The Socio-Cultural Approach

1. The Socio-Cultural Approach Defining Principles

2. Volkerpsychologie • German – ‘Psychology of Peoples’ • “A comparative and historical, social and cultural psychology dealing with the cultural products (language, myth, custom etc) resulting from social interaction.” • Dominated from 18th to 20th century • Central assumption: importance of the cultural and linguistic community in which the formation and education of the individual personality takes place. • Language is the medium through which a community shapes its individual members, who then actively contribute to that language, which is thus a social product. (Markova , 1983)

3. National identity and Germany • Today we tend to talk about society as a social context which shapes experiences and the individual but Volkerpsychogie focused more on national and cultural community • Volkerpsychologie raised many questions of national importance relating to politics of the time in Germany.

4. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) • founding father of experimental psychology • practiced introspection- looking inwards to analyse mental life as it happened • realised this was subjective: mental events are expressed or communicated and possibly shaped by language • believed that an adequate study of mind should start by examining “its major objectifications, such as language, myth and custom and account for their cultural and historical variations” • believed that “experimental psychology of the decontextualised “subject” must be complemented by a study of the major manifestations of mind.”

5. Growth of Social Psychology • began to forget the cultural element of Volkpsychologie • worked on becoming more empirical in its methods (social experiments) rather than focusing on qualitative data collection • construction of meaning aspect handed over to sociology, anthropology etc. • Recently rediscovered by European social psychologists: • Wundt’s final belief that experimental psychology is only half of what psychology can be is finding more and more supporters, (Hewstone and Stroebe, 2001).

6. Carmichael, Hogan and Walter (1932) • An experiment to try for yourselves to demonstrate that language shapes thinking. • hogan and carmichael sheet.pdf

7. Ludwig Wittgenstein The limits of my language mean the limits of my world

8. Language shapes thinking • Pormpuraaw: a small Aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia • the Kuuk Thaayorre have no words for left and right and instead use the compass points at all times dependent upon their spatial orientation • http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

9. Language shapes thinking • English speakers tend to talk about time using horizontal spatial metaphors • "The best is ahead of us," • "The worst is behind us“ • Mandarin speakers have a vertical metaphor for time • the next month is the "down month" • the last month is the "up month". • Mandarin speakers talk about time vertically more often than English speakers do, so do Mandarin speakers think about time vertically more often than English speakers do?

10. Language shapes thinking • English speakers prefer to talk about duration in terms of length • "That was a short talk," • "The meeting didn't take long“ • Spanish and Greek speakers prefer to talk about time in terms of amount, relying more on words like "much" "big", and "little" • If you show English speakers a line on a screen they are likely to confuse how long they saw it for based on how long the line was; this doesn't happen for Spanish/Greek speakers but the effect does happen if you show them a shape of differing size! • If you teach English speakers to describe time in same way as Spanish or teach Spanish to describe time like English, then they begin making similar errors as native speakers demonstrating that language does affect thinking.

11. Crowd/Mob Psychology,Le Bon.(1895) • The study of the mind and behaviour of masses and crowds; the experience of individuals in such crowds. • Where did these ideas stem from? • Hypnosis • Bacteriology • Criminology

12. Hypnosis and social influence • Anton Mesmer had discovered that he could put people into a trance ; a lowered state of consciousness. • argued that this rendered the mind more primitive and open to suggestion. • developed by Scotsman James Braid who coined the term hypnosis from the Greek god of sleep ‘Hypnos’ • used for both diagnostic and treatment purposes • revealed as a model of social influence • Led to interest in social situations which can lead to similar primitive state • People began to think that when people are in crowds they are influenced to become more irrational, primitive and emotional.

13. Bacteriology • Medical breakthroughs by 19th century scientists demonstrated the process of bacteriological contagion. • Influenced thinking about the spread of affect/emotion in crowds: social or mental contagion • also the spread of anomie (term used by sociologist Durkheim: a state in which dominant social norms are questioned, ignored or rejected);

14. Criminology • Ideas stemmed also from the field of criminology; diminished responsibility; subconscious and affective state of mind of the individual submerged in the crowd. • In the crowd the individual becomes... • more primitive • more infantile • less intelligent • less guided by reason • less responsible

15. Social/political climate • threats to the established political, social and moral order • the masses were feared and thought responsible for ‘social evils’ • science was required to analyse what was going on and eventually learn to control the masses. • Medical/criminal model was popular.

16. American Social Psychology • Allport “the science that studies the behaviour of the individual in so far as his behaviour stimulates other individuals or is itself a reaction to this behaviour”. • social psychology became more experimental; enhanced credibility/funding • began to divide Pps from the social context again • move away from the study of social issues until economic and political crises such as the great depression and WW2 • Attitude measurement and change; measurement helped enhance scientific status; • But social psychology called to account in 70s as having lost sight of social meaningfulness and social relevance; methods over problems

17. Society for the psychological study of social issues • 1930s and 1940s • Social psychologists in the free countries not only helped try to win the war but planned for a better world of democratic societies. • Kurt Lewin (Jewish refugee from Berlin), came up with idea of field theory; focused on group dynamics; the primacy of the whole; interdependence. • Worked with groups to change conduct, morale, prejudice, style of leadership etc. • Developed ‘action research’

18. ‘Euro-American’ Social Psychology • Heider: social psychology of interpersonal relations, consistency and attribution • Many American Social psychologists (e.g. Sherif and Asch); had emigrated from Europe • ideas became Americanised as they attempted to fit into American society. • Social behaviour and interaction became less interesting than social cognition; the cognitive representation of this of social interaction

19. Social psychology in post war Europe • Henri Tajfel and Serge Moscovici campaigned for a ‘more social ‘social psychology • “the cultural ethos of self contained individualism having shaped the discipline beyond recognition of its original conception”. • Tajfel’s interests: • degree to which experience and behaviour are embedded in and shaped by the properties of the culture and society we live in • Social psychology can and must include ... • “a direct concern with the relationship between human psychological functioning and the large scale social processes and events which shape this functioning and are shaped by it. (Tajfel 1981). • Studied ... stereotypes, prejudice, intergroup behaviour, social influence, minorities, and social representations

20. Full circle! • Growing concern for language and its role in interpersonal and intergroup communication; • Social construction of a shared reality; asking questions about how individuals construct a common reality (shared beliefs, norms, values, expectations, norms, roles; socialisation process)