IB Social Psychology Past Paper PDF

IB Version Mr. Dunlop [email protected]  Learning Outcomes This unit will focus on: – Explain social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies. – Explain social cognitive theory, making reference to relevant studies. – Explain the formati...

IB Version Mr. Dunlop [email protected]  Learning Outcomes This unit will focus on: – Explain social identity theory, making reference to relevant studies. – Explain social cognitive theory, making reference to relevant studies. – Explain the formation of stereotypes and their effect on behavior.  The Sociocultural Approach  Social psychology studies how our thoughts, actions, and behaviors are influenced by how we interact with others.  Cultural psychology accounts for our shared rules, values, and customs.  Ethical Issues in Social Psych  Study social behavior often involves the use of deception to reduce demand characteristics among participants.  This is often achieved through the use of confederates or actors who work for the experimenter.  Many famous studies in social psychology were done before the APA created ethical guidelines and are notorious by today’s standards.  The Milgram Experiment  Stanley Milgram (1963) conducted the most famous experiment on obedience.  Milgram was interested in obedience because of the events of WWII. How could ordinary German citizens commit such atrocious acts to their fellow human beings?  Milgram assigned subjects to the roles of “teacher” and “learner”. In reality, the true subject was always the teacher. The learner was a confederate.  The Milgram Experiment  The subjects of Milgram’s experiment were tricked into believing that they were administering painful electric shocks to another participant.  As the magnitude of the shocks increased, the learner would bang on the wall and refuse to answer questions.  The subject became highly distressed, but the experimenter implored him to go on and administer even higher levels of shock.  65% of participants delivered the full range of electric shocks. The Milgram Machine  The Milgram Experiment  Milgram found that obedience was especially strong when the learner was in a separate room and when the experimenter resembled a legitimate authority figure.  Milgram’s study used deception in several ways – not all of them ethical:  The subjects were given a false aim.  They were told they would be administering painful electric shocks but the shocks were fake.  The reactions of the confederate were scripted and also not genuine.  Asch’s Conformity Study  Solomon Asch (1951) wanted to test the effect of group pressure on conformity.  Asch told subjects that they were taking part in a routine perception study dealing with line length.  The subject was sat at a table with five confederates who he was told were other subjects.  The subject always sat in the second to last position.  Asch’s Conformity Study (cont.)  The confederates gave the incorrect answer to the simple line task. When it was the true subject’s turn to speak, would he give the correct response or change his answer to fit in with the group?  Only 24% of the subjects in Asch’s original experiment totally resisted conformity.  If even one confederate gave the correct response, the effect virtually disappeared.  While this study is older than Milgram’s, deception was used much more responsibly as an ethical guideline.  Attribution  Attribution looks at what causes a certain behavior  Factors may be internal / dispositional (based on personality) or external / situational (based on outside events)  Attribution  Fundamental attribution error – When looking at the behavior of others, we usually overestimate internal factors and underestimate external factors.  Typically the opposite is true when we look at our own behavior. We emphasize situational factors. This is called actor-observer bias.  The FAE is more common in individualist cultures in which the focus is on the person and their unit motivations.  Ross et al. (1977) created a hypothetical game show and found that participants rated the host as most knowledgeable.  Attribution  Self-serving bias – When we are successful, we pinpoint internal factors. When we fail, we blame external factors.  SSB exists as a way to boost and maintain one’s self- esteem.  SSB is also far more common in individualist societies. In collectivist societies, sometime the opposite effect is found – called modesty bias.  SSB is seen in many contexts including sports, academics, and public performance (i.e. recitals).  Lau & Russell (1980) found evidence of the SSB in American football and baseball coaches.  Social Identity Theory  Social identity Theory looks at how our attitudes relate to the groups that we belong to.  SIT is based on four factors:  Social categorization – the natural tendency to divide groups into ingroups and outgroups  Social identification – placing oneself into a group and adopting its values  Social comparison – assessing the benefits of belonging to the ingroup vs the outgroup  Positive distinctiveness – the belief that ones ingroup is superior  Social Identity Theory  According to Tajfel, the goal of SIT is to enhance one’s self-esteem through group membership.  People usually hold overly favorable attitudes towards their in-group and overly negative ones towards out-groups.  Tajfel et al. (1971) organized boys based on their preference for the art of Kandinsky or Klee. The boys demonstrated strong in-group bias.  Another consequence of SIT is ethnocentrism, the tendency to believe that one’s ethnic or cultural group is superior  Robber’s Cave Experiment  Sherif (1958) studied ethnocentrism by creating a boy’s camp. Two deliberately equal groups were created, named the Eagles and the Rattlers.  The groups were kept in isolation at first, then made to compete against each other in various mental and physical contests.  Each boy felt that his group was overwhelmingly smarter and better athletically than the other group.  Robber’s Cave Experiment  The two groups became hostile towards each other. Fights broke out and the groups even raided the other’s camps.  Sherif staged a series of emergencies where the groups had to work together for a common cause. This caused the two groups to get along and view each other more favorably.  Sherif concluded that cooperation caused the boys to see themselves as members of one large group.  Stereotypes  Stereotype – a belief that all members of a group share a common trait  Stereotypes can be dangerous by exaggerating group differences and leading to prejudice and discrimination.  There are many explanations for stereotypes but two common ones are schemas and SIT.  Stereotypes  Schema theory is often at the root of our stereotypes. Schemas are our automatic assumptions that derive from experience.  The grain of truth hypothesis states that stereotypes are overgeneralizations of personal experience and what we hear from gatekeepers (parents, media, etc.)  This theory has been criticized for not sufficiently addressing the role of attributional errors in stereotyping.  Another explanation is SIT. Identifying with an in-group may cause stereotyping of outgroups (outgroup homogeneity).  Stereotypes  Cohen (1981) showed participants a video of woman eating dinner and told them she was either a waitress or a librarian. The participants remembered details stereotypically associated with those occupations.  Katz & Braly (1933) found that participants had considerable agreement about stereotypes and showed strong ingroup bias.  Park & Rothbart (1982) found the outgroup homogeneity affected the formation of positive and negative stereotypes about sorority groups.  Stereotype Threat Stereotype Threat - a fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group The anxiety of stereotype threat may lead to decreased performance, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. The opposite is called stereotype boost. Stereotype threat has been seen in race, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Johns, Schmader, and Martens (2005) found that sometimes simply informing test-takers about the phenomenon of stereotype threat may be enough to lessen its impact.  Observational Learning  Observational learning involves acquiring a new skill through imitating somebody else (called a model).  This type of learning is also called vicarious conditioning.  The most famous study on observational learning was the Bobo Doll Experiment conducted by Bandura & Ross (1961).  This would contribute to Bandura’s social cognitive theory.  Social Cognitive Theory  Socialization occurs when we are taught ways to behave acceptable in society.  There are four main agents of socialization: parents, peers, school, and the media.  Sometimes people are directly instructed (like you are right now), but we also indirectly learn behaviors being modeled by the agents of socialization.  One example of this is the development of acceptable gender roles.  Social Cognitive Theory  Social Cognitive Theory relies on four mediating variables:  Attention – The learner must properly focus on what is being taught.  Retention – The learner must remember the information.  Motor Reproduction – The learner must be physically capable of performing the action.  Motivation – The learner must want to do it.  Other key cognitive variables may play a role, such as self-efficacy.  Bandura’s Bobo Doll Study  Bandura designed the Bobo Doll Experiment to determine if children would copy an adult role model’s aggressive behavior.  Children in the experimental condition were shown a video of an adult “beating up” the Bobo Doll. They were then placed in a room with the doll and several other toys.  The children overwhelmingly modeled the adults responses and even added novel violent actions.  TV and Video Game Violence  One of the biggest questions posed by Bandura’s research is whether or not violent media contributes to violence in children.  A meta-analysis conducted by Anderson & Bushman (2001) found a significant correlation between exposure to violent media and aggressive behavior.  Since the data is correlational, directionality remains an issue. Bushman argues that children that are already aggressive are inherently attracted to aggressive media.  Is Social Cognitive Theory True?  Gergely et al. (2002) found that infants would imitate an adult’s behavior of turning on a light with their head rather than their hands.  This showed that novel behaviors can be learned socially.  Charlton et al. (2002) studied the introduction of TV to the remote island of St. Helena.  The study found no increase in violence after 5 years, contrary to what social learning theory would predict.  Evaluation of SCT  Strengths:  Strong research support (Bandura, Gergely, etc.).  Helps explain why behavior may be passed down in a family or culture.  Explains instances of learning that were not explained well by previous theories (classical and operant conditioning).  Weaknesses:  Contains cognitive variables (such as self-efficacy) that are difficult to measure.  Just because a behavior is learned does not mean that it will be demonstrated.  Research has contradicted it and shown other factors are more important (Charleton).