1. Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
Type of social influence that describes how a person changes their attitude or behaviour in response to group pressure.
What are the types of conformity?
- compliance
- identification
- internalisation.
What is compliance conformity?
- Shallowest level of conformity.
- changes public behaviour
- not change private beliefs.
- Short-term
- Often result of normative social influence
What is identification conformity?
- Middle level of conformity.
- Changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs
- Temporary
- Normally the result of normative social influence (NSI).
What is internalisation conformity?
- Deepest level of conformity.
- Permanent
- Change private and public
- Often the result of informational social influence (ISI).
State the two reasons why people conform
Normative social influence (NSI)
Informational social influence (ISI).
What is Normative Social Influence?
- Conforms to be accepted and to feel that they belong to the group.
- Socially rewarding, or to avoid social rejection
- Usually associated with compliance and identification.
What is informational social influence?
- Conforms to gain knowledge
- Or believe someone else is ‘right’.
- Usually associated with internalisation,
What type of social influence is associated with informational social influence?
internalisation
What type of social influence is associated with normative social influence?
Compliance
Identification
Evaluate how Asch’s study helps provide evidence for normative social influence
- Asch’s (1951)
- Support normative social influence.
- Participants went along with the obviously wrong answers of the other group members.
- Participants said they changed their answer to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group.
- Shows compliance in order to ‘fit in’.
- Asch (1955) - asked to write answers - conformity rates fell to 12.5% as the fear of rejection became far less.
State Jenness’ conclusions
- Individuals changed their initial estimate due to informational social influence
- Believe the group estimates were more likely to be correct, in comparison to their own.
State the aim of Asch’s study
- Extent to which social pressure to conform from unanimous majority affects conformity in an unambiguous situation.
Explain the method of Asch’s study
- 123 male undergraduate students
- Asch used a line judgement task,
- one real (naïve) participant in a room with six to eight confederates who had agreed their answers in advance.
- Real participant seated second from last.
- Out load which line was closest to target
- 18 trials - confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials, called ‘critical trials’.
- Look for conformity to the majority view, even when obviously incorrect.
What is a difference between Asch’s and Jenness’ experiments?
In Asch’s the correct answer was always obvious
What were the results of Asch’s study?
- Conformed to the incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials.
- 74% conformed on at least one critical trial
- 26% of the participants never conformed.
- Control group - no confederates less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer.
What did Asch conclude in his study?
- When questions said to conform to incorrect in order to fit in
- Fear of ridicule
- Normative social influence - compliance only public change
State the different variations of Asch’s study
Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty
Explain how group size may effect Asch’s study
- Up to 15 confederates 29% conformity
- 1 confederate they conformed on just 3%
- 3 confederates conformed on 32% same as original when 6-8 used
- Participants became suspicious of the experiment and not because the pressure to conform is necessarily less in larger groups.
Explain how Asch varied unanimity in his study
- If one confederate gave correct and conformity dropped to 5%.
- If the confederate gives another incorrect answer conformity dropped to 9%.
Explain how Asch varied task difficulty
- Making a task more difficult increased conformity.
- Informational social influence
- Individuals look to another for guidance when undertaking an ambiguous task, similar to the results found in Jenness’ experiment, in order to be ‘right’.
What is conformity to social roles?
When an individual adopts a particular behaviour and belief, while in a particular social situation.
What type of conformity is associated with conformity to social roles?
- Identification
- Changes public behaviour and private beliefs
- only temporary
What study did Zimbardo do?
The Stanford prison experiment
What was the aim of the stanford prison experiment?
- To examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner when placed in a mock prison environment.
- Examine whether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal dispositional factors, the people themselves, or external situational factors, the environment and conditions of the prison.
Explain the stanford prison experiment
- 21 male university students ($15 per day)
- volunteered in response to a newspaper advert.
- Selected from 75 volunteers due to physical/mental stability
- Randomly assigned prisoner or guard.
- Basement of Stanford University Prisoners’
- Arrested by real local police, fingerprinted, stripped, given numbered smocked, chains placed around ankles.
- Guards given uniforms, dark reflective sunglasses, handcuffs and a truncheon.
- Guards instructed to run prison with no physical violence.
- The experiment was set to run for two weeks.
What were the results from the Stanford prison experiment?
- Both groups quickly identified with their social roles.
- Prisoners rebelled but were crushed by the guards, who then grew increasingly abusive towards the prisoners.
- Dehumanised the prisoners, waking during the night and forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands
- Prisoners became increasingly submissive, identifying further with their subordinate role.
- Five prisoners released early (physical/ mental torment)
- Terminated after just six days, (Christina Maslach convinced conditions were inhumane)
What were the conclusions of the SPE?
- People quickly conform to social roles, even when the role goes against their moral principles.
- Situational factors are largely responsible for the behaviour found, as none of the participants had ever demonstrated these behaviours previously.
What is obedience?
A form of social influence that is in direct response to an order from another person.
State the case study for obedience to authority
Milgram (1963)
What was the aim of Milgrams experiment?
- To investigate whether ordinary people would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain and injure an innocent person.
Explain Milgram’s Method for his study
- 40 male American through a newspaper advert. ($4.50)
- Laboratory at Yale University
- Met experimenter and another participant (confederates).
- They ‘drew lots’ - Participant always ‘teacher’
- Administer shock of increasing strength to the ‘learner’, when he made a mistake recalling a list of word pairs.
- Example shock given with learner strapped to chair
- If wrong answer - shocks 15 - 450v up in intervals of 15
- At 300v learner would bang on the wall and complain.
- 315v no further responses heard from the learner.
- Continued until participant refused or max 450 volts, labelled ‘danger severe shock’, was reached.
- If tried to stop experimenter followed script eg: ‘The experiment requires that you continue.’
Explain Milgram’s results for his study
- All to 300 volts
- 65% full 450 volts.
- Participants showed signs of distress and tension; for example, sweating, stuttering and trembling.
What did Milgram conclude after his study?
- Under the right situational circumstances, ordinary people will obey unjust orders from someone perceived to be a legitimate authority figure.
What did the Agentic theory suggest?
We are socialised from a very young age to follow the rules of society.
What is needed for an Agentic state?
A person needs to surrender some of their free will.
What is the term fro someone acting independently?
Autonomous state
What is the autonomous state?
When a person acts independently,
What opposes the Agentic shift?
The autonomous state.
What is the Agentic shift? When does this occur?
- To shift from autonomy to ‘agency’
- This occurs when an individual carries out the orders of an authority figure and acts as their ‘agent’, with little personal responsibility and reduced moral strain for their actions.
What proportion of Milgrams participants administered the full 450 volts?
65%
How was Milgrams results changes when another confederate administered the shocks?
65% -> 92.5% for 450 volts
State one of Milgram’s variations
An additional confederate administered the electric shocks on behalf of the teacher.
How did Legitimacy of Authority change Milgrams study?
- 65% at Yale University
- Second 47.5% in rundown building in Bridgeport, Connecticut
What did a change in location do to Milgram’s study?
- reduced the legitimacy of the authority as participants were less likely to trust the experiment, and the power of the authority figure was diminished.
What do Situational explanations for obedience focus on?
external factors that affect the likelihood that someone will obey orders.
Give examples of situational factors
proximity
location
uniform
How can minority influence act as a barrier to social change?
- Bashir et al.
- Investigating people resist social change even when they believe it to be needed.
- Found some minority groups (environmental activists or feminists) often live up to the stereotypes associated with those groups, which can be off‐putting for outsiders.
- Doesn’t associate for fear of stereotypically labelled.
What research supports the role of normative social influence as a process for social change?
- Nolan et al.
- One month in California
- Hanging messages on the front doors of people’s houses in San Diego encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that most other residents in the neighbourhood were already doing this.
- Control message about energy but no reference to others
- Found experimental group significantly lowered their energy consumption, showing that conformity can lead to positive social change.
What did Moscovici and Nemeth conclude?
concluded that a consistent, committed and flexible minority is most effective in influencing an individual.
Define - Social change
The ways in which a society (rather than an individual) develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations.
State three examples of social change
- Martin Luther King
- Nelson Mandela
- Rosa Parks
- Suffragettes
What are the three essential sections of social change?
Consistent
Committed
Flexible
How did Martin Luther king and Nelson Mandela lead to social change?
- Civil rights movements and were consistent in their views against apartheid for many years, which helped bring about social change.
How did Rosa Parks lead to social change?
- Refused to give up her seat to a white male passenger
- Arrested for violating US law.
- Trigger civil rights movement to end the racial segregation laws in America.
- Demonstrates that people who are willing to make a sacrifice (in her case being arrested) to show their commitment to their cause and as a result are more influential in bringing about a social change.
State the processes throughout history that have effected social change 8
- Consistency
- Deeper processing
- Drawing attention
- The Augmentation Principle
- The snowball effect
- Social crytoamnesia
- Normative social influence
- Gradual commitment
What is consistency?
- Social change
- Displaying consistency of viewpoint and intended outcome is beneficial in bringing about social change, as a consistent message appears more credible and can help to convince a majority.
What is deeper processing?
- Social change
- The more people think about the issue at hand, rather than blindly accepting it, the more they will, in turn, be able to challenge the existing social norms to bring about change.
What is drawing attention?
- Social change
- Majority must be made aware of the need for the change.
What is the augmentation principle?
Social change When the majority pays attention to selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority group and is more likely to integrate the group’s opinion into their own personal viewpoints due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority.
What is the snowball effect?
- Social change
- Once the minority viewpoint has got the attention of some of the majority group members, more and more people begin paying attention and the minority viewpoint gathers momentum, much like a snowball growing in size when rolled along a snowy field.
What is social cryptoamnsia?
Social change
The majority knows that a social change has occurred but the source of the change and the message itself have become disassociated
do not recall how it has happened.
What is normative social influence? Social change
- Social change
- Can be encouraged by reporting the behaviour or attitudes of the majority, to urge others to follow suit for normative reasons (e.g. to fit in with the majority).
What is gradual commitment?
- Social change
- Once a small instruction has been followed, it is harder for larger requests to be declined.
- This is often referred to as ‘the foot in the door technique’ and means that people effectively find themselves adopting a new way of behaving gradually over a period of time.
What levels of proximity could Milgram vary?
How close the teacher was to the learner, and how close the teacher was to the experimenter.
How could Milgram test for the power of proximity?
Milgram conducted a variation where the teacher and learner were seated in the same room.
How did Milgram’s results vary due to proximity?
The percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 40%.
What happened to Milgram’s results when the experimenter left the room and gave instructions over the telephone?
20.5%
What were the two variations of proximity in Milgram’s study?
- The experimenter left the room and gave the instructions over the telephone.
- Where the teacher and learner were seated in the same room.
How did Milgram test the power of location?
Milgram conducted a variation in a rundown building in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
How did Milgram’s results change due to the power of location?
Participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 47.5%,
How did Milgram test the power of a uniform?
- Experimenter called away and replaced by another ‘participant’ in normal everyday clothes pretending to be an ordinary member of the public
- In this variation, the man in ordinary clothes came up with the idea of increasing the voltage every time the learner made a mistake.
How did Milgram’s results change due to the power of uniforms?
Participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 20%,
Where did authoritarian personality start in a person?
- Early childhood
- Result of harsh and strict parenting
- Made the child feel that the love of their parents was conditional and dependent upon how they behaved.
What was the aim of Adorno’s study?
- 2,000 middle‐class, Caucasian Americans
- Find out their unconscious views towards other racial groups.
What method did Adorno use?
- Number of questionnaires
- Including one called the F‐scale
- Measures fascist tendencies, as fascism (an extreme right‐wing ideology) is thought to be at the core of the authoritarian personality.
- Examples - ‘Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished’
What did Adorno find in his study?
- If Scored highly on F‐scale = identifying with ‘strong’ people and showed disrespect towards the ‘weak’.
- Status‐conscious regarding themselves and others deference shown
- Authoritarian people had a particular cognitive style, which categorised other people into specific stereotypical categories, leading to a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
What conclusion did Adorno take from his study?
- Individuals with an authoritarian personality
- More obedient to authority figures and showed extreme submissiveness and respect.
- Uncomfortable with uncertainty
- See everything being seen as either right or wrong with ‘no grey areas’
- They believe that society requires strong leadership to enforce rigid, traditional values.
What does Asch’s research demonstrate?
- The power of social influence through conformity and his variations provide an insight into how group size, unanimity and task difficulty can increase or decrease the influence of the majority.
What did Milgram’s study demonstrate?
Highlights our susceptibility to obeying orders, and his variations reveal the different variables that can increase or decrease our willingness to follow orders.
What is one way a person can resist the pressure of conformity?
- Is if they have an ally
- Someone supporting their point of view.
- Having an ally can build confidence and allow individuals to remain independent.
How did Asch give evidence for social support providing short term resistance to conformity?
- Individuals who have support for their point of view no longer fear being ridiculed, allowing them to avoid normative social influence.
- Although Asch reports that if this dissenter then returns to conform then so does the naïve participant, meaning that the effect may only be short‐term.
What is minority influence?
When a minority (small group) changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority
What three factors can effect a minority?
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
What is consistency?
- The way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority members share the same belief and retain it over time.
- This then draws the attention of the majority group to the minority position.
Who did a study on minority influence?
Moscovici (1969)
What was the aim of Moscovini’s study?
To see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer, in a colour perception task.
Explain Moscovini’s method
- 172 female participants
- Told they were taking in a colour perception task.
- Groups of six and shown 36 slides (all blue)
- State out loud the colour of each slide.
- Consistent condition - two confederates say all green
- Inconsistent control - 24 green and 12 blue
What were Moscovinci’s findings?
- Consistent condition - agreed 8.2% of the trials
- Inconsistent condition - agreed 1.25% of the trials.
What did Moscovici conclude?
- Consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority
- Consistency is an important factor in exerting minority influence.
What is the augmentation principle?
- Minorities engage in very risky or extreme behaviour in order to draw attention to their views.
- Important that these behaviours place the minority at risk in order for them to demonstrate commitment to their cause.
What is flexibility?
The way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority is willing to compromise.
This means they cannot be viewed as dogmatic and unreasonable.
Who studied flexibility of minority influence?
Nemeth - 1986
What was the aim of Nemeth’s study?
She set about investigating the idea of flexibility as a key characteristic of successful minorities who exert pressure.
What did Nemeth believe?
- Consistency was not the most important factor in minority influence, suggesting that it can often be misinterpreted as a negative trait.
What was Nemeth’s method to study flexibility?
- Groups of four
- Agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski‐lift accident.
- 1 confederate in each group
- Condition 1 - Minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position (inflexible).
- Condition 2 - Minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible).
What were Nemeth’s results?
- Inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority
- Flexible condition, the majority of members were much more likely to also compromise and change their view.
What did Nemeth conclude?
- Importance of flexibility
- Questions consistency
- Suggesting that striking a balance between the two is the most successful strategy for a minority to adopt.
Who was Milgram’s influence?
Reichmen
How did Asch deceive his participants?
Told they were doing a study on visual perception
State five reasons Asch found people conformed
- Made to feel incompetent or insecure (NSI)
- In a group of more than three
- All those people agree
- Admire the group (status attractiveness)
- Feel others are watching their behaviour
- Cultural differences
What is social facilitation?
Stronger response on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
What is social loafing?
The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts towards attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
What is deindividuation?
The loss of self-awareness and restraint that can occur in group situations
What is group polarisation?
The enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group
Who investigated informative social influence?
Sherif
What did Sherif do?
Investigate the informational social influence
- Told people he was studying autokinetic effect/
- Told a light would move and they should estimate how far it moves.
- The light did not move.
What results did Sherif get?
In groups of three at least one always said there was movement.
Formally demonstrated informational social influence in a lab setting.
What were the results of Asch’s study?
1/3 conformed all the time.
75% conformed at least once.
What were the results of milgrams study?
65% went to 450v max
All reached 300v
later 70% said they knew it was fake.
What was the cause of Milgram wanting to conduct his experiment?
- To reduce the racist abuse of Germans.
- Showing that anyone under the same circumstances would do the same.
How did Milgram’s different variables affect his results?
Proximity - in same room obedience reduced 40%
Location - in old office building fell to 40%
Uniform - business suit - 48% and police 72%
What is the F-scale?
Way to measure whether you have an authoritarian personality/
What is right wing autoritarian?
The result of learning/imitating strict parents.
What did Altemeyer do?
3 clusters of dispositional obedience
- Conventionalism - fear of change
- Authoritarian aggression - fear/distaste for outsiders
- Authoritarian submission - fear of punishment.
What method did Altemeyer do to study dispositional obedience?
Replicated milligrams experiment only made the people shock themselves at the end.
What was the study by Elms and Milgram?
- To understand whether people with high authoritarianism are more likely to obey.
- Method - F-scale and open questionnaire
- Found that obedient = authoritarian personality.
What key terms did Adorno use?
F scale
Right wing authoritarian
What is social support?
Believing peers agree with you
What is the locus of control?
Personality traits related to confidence dispositional)
Two types - internal and external
What is an internal locus of control?
Belief in you are own agency meaning you are responsible for your own fate.
What is an external locus of control?
Believe in external control so you are not responsible for your own fate.
Give two studies that support social support?
- Asch - when one actor disagreed with others compliance feel from 1/3 to 5.5%
- Milgram - obedience fell from 65% to 10% of people going to 450v with a dissenter.
What did moscovici claim?
we would al be and think the same if majority influence was all powerful.
No innovation without small group infleunces.
What method did Moscovici use?
Slide colour
Aim - the role of a consistent minority upon the opinions of the minority.
- all-female - groups of 6 (total 32)
- 4 real people and 2 confederates.
- Judge colour of slide.
What were moscovici’s findings?
- 8.2% always conformed to majority.
- 32% at least one
- Control group 0.25%.
Shows that commitment is important.
What points of evaluation can be used for normative and informational social influence?
- gender bias - population validity issue - 123 men at uni. - individual differences - can’t generalise.
- Unconvincing confederates - used students instead of professionals - lack mundane realism - introduce demand characteristics - confounding variables
- Historical validity - McCarthyist culture in America, wanting to fit in, - replication conformity 1% - poor test-retest reliability. - lack temporal validity - low ecological valdiity.
- Applications - peer pressure to smoke.
What points of evaluation can be used for the test into social role conformity?
- ethical - PTSD, anxiety and depression - 6 days/ 14 - formed the BPS guidelines - ethicism research - cost-benefit.
- Mundane realism - volunteer sample - plywood bars, outfits unrealistic - replicated richer and Haslam - 2006 - high test-retest reliability. - however the BBC model found the opposite - lack temporal validity.
- Gender bias - 24 men - biological difference - more aggressive - Abu Ghraib scandle two women - beta bias - reductionist.
What points of evaluation can be used to examine the research on situational obedience?
- ethical issues - ill after - one had a heart attach or nightmares and chronic anxiety - reduce persecution of Germans - cost-benefit - BPS guidelines introduced - protection from harm - counselling in debriefing.
- mundane realism - uni - not plausible - sceptical from start - 70% - demand characteristics - lack ecological validity - also repeat after in news so people knew they were deceived.
- Comparison with disposition factors - extraneous variable - childhood experiences - lack internal and external validity - lack reliability.
What evaluation points can be used for dispositional obedience?
- lack mundane realism - Dambrun used virtual reality so knew fake results same - support internal validity for E&M - Strong correlation between RWA and max shock - construct validity supported/
- comparison with situational factors - extraneous variables - people brought up shapes beliefs - results might not mean RWA but highly different views on children- many extr variables - low external validity.
What points of evaluation can be used for resistance to social influence?
- poor sampling - low pop validity - How japan and america are different - extraneous variables - pop validity bad as a sample from USA - culture bias
- Mundane realism - internal and external LOC doesn’t apply to everyone - extraneous variable effect results - rethink method - lack construct validity
- research support for flexibility - suffragette movement - more likely to get - also committed - cause conflict
What evaluation points can be used for minority influence?
- Research support for consistency - moscovici - influence majority when consistent. - majority ignore when inconsistent - later research - concurrent validity confirmed - ecological validity - reliability
- research support for a depth of thought. - martin et al. give people message supporting viewpoint and - minority endorsed the same view - on exposure to conflicting views people less willing to change to the majority from minority.
What evaluation points can be used for the processes of social change?
- minority influence not indirectly effective - Nemeth - effects of the minority are indirect and delayed - as only specific issue addressed not a central issue - eg. recycling instead of global warming - limited short term effect
- Methodological issues - social influence research limited as trivial tasks do not reflect real-life situations - more practical are more effective in bringing change
- Identification is overlooked - to agree with views - need to attract the attention of majority - who holds the power - if minority too off-putting they will never be in a position to consider its message - crucial first step in minority influence - this is why so important that minorities behave to put issue under nose of majority.
What study opposes the findings of the SPE?
BBC Prison Study
- found the opposite as the prisoners too over.
- Shows the difference time has had as less compliant community
- lack of temporal validity.
Explain the case study in Abu Ghraib
- social roles
- meant soldiers started exploiting the prisoners
- believed it was down to them as the prisoners disagreed with them
- Lots of sexual and physical abuse.
Explain the case study of the Rosenstrasse protest.
In Berlin, as wives took to the streets to protest their Jewish husbands being arrested.
They succeed and the husbands were released.
Showed a consistent message.
