1.1 - Social Influence (set C - resistance to social influence) Flashcards
Give 2 explanations for resistance to social influence?
- social support
- locus of control
Outline the social support explanation for resisting conformity - reference evidence and explain it?
- Asch found that the presence of social support enables an individual to resist conformity pressure from majority
- in variation, it was found an ally to the participant resulted in a sharp drop in conformity levels (33% to 5%)
- social support breaks unanimous position of majority - by suggesting there’s a equally legitimate way of behaving/responding which likely reassures the individual and strengthens there ability to stand up against the majority
Outline the social support explanation for resisting obedience - reference evidence and explain it?
- individuals are generally more confident in their ability to resist the temptation to obey if they can find an ally who is willing to join them in opposing the authority figure
- disobeying peers act as role models which the individual can model their own behaviour
Outline and provide evidence for social support and resisting obedience?
- Milgram variation involved the participant being part of a team of 3 testing the learner (other 2 were confederates who one after another refused to continue shocking the learner and withdrew)
- defiance of confederates led to only 10% continuing to the maximum 450V shock level
Outline the locus of control explanation for resistance to social influence?
- locus of control is the extent an individual feels in control of what happens to them and the extent to which they, as an individual, can affect their life
- two types (strong external locus of control and strong internal locus of control)
Outline the features of a strong external locus of control?
- when someone believes what happens to them is luck or fate and that they are not in control of their life - due to external forces in their environment (eg other people)
- take less responsibility for their actions - less likely to display independent behaviour, likley to accept influence of others
Outline the features of a strong internal locus of control?
Associated with the belief that we can control events in out life - believe what happens to them is largely a consequence of their own ability and effort
- more likley to display independent thoughts and behaviour
- rely less on the opinions of others, better able to resist social influence
Outline the characters of a high locus of control which has relevance for resisting social influence?
- active seekers of information, less likely to rely on the opinions of others (less vulnerable to social influence)
- tend to be more achievement-orientated and likely to become leaders rather than follow other
- better able to resit coercion from others
Outline research for the importance of social support in resisting social influence?
- study conducted (Rees and Wallace) showed that social support provided by friends helped adolescents resist conformity pressure from the majority
-individuals with a majority of friends who drank alcohol were significantly more likely to have engaged in drunkenness
- social support offered by non-drinking friends can decrease the odds of a non-drinker deciding to consume alcohol even when faced with the conformity pressure of drinking majority
What is minority influence?
A form of social influence where members of the majority group change their beliefs or behaviours as a result of their exposure to a persuasive minority
Outline the consistency part of minority influence?
- if minority adopt a consistent approach others come to reassess the situation and consider the issue more carefully
Reinforced with moscovici’s study
Outline the commitment part of minority influence?
- difficult to dismiss a minority when they adopt an uncompromising and consistent commitment to its position
- commitment is important in the influence process - suggests confidence and courage in the face of a hostile majority
- greater commitment may persuade majority group members to take them seriously and possibly convert to minority position
Outline the flexibility part of minority influence?
- research suggest flexibility more effective at changing majority opinion than rigidity of arguments
- minorities typically powerless to majority and thus must negotiate their position with the majority rather than enforce it
- rigid minority may be perceived as narrow minded and ignorant to other justifiable opinions - a too flexible minority risks being seen as inconsistent (too prepared to compromise position)
Outline the procedure of moscovicis study?
- each group comprised 4 naïve participants and a minority of 2 confederates
- shown a series of blue sides that varied only in intensity - were asked to judge the colour of each slide
- in the ‘consistent’ experimental condition, the 2 confederates repeatedly called the ‘blue’ slides ‘green’ on every trial
- in the ‘inconsistent’ condition the confederates called the slides ‘green’ on 2/3 of the trials and on the remaining third of trials called the slides ‘blue’
- control condition - comprised of 6 naïve participants and no confederates - called slide blue throughout
Outline the findings of moscovicis study?
- consistent minority influenced the naïve participants to say ‘green’ on over 8% of trials - 32% of participants called them ‘green’ at least once
- inconsistent minority exerted very little influence - did not differ significantly from the control group (only called the slides green 1.25% of time)
What can be concluded from moscovicis study?
Confederates where in the minority but their views appear to have influenced real participants - more influence when they were consistent calling the slides ‘green’
shows importance of being consistent regarding minority influence
evaluate moscovicis study - include 2 weaknesses/criticisms?
- laboratory experiment, thus lacks ecological validity (task was artificial so participants may have felt judging the colour of the slide was a trivial exercise) - weakness
- only used women - not applicable/generalisable to males, unrepresentative sample - weakness
Outline nemeths study focusing on flexibility regarding minority influence?
- repeated moscovicis study but instructed participants to answer with all of the colours they saw in the slide (eg ‘green blue’)
conducted 3 variations where 2 confederates
said all of the slides were green
Said the slides were ‘green’ or ‘green blue’ at random
Said the brighter slides were ‘green blue’ and the duller slides were ‘green’ and vice versa
Explain the findings from nemeths study?
- when confederates always answered ‘green’ or varied responses randomly inconsistent they had no effect on participants responses
- where confederates responses varied with a feature of the slide (eg brightness) the confederates had a significant effect on participants responses
confederates had most influence when consistent but flexible - he proposed that rigid consistency wasn’t effective
Define social change?
Where individuals or small groups of people (minority) can have an impact and change the way the majority think and act
- requires specific conditions to be met to occur
Outline the 5 conditions for social change for minority influence?
- drawing attention to the issue
- consistency
- deeper processing
- commitment (the augmentation principle)
- the snowball effect
extra condition - social cryptoamnesia
Outline and explain the condition ‘drawing attention to the issue’ for social change for minority influence?
Minority need to hilight the issue - for example protesting in the streets or organising strikes
Outline and explain the condition ‘consistency’ for social change for minority influence?
Minority need to have an unwavering and constant message which has intent (eg ‘just stop oil’)
Outline and explain the condition ‘deeper processing’ for social change for minority influence?
Majority start to question and process the message held by the minority on a deeper level
Outline and explain the condition ‘commitment’ for social change for minority influence?
Minorities start to take risks to progress the message - eg protestors glueing themselves to roads
Outline and explain the condition ‘snowball effect’ for social change for minority influence?
Majority start to switch position and join minority
Outline and explain the condition ‘social cryptoamnesia’ for social change for minority influence?
People have a memory that change has occurred but lack memory of events leading to change
Explain how minorities can become majorities through the snowball effect?
- if some people in group start to agree with minority view then the minority becomes more influential - more people convert to minority view which eventually becomes a majority
- it involves people going from privately accepting the minority view to publicly expressing it
One explanation why this happens is social cryptoamnesia - public opinion changes gradually over time, until minority is accepted as the norm
Outline and explain Latane and Wolfs social impact theory - include the 3 factors?
Argued that social influence occurs when the combined effects of 3 factors are significant enough
- strengths - how powerful, knowledgable and consistent the group appear to be
- numbers - how many people are in the group
- immediacy - how close the source of influence is to you
Outline the majority influence part of moscovicis conversion theory?
- people compare their behaviour to majority (social comparison)
- may change their behaviour to fit in - possibly without considering the majority’s view in detail
- some majority influence involves compliance (doesn’t always change private feelings, just behaviour)
Outline the minority influence part of moscovicis conversion theory?
- when minority is consistent people examine minorities beliefs to understand why they see things differently
- people start to privately accept the minority view
- social pressure to conform may mean behaviour doesn’t change at first
Explain moscovicis belief about consistency regarding minorities changing views?
- Minority being consistent shows it has a clear view, which its committed to and isn’t willing to compromise
- creates conflict - start to consider if you should change your view (validation process)
- if there’s no reason to dismiss the minority view, you begin to see things as the minority does
