1.1.1 social impact theory Flashcards
who proposed social impact theory?
latane
what is social impact?
the effect others (real or imagined) have on our behaviour
who is the source in sit?
the person doing the influencing
who is the target in sit?
the people who are influenced
what is social impact determined by?
- strength
- immediacy
- number
what is ‘strength’ in sit?
perceived power/authority of the source and the messages that they convey
what is ‘immediacy’ in sit?
closeness of the source and the target in terms of space and time
physical and psychological barriers to communication affect immediacy
what is ‘number’ in sit?
how many sources are present during the interaction - this determines the level of social impact
what is the multiplicative effect?
increasing the SIN of sources can significantly increase social impact
what is the divisional effect?
increasing targets can decrease social impact as the impact is divided among targets so the individual pressure is released
what is the law of diminishing returns?
once the source group exceeds 3, each additional person has less of an impact
social impact theory - supporting evidence
P - a strength is that it has supporting evidence by Milgram’s studies
E - in Milgram’s variation 7 study, obedience reduced to 22.5% (from 65.5% in the original) acording to SIT because instructions to shock the learner were given over the phone, this gives evidence of immediacy (barrier)
T - therefore social impact theory is a valid explanation of how strength, immediacy and number can affect obedience
social impact theory - contrasting theory
P - a weakness is that agency theory contradicts sit
E: suggests that obedience is influenced by individuals switching from the autonomous to agentic state to avoid moral strain in order to avoid taking responsibility for behaviour they are uncomfortable with
T - agency theory is an alternative way of explaining obedience so lowers the validity of SIT
social impact theory - application
P - A strength of SIT is it has useful application to obedience in real life
E - The formula i = f(SIN) can be used by the police to predict the level of impact created by social force eg. the impact the immediacy and number of uniformed police officers would have compared to plain clothed officers at a football riot
T - Therefore SIT is useful to society in increasing obedience to reduce violence.
social impact theory - weakness
P - A weakness is that it ignores role of personality in obedience
E - Elms (2000) found a positive correlation between levels of obedience and authoritarian personality traits
T - therefore as SIT reduces obedience down to situational factors it ignores individual differences, making the explanation less valid
