1. Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 2

1. Compliance
2. Identification
3. Internalisation

Question 3

What is compliance?

Answer 3

• public but not private acceptance of groups beliefs
  -temporary change
• desire to fit in and be accepted
• e.g. laughing at a joke you don’t find funny

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

• public change of behaviour as we identify with the group
• there is something we value about the group
• temporary and not maintained when away from group
• e.g. football team/school uniforms

Question 5

What is internalisation?

Answer 5

• accepts the groups beliefs as their own
• permanent change in behaviour
• present even when away from group
• e.g. religion

Question 6

What is the aim of Asch’s Original Study?

Answer 6

to examine how social pressure from a majority could affect someone’s behaviour.

Question 7

What is did Asch’s original study involve?

Answer 7

• 123 American male students
• line judgement task
• placed a naive participant in a room with seven confederates who had agreed on answers in advance
• each person had to say out loud which line was closest to the target line
• the answer was always obvious
• there were 18 trials and the confederates gave the same wrong answer on 12

Question 8

What were Asch’s findings in his Original Study?

Answer 8

• participants conformed to incorrect answers on 36.8% of critical trials
• 75% of pps conformed on at least one critical trial and 25% never conformed
• in an interview most pps said they knew the correct answer but went along with the group to avoid ridicule

Question 9

What are the 3 variables affecting conformity as investigated by Asch?

Answer 9

1. Group size
2. Unanimity
3. Task difficulty

Question 10

How did Asch manipulate group size?
What was the impact on conformity levels?

Answer 10

• changed the number of confederates from 0 to 15
• conformity increased to a certain point (3 confederates)

Question 11

How did Asch manipulate unanimity?
What was the impact on conformity levels?

Answer 11

• introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others - either giving the correct answer or another incorrect answer
• conformity decreased by 5% if they gave the correct answer
• conformity decreased by 9% if they have another incorrect answer

Question 12

How did Asch manipulate task difficulty?
What was the impact on conformity levels?

Answer 12

• visual perception task made harder by making lines more similar in length
• conformity increased

Question 13

What is Informational social influence and when would it occur?

Answer 13

-We agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct and we want to be correct as well. It is a cognitive process and may lead to internalisation
- occurs when a person is new to a situation, the situation is ambiguous or a person within the group is regarded as an expert

Question 14

What is normative social influence and when would it occur?

Answer 14

-we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked. This is an emotional process and may lead to compliance
- occurs when you seek the approval of strangers or a person is in a stressful situation and are in greater need of social support

Question 15

What are social roles? Give examples

Answer 15

-Social roles are the parts people play as members of various social groups. Confirming to social roles is identification
- e.g parent, child, student, passenger

Question 16

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 16

• how readily people are to conform to social roles of guard and prisoner
• whether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal or dispositional factors

Question 17

Describe the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 17

• 21 male student we randomly assigned the role prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment
• prisoners were blindfolded, strip searched
• guards were given a uniform, whistles and handcuffs
  -Zimbardo acted as prisoner warden
• no violence was permitted

Question 18

What were the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 18

-guards began to harass prisoners, behaving in a brutal and sadistic way
-prisoners also soon adopted prison like behaviour
- guards became more aggressive as prisoners became more submissive
- guard behaviour became a threat to the prisoners safety and the study was stopped after 6 days instead of 14

Question 19

What were Zimbardo’s conclusions?

Answer 19

• people quickly conform to social roles, even against their moral principles
• situational factors were largely responsible as none of the pps had demonstrated these behaviours previously

Question 20

What is obedience?

Answer 20

• an individual following a direct order from a person, usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish

Question 21

What was the aim of Milgrims Orignal
Experiment?

Answer 21

• commissioned to investigate the psychology behind the Holocaust
• if Germans were different (more obedient)
• if ordinary Americans would obey an order and inflict pain because they were instructed to

Question 22

What happened in Milgrims Original Experiment?

Answer 22

• 40 male volunteers
• laboratory at Yale University
• the pps we’re always assigned the role of teacher
• the teacher watched the learner being strapped to an electric chair
• the teacher would read a list of word pair to test the learner’s recall
• they were instructed to administer an electric shock every time the learner made a mistake (increasing voltage each time)
• at 330V the learner gave the illusion he was unconscious
• the experiment said ‘the experiment requires that you continue’ if the teacher tries to stop

Question 23

What were the findings of Milgrim’s Original Experiment?

Answer 23

• all pps went to at least 300 volts and 65% went to the full 450 volts
• pps showed signs of extreme tension: sweating, trembling and 3 had seizures
• when 14 students predicted the pps behaviour they said no more than 3% would continue to 450 volts