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This essay will give a brief summary of the principles that define the sociocultural level
of analysis (SCLA).
Definition: the SCLA is the scientific study of how peoples thoughts, feelings and thus
behaviours are influenced by actual, implied or imagined presence of others. Therefore
it is:
Principles
1. Humans are social animals and thus have the need to Belong.
2. Culture influences behaviour.
3. Humans have a social-self (*Social-self: How self-knowledge influences interactions
and perceptions*.)
4. Peoples views of the world are resistant to change and developed by the community
and culture.
These principles are the main ideas that have driven focused research on specific areas
of how our environment can influence our behaviour in the SCLA.
This social self is how we construct our social identity and is also dependent on the
types of groups that we belong and identified with.
This principle gives rise to the fact that people not only have an individual identity but
also a collective or social one.
Likewise our social identity is important as it defines who we are and these
behaviours are determined by social groups (such as memberships, communities, clubs,
nationality or family).
The study showed that our social self is constructed by our own
conceptions (prisoner or guard) and thus we will act in a way that fits
with these conceptions.
However, views from all levels of analysis need to be taken into account before
reaching a determined decision on influences on human behaviour, as sociocultural
factors such as the environment are not the only cause of the behaviour, but certainly
play a role in the interaction between itself and behaviour.
This essay will give a brief summary of the principles that define the sociocultural level
of analysis (SCLA).
Define Socio Cultural level of analysis, state its principals and purpose of principals
described in the question above.
This essay will attempt to offer a balanced review of how and why particular research
methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis (SCLA).
There are many different/various methods researchers and psychologists use to conduct
their studies.
Research methods are ways that researchers use and manipulate to conduct their
studies.
There are 6 main research methods used in psychology, which consists of the
following:
o Experiments
o Case Studies
o Observational Studies
o Interviews
o Surveys/Questionnaires
o Correlational Studies
In psychological research, certain biases are present, which may affect or influence
the findings of the experiment, sometimes in a positive way, but mostly in a
negative light/nature.
There are two major types of biases, which are:
o Researcher bias: The researcher/s sees what they are looking for, in which the
expectations of the researcher consciously or unconsciously affect the findings
of the study.
These ideas are tested and observed using research methods such as experiments,
case studies, correlational studies, and interviews to focus on groups and
individuals, in order to collect to develop and or support a theory.
At the SCLA the main research methods used are experiments, observations,
interviews, and questionnaires.
This essay will attempt to offer a balanced review of ethical considerations related
to research at the sociocultural level of analysis (SLA).
Define SCLA.
Define Ethics:
o In psychology, ethics must be considered to ensure participants (humans and
animals) are not harmed and that research conducted is ethically valid.
o Ethics can be defined as moral principles and rules of conduct that guide and
govern an individual or groups behaviour.
o Researchers should always conduct research in an ethical manner and studies
should always be critically evaluated for ethical issues.
Participants shoukd be given a consent that informs them with the aim and
methodology of the study.
Participants should be given the right to withdraw at any point during the
experiment.
Participants should be ensured that their results will remain confidential.
In the SCLA, there are studies which claim to be of an unethical nature because of
certain principlesr methods in which the researcher/s undertook. Some of the major
ethical studies in the SCLA include:
o Zimbardo, Haney and Banks (1971)
Zimbardo created a simulation of a prison in Stanford University
basement
In the psychological world, there are many different methods and approaches to the
understanding and explaining of why or how people behave in certain situations.
Fritz Heider (1958): suggested that all people have a tendency to try to predict,
understand and explain human behaviour, in terms of what causes people to behave in
the ways that they do.
Introduce attributions:
o One way that people interpret and explain causal relationships in the social
world is through attribution --> which has laid the foundations for the
attribution theory (AT) proposed by Heider (1958).
o Attributions are "the beliefs about why people behave as they do" the end
result of a process in which people use available information to make
inferences about the causes of a particular behaviour.
o Therefore, AT is concerned with explanations of how each of us attributes
causes for our own and others" behaviour.
o According to Heider, when we observe somebody"s behaviour we are
inclined to attribute its cause to either dispositional (internal) factors of that
person or to situational (external) causes.
There are two types of attribution:
o Dispositional attribution: We explain people"s behaviour in terms of
factors which are specific to them as a person, such as their personality or
other internal and generally unchanging characteristics, traits, feelings,
moods and abilities.
Can be positive or negative.
Eg: They are always late; they have been like that since they were
born, etc.
o Situational attribution: One"s behaviour is assumed to be/dependent upon
their current circumstances, situation or the environment that they are in.
Eg: Blaming the weather for something that has happened
o However, when judgements are passed there is usually some form of bias, as
both situational and dispositional factors are not considered from every
viewpoint/angle.
FAE:
o An example of a common error when attributing one"s behaviour is humans
tendency tver- emphasize dispositional factors over situational factors,
especially when they are judging other people"s behaviour; this is known as
the fundamental attribution error (FAE).
Generally attributions follow this trend
o Positive outcomes (individual behaviour): Dispositional
o Negative outcome (individual behaviour): Situational
o Positive outcome (other individuals): Situational
o Negative outcomes (other individuals): Dispositional
Exploring FAE gives us more insight on the roles of situational and dispositional
factors when explaining behaviour, and also helps us to be more open-minded to the
possible alternative factors that cause people to behave in a certain way
Supporting Study: Zimbrado (1971):
o An example of how people attribute dispositional and situational factors to
explain behaviour is through Zimbardo"s Stanford Prison Experiment
(1971).
o Aim: To investigate how people react in difficult situations.
o Method:
Zimbardo created a simulation of a prison in Stanford University
basement.
He randomly assigned the volunteers/participants to be either the
guard or prisoner in the prison simulation. Therefore the IV was role
(prisoner or guard).
DV was behaviour observed through direct observation, video and
audiotape.
o Results:
After a while, the volunteers playing the role of guards started to
show acts of empowerment, aggression and a more confident attitude
compared to the volunteers playing the role of the prisoners.
Whilst the prisoners became passive, depressed, anxious and
experienced loss of control over life.
o Conclusion:
This study demonstrated that situational rather than dispositional
factors caused negative behaviour and thoughts found in prison
settings.
Zimbardo"s study is a prime example of how people can use either
dispositional situational attribution to explain the behaviours of
certain people.
Discuss two errors in attribution.
Humans are very social and have a need to understand why things happen and how
and why people behave in certain situations.
Fritz Heider (1958) proposed a theory in which he suggested that we tend to
interpret and explain our own behaviour and the behaviour of others by assigning
attributes to behaviour.
Attribution: Attribution is how people interpret and explain causal relationships in
the social world and society.
o This has laid foundations for the attribution theory (AT), proposed by Heider
(1958), which attempts to provide an understanding and explanation for how
people attribute causes to their own and other people's behaviour.
o We do this by observing others' behaviour and considering their intentions &
responsibilities in that situation
Describe two types of attribution (dispositional & Situational).
Attribution errors: Psychologists have discovered that when attributing behaviour,
people can often make errors and biases.
o An attributional error (AE) can be defined as a false assumption or distortion
in perception or judgement about the causes of our own or other peoples
behaviour.
Theories and studies have shown that there are two main AEs in attribution: the
fundamental attribution error (FAE) and self-serving bias (SSB) , which will be
discussed in this essay
Comparison:
The FAE and the SSB are two different errors in attribution that differ primarily is
their general theoretical explanations of the causes of erroneous attribution:
o the FAE primarily describes a trend
o while the SSB makes predictions on the basis of factors such as
While these errors are similar in many ways, they exhibit differences in their general
theoretical explanation of the reasons behind attribution error, the strengths,
weakness and approaches of research supporting these theoretical claims and the
role of culture in each attribution error.
They are both errors in attribution, since they propose flaws in attribution theory and
how people explain behaviour.
This essay will attempt to make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and
limitations of the social identity theory, with studies supported.
Introduce Social Identity Theory (SIT):
o SIT proposed by Tajfel and later developed by Tajfel and Turner (1971) to
understand intergroup relations and group processes.
o SIT is based on the assumption that individuals strive to improve their self-
image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on either personal identity or
through various social identities (in-groups/out-groups).
o SIT is based on 4 main concepts which will be further discussed in the following
essay.
Evaluation of SIT:
Our social world is very complex and thus presents us with too much information.
Since our capacity to process information is limited, our social world needs to be
simplified.
One way to avoid this information overload is through social categorisation.
The information is used in social categorisation is stereotypes.
Stereotype: a mental representation and a form of social categorization made about
specific individuals or a group and its members.
o Once a set of characteristics is used to describe a group of people, those
characteristics are often attributed to all members of the group, thus affecting
the behaviour of the people or individual who hold the stereotype, and those
who are labelled by a stereotype.
o This generalization may either be positive or negative, based on certain
group membership or physical attributes, however most stereotypes of today
are negative, exaggerating the quality and cognitively-associating such trait
to all individuals that are part of the group leading to discrimination and
prejudice, thus increasing self-esteem about themselves and their in-group.
However positive stereotypes may also exist (Asians are intelligent).
Stereotypes are now also argued to be a schema process that conditions those who
hold the stereotype and also those labelled after the stereotype, as they are organized
internal representations of individuals and or groups, therefore guiding how people
act towards them.
Theories of stereotypes:
o There are several theories on the development of stereotypes, including
social categorization grain of truth hypothesis, and illusory correlation.
o Old Theory Social Categorization & Social Identity Theory:
Tajfel (1971) argued that stereotypes developed through a natural
process of social categorization, which is when people categorize
groups of people based on common traits or characteristics.
However, this does not explain how it actually happens.