Session Information
SES D 02, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Current research in Intercultural Experimental Social Psychology aims to examine the role of doubt in coping with increasing cultural diversity. It is no more possible to provide high quality education within the limited framework of local representations. Social identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) states that belonging to any group leads to discrimination of other groups, because of the need for a positive identity. Oftentimes, a member of one group perceives a member of another group in a stereotypical way by attributing individual traits to the entire group (outgroup homogeneity bias). Hence, all of us have stereotypes of other (gender, ethnic, race, status, age) groups, especially in situations of stress or time pressure. The impression formation model of Fiske and Neuberg (1990) displays the difficulty of non-categorization when the categories seem to be obvious. The analytic information processing tends to be used only when the person is clearly uncategorizable. The problem is that nowadays nobody belongs to only one category (Crisp & Hewstone, 2007). Under different circumstances one of the categories can be the most salient but not necessarily the same all over the time. Thus, while teachers categorize students according to their perception, this risks being inaccurate under certain circumstances because they could feel another of their categories as more salient. Interpreting information according to a single reference frame obstructs communication as well as builds a distorted image of the other cultures (other reference frames) (Ladrmiral & Lipiansky, 1989). Thus, there is considerable challenge for teachers to overcome category thinking.
People usually tend to focus their attention (centration) on the elements which confirm their hypotheses (Snyder & Cantor, 1979) and tend to conserve their opinions (Chapman & Chapman, 1967). The main hypothesis of current research is that introducing some inconsistent elements results in dilution of centration because of doubt (induction of ambiguity). The focus of attention on other elements suspends the first hypothesis validation process. Unlike centration, the mechanism of decentration consists in considering more than one element (Piaget, 1976). There are two sorts of decentration: perceptive (consistent and inconsistent descriptive elements) and representative (more than one way of interpretation). Hence, individuals are able to follow their reasoning instead of “freezing epistemic sequence” (Kruglanski, 1982). Previous research on attitude formation states that attitudes created through on-line processing are stronger than those created through memory-based processing (Bizer, Tormala, Rucker & Petty, 2006). This has a crucial impact on teaching practice; the induction of doubt leads teachers to suspend their judgment, which weakens their categorization. Moreover, unlike in immutable, based-on-reputation contexts, in based-on-situation-contexts students could be themselves and not comply with all the traits of a particular category. The use of such techniques inducing decentration can be one of the means to promote and enforce inclusive intercultural education as well as common citizenship in Europe.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bizer, G.Y., Tormala, Z.L., Rucker, D.D., & Petty, R.E. (2006).Memory-based versus on-line processing: Implications for attitude strength. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 646-653. Chapman, L. J., & Chapman, J. P. (1967). Genesis of popular but erroneous psychodiagnostic observations, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, 193-204. Crisp, R.J. & Hewstone, M. (2007). Multiple social categorization. (Ed.) M.P. Zanna. Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol.39, San Diego, California (pp. 163-254). Fiske, S. T., & Neuberg, S. L. (1990). A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation. In M. P., Zanna (Ed), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 23, 1-74. Kruglanski, A. W. (1980). Lay epistemo-logic process and contents: another look at attribution theory. Psychological Review, 87, 70-87. Ladrmiral, J-R., & Lipiansky, E. M. (1989). Communication interculturelle. Paris, Armand Colin. Piaget, J. (1956). Centration et décentration perceptives et représentatives. Rivista di psicologia, vol.50(4), 205-223. Snyder, M., & Cantor, N. (1979). Testing hypotheses about other people: the use of historical knowledge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, (pp. 330-342). Tajfel, H., & Turner, J.C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In S. Worchel & W. Austin (Eds), The social psychology of intergroup relations, (pp. 33-48. Pacific Grove, CA/ Brooks/Cole. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J.C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. Austin (Eds), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., pp. 7-24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
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