𝒮𝑜𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓁 𝐼𝓃𝒻𝓁𝓊𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒౨ৎ

Question 1

social influence

Answer 1

the scientific study of the ways in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are affected by other people.

Question 2

conformity

Answer 2

a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a results of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.

Question 3

compliance

Answer 3

when someone alters behaviour or opinions to that of a group to gain acceptance and avoid ridicule. weak and temporary form of conformity - displayed only in the presence of a group.

Question 4

identification

Answer 4

when someone alters behaviour or opinions to that of a group was group membership is desirable - there is something in that friendship that they value. stronger, lasts a longer time, but still a temporary (beliefs not maintained outside the group)

Question 5

internalisation

Answer 5

whne someone fully coverts their behaviour and opinions to that of a group
public and private acceptance of the group’s behaviour and attitudes and belief system.
this is a stronger, permanent form of conformity.

Question 6

normative social influence

Answer 6

occurs when people conform because they want to
be part of the majority
and gain social apporoval
often will result in compliance
or a superficial change in behaviour
. emotional process- wanting to gain approva
l and not face rejection.

Question 7

informational social influence

Answer 7

occurs when people conform because they are not sure what to do
thus they look to majority as a source of information. often will result in internalisation
- more cognitive process; follow the group because we believe they are correct.

Question 8

evaluations of NSI (ASCH)

Answer 8

p: research to support NSI
e: asch, when interviewing ppts, aid they conformed because they felt foolish and self-conscious; afraid of disapproval.
e: supports NSI - shows people will conform because they don’t want to be rejected + want approval. thus good explan.
l: conducted in highly controlled lab setting - lacked eco val. so findings are difficult to generalise + unclear if we can use this to support NSI.

Question 9

evaluations of NSI (SHULTZ et al)

Answer 9

p: irl research to support
e: shultz et al (2008) - guests at hotel were informed others were reusing towels (normative information). reduced need of fresh towels by 25%
e: NSI would argue guests conformed to fit in w perceived group behaviour. strength - shows NSI can occur in irl settings, inc. ex. val + good explanation for conformity.
l: NSI doesn’t affect everyone in the same way. nAffiliators have a greater need for association w others, more likely to conform. limited explanation, cannot be applied to everything in the same way.

Question 10

explanations of ISI (LUCAS et al)

Answer 10

p: research to support ISI
e: Lucas et al (2006), students when given math problems, hard and easy, there was more conformity with the harder maths questions + even more conformity if they rated their maths ability as poor.
e: shows people conform in situations where they are unsure o the answer - copying majority. good explanation cos there is research to support, inc. ex. val.
l: ISI doesn’t affect everyone in the same way - individual differences. Asch found students were less likely to conform than other types. decr. ex. val. - limited explan. cannot be applied to everyone (many factors influencing conformity.)

Question 11

evaluation of ISI and NSI (theorists)

Answer 11

p: difficult to distinguish which one is happening at the time.
e: asch, in a variation found people won’t conform if a dissenter disagreed w the group - acts as social support, alternative source of info.
e: behaviour could be ISI (correct answer) but also could be NSI (conforming to not feel stupid). suggests both ISI and NSI is involved at the same time rather than just one.
l: suggests future research is needed to be done / both explanations need to be combined in order to achieve a fuller explanation of conformity.

Question 12

ASCH’S study

Answer 12

procedure:
- 123 male undergrad american students
- 6-8 confederates w a participant
- seated around a table (ppt always second to last)
- 18 trials, 12 critical trials (of lying)
- visual task: three lines of diff lenghts A, B, C
- then shown a picture of a single line, A, B, C
- took turns to call out which lines they thought were the same length
- unambiguous task; confeds were instructed to give the same incorrect answer.

results:
- average conformity rates : 33%
- 25% didn’t conform
- half didn’t conform to 6 or more trials
- 1 in 20 ppts conformed in all critical trials.

checked the unambiguity of the stimulus
- conducted a control condition where confeds did not distract by giving wrong answers
- 1% of students made mistakes
- asch interviewed ppts after: said they felt self conscious and foolish. many changed public opinions but kept their private ones to avoid disapproval.

Question 13

Asch’s variations: group size

Answer 13

1 confed: 3% conformed in critical trials
2 confeds: 12.8% conformed ‘’
3 confeds: 31.8% conformed ‘’

increasing no. of confeds had little to no change in conformity

Question 14

Asch’s variations: unanimity

Answer 14

unanimity - the extent to which all members of a group agree.

new confed who disagreed w others, sometimes right sometimes wrong
= conformity decr. to 9%
new confed who always gave right answer
= conformity decr. to 5%

disrupting unanimous position will reduce conformity, even if they were wrong.

Question 15

Asch’s variations: task difficulty

Answer 15

ncreased the difficult of the line task
- conformity increased

ISI plays a greater role when the difficult of task increases - task = more ambiguous so more look to others for guidance.

Question 16

evaluation of Asch: refute

Answer 16

p: opposing research found
e: Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s study in UK - one student conformed out of 396 trials.
e: OG study replicated, diff findings decr. reliability —> maybe a more conformist time so society has changed.
l: lacks temp. val. - cannot be generalised, asch effect is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.

Question 17

evaluation of Asch: mundane realism

Answer 17

p: lack mundane realism
e: task has little relevance to everyday experience of conformity. ppt may have found out the aim of the study and followed its demands (demand characteristics)
e: findings cannot be generalised to everyday situations where conformity consequences may be more important.
l: lacks ex val. canot apply to real life

Question 18

evaluation of Asch: generalisability

Answer 18

p: lacks generalisability
e: consisted of white American male undergrad students
e: women are more conformist based on other research - more concerned about social relationships than men. USA is individualist - other countries e.g china are more collectivist thus conformity rates may be higher there as they are more orientated to meeting group needs.
l: limited sample, cannot be generalised, decr. ex. val.

Question 19

evaluation of Asch: ethical issues

Answer 19

p: there were ethical issues
e: ppts deceived, thought confeds were genuine in their responses. deceived about task.
e: breaks ethical guidelines of BPS, damages rep of psychology
l: could not have been conducted w/o deception - argued that this is useful in understanding human behaviour and conformity. benefits outweigh the ethical costs.

Question 20

social roles

Answer 20

the ‘parts’ people play in society e.g parent or student. these are accompanied by what is appropriate behaviour in each role e.g. caring, obedient etc.

Question 21

Zimbardo’s research

Answer 21

procedure:
- male student volunteers from Stanford Uni
- randomly assigned to tole of guards or prisoners
- made sure they were mentally and physically fit before participating
- uniforms given
- in the basement of the psych dep. in Stanford Uni.
- prisoners given numbers
- guards given wooden clubs and handcuffs
- supposed to last 2 weeks

results:
- guards treated prisoners very harshly by harassing/demoralising/punishing smallest misbehaviours
- guards identified w their roles (loss of identity of guards)
- 1 prisoner left due to physically disturbed symptoms
- prisoners rebelled
- 2 prisoners released form symptoms of disturbance

all conformed to their roles within the prison due to de-individualisation. shows power of the situations to influence people’s behaviour.

Question 22

evaluation of Zimbardo (controlled)

Answer 22

p: strength was that it was highly controlled in a lab setting
e: sample selection - checked ppts to see if they were mentally and physically and emotionally stable and randomly allocated them into different roles: guards and prisoners. thus behaviour can be assumed from the pressures and roles in that situation
e: int. val increases - confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of social roles
l: demand characteristics could’ve been shown - acting based on stereotypes, not rly conforming to the role.

Question 23

evaluation of Zimbardo (ethical issues)

Answer 23

p: major ethical issues
e: Zimbardo was both the lead researcher and ‘superintendent’, he obvs wanted study to carry on. when someone wanted to leave he reacted as the superintendent and refused for them to go. 5 ppts released early as a response
e: limited Z’s ability to protect his participants from harm - role conflicted with other role - lead to researcher bias, affecting int. val of results.
l: results beneficial for psychological advances + knowledge. can teach officers to act individually and educate about the dangers of behaving how they expect to. highlights value of psychology in soc.

Question 24

evaluation of Zimbardo (over-exaggerated)

Answer 24

p: over exaggerated the power of a situation to influence behaviour
e: only small minority o the guards (1/3) behaved in a brutal manner. another 1/3 were3 keen on applying the roles fairly, and the rest actively tried helping and supporting the prisoners e.g sympathising, sharing cigs, reinstating privileges.
e: matters; suggests Z;s concl. that ppts were conforming may have been overestimated. differences in guards behaviour indicate har some were able to exercise wrong from right. maybe diff personality types that makes us prone to conforming.
l: lacks ex. val. as is contradicts Z’a concl. that ppl conform to situational pressure. more research should be done in order to gain fuller explan. for conformity, why and why not ppl conform

Question 25

evaluation of Zimbardo (lacks research support)

Answer 25

p: lacks research support and has been contradicted by recent research
e: Reicher and Haslam (2006) partially replicated the SPE and found guards failed to identify with their roles - reluctant to impose authority. g eventually overthrown by p
e: findings of SPE may be only applicable at the time in history - behaviour in OG exp. not an automatic consequence of role but a choice. decr. ex val - other factors affect conformity.
l: different findings may be due to the ppt variables. ppt maybe less likely to conform due to their bio makeup/personality differences = contradicts results of OG. questions if this can be used to refute findings of OG study.

Question 26

obedience definition

Answer 26

a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. the person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour doesn’t occur.

Question 27

Milgram’s study (1963)

Answer 27

procedure:
- 40 male participants aged 20-50 years (yale uni)
- recruited via newspaper advert
- deceived, study about memory
- randomly assigned to teacher or learner (deceieved - real ppt was always the teacher + confed = learner)
- leaner placed in separate room
- teacher gives learner on increasingly severe shocks at every mistake (15-450V)
- 300V = pounded on wall
- 315V = no response

results:
- 100% went up to 300V
- 65% went up to 450V

—> done on women as well
signs of swearing, trembling, and seizures.

ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by authority figure even to the extent of killing someone.

Question 28

situational variables (Milgram) - location

Answer 28

changed the location from the prestigious Yale uni to run down building
- obedience rates dropped to 47.5%
changing location to somewhere with less status and prestige reduces obedience

Question 29

situational variables (Milgram) - proximity

Answer 29

teacher and learner placed in same room
- obedience rates dropped to 40%

TOUCH
- teacher had to force the learner’s hands onto the electroshock plate to receieve the shock
- obedience dropped to 30%

REMOTE
- experimenter left the room and instructed teacher by telephone from another room
- obedience dropped to 20.5%

reducing the distance between teacher and learner reduced obedience

Question 30

situational variables (Milgram) - uniform

Answer 30

experimenter played by an ordinary member of the public that was wearing everyday clothes rather than a lab coat
- obedience dropped to 20%

uniform is a symbol of authority and produces highest levels of obedience

Question 31

evaluation of Milgram’s research into obedience (replication)

Answer 31

P: supporting replication
E: contestants in a pilot episode for a new game show were paid to give (fake) electric shocks when ordered by the presenter, to confederate participants in front of a studio audience. 80% delivered 460V.
E: supports Milgram’s conclusions about obedience to authority. findings are reliable, not just a one-off chance occurrence.
L: artificial setting - low eco val

Question 32

evaluation of Milgram’s research into obedience (irl support)

Answer 32

P: there is irl support
E: Hofling (1966) studied nurses and found levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high
E: this suggests the findings of Milgram’s research can be generalised to other situations
L: findings are valuable in telling us how obedience operates in real life.

Question 33

evaluation of Milgram’s research into obedience (low int val)

Answer 33

P: low internal validity
E: Milgram was not testing what he intended to test
E: ppts behaved in the way they did because they guessed the shocks weren’t real. many expressed their doubts about the shocks (Perry 2013)
L: however, a similar study was carried out on puppies with real shocks - 54% of men and 100% women delivered what they thought was a fatal shock. suggests the effects in Milgram’s study were genuine.

Question 34

evaluation of Milgram’s research into obedience (ethical issues)

Answer 34

P: ethical issues
E: Deceit - thought allocation of roles of teacher and learner were genuine and random, but it was fixed. also thought the electrical shocks were real.
E: betrayal of trust - damages the reputation of psychologists and their research
L: but it would not have worked so well without some element of deception. research has contribute to understanding of obedience.

Question 35

evaluation of situational variables that affect obedience (role of uniform)

Answer 35

P: there is research support for the role of uniform
E: Bickman (1974), dressed 3 confeds in different outfits - a jacket + a tie, and a milkman’s outfit, and a security guard. they stood in the street asking passers by to pick up litter. the results showed they are most likely to listen to the confed in the security guard uniform.
E: shows uniform conveys authority as the security guard uniform would have been perceived as more authoritative than the other uniforms. conducted in natural setting - inc. confidence in the fact that people behaved truly.
L: clear evidence that uniform is a situational factor that increases obedience levels

Question 36

evaluation of situational variables that affect obedience (high controlled variables)

Answer 36

P: high control over variables
E: he systematically altered one variable at a time e.g. proximity to see what effects would have on the level of obedience whilst keeping all of the other procedures are variables the same - the study was replicated over and over again with more than 1000 participants in total
E: huge strength - means we can be more certain that the findings found are due to the manipulation of the single variation rather than other extraneous variables. Also means that it is possible for other researchers to replicate the study in the exact way to test reliability of finding.
L: extremely important in psychology - Milgram’s original research into situational variables have been repeated in different cultures and similar results have been found therefore suggesting a robust phenomenon is being studied.

Question 37

evaluation of situational variables that affect obedience (lack int val)

Answer 37

P: lack int val
E: Orne and Holland (1968) criticise Milgram’s original study by arguing that worked out that the procedure was fake. Milgram recognised that it was contrived that it was most likely that participants worked out the truth
E: limitation - unclear if results are genuinely due to obedience or rather the participants realised the deception and acted accordingly thus displaying demand characteristics.
L: questions validity of his findings, suggests we can’t be certain that his conclusions about the situational variable affecting obedience are accurate. §

Question 38

evaluation of situational variables that affect obedience (offers excuse)

Answer 38

P: excuses evil behaviour
E: although the findings show that the proximity of the experimenter, teacher and learner, the location of the study and the presence of the uniform or situational factors that influence obedience. Mandel (1998) argues that this argument is offensive to survivors of horrible atrocities such as the Holocaust suggesting Nazis were simply victims of situational factors beyond their control
E: removes personal responsibility from the perpetrators and only doing the duties under being orders; situation would’ve behaved in the same way
L: runs the risk of minimising the evil behaviours that occur by providing an ‘alibi’ for this behaviour

Question 39

social psychological explanations (definition

Answer 39

focuses on the influence of others on an individual’s behaviour rather than external factors in the situation.

Question 40

agency theory

Answer 40

when we act as the agent (representative) of someone in authority, we find it easy to deny personal responsibility for our actions an instead will pass this responsibility onto someone else.

Question 41

autonomous state

Answer 41

individuals direct their own behaviour and take responsibility for the consequences.

Question 42

agentic state

Answer 42

ndividuals allow someone else to direct their behaviour - they pass responsibility to them

Question 43

binding factors

Answer 43

Aspects of the situation that reduce moral strain, minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour and keeps someone being obedient

Question 44

legitimacy of authority

Answer 44

An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy.

Question 45

destructive authority

Answer 45

powerful leaders (e.g. Hitler) use their power for disruptive purposes by ordering people to behave in ways that are callous, cruel, stupid and dangerous.

Question 46

evaluations of agency theory - blass and schmitt (2001)

Answer 46

P: research support
E: Blass and Schmitt (2001) showed a video of Milgram’s study to students and they asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner –> most blamed experimenter than participant
E: Milgram is believed to have authority and we pass responsibility onto those with authority according to agency theory
E: suggests agency theory is a good explanation as there is evidence to show that it really happens in real life
L: however, it was an artificial task - not reflective of real life, thus lacks mundane realism. there may have been individual differences and this may have been different if they were actually there.

Question 47

evaluations of agency theory - limited explanation

Answer 47

P: limited explanation
E: agentic shift doesn’t explain many of the research findings e.g did not explain why some of the ppts did not obey
E: suggests there are individual differences that aren’t accounted for by agency theory - can’t explain why some experience agentic shift and some don’t
L: this is a limited explanations and therefore lacks external validity because it cannot be applied or generalised to everyone in the same way

Question 48

evaluations of legit authority - irl crimes of obedience

Answer 48

P: real life crimes of obedience
E: can help explain events such as My Lai massacre where authority figures abused their powers and tortured prisoners
E: there is evidence people obey who they perceive have authority, and in the wrong hands, the power of authority can be destructive.
L: therefore, LoA is a useful explanation of IRL war crimes. can help us understand how to prevent these in the future and teach this to children to challenge LoA rather than mindlessly obeying.

Question 49

evaluations of legit authority - cultural differences

Answer 49

P: cultural differences
E: Kilburn and Mann (1974) replicated Milgram’s procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of ppts went to the top voltage scale. on the other hand, Mantell (1971) found that 85% of german ppts delivered the max shock
E: different cultures = different tolerance of ppts against authority. some place more importance on following orders due to LoA than others.
L: therefore LoA is a limited explanation of obedience, thus cannot be applied to everyone in the same way (can’t be generalised)

Question 50

explanation of obedience - dispositional obedience

Answer 50

Explains human behaviour as being caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual’s personality.

Question 51

explanation of obedience - authoritarian personality

Answer 51

A type of personality that is susceptible to obeying people in authority.

Question 52

why and how does an authoritarian personality develop?

Answer 52

Harsh parenting
- strict discipline, expectation to be loyal, high standards, severe criticism of perceived failings etc
- characterised by conditional love
- created hostility and resentment in the child and cannot express directly to parents so they displace these feelings onto the weak. (scapegoating)

Question 53

authoritarian personality research - Adorno et al (1950)

Answer 53

procedure:
- investigated the cause of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes toward other racial groups
- developed several studies to investigate this including the fascism scale (F-scale) which is still used to measure authoritarian personalities.

findings:
- people with authoritarian leanings (scored higher) identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’
- conscious of their own and others’ status, showing excessive respect and servility to those of higher status
- those with this personality had a cognitive style were they could easily categorise people with fixed and distinctive stereotypes.
- strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Question 54

evaluation of explanations of obedience - research support

Answer 54

P: research support
E: Milgram and Elms conducted a study in which they interviewed ppts who scored highly on the F-scale test –> found strong pos. correlation between obedience and authoritarian personality traits
E: supports this - shows there is a link between obedience and this personality suggesting that higher authoritarian personalities increase obedience rates
L: however, this study only found a relationship between obedience and authoritarian personality. there are issues in establishing cause and effect where it is unclear if obedience causes people to develop authoritarian personalities or the other way round

Question 55

evaluation of explanations of obedience - limited explanation

Answer 55

P: limited explanation
E: cannot explain all types of obedience highly unlikely that all germans had an authoritarian personality in the Holocaust
E: limitations because it fails to consider individual differences - there may be other reasons why people obey e.g agency theory argues they have adopted an agentic state whereby they have taken away personal responsibilty and passed it on
L: limits the real world application of the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience.

Question 56

evaluation of explanations of obedience - flawed methodology

Answer 56

P: flawed methodology
E: F-scale is used to measure authoritarian personality
E: create inaccurate results i.e social desirability bias, or didn’t understand question therefore may score highly even though they don’ have that personality
L: decr. int. val. - questions whether it can be used to support Adorno’s theory

Question 57

evaluation of explanations of obedience - biased sample

Answer 57

P: biased sample
E: only looked at 2000 middle class white Americans - more likely to be authoritarians due to demographics at the time
E: research lacks population validity - conclusions made cannot be generalised to people outside the sample. + diff. societies have diff views surrounding obedience. some cultures may appear more authoritarian due to social norms
L: limits generalisability of the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience - comprised of an unrepresentative, biased sample.

Question 58

resistance to social influence definition

Answer 58

the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or obey to authority.

this ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by situational and dispositional factors

Question 59

what is social support?

Answer 59

a situational explanation for resistance to social influence where the presence of people who resist the pressures to conform or obey help others to do the same. these people act as models to show others that resistance is possible.
e.g. unanimity

Question 60

social support - conformity

Answer 60

• pressure to conform can be reduced if dissenters are present
• Asch’s unanimity variation showed this
  –> however found that this was temporary; if the dissenters start to conform, so will the ppts

Question 61

social support - obedience

Answer 61

• the pressure to obey can be reduced if there are other disobedient present
• Milgram’s variation, rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when disobedient confed was introduced.
• naive ppt may not follow disobedient confed but seed has been planted that THEY DON’T HAVE TO OBEY.

Question 62

what is locus of control?

Answer 62

a dispositional explanation for the resistance to social influence. the sense we have about what directs events in our lives.

Question 63

internal locus of control

Answer 63

an individual who believes their life is determined by their own actions and decisions and efforts
- take more responsibility for actions and experience
- more likely to base decisions on own beliefs
- more self-confident, achievement orientated, higher intelligence, and less need for social approval.
- believe in free will (usually)
- resist pressure from others

Question 64

external locus of control

Answer 64

an individual who believes their life is determined by external/environmental factors e.g luck and fate.
- more likely to be influenced by others + obey others
-believe they don’t have personal control over their life
- face stressful situations w/ a passive attitude

Question 65

evaluation of resistance to social influence (RSI) - social support (research to support conformity)

Answer 65

p: research to support
e: Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decr. when dissenter present in Asch’s study (even when wrong)
e: shows resistance is not motivated by following what someone says - enables someone to be free from pressure of group —> good explanation of S.S for resistance to RSI
l: task was artificial, lacks mundane realism, not reflective of real life resistance to social influence —> findings cannot be used to support S.S as an explanation for RSI

Question 66

evaluation of resistance to social influence - social support (research to support obedience)

Answer 66

p: research to support obedience
e: Gamson et al (1982) found higher levels of resistance that Milgram - 88% ppts rebelled when disobedient confed was present
e: shows that SS is linked to greater resistance to obedience; confed acted as SS, thus good explanation to resistance to obedience
l: study was unethical; ppts deceived about aim and presence of dissenter. breaks BPS guidelines, BUT NECESSARY because true behaviour was observed. still a good explanation, research findings outweigh ethical costs

Question 67

evaluation of resistance to social influence - locus of control (LOC) (research to support resistance to obedience)

Answer 67

p: research to support LOC as an explanation to resistance to obedience
e: Holland (1967) replicated Milgram’s study and measured whether ppts were internals or externals.
37% internals did not continue to highest shock level, 23% externals did not continue
e: internals show greater resistance to authoroity by being less likely to obey as lower % of external LOC resisted the instructions to deliver fatal shocks
l: incr. ex. val of LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain RSI

Question 68

evaluation of resistance to social influence - LOC (contradicts resistance to obedience)

Answer 68

p: contradicting research for resistance to obedience
e: Twenge et al (2004) did meta-analysis and found young Americans increasingly believe their lives are controlled by outside forces, not own behaviour. found an increase in external LOC yet people are now more resistant to obedience.
e: if resistance linked to internal LOC, we would expect people to become more obedient. but this finding found the opposite, thus LOC explanation has low reliability
l: challenges link between internal LOC and resistance to social influence suggesting LOC is an inaccurate explanation to SI

Question 69

minority influence

Answer 69

a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. this is more likely to lead to internalisation.
e.g. suffragettes, LGBT, MLK etc

Question 70

Majority vs Minority influence

Answer 70

majority
- based on public compliance and NSI
- power of numbers = important
- majority have power to reward and punish w/ approval and disapproval —> pressure for minorities to conform.

minority
- based on ISI
- provides mag. w/ new ideas which leads them to examine their views
- involves private acceptance = internalisation
- converting maj, by convincing them their views are right

Question 71

minority influence processes

Answer 71

CONSISTENCY
minorities who are consistent are more successful in changing views of the majority + interest in others
- diachronic consistency: consistency over time
- synchronic consistency: consistency between members

COMMITTMENT
courage, certainty, confidence is successful in face of hostile majority to draw attention to themselves.
- Augmentation Principle: greater commitment e.g. extreme acts to draw attention to their views persuade majority to take the seriously, or even convert to minority position.

FLEXIBILITY
if a minority is seen as being ‘too consistent’ this is viewed as being inflexible and uncompromising meaning the majority is unlikely to change their view to minority.
- minority need to find a balance between consistency and flexibility

Question 72

Nemeth (1986)

Answer 72

mock jury consisting of 3 ppts and 1 confederate
discussing amounts of compensation to give ski accident victim
1) consistent confed wouldn’t give in to low amount + refused to change his view (no effect on maj)
when confed compromised and moved some way to maj view, majority also changed view and compromised.

questions importance of consistency –> minority position changed but it was not consistent.

Question 73

Blue-Green slide experiment

Answer 73

Moscovici et al (1969)

procedure:
- 172 ppts tested (so they were not colourblind)
- groups of 6 (4ppts, 2 confeds)
- asked to state the colour of 36 diff slides (all slides were a different shade of blue)

CONDITION A: confeds=consistent
- called all slides green on all trials
CONDITION B: confeds=inconsistnet
- called slides green on 24 trials and blue on 12 trials

results:
condition A:
- ppts answered green in 8.42% of trials
- ppts answered green on at least one slide

condition B:
- ppts answered green in 1.25% of trials

CONCLUSION
- minorities can influence majorities
- minority influence is strongest when minority is consistent in view
- when minorities are inconsistent, they were less influential and will have little to no impact.

Question 74

evaluation of minority influence - research to support consistency

Answer 74

p: research to support consistency
e: Moscovici et al’s study shows that a consistent minority op. had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent op. Wood et al (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies - minorities who were most consistent were most influential.
e: incr. ex val, research suggests that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
l: diff. procedures - confounding variables weren’t controlled so results may have been inaccurate. questions whether we can use this study to support MI

Question 75

evaluation of minority influence - deeper processing

Answer 75

p: there is research to show change to min. view involves deeper processing
e: Martin et al (2003) gave ppts a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support. one group heard minority group view + other diff group head majority group view. ppts then were exposed to conflicting views and attitudes after hearing diff views, ppts were less likely to change if they listened to min. view first.
e: suggests min view has been processed more deeply and had a more enduing effect, supporting central argument about how MI process works
l: unethical - ppts were deceived into thinking their viewpoint was right: will affect their view on that topic in the future. BPS guidelines broken, tainted psychology rep.
BUT NECESSARY to see true effects of behaviour of MI.

Question 76

evaluation of minority influence - lacks mundane realism

Answer 76

p: limitation of MI - lacks mundane realism
e: Moscovici’s task involved identifying colours of slides which was artificial. not reflective of how minorities attempt to change behaviour of majorities irl e.g. jury decision. it can have a more major consequence than just choosing a colour - this task had no real dangerous consequences.
e: findings of MI studies like Moscovici’s are lacking in ex val: limited to what they can tell us about MI irl and in real social situations
l: but was in controlled environment - had control over extraneous variables so we can be confident in the effect of MI.

Question 77

social change

Answer 77

this occurs when whole societies rather than just individuals adopt new attitudes, beliefs, and ways of doing things e.g. women’s votes, gay rights etc.

Question 78

stages of social change - drawing attention

Answer 78

if we are exposed to the views of a minority, this draws attention to it, this can create conflict in our belies which we want to refuse - we listen to their views

Question 79

stages of social change - consistency

Answer 79

minorities need to be consistent in their views in order to be influential - expressing view over time case others to take view more seriously as they seem to truly believe it.

Question 80

stages of social change - deeper processing

Answer 80

attention draw to the main issue means that many who’ve accepted status quo (norm) begin to think about the unjustness of it

Question 81

stages of social change - snowball effect

Answer 81

MI will initially have a small effect but then spreads more widely as more people begin to reconsider their views. this is when min. view becomes maj view.

Question 82

stages of social change - social cryptomnesia

Answer 82

over time, as the min. view becomes maj view, and social change occurs, people know that change has occurred but don’t know how it happened

Question 83

social change - African-American civil rights movementQ

Answer 83

1) drawing attention
- black separation everywhere; civil right marches showed social proof of this problem e.g. exclusive white schools

2) consistency
- many marches and many people took part; civil right activists displayed consistency in their message

3) deeper processing
- deeper processing of the issue - made people who accepted the norm being thinking about the unjustness of it

4) augmentation principle
- individuals risked their lives (freedom riders) were mixed racial groups who got on buses to challenge why black people should be separated on buses —> they were beaten + mob violence against them

5) snowball effect
- people like MLK continued to press fro changes up to when US government was informed. 1964 civil rights movement was passed which prohibited discrimination
-represented change from min view to maj view

6) social cryptomnesia
- people have a memory that it happened but don’t remember how it came to change: social change has occurred.

Question 84

evaluations of role of SI in social change - research to support

Answer 84

p: there is research to support processes of social change
e: Moscovici (1969) found a consistent min. opinion had greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion
e: shows consistency as an important factor for social change. this incr. ex. val of social change theory
l: stating names of colours on slide is an artificial task - unreflective of real life, so can’t be used to support MI leading to social change irl.

Question 85

evaluations of role of SI in social change - contradicting research

Answer 85

p: there is research to contradict maj and min influence involving diff cognitive processing
e: Mackie (1987) found evidence to suggest that maj influence may create deeper processing if you do not share their views - when we find out maj thinks something diff, we are forced to think hard about their arguments and reasoning
e: suggests that deeper processing is not limited to min influence
l: theory of social change is inaccurate + processes cannot be used (questions if we can use it)

Question 86

evaluations of role of SI in social change - gradual

Answer 86

p: suggests its gradual therefore MI is not effective
e: Nemeth (1986) argues that the effects of MI are mostly indirect because maj is influenced on matters related to issue at hand rather than central issue. effects of MI are delayed as effects aren’t seen for a long time
e: limitation - suggests MI may not have much influence as prev. thought. may have been other factors that has led to social change that may not be caused by MI.
l: as a result, suggests MI on social change is limited and cannot be used effectively irl.