Question: Evaluate the use of one research method used in the sociocultural approach to study the
behaviour of the individual and the group.
One research method used in the sociocultural approach is the use of experiments. An experiment is a research method wherein the researcher looks for, or shows a cause and effect relationship between the independent and dependent variable. The independent variable is the one which is manipulated throughout the experiment, hence affecting the dependent variable. The results of the experiment are usually determined by the change that the dependent variable has seen due to manipulation in the independent variable. This in turn shows us the cause and effect relationship. When talking about individual and the group, most researches conducted in this area correspond to Asch’s paradigm. The aim of the experiment conducted by Asch was to study the extent to which participants would conform to fit into the group, when given a simple task. The experiment was that participants were shown three lines drawn on one card and one line drawn on the other card and they were to identify which of the three lines were to correspond to the one drawn on the other card. The experiment was first performed with participants individually coming into the room so as to check whether they had understood the task. Herein most participants always answered correctly as the task was extremely easy and comprehendible. This acted as a control to the experiment. The same task was then performed with both participants and confederates in the room. In this case, the researchers noticed that most of the times participants tended to conform to the group. When all of the confederates gave the wrong answer the participants also ended up giving the wrong answer. The researchers concluded that participants tended to conform in the group. It must be noted that this experiment is highly standardised as it is replicable, it makes use of a control group which eliminates the possibility of ambiguity, and also debriefing was carried out at the end of the experiment. While these act as the strengths of this experiment, we see that a major limitation to the experiment is that it is a lab experiment, hence making it low on ecological validity. This in turn also leads us to the fact that the task had no personal/ emotional connect to it. In case the task had had personal meaning to it, the results may have been affected. Also, the level of conformity may have been affected by various confounding variables, such as culture, in-group (considering that all of the participants in the experiment were men), or the fact that the answer was to be given publicly instead of making use of unanimity. Hence, in this case, where Asch has made use of a lab experiment to test the relationship between individual and the group and the level of conformity, we can say that the results may not necessarily be true for all cases due to factors such as the confounding variables listed above and also the fact the experiment is low on ecological validity as it a lab experiment. Another experiment to be discussed in this case would be the one conducted by Abram. His experiment was a replication of Asch’s, the only difference being that his aim was to test the level of conformity a participant would show in his/ her in-group as compared to that shown in the out- group. His hypothesis was that people were more likely to conform to their in-group. The experiment was carried out with a freshmen class of psychology students. The students were to take a visual accuracy test. In the experiment the confederates were introduced as either psychology or history students. It was found in the experiment that the conformity rates among participants were higher when the confederates were introduced as psychology students as this would be their in- group. This too is a lab experiment, and is hence low on eco-logical validity. It must also be noted that in this case as well, culture, gender and the fact that the answer was to be given publicly, may act as confounding variables. However, this too is a highly standardised, replicable experiment. Another experiment that explores the individual and the group was by Tajfel. Through his experiment, Tajfel aimed to explore in-groupism and out groupism. The experiment consisted of 14- 15 year old boys who were divided into two groups based on their liking of one of the two painting that they were shown previously. They were then instructed to rate their own team members with a point system such that a higher point given to their own team member would also result in a higher point given to the other team. However, if they were to give their own team member a lower point, the other team would get only one point. It was noted that the boys tended to give lower points to their own teammates so as to increase the “profit” (in terms of points) for their own group. A strength of this experiment is that it is highly controlled and standardised and is hence replicable. However, there are many limitations to this task. First, the task was highly artificial, and was hence, low on ecological validity. Also demand characteristics may have played a role, as the boys may have interpreted the task as a competition, thinking that they are expected to win. Another major limitation to be considered in this case is that the experiment was performed with only a particular age group and the sample consisted of only one gender, hence the experiment can not be generalised. In conclusion, in all of the examples given above, we see that all of the studies are lab experiments. One thing that all of these hold common is the fact that these experiments are extremely low on ecological validity as they lack real life setting. Other limitations that we see due to these studies being lab experiments, include: confounding variables, demand characteristics and majorly ecological validity. A major strength seen throughout all of these experiments includes the fact that these are standardised as they all have controlled variables, hence, making them replicable. Thus, we can say that lab experiments may be used to test a lot factors within individual and the group, however the results may not hold true in all situations, given external factor which may be difficult to take into consideration in a lab setting.