Why do people help others? It’s a simple question but it intrigues psychologists because it doesn’t make sense evolutionarily speaking. In this post we look at one simple explanation: empathy. Why do we humans help one another when there’s nothing to be gained for ourselves? This seems to contradict what we know about evolutionary psychology – that we instinctively look …
Power Distance and Plane Crashes: The Gladwell Hypothesis
I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book “Outliers.” In this book, Gladwell gives an interesting psychological explanation for why some countries have higher rates of plane crashes than others. The “Gladwell Hypothesis,” as it has come to be known, suggests that plane crashes can be explained by looking at cultural values. In particular, the cultural dimension of “power distance.” Power …
Globalization & Behaviour Part ThreeImmigration and Terrorism
It seems like a simple question – how does globalization influence behaviour? But the explanation is actually quite tricky since globalization itself is a rather abstract concept. Because of this, we need to find concrete examples. In the first two posts in this series we focused on changes in cultural dimensions and television through Westernization (see links below). This final …
Globalization & Behaviour Part TwoDoes Western TV cause eating disorders?
How does globalization influence behaviour? First we need to understand what globalization is and how it occurs. In the second post in this series, we review the definition of globalization and examine another potential example of its influence on human behaviour – through Western TV, the thin ideal and eating disorders. Globalization is often referred to as Westernization because the …
How does globalization influence behaviour?Part I: The rise of Japanese individualism and its effects on happiness
A simple way to understand how globalization has influenced human behaviour is to look at how some cultures values have changed over time. It is important to note that globalization is often referred to as Westernization, as the result is most frequently cultures adapting more Western values. In the first post in this globalization series, we are going to look …
Key Study: Conformity Across Cultures (Berry, 1967)
Conformity is one of the most popular topics in psychology. Not surprisingly, it’s also one of the most studied. The origins of conformity studies go back to Solomon Asch’s famous “line length” experiments. Almost as old is Berry’s now classic study that asked the question: why do different cultures have different rates of conformity? Conformity is the act of behaving …
Key Study: The Marshmallow Test Across Cultures: German vs. Cameroon Kids (Lamm et al. 2018)An example of how enculturation can influence behaviour.
“The Marshmallow Test” was designed by Stanford Psychologist Walter Mischel in the 1960s. It’s a test of a kid’s ability to delay gratification – to wait for something they really want. The ability to delay gratification has been correlated with a number of successful outcomes, including doing better at school, getting higher SATs and being less likely to end up …
Exam Question Bank: Paper 1: Sociocultural Approach
Disclaimer: These questions are not IB “official” questions and are written with our best guess as to what the probable exam questions may look like. Therefore, not every possible question is covered. Read More: IB Psychology Exam Question Banks Paper 1: Biological approach (Link) Paper 1: Cognitive approach (Link) Paper 1: HL Ext Bio Animal Studies (Link) Paper 1: HL Ext …
Cell phones at the dinner table – a qualitative observation (Radesky et al.)
Mobile phones are everywhere and they are consuming more and more of our time. Could this be having an effect on family life? The researchers who conducted this study wanted to investigate how cell phones might influence the interactions of parents and children. The researchers used a nonparticipant, covert observational method by watching a total of 55 caregivers eating with …
Exam Question Bank: HL Extension SocCult – Globalization
One, two or all three essay questions in Paper 1, Section B will be based on the extension topics. Sociocultural Approach: Globalization Remember that the extension questions are created by combining the HL extension topics with the three topics in each of the approaches. Sociocultural extension topics: “The influence of globalization on individual behaviour.” How globalization may influence behaviour The …