Sociocultural Studies

Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura’s Bobo Doll (1963)
Key Study: Bandura's Bobo Doll (1963) | IB Psychology

Aim:
to determine the extent to which film- mediated aggressive models may serve as
an important source of imitative behavior”.

Method:
1. 48 boys and girls 3-5 years old (students at the Stanford university nursery
school)
2. Used matched pairs using rating of aggressiveness that were obtained with
help from their nursery school teacher
3. Each condition: half of children observed a model of the same gender, other
half observed a model of the opposite gender

4. Real Life Aggression Condition:

- Child in small room in a corner with a desk and chair: colored paper,
stickers and materials
- The model (adult) was taken to another corner – child was told this was
model’s play area
- Model began playing with toys but after 1 minute started acting
aggressive towards the inflatable bobo doll e.g. model sat on doll and
punched it in nose, hit it with the mallet
- Accompanied with verbally aggressive statements

5. Human Film- Aggression:

- Same as above instead
- Used a projector and a sound track to show a film of (same model behaving the
same way)
- For 10 minutes

6. Cartoon Film – Aggression:

- Everything was the same as other two conditions
- Except film now was cartoon of a cat, who performed same aggressive behaviors
as human models
 7. Control Group:
- Viewed no aggressive behavior.
- Went straight to test room

8. Children were then led to a test room.

9. In order to frustrate the children and instigate aggressive tendencies, showed
them toys, let them play but then told them they reserved the toys for different
children.
10. Child was then taken to next room and left with same objects in viewing part of
the experiment (bobo doll, mallet)
11. Each subject spent 20 minutes in the experimental room, during which time
their behavior was observed by judges looking through a mirror. 20 minutes
was divided into 5 second intervals, judges noted each aggressive behavior
that occurred in those intervals. If a child was aggressive for the whole time,
there would be 240 aggressive acts.

Results
Real life = 83 Film Model = 92
Cartoon = 99 Control = 54

- Boys displayed more violent behavior than girls in all conditions.

- Girls more inclined to sit on bobo doll

Conclusion
- The researchers interpreted this as meaning that social learning had taken
place, and that similarity to role models (male or female appeared to be a
factor
Culture and its influence on behaviour and cognition

Cohen et al, 1996

Aim:
At the University of Illinois, researchers wanted to test Cohen’s theory that
southern white males in the USA responded differently to threats and insults than
northern white males.
Method:
Researchers set up three conditions to rest for the difference between
northerners and southerners.

In three different conditions, a confederate bumped into the participant and then
insulted him by calling him by a derogatory name.
Results:
Whereas, the northerners were relatively unaffected by the insult. In contrast,
southerners were found to: think their masculine reputation was threatened and
therefore more upset and physically primed for aggression.
Conclusion:
This Is because of the elevated levels of testosterone and cortisol which are
associated with stress and aggression.
Strengths:
Limitations:
Enculturation

The Marshmallow Test Across Cultures: German vs. Cameroon Kids

(Lamm et al. 2018)An example of how enculturation can influence
behaviour.

Key Study: The Marshmallow Test Across Cultures: German vs. Cameroon Kids
(Lamm et al. 2018) | IB Psychology

Aim:
To test how enculturation may influence behaviour

Method:
1. Kids sit in a room by themselves and are given a marshmallow

2. Researcher tells them that if they wait ten minutes, they can get a second
marshmallow (test of the ability to delay gratification)

4. Compared the of German and Cameroonian four-year-old preschool children

to delay gratification and wait for a treat

Results:

First of two studies, results showed that almost 70% of Cameroonian kids
were able to wait for a treat, compared to around 30% of German kids

- The researchers also gathered data on the values of the parents & parenting
styles
Found that mothers placed more emphasis on “hierarchical relational socialization” (e.g.
obeying and respecting elders), strict emphasis on conforming to social norms
- German mothers – more emphasis on “psychological autonomous socialization”
(more individuality and personal freedom)

Conclusion and Applications:

Enculturation: study provides us with another example of how different enculturation
processes (e.g diff parenting styles and values) – has effect on behavior

Cameroonian kids are more used to following rules, German kids are used to having
more autonomy and freedom, hence find it harder to wait because they don’t do it often
Strengths:
- Quasi- experimental design, gathers correlations, uses questionnaire,
observations and interviews
Limitations:
- Correlation study + WEAK 0.25

Acculturation

Ogihara and Uchida (2014)

Aim:
To investigate the effects of individualism in a collectivist context
Investigated how change in values might be influencing the subjective well-being of young
Japanese students

Method:
Gathered data from 114 students from two universities one in Kyoto, the other in
Wisconsin
· Asked to be first participants to complete questionnaires in order to measure
individualism or collectivism
· Example of question to assess individualism: Doing better than others gives me a sense
of self- respect
· Question for collectivism: I can't respect myself if I break relationship harmony with my
group."
· Answered using likert scales (1-7)
· Found out how many close friends the participant had
· Used rage of questionnaires to measure happiness, life satisfaction and physical and
psychological emotional states

Results:
Showed negative correlation for individualism in Japanese students and their overall
subjective well-being (more individualistic, less happy)
· Number of close friends was a mediating variable (no. Of close friends is why the
individualistic values led to being less happy and content with life)

Conclusion:
Strengths:
Study highlights a possible negative of globalization – as Western ideas pervade foreign
countries it can bring change in values and beliefs, especially young people
As people adopt these new values and ideals, may find themselves at odds with their home
culture
Competitive and individualistic students in Japan found it harder to make friends

Limitations:
● This study looks at one culture, Japan. Do you think we could expect the same
effects in other collectivist cultures? Why or why not? (Note that Japan actually
has an individualism score of around 50, so it’s somewhere in the middle).
○ The above study samples college students. Do you think we could expect
the same results in older populations (or younger ones)? Why, or why
not?
● CORRELATIONAL STUDY
● SELF REPORTS

Cognitive Studies
Schema Theory

Bransford and Johnson

Aim:
Bransford and Johnson conducted a study to test the idea that schema activation can
improve comprehension and memory recall of new information.
Method:
1. Participants in this study were read a passage that sounded rather vague and
ambiguous.
2. The title of the passage was “doing laundry”. Group one was told the title of the
passage before listening to it, whereas group 2 were told the title of the passage
after and group three were never told.
Results:
After being read the passage, group 1 were able to recall the most details and
group 2 the least. The title before the group also self-reported a higher level of
comprehension.
Conclusion:
Context does aid comprehension.

Models of Memory

Multi store Memory Model

Shallice and Warrington

AIm:
- To illustrate a case where long-term memory remained intact when STM was
damaged
Method:
- Case study of KF
- Suffered a motorcycle accident
- Causing damage to left parietal occipital region of brain
Results:
- Showed very poor memory for numbers
- But good performance in things involving LTM
- Could learn a 10 word sequence in fewer trials than controls
- Recall seven of ten items months later
- MTM predicts that should not be possible, due to intact STM required to transfer
information to LTM (SEQUENTIAL NATURE DEBUNKED )
Conclusion:
- Transfer of knowledge to LTM is not linear process that always requires an intact
STM
- Undermined MTM
Strengths:
- Findings seem to contradict THE MTM of memory
- Triangulation - enabled collection of rich data
Limitations:
- Case study - results cannot be directly generalised to broader population to some
extent
Thinking and Decision making
Bechara et al IOWA gambling study

Aim:
To see if vmPFC regulates behaviour through its ability to enable us to use
system two processing

Method:
- Researches compares the decisions made by 17 healthy controls and 8 patients with
lesions in their vmPFCs during the Iowa Gambling Task

Results:
Healthy participants were able to move away from the disadvantageous decks (B and D)
and choose more from the advantageous decks (A and C) that had low initial reward but
higher long-term gains
- vmPFC lesion participants did not demonstrate same shift in behaviour

Conclusion:
Conclusion: VM lesion patients are oblivious to the future and are guided predominantly
by immediate prospects.

- Vm PFC plays a role in our ability to use system two processing. If the vm is damaged,
we may not be able to think past initial impulses (system 1), way up more factors and
base our decisions and consequences (FUNDEMENTAL characteristics of system two
processing

Strengths
Limitation