Transcript Jkjk - University of British Columbia

Psychology 307:
Cultural Psychology
Lecture 13
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Announcement
In order to attend a conference on Friday, March 4th, I will
have to move my office hours this week to Wednesday,
March 2nd. My office hours will be held at the same time:
3:00-4:30. If you would like to see me this week but are
unable to attend at this time, please e-mail me.
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Optional Paper
Topic due date: March 22 (Option A or B, 2-3 sentence
summary; students with last names A-Q send to Kate at
[email protected]; students with last names R-Z send
to Will at [email protected]).
Paper due date: April 5.
Option A: Review psychological literature on a topic not
discussed in class that interests you.
Option B: Consider how a universally important activity, issue,
or need is addressed in at least two different cultures.
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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal
Attraction, and Love
1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup
relations and (b) conformity to social norms.
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences
day-to-day interactions and attitudes toward ingroup
and outgroup members.
2. discuss the relationship IC and conformity.
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How does culture influence ingroup-outgroup relations?
● Ingroup: A group of people with whom one shares
a sense of belonging or a feeling of common identity
(i.e., “us”).
● Outgroup: A group of people with whom one
perceives dissimilarity or a lack of familiarity (i.e.,
“them”).
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● Theorists have come to believe that “individualism”
leads people to develop relatively low levels of
commitment towards their ingroups and to view the
distinction between ingroups and outgroups as
relatively fluid or permeable.
● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop
relatively high levels of commitment towards their
ingroups and to view the distinction between
ingroups and outgroups as relatively stable or fixed.
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● Among the studies that have provided support for
this theory are those that have compared: (a) the dayto-day interactions of people from different cultures
and (b) the attitudes that people from different cultures
have towards ingroup and outgroup members.
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(a) Day-to-day interactions:
● Research has shown that people from collectivistic
cultures engage in fewer social interactions per day
than people from individualistic cultures. Moreover,
their social interactions are more likely to involve
ingroup members than the social interactions of people
from individualistic cultures.
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● Example: Wheeler, Reis, and Bond (1989)
 Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.
 Had participants complete the Rochester
Interaction Record (RIR).
 The RIR requires that participants record details
related to social interactions of 10 minutes or more.
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Sample Copy of a Rochester Interaction Record
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(b) Attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members:
● Research has shown that, in contrast to people from
individualistic cultures, people from collectivistic
cultures are more likely to engage in subordinate
behaviour when interacting with ingroup members,
and superordinate and “dissociative” behaviour when
interacting with outgroup members.
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● Example: Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990)
 Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.
 Had participants rate their “social distance” from 20
stimuli (e.g., their father, their closest friend).
 Had participants indicate how appropriate they
believed subordinate behaviour, superordinate
behaviour, and dissociative behaviour were when
interacting with each stimulus:
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Relationship Between Subordinate Behaviour
and Social Distance
*
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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Relationship Between Superordinate Behaviour
and Social Distance
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour
and Social Distance
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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How does culture influence conformity to social norms?
● For several decades, researchers have been
interested in identifying the factors that lead people to
conform to social norms.
● The most influential research examining these
factors was conducted by Asch (1951), who
developed a line judgment task to study conformity.
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Asch’s Line Judgment Task
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 Across several studies using this task, Asch found that
American participants agreed with the group’s incorrect
response (i.e., conformed) in 37% of trials.
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 Subsequent research demonstrated that conformity
was greatest when:
(a) the group was relatively large.
(b) the group provided a unanimous incorrect response.
(c) the participant admired, liked, or felt a sense
cohesiveness or similarity among group members.
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● Theorists have come to believe that individualism
promotes a resistance to conformity, whereas
collectivism promotes a tendency toward conformity.
● Bond and Smith (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of
conformity studies in an effort to determine the precise
relationship between IC and conformity:
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 133 experiments were included in the meta-analysis:
97 were conducted in the U.S., 1 was conducted in
Canada, the remaining were conducted outside of
North America (e.g., Brazil, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong,
Japan, Kuwait, Zimbabwe).
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 Examined:
(a) differences in conformity across individualistic cultures
and collectivistic cultures.
(b) changes in conformity across time in the U.S.
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 Found:
(a) a negative relation between individualism and
conformity, indicating that conformity is lower in
individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures.
(b) a negative relation between date of publication and
conformity in the U.S. studies, suggesting that the
U.S. is becoming increasingly individualistic across
time.
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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal
Attraction, and Love
1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup
relations and (b) conformity to social norms.
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