HL lenses (applied across all four Contexts) practice questions.

Distinguish the concepts: which term refers to the shared norms, values and practices transmitted between members of a group, whereas the other refers to how strongly a society emphasises individual goals over group goals?

• Culture and cultural dimensions
• Enculturation and acculturation
• Etic and emic approaches
• Cultural norms and social identity

Answer: Culture and cultural dimensions

Culture is the shared, transmitted system of norms and values; a cultural dimension (e.g. individualism–collectivism) describes where a society sits on a measurable value continuum.

Berry's study of conformity comparing the Temne (rice-farming) and Inuit (hunting) peoples supports which claim about culture and behaviour?

• Conformity is genetically fixed and identical across cultures
• Tight farming societies conform more than loose hunting ones
• Individualist cultures conform more than collectivist cultures
• Conformity depends only on group size, not on cultural context

Answer: Tight farming societies conform more than loose hunting ones

Berry found the tightly-organised Temne conformed more than the independent Inuit, linking subsistence economy and socialisation practices to conformity levels.

Which study is most commonly used as evidence that cultural dimensions (individualism–collectivism) influence attribution?

• Loftus and Palmer (1974) on leading questions and eyewitness memory
• Miller (1984) comparing American and Indian attributions
• Bandura (1961) Bobo doll
• Milgram (1963) obedience

Answer: Miller (1984) comparing American and Indian attributions

Miller found American (individualist) participants made more dispositional attributions while Indian (collectivist) participants made more situational ones, and this gap widened with age.

A researcher applies a Western-developed depression questionnaire directly to a non-Western sample without adaptation, assuming the construct is universal. This is an example of which methodological problem?

• An emic approach
• An imposed etic
• Cultural relativism
• Ecological validity

Answer: An imposed etic

An imposed etic applies a construct or tool developed in one culture to another as though it were universal, risking cultural bias; an emic approach studies behaviour from within the culture.

According to social identity theory (Tajfel), the process by which individuals classify themselves and others into groups is called:

• Social comparison
• Social categorisation
• Positive distinctiveness
• Self-serving bias

Answer: Social categorisation

Social categorisation is the first stage, dividing the world into in-groups and out-groups; social comparison and positive distinctiveness follow to enhance self-esteem.

Which finding best illustrates that cultural background can shape perception?

• HM was unable to form new long-term memories
• Some groups were less prone to the Müller-Lyer illusion
• London taxi drivers had a larger posterior hippocampus
• Participants obeyed an authority figure up to 450 volts

Answer: Some groups were less prone to the Müller-Lyer illusion

The carpentered-world hypothesis explains cross-cultural differences in susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer illusion, showing perception is partly shaped by cultural environment.