1. social influence

Question 1

conformity

Answer 1

a change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

compliance

Answer 2

we go along with expectations in our outer behaviour, but inner attitudes don’t change

Question 3

identification

Answer 3

we want to be part of a group, so we adopt some group behaviours (partial conformity)

Question 4

internalisation

Answer 4

we change our outward behaviour and inner attitude

Question 5

normative social influence

Answer 5

we conform because we want social approval from others; we want to be liked, included, and feel part of the group

Question 6

informational social influence

Answer 6

occurs when we believe others know better so we conform because we don’t want to appear wrong or stupid

Question 7

asch’s study aim

Answer 7

to investigate conformity and majority influence

Question 8

asch’s study procedure

Answer 8

— participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines
— 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
— asked to state which line was the same length as a stimulus line
— the real participant always answered last or second to last
— confederates gave the same incorrect answer for 12 of 18 trials
— asch observed how often the participant would give the incorrect answer if the confederates did

Question 9

what did asch find

Answer 9

— 36.8% participants conformed
— 25% never conformed
— 75% conformed at least once

Question 10

factors affecting level of conformity

Answer 10

• group size
• unanimity
• task difficulty

Question 11

zimbardo’s study aim

Answer 11

to investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a stimulated environment

Question 12

zimbardo SPE procedure

Answer 12

— the basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a stimulated prison
— american student volunteers paid to take part in the study & randomly issued one of two roles: guard or prisoner
— both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms; prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number
— guards given props like handcuffs and sunglasses, while prisoners were given a smock to reinforce boundaries between the two social roles
— the guards were encouraged to use their power, while the prisoners were told they could apple for ‘parole’

Question 13

zimbardo SPE findings

Answer 13

— identification occurred very fast, both prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time
— guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways; prisoners would only talk about prison issues and snitch on other prisoners
— they would defend the guards when other prisoners broke the rules, reinforcing social roles
— guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners became more submissive; this suggests the respective social roles became increasingly internalised

Question 14

agency theory

Answer 14

the idea that people are more likely to obey when they are in the agentic state as they do not believe they will suffer the consequences of those actions

Question 15

agentic state

Answer 15

when a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions

Question 16

legitimacy of authority

Answer 16

describes how credible the figure of authority is; people are more likely to obey them if they are seen in credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate.

Question 17

situational factors

Answer 17

uniform, proximity, location

Question 18

situational factors — uniform & findings

Answer 18

a person is more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy; Milgram found that obedience was much higher when the experimenter wore a lab coat as opposed to normal clothes

Question 19

situational factors — location & findings

Answer 19

a person is more likely to obey someone in a location linked to higher status and legitimacy; Milgram’s study was conducted at a prestigious American university so obedience was greater than in a variation of the study conducted in a rundown office

Question 20

situational factors — proximity & findings

Answer 20

a person is more likely to obey when they are in closer proximity to the authority figure because it increases the pressure to obey and decreases the pressure to resist; Milgram found that obedience was higher when the experimenter was sat in the same room (62.5%) as the participant opposed to being in a different room and speaking over the phone (20.5%)

Question 21

Milgram’s aim

Answer 21

to observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person

Question 22

Milgram’s procedure

Answer 22

— a participant was given the role of ‘teacher’ and a confederate given the role of ‘learner’
— the participant had to ask the confederate a series of questions; if the confederate got them wrong, the participant had to give him an electric shock, even if no answer was given
— shocks incremented by 15 volts at a time, ranging from 300V to 450V, 330V being marked as lethal
— participants thought that the shocks were real when there were no real shocks administered. the shocks were falsely demonstrated to be real prior to the start of the study
— participants were assessed on how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with
— the experimenter’s role was to give a series of orders when the participant refused to give a shock, which increased in terms of demandingness for every time the participant refused to administer the shocks

Question 23

Milgram’s findings

Answer 23

— all participants went up to 300V and 65% went up to 450V
— no participants stopped at 300V, showing the vast majority of participants were prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate

Question 24

Milgram situational factors (proximity)

Answer 24

— 62.5% participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room
— decreased to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms and reduced to 30% in the touch proximity condition

Question 25

Milgram situational factors (location)

Answer 25

Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university as the prestige of such a location demands obedience and may increase the trust that the participant places in the integrity of the researchers

Question 26

Milgram situational factors (uniform)

Answer 26

Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat. A person is more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy.

Question 27

dispositional explanation

Answer 27

internal explanation (personality factors/ individual reasons) why someone obeys

Question 28

dissenter

Answer 28

someone who disagrees with the majority or refuses to obey

Question 29

authoritarian personality characteristics

Answer 29

— highly aware of social status
— extreme respect for authority
— submissive to high status individuals
— absolutist black and white thinking