How the social world shapes behaviour

• Behaviour is shaped by groups, social norms and culture.
• We learn much behaviour by observing others and by belonging to social groups.
• Culture — the shared values and practices of a group — influences cognition and behaviour, and can be studied using dimensions.

Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner)

Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) explains group behaviour through three processes:

• Social categorisation — we sort people into in-groups and out-groups.
• Social identification — we adopt the identity of our group.
• Social comparison — we compare our group favourably to others to boost self-esteem.

Tajfel et al. (1971) — the minimal group paradigm — randomly assigned boys to meaningless groups; even with nothing at stake they allocated more points to their own in-group. In-group favouritism arises from mere categorisation.

Which is right?

Social cognitive theory (Bandura)

Social cognitive theory (Bandura) says we learn by observing models and imitating them. Four conditions are needed:

Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) — the Bobo doll study — found children who watched an adult behave aggressively toward a Bobo doll imitated that aggression, including novel acts. Vicarious reinforcement (seeing a model rewarded) makes imitation more likely.

Which is right?

The formation and effect of stereotypes

A stereotype is a generalised belief about a social group.

• Formation: social categorisation and illusory correlation — Hamilton and Gifford (1976) showed people over-perceive a link between a minority group and rare (negative) behaviours.
• Effect: stereotype threat — Steele and Aronson (1995) found African American students performed worse on a test when it was framed as measuring intelligence (activating a negative stereotype) than when it was not.

Which is right?

Culture and cultural dimensions

Hofstede (1980) analysed IBM employees across dozens of countries and identified cultural dimensions that describe values, including:

• Individualism vs collectivism — loose ties and personal goals vs tight groups and shared goals.
• Power distance — acceptance of unequal power.
• Uncertainty avoidance and masculinity–femininity.

Etic vs emic: dimensions are an etic (cross-culture comparison) tool; some argue they oversimplify or stereotype whole nations.

Which is right?

Enculturation and acculturation

Enculturation is learning the norms of your own culture (often through observation and modelling, e.g. Bandura).

Acculturation is cultural change from prolonged contact with a different culture. Berry's model identifies four strategies:

• Integration, Assimilation, Separation and Marginalisation.

Lueck and Wilson (2010) studied acculturative stress in Asian immigrants, finding language ability and discrimination affected stress levels.

Which is right?

Sort each item to its theory or topic

Tap an item, then tap the sociocultural topic it belongs to.

Match each researcher to their contribution

Tap a researcher on the left, then their key contribution on the right.

Research methods and ethics

Sociocultural psychology uses lab experiments (Bandura, Tajfel), field and cross-cultural surveys (Hofstede) and interviews.

• Watch for cultural bias and ethnocentrism when comparing cultures.
• Ethics matter: the Bobo doll study raises concerns about exposing children to aggression.

The big ideas to know

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