Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

1. Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

2. Why?

3. Roles and Rules • Norms- rules that regulate social life, explicit laws and implicit cultural conventions • Role- a given social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior • Culture- a program of shared rules that govern the behavior of people in a community or society, and a set of values, beliefs, and customs shared by most members of that community (passed generation to generation)

4. The Power of Social Roles • The Obedience Study • Stanley Milgram and coworkers investigated whether people would follow orders, even when the order violated their ethical standards. • Most people were far more obedient than anyone expected. • Every single participant complied with at least some orders to shock another person • Results are controversial and have generated much research on violence and obedience.

5. Obedience Study Continued • Factors associated with participants disobedience • When the experimenter left the room • When the victim was right there in the room • When two experimenters issued conflicting demands • When the person ordering them to continue was an ordinary man • When the subject worked with peers who refused to go further

6. The Power of Social Roles • The Prison Study • Zimbardo • Random Assignment to Roles of Prisoner or Guard • Basement of Stanford University Building • Ceased Study After Six Days

7. Why People Obey • Factors that increase obedience • Allocating responsibility to the authority • Routinizing the task • Wanting to be polite • Becoming entrapped • Entrapment: A gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money, or effort.

8. Social Influences on Beliefs • Social Cognition- an area in psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception, and beliefs • Attribution- assigning some quality or character to a person or thing • Attribution Theory- • The theory that people are motivated to explain their own and other peoples’ behavior by attributing causes of that behavior to a situation or a disposition.

9. Attributions

10. Attribution (continued) • Westerners believe that individuals are responsible for their own actions (individualism) • Westerners and Self Serving Bias • The tendency, in explaining one’s own behavior, to take credit for one’s good actions and rationalize one’s mistakes • Just World Hypothesis- the notion that many people need to believe that the world is fair and that justice is served, that bad people are punished and good people rewarded

11. Attitudes • Attitude: • A relatively stable opinion containing beliefs and emotional feelings about a topic. • Validity Effect: • The tendency of people to believe that a statement is true or valid simply because it has been repeated many times.

12. Influencing Attitudes

13. Coercive Persuasion • Person is under physical or emotional duress. • Person’s problems are reduced to one simple explanation, repeated often. • Leader offers unconditional love, acceptance, and attention. • New identity based on group is created. • Person is subjected to entrapment. • Person’s access to information is controlled.

14. Individuals in Groups • Conformity • Groupthink • The Anonymous Crowd • Courage and Nonconformity

15. Conformity • Subjects in a group were asked to match line lengths. • Confederates in the group picked the wrong line. • Subjects went along with the wrong answer on 37% of trials. Sample A B C

16. Groupthink • In close-knit groups, the tendency for all members to think alike and suppress disagreement for the sake of harmony. • Symptoms of Groupthink: • Illusion of invincibility • Self-censorship • Pressure on dissenters to conform • Illusion of unanimity

17. The Anonymous Crowd • Diffusion of Responsibility: • In organized or anonymous groups, the tendency of members to avoid taking responsibility for actions or decisions because they assume that others will do so. • Deindividuation: • In groups or crowds, the loss of awareness of one’s own individuality.

18. Courage and Nonconformity • Situational factors contributing to nonconformity: • You perceive the need for intervention or help. • Situation makes it more likely that you will take responsibility. • Cost-benefit ratio supports your decision to get involved. • You have an ally. • You become entrapped.

19. Us Versus Them: Group Identity • Ethnic Identity • Ethnocentrism • Stereotypes

20. Ethnic Identity • Social Identity: • The part of a person’s self-concept that is based on identification with a nation, culture, or group or with gender or other roles in society. • Ethnic Identity: • A person’s identification with a racial, religious, or ethnic group. • Acculturation: • The process by which members of minority groups come to identify with and feel part of the mainstream culture.

21. Acculturation Strategies

22. Ethnocentrism • The belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or religion is superior to all others.

23. Robbers’ Cave Experiment • Boys were randomly separated into two groups • “Rattlers” and “Eagles” • Competitions fostered hostility between the groups. • Experimenters contrived situations requiring cooperation for success. • Cross-group friendships increased.

24. Stereotypes • Stereotype: • A cognitive schema or a summary impression of a group, in which a person believes that all members of the group share a common trait or traits (positive, negative, or neutral).

25. Group Conflicts and Prejudice

26. Group Conflicts and Prejudice • The Origins of Prejudice • Varieties of Prejudice • Reducing Prejudice and Conflict

27. Reducing Prejudice and Conflict • Groups must have equal legal status, economic opportunities, and power. • Authorities and community institutions must endorse egalitarian norms and provide moral support and legitimacy for both sides. • Both sides must have opportunities to work and socialize together, formally and informally. • Both sides must cooperate, working together for a common goal.

28. Bridging the Cultural Divide • Tips for Successful Travel: • Be sure you understand the other culture’s rules, manners, and customs. • When in Rome, do as the Romans do as much as possible. • Avoid stereotyping.