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Social Norms

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Title: Social Norms


1
Social Norms
  • Explain Social Learning Theory, making reference
    to two relevant studies
  • Discuss the use of compliance techniques
  • Evaluate research on conformity to group norms
  • Discuss factors influencing conformity

2
Define social norm. What do they do?
  • According to Smith and Mackie (2007) a
    generally accepted way of thinking, feeling, or
    behaving that most people in a group agree on and
    endorse as right and proper.
  • Norms
  • Provide for appraisal of true/false and
    appropriate/inappropriate
  • Regulate behaviours
  • Make social life predictable

3
Explain observational learning.
  • Variant of behaviouristic learning extended to
    observing others and learning from their
    consequences. A form of vicarious learning we
    learn by imitating the behaviours of others
    (models) and anticipate the same consequences
    they elicited.
  • Reinforcement
  • Is cognitive rather than direct increases our
    ability to predict the future.
  • Reinforcement is not needed for learning but for
    the performance of what has been learned.

4
Outline the cognitive processes involved in
Social Learning Theory.
  • Motivation we behave according to outcome
    expectancies
  • Attention we focus awareness on a model and
    their actions and consequences. The more
    attractive, distinctive, or powerful the model
    the more we attend to them.
  • Coding and memory model behaviour needs to be
    encoded to allow for immediate imitation or
    delayed imitation

5
Give an example from your own experience of
abstract modelling.
  • Abstract modelling Learning of abstract skills
    or underlying principles that guide behaviour and
    consequence through observation of models.

6
How does our sense of our effectiveness affect
our motivation? What impact do you see this
having on the classroom setting?
  • We are more motivated to behave in a given manner
    if we believe we will be successful or effective
    in gaining our anticipated outcome. We are more
    likely to imitate a model in a behaviour in which
    we anticipate we will be effective.
  • In a classroom setting, if a student believes
    that the task is beyond their capability or they
    anticipate poor performance, incomplete modelling
    will occur or motivation will decrease.

7
Social Learning Theory
  • Abstract modelling, observational learning,
    self-efficacy, deferred imitation and vicarious
    reinforcement all show us how normative standards
    for behaviour are internalized. Social
    Cognitive Theory

8
Our behaviour is largely regulated by our
beliefs and expectancies rather thanthe external
environment Do you agree or disagree with this
statement? Explain your point of view referencing
your personal experience and your prior knowledge
from the course.
  • Do you sing in the shower? Do you pick your nose?
    Do you behave differently when you are alone?
    FARTS!!!!

9
Social Learning Theory - Bandura (1965)
  • Type covert observation experiment
  • Aims to determine whether children will play
    more aggressively with a doll after observing
    adult models play aggressively.
  • Methods In the control condition, children were
    shown a video of adults playing with a Bobo
    doll aggressively by throwing it around and
    kicking it. In the model-reward condition, the
    adults behaved aggressively toward the doll and a
    second adult entered the frame and rewarded them
    with a soft drink. In the model-punished
    condition, the adult behaved aggressively toward
    the doll and was scolded and spanked by another
    adult.
  • After viewing, children were taken into a second
    room of toys including the Bobo doll and their
    play was observed.
  • Conclusions control and model-reward conditions
    resulted in equal levels of aggressive play.
    Model-punished condition showed significantly
    lower aggression. When asked to repeat the
    aggressive play for a reward, all children acted
    more aggressively.

10
Bobo doll experiment
  • Demand characteristics were the children being
    authentically aggressive to the doll or were they
    just mimicking the adult models according to the
    expectations of the researchers?
  • Internal validity did the operational
    definition of aggressive play accurately reflect
    aggression or was this an a priori assumption
  • Natural validity its just a doll it doesnt
    have feelings, it doesnt cry, it doesnt say stop

11
Do you think the study supported the theory that
aggression is a learned rather than an innate
behaviour?
  • Do infants perform the task and grow into its
    meaning or do they behave according to their
    disposition or urge?

12
Explain social learning theory, making reference
to two relevant studies
  • 1) Banduras Bobo doll experiment (1965)
  • Aggressive play was observed and learned by
    children by just observing rewards and
    punishments. Aggressive play was elicited with
    expectancies of rewards. Therefore learning
    occurred without rewards and punishments but they
    were required for performance.
  • 2) Gergely et al (2002)
  • Children did not simply imitate the behaviour of
    the adult models (turning on the light with their
    , they attributed a reason to the behaviour and
    copied the reasoning, not just the behaviour.

13
Conformity
14
Sherif 1935
  • To investigate the effect of group setting on
    responses to ambiguous situations
  • Participants viewed an optical illusion involving
    a lit object that would be stationary but appear
    to move. Participants made 100 judgements
    regarding how much the object moved. Personal
    norms were generated through these estimates.
    Participants were then asked to form group
    judgements by announcing their interpretations in
    order. The alterations in judgements were then
    compared and analysed.
  • Group estimated settled around a group norm that
    varied from other group norms and from the
    individual norms. Subsequent individual estimated
    reflected the new group norms.
  • To what extent were these authentic groups? Are
    these natural ambiguous settings that we would be
    likely to encounter in real life?

15
Asch 1951
  • To investigate the impact of group influence on
    conformity in unambiguous situations.
  • Participants were asked to compare a single line
    length to a set of three lines. In the control
    condition, participants were responding aloud and
    alone. In the experiment condition, participants
    were responding among a group of confederates who
    announced their responses out loud first. In 12
    of the 18 group trials confederates announced
    incorrect responses.
  • Participants conformed to the wrong responses 37
    of the time and 76 conformed at least once.
  • There are some ethical concerns with deception.
    Will all participants conform for the same
    reason? Why, if this is a powerful situational
    determinant, were conformant responses not 100
    of the time? What would influence a participant
    to break from the group some of the time and not
    all of the time?

16
Abrams et al. 1990
  • To investigate the impact of perceived ingroup
    influence on conformity
  • Participants were asked to compare line lengths
    to another set of lines in groups. In one
    condition, the participants were told that the
    other group members were fellow psychology
    student and in the second condition, participants
    were told that the fellow group respondants were
    history of civilization students.
  • 100 of participants conformed at least once in
    the ingroup condition, 50 in the outgroup
    condition.
  • Would there be a genuine perception of ingroup
    sentiment from simply enrolling in the same field
    of study?

17
Describe the three forms of influence on
conformity identified in the reading
  • Informational influence - when we take anothers
    views as our own for the purpose of gaining
    evidence we perceive as valid or useful.
    Important for reducing ambiguity and based on our
    need to be right.
  • Normative influence when we allow ourselves to
    be influenced to meet the expectations of others,
    avoid disapproval or rejection, and be liked by
    others.
  • Referent informational influence when we
    conform out of a need to belong to important
    ingroups as part of maintaining our desired
    social identities. We conform more to groups we
    identify with and want to belong to.

18
How does the study by Deutch and Girard exhibit
both informational and normative influence?
  • College students would alter their answers and
    conform to the authoritative result showing
    informational influence
  • College students would lie about their unwritten
    answers to conform to the norm of the actual
    estimate

19
How is referent informational influence different
from informational and normative influence?
  •  People conform not to other group members
    (normative) but to the group norm.
  • They use others as a source of information on
    what the norm is rather than the actual answer
    (informational).

20
What dispositional traits are associated with
higher levels of conformity?
  • Dispositional traits for conformity
  • Low self esteem
  • High need for social approval
  • Anxiety
  • Perception of low status

21
Research and give an example of ONE study showing
the impact of group size on conformity. Give the
author, date and conclusions of the study.
  • http//gpi.sagepub.com/content/8/4/331.short

22
Define risky shift. Explain how social comparison
theory and social identity theory account for
this group behaviour.
  • Risky shift the tendency for group decisions to
    be riskier than individual decisions.
  • Modified later into group polarization the
    tendency for the group to make decisions that are
    more extreme than individual decisions.
  • Social comparison norms are extablished in
    group discussions, the need for some to establish
    individuality causes them to want to stand out.
    This leads to greater ingratiation into the
    ingroup and further members to conform. The net
    effect is a more extreme norm being established.
    Studies controlling for group modelling of this
    effect have still obtained extreme norm formation
    which would indicate that this effect is not
    uniform.
  • SIT in order to maximize ingroup-outgroup
    differentiation, category accentuation effect
    will cause positions to become more extreme.
    Research shows that norms can be polarized away
    from target outgroups to maintain positive
    distinctiveness.

23
What are the defining characteristics of
groupthink? How was the phenomenon modified in
its interpretation of group cohesion?
  • Groupthink
  • High group cohesiveness
  • Decisional urgency
  • Need for consensus
  • Research indicates group members share social
    identity rather than individual information
    showing that group cohesiveness was a function of
    group level effects rather than interpersonal
    liking. Social identification strengthens the
    effects of normative and informational influence
    and intensify conformity

24
Culture and Cultural Norms
25
Outline two definitions of culture.
  • Shirav and Levy, 2004 - A set of attitudes,
    behaviours and symbols shared by a large group of
    people and usually communicated from one
    generation to the next.
  • Matsumoto and Juang, 2008 - A unique meaning and
    information system, shared by a group and
    transmitted across generations, that allows the
    group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue
    happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from
    life

26
Define cultural norms. How are they similar to
social norms and how are they different?
  • Cultural norms Norms of an established group
    which are transmitted across generations and
    regulate behaviour in accordance with the groups
    beliefs about acceptable and unacceptable ways of
    thinking, feeling, and behaving.
  • They cover wider groups and form parts of larger
    identities.

27
Describe the method used by Hofstede to define
cultural dimensions. Do you think there are any
validity issues with this method?
  • Thematic content analysis of survey data of
    work-related attitudes of IBM employees in 72
    countries. Depending on the questions asked,
    there could be sampling validity issues
    considering only one company or type of company
    was used as a pool of respondants. Demand
    characteristics could also account for uniformity
    of answers as the relevant culture expressed in
    the responses would be one of the workplace
    rather than the culture of the host country. 

28
Identify the five cultural dimensions according
to Hofstede. Explain where you think we rank on
these dimensions.
  • Individualism/collectivism Individual societies
    define identity with personal characteristics
    whereas collectivist societies define identity
    with membership in groups (families, tribes, etc)
  • Power distance the extent to which a society
    fosters power and status differences between
    individuals and encourage people to accept their
    place in the social hierarchy
  • Uncertainty avoidance the extent to which a
    society accepts ambiguous situations or
    uncertainty or are uncomfortable and unaccepting
    of them.
  • Masculinity/femininity Masculine societies
    emphasize achievement, success, and possessions
    as opposed to feminine societies which emphasize
    interpersonal harmony, caring for others, etc.
  • Long-term/short-term orientation Confucian
    dynamism the extent to which a culture will
    promote delay of gratification or will promote
    consumption or hedonism.

29
How would the dimension of individualism and
collectivism impact the SIT of identity? Evaluate
how the textbook deals with this issue.
  • SIT states that our identity comes from our
    network of group memberships and the relationship
    between our group and other attended groups.
    Individualism/collectivism define the cultures in
    isolation broadly. According to the text people
    in individualistic cultures will still seek out
    and become part of defining groups.

30
Describe the research conducted by Petrova
(2007). Do you agree with the textbooks
explanation for the results (Cialdini, 1999)?
  • Field experiment-experimental study
  • Aim to investigate the interaction of
    individual/collective cultural dynamics on
    compliance levels
  • Method 3000 US college students, half of which
    are Asian. All are sent an email participation
    request for a study. A month later, all were
    asked to participate in an online survey.
  • Results a higher proportion of Asian students
    agreed to the first request but a higher
    proportion of US students followed through to the
    second request.
  • Cialdini hypothesized that a higher proportion of
    collectivist culture members would be sensitive
    to the actions of the group and would therefore
    fall in line with the rest if they knew who had
    complied in the past to requests. This was not
    studied as part of Petrovas work.

31
Summarize the impact of individualism and
collectivism on compliance and conformity.
  • Meta-analysis of conformity studies shows that
    collectivist cultures showed more tendencies
    toward conformity in Asch paradigm studies than
    individualistic societies. This is consistent
    with the cultural dynamic of collectivism as
    members of collectivist societies would be more
    concerned with agreement and minimizing conflict
    rather than submitting to the will of another
    which would a negative idea in individualistic
    cultures

32
Summarize the research by Chen (2005). How would
SIT explain the results?
  • Chen (2005)
  • Aims To investigate the prevalence of patience
    in long term oriented societies compared to short
    term societies.
  • Methods 147 participants of both Singaporean and
    US origin were split into two groups. One viewed
    a collage of images related to Singaporean
    culture and the second group viewed images relate
    to US culture. Both groups were then given a
    decision to purchase a book with a delayed
    delivery or with an extra charge and an immediate
    delivery.
  • Results participants activated by the US images
    valued immediate consumption by purchasing the
    book immediately more than Singaporean activated
    participants.
  • SIT would explain these results with the idea
    that the images activated perspectives of the
    relevant ingroup. Participants then would behave
    in a way which would emphasize positive
    distinctiveness and social comparison.
    Participants were able to choose either ingroup
    to identify with and would consciously or
    unconsciously act in accordance with them.

33
Identify some extraneous variables that may
confound the results in some of the research
identified in this section.
  • It would be an assumption to link viewing images
    with activating a mindset of a particular
    culture. There are many possible variables that
    would factor in to the decision of a subject and
    other factors may account for behaviour.
    Participants history would be composed of other
    relevant events that would presumably shape
    behaviour.

34
Emic and Etic Concepts
35
Define emic and etic. How did these concepts
originate?
  • Etic An approach to cross-cultural analysis.
    Studying what all cultures have in common.
    Seeking universal principles of human behaviour.
  • Emic An approach to single cultural
    examinations. Isolated to one cultures
    distinctive or unique behaviour. The meaning of
    behaviour can only be expressed in terms of the
    culture of its origin.
  • These approaches grew out of the study of
    language sounds phonetics.

36
Using the above definitions, would you consider
Hofstedes method of defining cultural dimension
emic or etic?
  • Hosfstedes approach would be etic some
    identified concepts are common for all cultures
    (time? Definition of wealth?)
  • defined in relation to another culture.

37
What is the imposed etic approach? Is all
research inherently etic?
  • Using the concepts of one culture to study
    another imposed etic approach
  • Is it possible to explain behaviour without
    culture-specific approaches?
  • Language used to convey results and discuss
  • Audience of the targeted hypothesis
  • Purpose of doing the study to begin with

38
How do emic and etic approached differ in their
approach to depression? Give one example of
research supporting each approach.
  • Depression etic Symptoms of depression are
    common across cultures sadness, joylessness,
    anxiety, sense of insufficiency. Some symptoms
    were reported that were not asked as part of the
    diagnosis - possibly due to cultural factors
    related to the study. Eg. WHO study of
    depression across four countries
  • Depression emic approach to depression would
    be different in different cultures. Eg. Hopi
    Indians AID Scale no word to describe
    depression but five illness categories. Some
    categories were similar to Western conceptions of
    depression but others were not.

39
What effect would language have in the research
and interpretation of data in cross-cultural
studies?
  • Understanding and expression of ideas
    automatically involve some cultural bias in
    interpretation. Some sets of feelings associated
    with what we would call depression may not be
    called the same terms or expressed in the same
    perspective in another culture. Framing
    conclusions in English automatically introduces
    cultural perspective.

40
Going back over the cultural dimensions explain
the behavior associated with depression according
to TWO of the five dimensions. How would you
guess someone with depression would behave in
those cultures?
  • Individualism/collectivism
  • Masculinity/femininity
  • Power distance
  • Risk/uncertainty avoidance
  • Confucian dynamism
  • Sadness
  • Joylessness
  • Anxiety
  • Sense of insufficiency

41
Methods used in the sociocultural level of
analysis
  • Discuss how and why particular research methods
    are used at the sociocultural level of analysis
  • Discuss ethical considerations related to
    research studies at the sociocultural level of
    analysis

42
Experiments
  • Egs
  • Jones and Harris FAE study
  • Bargh et al experimental study on automatic
    stereotype activation
  • Bandura Bobo Doll experiment
  • Validity is high
  • Artificiality leads to low ecological validity
  • Rarely are experiments taken alone
    triangulation
  • True lab experiments are not possible on
    cross-cultural questions
  • Field experiments and natural experiments are
    more common Chen et al bicultural participants

43
Correlational studies
  • Egs
  • Hofsetdes cultural dimensions
  • Relies on massive surveys - factor analysis
    through elaborate mathematical formluas
  • Individuality de-emphasized for broad cultural
    generalizations
  • Allows for more specific claims to be
    investigated/targeted

44
Case studies
  • Egs
  • Janis Groupthink
  • Relies on archival research and interviews
  • Must be seen in a group framework rather than
    individual behaviour
  • Asch and Sherif are these group studies or case
    studies?

45
Ethics
  • Use of deception and inducing stress
  • Asch
  • Milgram
  • Evoking of stereotypes
  • Bargh et al.
  • Cross-cultural studies used as grounds/justificati
    ons for stereotyping?
  • Hofstedes cultural dimensions
  • Final question must be based on the value of the
    knowledge gained which of the studies we have
    examined could be justified on these ground? What
    cultural biases would make one answer different
    from another?

46
Choose one/8 marks
  • 1. Outline TWO principles that define the
    sociocultural level of analysis
  • 2. Explain ONE error in attribution
  • 3. Describe ONE factor influencing conformity
  • 4. Explain the terms emic and etic.

Choose ANOTHER one/22 marks
  • 1. Evaluate social identity theory, make
    reference to two relevant studies
  • 2. Discuss research on conformity to social norms
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