BY MELISSA BERTOSH

In print | Published April 20, 2006

On Tuesday, Swarthmore hosted Stanford University psychology professor Hazel Rose Markus in a Tri-Co Colloquium talk addressing social class and its influence on models of agency and choice. Markus spoke to the large audience of students and faculty members about how culture and class influence behavior, a popular issue in the field of psychology today.

To illustrate the high value that Americans place on choice, Markus used magazine advertisements for vodka, French fries and office chairs, each of which plainly stressed the importance of consumer agency. Using a Sesame Street jingle, Markus also emphasized America’s disjointed model, which values separateness of others and individuality.

This disjointed model, Markus pointed out, is much different from a more Eastern, collectivist point of view. In Japan, for example, the lone self is equated with a “non-self” and the social self cannot be defined in isolation from the social other. Relationships, compliance and responsiveness to others define their view of agency in contrast to the Western individualistic outlook.

Markus presented the audience with evidence of how the cultures of the East and West are reflected in varying behaviors. In a study by Iyengar and Lepper, European American and Asian children were given themed anagram puzzles to solve under different contexts. One group of children was allowed to pick which themed anagram to work with, another was told with which themed anagram they would work and another was told their mothers had chosen a certain themed anagram with which they were to work.

Results showed European-American children excelled when they were able to choose their own themed anagram, while Asian children excelled when their mothers chose the theme.

Markus presented numerous other studies, each of which supported the hypothesis that freedom of choice greatly affected the behavior of European-Americans.

Markus then transitioned her presentation toward social class and its influence on agency within America, showing tables juxtaposing levels of education in Americans and the correlation to differences in behavior. Middle class Americans, studies show, seem to have more choices than working class Americans; however, Markus suggested to the audience that the working class merely exhibits a different kind of agency. Freedom of choice, she said, was merely more of a priority for middle class Americans.

Researchers arrived at a similar conclusion after conducting a study in which middle class subjects, given a choice of four pens, were more likely to choose a unique pen rather than three identical pens. A related study found that after choosing a pen, the middle class strongly objected to the replacement of that pen by a different pen that they did not choose. Markus also cited other studies to illustrate how social class influences agency and difference within cultures themselves.

Students in attendance were generally surprised by Markus’s presentation. “I liked how she showed us the worldwide differences and then followed up with differences within our own culture. I was surprised at the variation here in America; I thought that in general most Americans had the same beliefs and goals,” said Christine Duranza ’08.

Brian Roth ‘09 was also impressed with the presentation. "I liked how she ended the presentation with an advertisement directed at America’s working class, but pointed out how clearly it conflicted with what appeals to them. The practical application was very important to me," he said. “However, as with all psychology, I’m always weary of the generalizations that lead to stereotyping.”

Hazel Rose Markus has done most of her research in self-formation and how individual characters are shaped. Although she has mostly focused on the role of culture in this process, she has begun analyzing the role of class, an unstudied variable gaining relevance in the past 20 years.

She has received many awards and honors in her career as a fellow of the American Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A former President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Markus is now a recipient of the Donald T. Campbell award from SPSP for contributions to social psychology.

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