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