Groups and Culture Slides PDF

2/21/2024 LEVELS OF SELF: SELF IN GROUPS PSYCHOLOGY OF IDENTITY ANNOUNCEMENTS  Next Week: Exam #1!  Multiple choice and short answer questions  NOT open notes, etc.  Readings + Lectures  You’ll have the full class period  If you have testing accommodations--You must request to take the exam at...

2/21/2024 LEVELS OF SELF: SELF IN GROUPS PSYCHOLOGY OF IDENTITY ANNOUNCEMENTS  Next Week: Exam #1!  Multiple choice and short answer questions  NOT open notes, etc.  Readings + Lectures  You’ll have the full class period  If you have testing accommodations--You must request to take the exam at CSD. I sent an e-mail last week to ask folks to make an appointment. Please do this TODAY if you have not already.  No class Thursday after the exam 1 2/21/2024 ANNOUNCEMENTS  FAQ: Will the short answers be personal reflections?  Answer: No!  FAQ: Will we need to use a scantron?  Answer: No! I’ll grade them by hand. This will take slightly longer, but most students find it more convenient.  FAQ: Will the exam be curved?  Answer: Curved? No. Scaled? Likely– depending on original scores. ANNOUNCEMENTS  FAQ: Can you give us a study guide?  Answer: I usually don’t, but I’ve put together an outline of major topics in case it is helpful for your studying.You can find it on HuskyCT in the “Course Administration” folder. You will need to fill in the information about those topics yourself.  You do NOT need to know:  Piaget’s specific stages  Eriksons’s specific stages outside of adolescence  Not an FAQ: If you have accommodations-- In case CSD has issues with their automated confirmations, please send me an e-mail after you have confirmed your appointment at CSD. You can contact me via e-mail ([email protected]) 2 2/21/2024 ANNOUNCEMENTS  Also not an FAQ: Reminder, the last office hours before the exam will be Thursday after class. If you want to meet with me please send me an e-mail to make an appointment and let me know if there are specific topics you want to discuss. ONE NOTE ABOUT ATTACHMENT.  We tend to think of it as an individual-level variable.  But, attachment styles can change over time, and can be different in different relationships 3 2/21/2024 TODAY  Groups  Culture RESEARCH ON GROUPS  ‘Losing’ the self in group contexts  Groupthink  Group cohesion over carefully considering alternatives  Leads to group polarization  Deindividuation  In groups, anonymity leads people to behave in ways they normally would not  Often against a personal moral code 4 2/21/2024 SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY  Group contexts can change the way that we behave as individuals  Making ‘us’ and ‘them’ distinctions changes the way that we see each other  Categorization  Identification  Comparison with outgroups MINIMAL GROUPS PARADIGM  People come into the lab and are put into a group in an arbitrary manner  Overestimators versus underestimators  Painting preferences  Then they allocate points to members of their own or the other group  Sometimes the points had value, other times they did not  Participants could not benefit from their allocations  What would you expect them to do?  Randomly  Fairness  More to members of their own group 5 2/21/2024 SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY  Collective identity as “the part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from their social group, together with the value and emotional significance of that membership”  Just like IOS with another person, groups can be incorporated into our self-concepts  We also incorporate group traits  Cognitive overlap predicts importance of the group to sense of self SELF-CATEGORIZATION THEORY  Focuses on the cognitive processes underlying identification  Metacontrast  Categorization-to-Behavior Process:  Individuals define themselves as members of distinct social category  We learn or develop expectations that are derived from that category membership (Norms)  We assign that norms and attributes of the category to ourselves (Internalization)  Behaviors become more normative as the category becomes more salient  Like relational selves, categorization and collective identity are contextualized 6 2/21/2024 SOCIAL IDENTITY APPROACH  When intergroup category distinctions are salient:  People perceptually enhance similarities within the group (e.g., “We are all the same”)  Enhance differences between groups (e.g., “We are very different from them”)  Self-stereotyping  Group prototypicality creates influence  Ingroup members have more social influence over us than outgroup members  Within a group, more prototypical group members tend to have more influence  Assumed similarity across group members often means they are expected to embody who “we” are  Can create a reinforcing cycle  Also get intragroup processes– maintaining cohesion, cooperating, etc. SOCIAL IDENTITY APPROACH  But there are lots of groups we can identify with!  Social Identity Theory originally conceptualized collective identification in terms of self-esteem needs  We want to affiliate with high-status groups  Trouble! We identify with low-status groups all the time 7 2/21/2024 OPTIMAL DISTINCTIVENESS  Collective identification as situational, but also motivated  Level of identification determined by balancing the desires for:  Belonging/ Assimilation “human needs for validation and similarity to others (on the one hand)”  Distinctiveness/ Differentiation “and a countervailing need for uniqueness and individuation (on the other)” OPTIMAL DISTINCTIVENESS Implications:  Not just about esteem and positive groups  Accounts for minority group social identities  Distinctiveness is context-specific  Our salient identifications are likely to shift  If the main goal of our level of self is to balance these needs, the individual level of self is unlikely to be the most frequent level of self-definition  Empirical evidence that people are “selfish” may just be because the group in question was not optimally distinct  Culture contributes to relative strength of motives 8 2/21/2024 BENEFITS OF COLLECTIVE SELVES  Belonging!  After rejection, people activate their group identities  We also spontaneously perceive them as more cohesive  Paralleling optimal distinctiveness, we tend to activate mid-sized groups with clear boundaries (“entitative”)  Collective Self-Esteem  Positively related to individual self-esteem  Private Regard, Public Regard, Membership, Importance to Identity Measure #4!  Uncertainty Identity Theory  We identify with groups to reduce personal uncertainty  Ingroup members confirm shared perspectives  Group norms provide behavioral guides in cases of ambiguity SOCIAL IDENTITY COMPLEXITY 9 2/21/2024 SOCIAL IDENTITY COMPLEXITY (a) Intersection  Predominant identity as intersection of two identities (e.g., Asian American woman)  Smallest ingroup (b) Dominance  One dominant identity, all others are subordinate (e.g., I am a woman who happens to be Asian American)  Behavior based on dominant identity (c) Compartmentalization  May view the self through lens of one group at as time (e.g., Asian American or woman)  Context specific, Behavior based on salient group (d) Merger  Multiple identities are recognized and embraced –integrated in a ways that transcends single ingroups  Largest ingroup; feelings of commonality with many others SOCIAL IDENTITY COMPLEXITY  Which of these do you expect to be associated with the greatest acceptance of diversity and the highest levels of openness?  Well-being? 10 2/21/2024 IDENTITY FUSION  Most models assume that when you operate at a collective level of identity, other levels are downplayed  For some people, personal and social identities can become functionally equivalent “I am my country”  Group outcomes are personal outcomes  Personal agency coexists with collective goals  Used to explain extreme behaviors  Fused people are more wiling to fight and die for the group  Group-related behavior is motivated by activation of both their personal and social selves  Challenges to either level of self result in pro-group behavior repair efforts  May satisfy needs for personal agency, belonging, and meaning simultaneously IDENTITY FUSION Where can you think about identity fusion in our modern society? What are some of the challenges it might present? 11 2/21/2024 OBSERVATION! SELF ACROSS DIFFERENCES: PART 1 SOCIAL CLASS AND CULTURE 12 2/21/2024 ON TO (THE ORIGINAL PLAN FOR) TODAY!  DISCLAIMER: Results of psychological studies are at the “on average” level. CULTURE  Culture and selves in a mutual cycle of constitution  Culture  Explicit cultural values  Socialization Practices  Implicit Psychological Tendencies  Culture is transmitted by and constantly constructed by selves  Values are taught  Practices are imitated  Patterns of thought are internalized through repetition 13 2/21/2024 CULTURE Variations between cultures  Independent vs. Interdependent Independent Interdependent Self as separate/ distinct from others Focus on own thoughts and feelings Pursuing own preferences and goals Self as connected/ related to others Take the perspective of others Fitting in and adjusting to others’ expectations  Effects have been shown for attention and perception, memory, motivation, self-regulation, etc. CULTURE Variations between cultures  Tight vs. Loose  Tolerance for deviant behavior (e.g., behavior against the cultural norms in a society)  Tight  Strict norms, Low tolerance  Loose  Weaker norms, High tolerance “In this country, if someone acts in an inappropriate way, others will strongly disapprove”  Correlated with high population density, resource scarcity, and history of conflict, disease, and/or environmental threats 14 2/21/2024 CULTURE  Differences do not only exist between nations  Regional variation within the United States CULTURE As discussed in the culture specific article we read, sociology culture and self are not separate from one another. In this article, they talk about how the self develops through “symbolically mediated, collaborative interactions with others and the environment.” It mentions how our different cultures influences how peoples sense of self differ. While these things might not be the culture that we first think of when we hear of the word, I am however curious to know if something like generational culture has the same impact on the self? What * I mean by this is how do you think the time period one grew up in shapes the self? I feel like an American who grew up in the 70s vs an American who grew up in the 90s or 2000s have experienced very different versions of American culture. Are there other dimensions of ‘culture’ that might be different that you can think of? 15 2/21/2024 CULTURE  Independence and Interdependence are not mutually exclusive  They coexist within cultures and within people  Within a single culture, we can prime people with different self-construals  European-Americans primed with an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal  Report more interdependent self-definitions on the 20 statement task  Also report social judgments emphasizing social obligations * *  Across cultures, people still show situational variation  Incongruent primes shift the relative strength of values  Individualistic culture + interdependent prime shows shift  Interdependent culture + independent prime shows shift WRITING PROMPT! Now that you’ve read about cultures, take a moment to reflect on the cultural values you think are most important to your sense of self. What are those values, practices and beliefs? Where, how or from whom did you learn them? What community do they most closely relate to? Please list at least 2 examples. 16