2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Social Construction of Individual-Group Relationships : Inter- and Intra- Cultural Comparisons of the Concept of Groupness
| Project/Area Number |
15530397
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Social psychology
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Gakugei University |
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Principal Investigator |
SUGIMORI Shinkichi Tokyo Gakugei University, Department of Education, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (60266541)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | group perception / socialization in group / group dynamics / group size / independence-interdependence |
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| Research Abstract |
Group perception, group dynamics, and cultural psychology have been central themes of social psychology. But interestingly, research endeavor to integrate these important topics has been less developed than other areas. This study is one of the pioneering efforts to integrate these topics. In doing so, the notion of independent and interdependent culture was adopted as conceptually parallel with individualism-collectivism.
In independent cultures where their members behave rather independently, there should be a widespread belief that an individual behaves in the same manner whether s/he is in a group or not. On the contrary, in interdependent cultures, where their members behave in a way to maintain relationships with other members, there should be a shared belief that a person behaves differently between when s/he is in a group or alone. Based on this schema, it was hypothesized that estimated proportion of likable and unlikable members in groups in general, organizations, and university in general, should be constant in independent culture, whereas the estimated proportion differs in interdependent culture according to group size of stimulus groups. The result supported the hypothesis. It was also hypothesized that persons of high independence have lower threshold in perceiving groupness because they normally behave rather independently as group members. Using computer graphics of persons, fishes, and boxes with various entittativity, the hypothesis got positive support. These results supported the grand hypothesis that the concept of groupness is culturally construed.
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