of their new culture. When there is an interest in adopting the behaviours
and values of the new culture, while still maintaining the original culture, this is called
integration. When migrants maintain their own culture and minimize contact with the new
culture, this is called separation. Finally, marginalization result when it is not really possible
to maintain one’s original culture, but because of exclusion or discrimination, it is not possible to
assimilate into the new culture.

Berry argues that these four strategies are the result not only of the importance of maintaining
one’s culture for the individual, but also situational factors in the new culture.

Berry's Acculturation Model

Positive relationship with the new culture

Yes No

41
 Yes Integration Separation
Importance of maintaining original culture
No Assimilation Marginalization

Moving to a new culture often results in a personal battle between enculturation – maintaining
one’s cultural identity – and acculturation, changing one’s culture in order to fit in. Remember,
we are social animals who have a need to belong, so not feeling one is part of a group can be
very stressful. The result of this tension is known as acculturative stress - the psychological,
somatic, and social difficulties that may accompany acculturation, often resulting in anxiety,
depression and other forms of mental and physical stress. It is a reduction in the mental health
and well-being of ethnic minorities that occurs during the process of adaptation to a new culture.
Acculturative stress is often referred to as “culture shock.”

Another aspect of acculturation is what psychologists call acculturation gaps. These are
generational differences in acculturation and how this leads to conflict within the family.
Immigrant parents and their children live in different cultural worlds. As a result of the school
system, children of immigrants will have more contact with the new culture than their
parents. They will usually develop language skills faster and acculturate more quickly to the
values of the new culture. For immigrant children, it can be difficult to live with the expectations
and demands of one culture in the home and another at school. Children may not turn to their
parents with problems and concerns, believing their parents do not know the culture; instead,
they will turn to peers or adults in the new culture for advice.

In a study carried out by Miranda and Matheny (2000), the researchers wanted to see which
factors in the lives of Latino immigrants to the United States would decrease the level of
acculturative stress. A random sample of 197 members of two social services agencies completed
a questionnaire and tests to assess family cohesion, level of acculturation, acculturative stress,
and coping strategies for stress. The study suggests that immigrants with effective coping
strategies, good proficiency in English and a strong family structure were less likely to
experience acculturative stress. In addition, immigrants who had spent a longer time in the US
were less like to demonstrate this stress and show a higher level of acculturation. The study
shows that there are many protective factors that may influence the extent to which an
individual acculturates and the effect that this will have on mental health. But are the results of
this study only particular to Latino cultures? A study by Lueck and Wilson (2010) suggests that
it is not.

Research in psychology: Lueck & Wilson (2010)

The aim of this study was to investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a
nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans. The sample

42
consisted of 2095 Asian Americans. 1271 of the participants were first-generation immigrants
who were 18 years and older when they came to the US. The rest of the sample was born in the
US to first-generation immigrant parents. The sample consisted of several different Asian
cultures, including Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese.

The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews. The interviewers had cultural and
linguistic backgrounds similar to those of the sample population. Interviews were conducted
either over the Internet or face-to-face. A randomly selected sample of participants was
contacted to validate the data taken from their interviews.

The interviews measured the participants’ level of acculturative stress. They also measured the
impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family
cohesion and the socioeconomic status on acculturative stress.

Of the 2095 observations, 1433 were found to have acculturative stress according to their
acculturative stress score – that is, 70% of the sample. The study drew the following
conclusions.

1. A bilingual language preference contributed to lower acculturative stress. Asians who

are able to use both languages equally with their friends are able to build up networks
of support within and outside their community. Stress may arise when Asian Americans
do not know the native language well enough to discuss sensitive issues with family
members at home or in the native country who may have limited or no abilities in
English
2. Although bilingualism is a predictor of low acculturative stress, the preference for
speaking English only is a predictor of high acculturative stress.
3. Negative treatment – including prejudice, xenophobia, harassment and threats -
significantly contributed to higher acculturative stress.
4. Sharing similar values and beliefs as a family significantly contributed to lower
acculturative stress
5. Acculturative stress was significantly lower among those who were very satisfied with
their economic opportunities in the US and also among immigrants who, if they would
have to make the decision again, would still move to the United States.

ATL: Thinking critically

The following questions are examples of questions used in the study by Lueck and Wilson
(2010). Evaluate each of the following questions. Why do you think that this question was
important to their research? What do you think about the nature of the question? What problems
might you predict with the question?

1. Do you find it hard interacting with others because of difficulties you have with the English
language (Yes/No)

43
2. How often do people treat you unfairly because of your ethnicity? (Never, rarely, sometimes,
often)

3. We share similar values and beliefs as a family (Strongly disagree, somewhat disagree,
somewhat agree, strongly agree)

4. In general, would you say you have/your family living here has more money than you need,
just enough for your needs, or not enough to meet your needs?

5. If you had to make the decision today, would you still move to the US?

Discrimination and acculturation

Experiences of prejudice and discrimination - either directly or indirectly - can lead to high
levels of acculturative stress. One way that cultural minorities may respond to this is what is
referred to as Reactive identification. This is when the individual strengthens his or her ethnic
or racial identity in response to discrimination.

This can be a negative reaction by contributing to the hardening of oppositional attitudes toward
the majority culture. However, this can also be a positive reaction. It can be argued that a strong
sense of African-American identity led to the Civil Rights movement. The salience of this
cultural identity led to a sense of empowerment that motivated people to take action to change
the institutionalized discrimination that existed at that time in the USA.

Methodological considerations

There are many difficulties with carrying out research on acculturation. First, there is often a
language problem in giving tests to immigrants. It is not only a question of whether they
understand the vocabulary of the test but how they interpret the questions. In addition, when
measuring “acculturation,” psychologists make assumptions about what healthy acculturation
looks like.

The APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration (2012) summarizes the difficulty of carrying
out research on the acculturation of immigrants with the following question: Who is given tests in
what language by whom, when and where?

There are many variables that may influence the experience of migrants to a new culture. These
include age of migration, length of residency, education, sexual orientation, religion, class and
trauma experienced prior to arrival in the new culture. This makes it difficult to find
representative samples that can be used to generate theory about the acculturation experience. In
addition, historically such studies have a high attrition rate and low rate of participation.

Finally, there are several ethical consideration in research on acculturation. It is important that in
any research the participants are aware of their rights as participants. This includes the right to
informed consent, anonymity and to withdraw from the study. Depending on the culture from
which the immigrant comes, they may not be aware of their rights. In addition, in many cultures

44
the researcher would be seen as higher in the social hierarchy and thus having power and
authority over the individual.. It is important that the subjective experience of the participants is
respected.

As some participants may be illegal or undocumented immigrants, researchers must consider this
issue when recruiting participants and publishing their findings. It is important that the identities
of such participants are protected so that they and their families are not put at risk.

ATL: International mindedness

International students who live around the world as a result of their parents' work are often
referred to as "Third Culture Kids." This term is defined as an individual who, having spent a
significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than the parents’ culture, develops
a sense of relationship to all of the cultures while not having full ownership in any. Elements
from each culture are incorporated into the life experience, but the sense of belonging is in
relationship to others of similar experience. (Pollock, 1988) Other terms that are used to
describe this group of people are "global nomads" and "transculturals."

Do such students also experience acculturative stress? It appears that they experience a special
kind of stress referred to as reverse culture shock - that is, the stress suffered by some people
when they return home after a number of years living outside their country of origin. This can
result in unexpected difficulty in readjusting to the culture and values of the home country, now
that the previously familiar has become unfamiliar.

The following is part of an interview taken from a study by Fail et al (2004). The participant is a
45+ year old male who had grown up overseas and attended an international school:

Britain was horrendous. I hadn’t realized, but what had clearly happened, is that X had
become home, without any effort on my part. It was all I knew. I was supposed to be
English. I don’t look foreign, I don’t sound foreign and yet I am foreign. I felt
disassociated from where I was and from these people who seemed to represent values
different from those I had. If I’d gone to any other country, it would have been fine,
because that’s what you expect; but I didn’t go to any other country. I went to the one that
was supposed to be mine, and it wasn’t. It was quite a shock. It’s like an earthquake.

What do you think that the interviewee means when he said, "yet, I am foreign?" What do you
think would be the things that he finds difficult to adjust to? And why do you think that he finds
this so shocking?

45
10. Globalization and identity HL only
Essential understandings (HL only)

• There are both local and global cultural influences on our identity, attitudes and
behavior.
• Cultures are dynamic and change as they interact with other cultures.
• Globalization has both positive and negative effects on behaviour.
• Globalization is difficult to operationalize, so it is difficult to study.

Globalization - that is, the process of interaction and integration among people of different
nations - is a process driven by international trade and investment aided by modern information
technology. One result of this is the reduction of barriers to commerce and international
agreements to promote trade, investment and services. In line with this, the term 'cultural
globalization' has been suggested to account for the process marked by a common consumption
of cultures as a result of access to the Internet, popular culture media and international travel.
Cultural globalization contributes to an increasing interconnectedness among different people
and cultures because it involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge.

The values of the global culture are based on individualism, free-market economics and
democracy; they include freedom of choice, individual rights, openness to change and tolerance
of differences. These values dominate the global culture in part because they are the values that
prevail in the countries that provide the driving energy behind globalization - in particular, the
United States.

How does globalization affect the individual? Proponents of globalization argue that it allows
poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living.
Opponents of globalization claim that the creation of international free markets has benefited
multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures
and common people. The argument goes that before the era of globalization, there existed local,
autonomous, and well-defined cultural connections between a specific geographical place and a

46
person's cultural experience. This constituted what we would call 'cultural identity' and 'cultural
belonging' but the globalization process has resulted in the destruction of cultural identities.

Today, people are more likely to travel than fifty years ago. Travel exposes people to other
cultures; this has the potential to open up their eyes to different ways of life and challenge how
they think the world “ought to be.” As a result of immigration, we have seen a growth in
diversity in our cities, not just of the people who live there, but in the types of food, clothing and
activities that are available. International organizations like the United Nations and the Red
Cross have played a role in influencing attitudes worldwide about mental health, human rights
and the role of women in society. And finally – perhaps the greatest modern influence on
modern behaviour – the Internet. The Internet allows us to communicate with people all over the
world as well as buy goods from anywhere. The media flows across national boundaries to
produce images of well-being that cannot be satisfied by national standards of living. Social
media provides information about human rights that may generate demands for equality. At the
same time, some countries are increasing pressure to reject the global identity by restricting
access to social media and contact with international groups. According to Arnette (2002), a
central psychological consequence of globalization is that it results in transformations in identity
- that is, in how people think about themselves in relation to the social environment.

Effects of globalization on identity

For people living in a globalized world, today it is impossible to say that our behaviour is
determined solely by the community that we grow up in. All of the factors listed in the paragraph
above are examples of globalization and how human beings are becoming more intertwined
with each other around the world - economically, politically, and culturally. If we accept that
globalization plays a role in behaviour, then we have to accept that our definition of culture may
have to change as well. Cultural psychologists refer to the culture that we grow up in and share
with others in the same environment as our local culture. However, the culture that we come to
learn and perhaps adapt to by contact with other cultures – via travel, working in international
companies or through the media and social networking – is the global culture.

Adopting a global identity does not necessarily mean that one has to sacrifice one’s local or
cultural identity. Psychologists argue that today most people worldwide now develop a
bicultural identity that combines both the local culture and the global culture. As we will see,
sometimes these two levels of culture can cause problems, including identity confusion or a
sense of marginalization.

For example, one of the most influential 'global values' is individualism, which encourages
people to pursue personal achievement and creates competition between individuals. A country
that traditionally has been collectivist but has been influenced by European and American culture
through globalization is Japan. Individualism in Japan is seen as more negative than in the U.S.
because it is perceived as being selfish and feeling lonely. Since individualism is a relatively new
phenomenon, people in Japan distance themselves from existing relationships, but they do not
actively build new close relationships. This might decrease Japanese happiness because
interpersonal relations are an important source of happiness and subjective well-being in Japan.

47
Ogihara & Uchida (2014) wanted to investigate the relationship between individualistic values,
subjective well-being and the number of close relationships in Japan and the USA. The sample
consisted of 114 students from a university in Japan and 62 students from a university in the U.S.
The students answered questionnaires related to individualistic and collectivistic orientation,
subjective well-being and the nature of their relationships. The results showed that in Japan
having an individualistic orientation was negatively related to subjective well-being and fewer
close relationships; but this was not the case in the sample from the U.S. The researchers wanted
to know whether this negative result was due to a conflict between individualistic orientation at a
personal level and the collectivistic social structure in the Japanese society. In order to find out,
they carried out a follow-up study.

Research in psychology: Ogihara & Uchida (2014)

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of working in an individualistic workplace
would have on the subjective well-being of Japanese women. The sample consisted of 334 adult
Japanese women who worked for a large insurance company where performance and
achievement-oriented goals were posted on the walls of the offices. The participants answered
the same questionnaires as in the first study. The results suggest that even in the study's
achievement-oriented environment, Japanese participants who were achievement-oriented scored
lower on subjective well-being and had fewer close friends. The lower levels of well-being in the
Japanese sample may be due to the transition that Japan is currently experiencing, where
globalization is leading to a movement toward individualism in the workplace while maintaining
the traditional collectivistic values in general society.

The researchers argue that a limitation of the study is that they were unable to directly test the
causal relationships between an individualistic orientation and decrease of number of close
friends. Therefore, it could be that be that those who have fewer friends were the ones that were
drawn to working in such an environment. Consequently, it is difficult to establish a cause and
effect relationship between the effects of globalization, identity and one’s well-being. Could it
also be that people who are working in international companies - or working in Japanese
companies that have adopted Western values - experience some kind of identity confusion
because they have internalized Japanese values of collectivism during their upbringing but are
now exposed to Western ideas and values of individualism?

48
According to the English sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991), identity in the globalized,
postmodern world is a reflective project where individuals choose their life-styles and
relationships. This challenges societies with a social order based firmly in a tradition where
individuals live with more or less clearly defined roles and positions. Individuals in the global
culture have to work out a role for themselves This may involve changes at an individual level in
terms of everyday life such as gender roles, marriage, sexuality and even a redefinition of the
self.

According to Erikson's (1963) theory of psychosocial development, adolescents go through an

important stage of identity development. If they are not able to do this successfully, he argues
that they experience identity confusion. Some argue that globalization increases the proportion
of young people who have a global consciousness, but very little connection to the place where
they live, an experience known as delocalization. Where a child grows up now matters less than
in the past in determining what the child knows and experiences. For some people, delocalization
may result in feelings of alienation as a result of the lack of a clear cultural identity. They may
feel that they lack clear guidelines for behaviour and feel that they do not belong anywhere.
Some young people may have trouble finding meaning in the worldview that is the basis of the
global culture, with its values of individualism and consumerism. This new worldview may
contradict their cultural traditions.

One of the ways which an individual may escape the identity confusion that results from
globalization is to form self-selected cultures with like-minded people who wish to have an
identity that is not influenced by global culture and its values. Although this could take the very
specific form of anti-globalization of groups, it more often takes the form of more traditional
groups. For example, over the past few decades, we have seen an increase in membership of
fundamentalist religious groups. Marty & Appleby (1993) argue that the common characteristics
of these groups are: a strict code of conduct, a belief that their traditional religious beliefs are
superior to modern values, a sense of being under attack by the modern world and a belief in the
hierarchy of authority.

This was also found by Kaufman (1991) who carried out a case study of US women who grew
up in secular Jewish homes but converted to Orthodox Judaism in their teens or early
twenties. Through a series of interviews, she found that they felt that orthodox Judaism offered
them a “definite place in the world.” They found the tradition and clear guidance for how to live
their lives comforting. They also complained about the secular and competitive nature of the
modern society. It appears that their choice to join the culture of Orthodox Judaism was at least
partly an attempt to reject the secular values of globalization and instead adopt religious values
to provide the structure and meaning seen as necessary to build their personal identity.

ATL: Reflection

Looking in the mirror of cultural dimensions

For many of us, it is difficult to imagine what it would be like to be collectivistic and have to live
in an individualistic world. In order to try to understand what this might be like, let's do a little
thought experiment.

49
Go to Hofstede's online tools (https://geerthofstede.com/landing-page/countries.html) and look
up your own country's dimensions. See which dimension is the strongest in your country and
which is the weakest. For example, the Czech Republic is high on uncertainty and low on
indulgence. Read the descriptors below the graph to see what this means about your country.

Now imagine that you are in a society that is the polar opposite of your country's
dimensions. So, if I am Czech, a country that is low in uncertainty and high in indulgence. How
would this affect your day-to-day activity? Do you think that this would be easy for you to adapt
to? Why or why not?

11. Globalization and attitudes

In psychology, an attitude is defined as an expression of favour or disfavour toward a person,

event or object. When we discuss attitudes, we look can use the ABC model to address its three
components.

• Affective component: a person's feelings or emotions about a person, event or object.

• Behavioural component: the way the attitude affects how we act toward a person,
event or object.
• Cognitive component: a person's beliefs or knowledge about a person, event or object.

One of the underlying assumptions about the link between attitudes and behaviour is that of
consistency. This means that we often or usually expect the behaviour of a person to be
consistent with the attitudes that they hold. This is called the principle of consistency.

Psychologists believe that by changing people's attitudes, we can then change their behaviour.
The question for this part of the unit is - to what extent does globalization affect or change
people's attitudes?

One of the most divisive issues in many election campaigns is the question of
immigration. While globalization encourages immigration and some people welcome the
diversity that immigrants may bring to a society, others are against opening borders to more
immigrants. Psychologists argue that by studying the effects of globalization on attitudes, we
can better understand why people may maintain these different opinions. Social psychologists

50
are interested in how social contexts affect intergroup relations and especially attitudes towards
minorities and immigrants, for example as a result of globalization.

Ariely (2011) argues that globalization is an important factor in shaping national identity and
intergroup relations. The researcher distinguishes between two relationships with one’s local
identity. On the one hand, there is the nationalistic identity that believes that one’s country is
better than other countries and is defensive when the country is criticized; on the other hand,
there is constructive patriotism where although an individual is loyal to his country, he is also
able to constructively criticize the country. The aim of Ariely's study was to examine the effect
of globalization on the relationship between 'constructive patriotism', 'nationalism', and
xenophobic attitudes – that is, dislike or prejudice against people from other countries. Through
the use of a cross-sectional survey of over 31 countries, Ariely found that those individuals with
attitudes associated with constructive patriotism were more tolerant of foreigners, whereas those
participants who were nationalistic had higher levels of xenophobia. The study also found that
the correlation between nationalism and xenophobia is stronger in countries with higher levels of
globalization than in countries with lower levels of globalization.

Reactions to globalization

There are two key reactions to globalization that are represented in Ariely’s study,

• An exclusionary reaction is a negative, emotion-driven reaction against another culture

because of a perceived threat to one’s local culture. This often occurs when
identification with the local culture is strong.
• An integrative reaction sees other cultures as a resource for problem-solving. This tends
to occur when local cultural identification is weak, people to do not feel that the other
culture is a threat to their own and the goal is not to find the “correct answer” to a
problem.

According to Ariely, the results of her study have shown that nationalism is related to
exclusionary reactions while constructive patriotism is related to integrative reactions. Overall,
Ariely's study, which is one of the first to investigate a possible link between globalization and
attitudes, was not able to determine why some people react to globalization by developing a
more nationalistic orientation or a more constructive patriotic orientation. In addition, it is not
possible to argue that globalization directly causes these orientations to develop.

ATL: Thinking critically

Reread the study by Ariely (2011) which is outlined above. Write a short evaluation of the study
using each of the terms listed below.

1. Cross-sectional study
2. Correlational research
3. Operationalization of variables
4. Population validity

51
One of the key theories of social psychology is known as the Contact Hypothesis (Allport,
1954); the theory posits that through positive contact with out-groups, we improve inter-group
relationships. However, modern research shows that people living in cities are more aware of
cultural differences and engage in more stereotyping than people that do not live in cities (Chen
& Chui, 2010). Surprisingly, Buchtel (2014) found that students of cultural psychology who
compare and contrast different cultures are more likely to believe in stereotypes than students
who do not study culture. Contrary to what the Contact Hypothesis predicts, stereotyping may
be strongest when cultures are in more direct contact with each other. This is also supported in
Ariely's (2002) findings that a country's level of globalization seems to play a role in whether
people adopt constructive nationalism or a nationalistic attitude.

Gries et al (2011) also found that contact with another group through media exposure actually
caused more negative reactions. The researchers carried out two large surveys of US citizens to
see whether there was a relationship between knowledge about China, prejudice against the
Chinese and preferences for US/China government policy. Results showed that greater
knowledge of China was actually associated with greater negativity towards China and a desire
for tougher China policies.

These studies show that with regard to the Contact Hypotheses, psychological theories may need
to be refined and expanded when applied to globalized contexts. The Dynamic Constructivist
Theory of Culture attempts to explain this complexity. The theory argues that by being exposed
to a culture, people develop a cognitive representation of the culture made up of a central
concept (e.g “American culture”) that is linked to different traits for that culture. Therefore,
when the central concept is activated, this cue leads to the spontaneous activation of knowledge
of traits associated with that culture. So, when shown an image associated with the culture – for
example, the Statue of Liberty – one’s awareness of their culture’s values is enhanced.

Research in psychology: Chiu et al (2009)

Chiu et al (2009) wanted to see if exposing European American participants to another culture
would increase their stereotypes about their own culture.

The participants were 58 European American undergraduates. The study was an independent
samples design. In the “single condition”, participants were shown a Nike sports advertisement
with a male Caucasian model. In the “joint presentation condition”, participants saw the same
advertisement placed next to an advertisement for a Chinese sports shoe with a group of smiling
Chinese young men wearing similar clothes and facial expressions. In both conditions, they

52
were asked to rate the “likeability” of the Nike ad, although this was not the goal of the
experiment.

The participants then took a test to measure attitudes toward dimensions associated with
American culture and Chinese culture. The results showed that the participants in the joint
presentation condition rated Americans as much more individualistic and having control over
their lives, and less likely to be collectivistic, believe in duty to family or the need to conform to
societal norms. It appears that by being exposed to the two cultures at the same time, their
American identity and its values became much more salient than for the group that saw only the
American advertisement. The results were strongest in individuals with high identification with
their local identity.

Contrary to the belief that local culture will decrease as globalization increases, the results of this
study suggest that a globalized environment may draw people’s attention to their own cultural
heritage. The joint presentation of images from two cultures appears to highlight the difference
in the cultures. Perhaps the increase in global products and services has played a role in
reinforcing traditional values in local communities, rather than destroying local cultures.

12. Globalization and behaviour

•
• In addition to affecting our sense of identity and attitudes, globalization may have an
effect on our behaviour. There have been many positive changes in society as the
values of gender equality, human rights and health behaviours – such as anti-smoking
legislation – have become more the norm. This shows that globalization can have a
positive effect in creating a “global norm” for these behaviours. However, research
shows that not all of the effects of globalization result in positive behaviour.

A study in the Ivory Coast (Delafosse, Fouraste & Ghobouo, 1993) found that globalization may
lead to negative behaviours in young adults. The researchers studied a group of young Ivorians
age 16 to 20 from 1980 to 1991. They wanted to see if identity confusion as a result of the rapid
Westernization of the country would play a role in behaviour. Through both clinical interviews
and data from police and social workers, they found an increase in suicide attempts, drug use,
prostitution and interpersonal aggression. The researchers attributed the increase in problems

53
and changes in their behaviour to the conflict they experienced between the values of their
traditional culture and the values of the West.

ATL: Thinking critically

Reread the paragraph above about the study carried out by Delafosse, Fouraste & Ghobouo
(1993).

1. What is being measured in this study? What problems do you see with this?
2. To what extent do you think that the study is transferable to other cultures?
3. How is data collected? What are the limitations of this strategy?

Delafosse et al’s research points to the problem of marginalization – when a person experiences
identity confusion as a result of losing faith in the local culture in the course of exposure to
globalization, but at the same time, feeling excluded from the global culture. Another study of
marginalization looks at the effect of globalization on the mental health of young Japanese.

Hikikomori is a culture-bound syndrome found primarily in Japan where a young Japanese male
may lock himself in his room and refuse to come out for years at a time. The disorder, also
known as “social isolation syndrome,” has three key characteristics: 1. No motivation to
participate in school or work; 2. No signs of other psychological disorders; 3. Persistent social
withdrawal for at least six months.

The disorder primarily affects young men. There is a lifetime prevalence rate of 4.6% of
Japanese young people, ages 15 – 34. It is estimated that hikikomori affects 1.2 million young
people (Norasakkunkit, Uchinda & Toivonen, 2012). Their goal is to avoid possible social
interactions with others who may know them and judge them. Although the disorder was
relatively rare in the past, it has been rising significantly over time – does this mean that
globalization could be playing a role in the rise of the disorder?

Norasakkunkit & Uchinda (2014) have applied Berry & Sam’s acculturation model to explain
the origins of hikikomori. Japanese youth may not see the benefit of conformity and social
harmony which is characteristic of Japanese society and yet do not feel that they are part of the
globalized community and its values. This leads to identity confusion and marginalization.

Berry & Sam's Acculturation model and globalization

Positive attitude toward global Negative attitude toward global

culture culture
Positive attitude toward local
Integration Separation
culture
Negative attitude toward
Assimilation Marginalization
local culture

Research in psychology: Norasakkunkit & Uchinda (2014)

54
To test their hypothesis, as getting access to people who suffer from hikikomori is very difficult,
the researchers used a sample of Japanese university students. The participants were given a
standardized test to see whether they were at high risk or low risk for hikikomori. The
researchers then gave the participants a test to measure their attitudes about social harmony and
social conformity. The test looked at three levels: perception of their current self, their ideal self
and general Japanese society. They also were asked to take a test to measure their sense of local
identity (high on social harmony and collectivism) and global identity (high on individualism
and achievement).

The results showed that both groups agreed that social harmony and conformity were highly
valued by Japanese society. However, when assessing current self and ideal self, the students at
high-risk for hikikomori ranked social harmony values much lower than the low-risk
students. That is, high-risk students would ideally like to be lower in harmony seeking and
conformity than what they perceive to be the case in Japanese society as a whole. In addition,
high-risk students scored lower than low-risk students on both local identity and global
identity. It appears that the local culture may alienate many Japanese youths who may then
decide not to conform to the cultural norms, but do not identify with or know how to access the
globalized culture, and so they withdraw from society.

This study is an intriguing example of how the conflict between local and global culture may
affect behaviour. However, there is clearly a problem with the sample. The participants may
have been at “high-risk” for developing hikikomori, but they did not have the disorder. More
research would have to be done to see if the results of this study are found in actual patients.

ATL: Thinking critically: Herbivores

Globalization can have some rather unexpected outcomes in society. One example is the rise of
"herbivores" in Japan. Herbivores (Sōshoku(-kei) danshi) is the name given to Japanese men
who have no interest in getting married or having a girlfriend. Surveys of single Japanese men
conducted in 2010 found that 61% of men in their 20s and 70% of men in their 30s considered
themselves to be herbivores. Japan's government views the phenomenon as one possible cause of
the nation's declining birth rate.

What does globalization have to do with this? As part of Japan's collectivistic culture, marriage
was arranged through family connections - a practice known as Miai. As Japan has become

55
more individualistic, this cultural practice is seen less and less. However, as part of their culture,
Japanese men also have a strong fear of losing face.

Fear of rejection makes it difficult for Japanese men to ask a woman out on a date. It is also
considered culturally inappropriate for a woman to ask men out on a date.

So, how to resolve this problem? The Japanese government has promised that local authorities
will get government support if they organise speed-dating or other forms of matchmaking in
order to promote the birth of more Japanese children. Time will tell if this strategy will prove to
be effective.

Question

Do you think that social media has changed the rules for dating in your own culture? What
effect do you think that globalization may have had on dating in your own community?

Methodological considerations

As can be seen in the research in this chapter, studying the effects of globalization is a difficult
task because of the complexity of the phenomenon. Researchers studying the relationship
between globalization, psychological factors and behaviour face many methodological issues
with carrying out research that is both valid and reliable.

First, there is the difficulty of operationalizing variables. The term globalization is an economics
term that is now being applied to cultures. It is difficult to measure the extent of globalization in
a country and thus it is difficult to accurately measure its effect on the local people.

One of the positive aspects of globalization research is that it has challenged the sampling bias of
much of psychology research. The typical sample is WEIRD – Western, Educated,
Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. In trying to understand the effect of globalization, there
has been a richer understanding of the need for more diverse samples and a more emic approach
to studying local cultures. At the same time, researchers need to be reflexive in their approach to
research – that is, they need to reflect on how their own cultural biases may influence their
interpretation of their findings in their own research.

Another limitation is that it is difficult to design a study that effectively tests the assumption that
globalization affects behaviour. There are too many variables that a researcher would not be able
to control. Not all countries are at the same level of globalization, urbanization or health
care. These factors may all influence the degree to which globalization may affect a culture. And
since globalization is an ongoing process, a single snapshot in time is not adequate to understand
the effects of globalization, longitudinal research is necessary.

Finally, there are problems with the data that is collected. Often data is self-reported through
questionnaires or interviews. This is the only way in which we can actually obtain an

56
individual’s attitudes or opinions. However, demand characteristics such as expectancy effect or
social desirability effect may lead to responses that don’t truly affect the realities of the
society. This is why it is important to triangulate methods – to see if the results obtained in a
one-on-one interview are the same as in a survey or in an observational study. As data is
collected within a cultural group, there will be questions of transferability. This does not mean
that it cannot be applied to other groups, but only to groups that are similar in nature to the group
that has been studied.

ATL: Thinking critically

Look back at the research used in this chapter. From the list of concerns about globalization
research in this section, which concerns can you apply to the studies in this unit?

12. References: Sociocultural approach

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Allport, G. W., & Postman, L. J. (1947). The psychology of rumor. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart &
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American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Immigration. (2012).

Crossroads: The psychology of immigration in the new century . Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/topics/immigration/report.aspx

Ariely, G. (2011). Globalization, immigration and national identity: How the level of
globalization affects the relations between nationalism, constructive patriotism and attitudes
toward immigrants? Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 15(4), 539-557.
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Arnett, J. (2002). The Psychology of Globalization. American Psychologist, 57(10), 774-783.

doi:10.1037//0003-066X.57.10.774

Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a

unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70(9), 1-70.

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Bandura, A. (2011). The Social and Policy Impact of Social Cognitive Theory. In M. Mark, S.
Donaldson, & B. Campbell (Eds.), Social Psychology and Evaluation. (pp. 33-70). New York,
NY:Guilford Press.

Bandura, Albert; Ross, D.; Ross, S. (1963). "Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models".
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 66: 3–11.

Bandura, Albert, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross. "Transmission of Aggression through
Imitation of Aggressive Models." The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 63.3 (1961):
575-82. Web.

Berry, J. W. (2005) Acculturation:Living successfully in two cultures. International Journal of

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