a-level_psychology_social_psychology_20240615133034 Flashcards
What are Strenths of Asch’s Study?
1) High internal validity - High control in laboratory conditons over extraneous variables. Control done.
2) High replicability
3) Participants were debriefed
What are Limitations of Asch’s Study?
1) Lack ecological validity- can’t apply to real life as it’s in lab
2) Lack of generalisability - you can’t apply the same to cultures in China, as U.S is more individualist
3) Susan Friske - groups weren’t groupy
What are Strengths of NSI and/or ISI?
1) Lucas Et Al gave students maths questions that were easy or diffcult.
2) There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easy.
3) People conform in situations if they don’t know answer
What are Limitations of NSI and/or ISI?
1) NSI doesn’t affect everyone the same way
2) People who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI
3) Not everyone cares about being liked - NSI doesn’t explain everybody’s behaviour
What is a Strength of Zimbardo’s research?
1) Zimbardo had some control over variables.
2) Emotinally stable people were chosen and randomly assigned
3) Ruled out individual personality differences
What are the Limitation of Zimbardo’s Research?
1) Major ethical issue as Zimbardo was prison warden and researcher - so observer bias
2) He put ‘prisoners’ to psychological and physical harm
What are Strengths of Milgram’s Study?
1) Sheridan And King repeated experiment where real shocks were given to a puppy. 54% of males gave “fatal shocks” and 100% of females gave shocks too.
2) High replicability
What are Limitations of Milgram’s Study?
1) It lacks ecological validity, because Milgram tested obedience in a lab, which is different to real life.
2) No generalisability
Explain a Strength of Situation Variables into obedience.
1) Bickmann said uniform was a valid explanation into obedience
2) Three confeds - one jacket + tie, one milkman, one security guard
3) People obeyed most to security guard
Explain a Limitation of Situation Variables into obedience.
1) Can be criticized for providing an excuse or an alibi for evil behaviour
2) Mandel suggested it was offensive to survivors of Holocaust to say that Nazis were just following orders and were victims
3) It’s not sensitive
Explain a Strength of Authoritarian Personality into obedience.
1) Milgram and Elms conducted interviews with people involved in original experimengt
2) People who obeyed more were higher on F-scale
3) There’s a link
Explain a Limitation of Authoritarian Personality into obedience.
1) The link between authoritarain personality and harsh parenting is only correlational
2) You can’t cause cause’effect relationship in experiements due to ethical reasons
Explain a Strength for Legitimacy of Authority of Obedience
1) Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram study to students and asked who was to blame
2) They bleamed experimenter as he had responsibility and top of hierarchy
Explain a Strength for Agentic Shift of Obedience
1) Blass and Schmitt
Explain a Limitation for Agentic Shift of Obedience
1) It suggests that behaviour isn’t controlled by individuals and free will can be given up
2) Determinstic as it suggests behaviour is controlled by something else and againt fact that we shoudl have responsibility
Explain a Strength of Social Support explaining obedience.
1) Asch found that social support doesn’t have to be valid to be effective
2) Even if another disseneter gave wrong answer, allows participant to dissent to
3)
What is evidence to support the link between LoC and resisting obedince?
1) Charles Holland repeated Milgram’s baseline study
2) 37% of internals didn’t continue over shock level
3) 23% of externals didn’t continure
What may suggest role of LoC in resisting social influence may be exaggerated?
1) Rotter found that LoC may not be most important factor in determining whether someone reisists social influence
2) LoC only helpful for few situations
3) It won’t increases resistance
What is Social Psychology?
The behaviour of a large group of people or interactions with people
What are some examples of Conformity?
- Uniform
- Behaviours
- Belief
What is Conformity?
A change in person’s behaviour due to real/imagined pressure from other people
What is Majority Influence?
Yielding to group pressure
What are the 3 forms of Conformity by Herbert Kelman?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
What is the deepest form of conformity?
Internalisation
What is Compliance?
[3]
- When you go along with what others are doing
- To fit in with group
- Temporary behaviour
What is Identification?
[3]
- When a person conforms to behaviour of a group because there’s something they value about that group
- Privately you may/may not hold these beliefs
- It’s generally temporary and not maintained when you leave group
What is an example of an effect of Identification on a person?
They look to group for guidance
What is Internalisation?
- When a person genuinely believes and accepts a group norm
- Changes are permanent
- Becomes part of way they think
What was the Aim of Asch’s Study?
[2]
- Wanted to see how social pressure from a majority could influence someone’s behaviour
- Tested conformity using ‘visual perception task’
How many people took part in Asch’ Study? Who were those people?
123 male students
What was the Procedure of Asch’s Study?
[5]
- 123 male students believed they were taking part in visual perception task
- Line judgement task - there was three standard lines and one comparison line
- He put real participiants with 6 other confeds. Real was always last or second last
- Each person had to say their answer out loud. Answer was obvious
- Critical trials
What was Findings of Asch’s Research?
[4]
- 36.8 % conformed
- 25% never conformed
- 75% conformed at least once
- In control only 1% was incorrect
What were conclusions of Asch’s Study?
[2]
- Individual judements are affected by majority influnce
- Participants conformed due to NSI and desire to avoid rejection
What were the three factors that Asch changed in conformity?
- Group Size
- Task Difficulty
- Unanimity
How did Unanimity affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[4]
- Would non-conforming confed influence real person
- When people less unanimous; confusion
- The real conformed less often in the presence of a non conforming confed
- Influence of majority; everyone unanimous
How did Group Size affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[4]
- Wanted to vary group size to see if larger group = more conformity (Corulinear relationship)
- With 3 confed + real, conformity rose to 31.8%
- After 3, more confed made little difference
- People can be easily influences
How did Task Difficulty affect Conformity in Asch’s Study?
[3]
- Does making task harder increase conformity
- When lines were very similiar; conformity increased
- Natural to look at other people when unsure
Lab experiment
What is a Strength of Asch’s Study?
[3]
- It’s a lab experiment
- Extraneous and confounding variables are strictly controlled, meaning replication is easy
- Successful replication increases reliablity
Supports NSI
What is a Strength of Asch’s Study?
[3]
- Supports NSI
- Participant reported that they were conformed to fit in with group
- NSI - people conform to fit in with group
Low ecological validity
What is a Limitation of Asch’s Study?
[3]
- Lacks ecological validity
- Results cannot be generalised to real life as it was males who took part
- Artificial Stimuli - doesn’t represent real life complexity
What is a Limitation of Asch’s Study?
[4]
- Ethical issues
- Deception - participants were tricked into thinking study was about perception not compliance
- Not informed consent
- Psychological harm after participants realised true aims of study
What do we use to Evaluate studies?
G.R.A.V.E
What does G.R.A.V.E stand for?
- Generalisabilty - how representative
- Reliability - how consistent
- Applicability - useful?
- Validity - how valid
- Ethics - is it ethical
What is Social Influence?
How a person’s opinion, behaviours and emotions are affected by others
Who developed the Two-Process Model? When?
Deutsch and Gerrard (1955)
What is the Two-Process model?
- They’re explanations of why people conform
- Informational Social Influence
- Normative Social Influence
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
[2]
- When people conform as they have need to be right
- They look to others by copying them to have right answers
- Cognitive process
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
- When someone conforms as they want to be liked and fit in
- Emotional Process
What kind of process is NSI?
Emotional process
What kind of process is ISI?
Cognitive process
When does ISI occur?
[3]
- A person is in new situation and wants to do right thing
- Situation is ambigous - you look to do right thing
- Person in group is more of an expert
What type of Conformity does ISI link to? Why?
- Internalisation
- Involves a person publicly and privately accepting behaviours and groups
How does ISI link to Asch’s Conformity?
When task was more difficult, people wanted to be correct so looked to other people
When does NSI occur?
- You seek the apporoval of strangers (interview)
- An individual is in stressful situation
How does NSI link to Asch’s Study?
When participants were interviewed they said they agreed with majority even though they knew the answers were wrong
What is a Real Life Application of NSI and ISI?
[3]
- Schultz et AL
- He could change behaviour of hotel guests
- Say other people were using less towels
NSI is VAlid
What is a Strength Two-Process Model?
[3]
- NSI is valid - participants knew group was wrong privately, but chose to conform to be accepted
- Participants interviewed after said conformed to avoid rejection
- NSI is valid as we conform to be in social group
NSi doesn’t affect everybody same way
What is a Limitation of Two-Process Model?
[4]
- NSI doesn’t affect everybody same way
- People less concerned with being liked less affected by NSI
- Desire to be liked underlies conformity for many people
- It doesn’t explain everybody’s behaviour
What is a Strength Two-Process Model?
[4]
- Lucas Et Al supports ISI
- Asked students to give answers to maths problems that was easy or difficult
- Greater conformity to inccorect answers when they were difficult than when easy
- Show people conform in situation when answer is unknown
What is a Limitation of Two-Process Model?
[4]
- Two-Process says behaviour is due to NSI and ISI, but most of time both processes are involved
- Conformity is reduced when there’s another dissenting participant in Asch
- Dissenter may reduce power of NSI or ISI
- Don’t know if it’s ISI and NSI
What are Social Roles?
The parts people play as members of various social groups
What are Social Roles accompanied by?
It’s accompanied by expectations we have of what’s appropriate behaviour in each role
What type of conformity is conforming to social roles?
Identification
What were the aims of Zimbardo’s Study?
[2]
- Wanted to see how readily people would conform to role-playing exercise of prisoner and guard
- Wanted to see whether behaviour was due to internal dispositional factors or external situational factors
What are internal dispositional factors?
The people themselves
What are external situational factors?
The environment
Where was Zimbardo’s Study taken place?
Stanford Uni Basement which was converted into prison
How many people took part in participant? Who were they?
21 male students
What happened to prisoners?
[5]
They were:
- Blindfolded
- Strip-searched
- Deloused
- Given prisoner uniforms
- Given numbers
What happened to Guards?
[4]
They were:
- Given khaki uniform
- Whistles
- Handcuffs
- Dark sunglasses - to avoid eye contact
What was Zimbardo’s role in the study?
He was:
- Superintendent
- Prison Warden
What was the Procedure of Zimbardo’s Study?
[6]
- Zimbardo converted basement of Stanford Uni into mock prison
- 21 male students to be randomly assigned as prisoners and guards
- Prisoners were given numbers, uniforms, strip-searched, deloused
- Guards were given khaki uniforms, dark sunglasses
- No violence
- Zimbardo was superintendent and lead reasearcher
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?
[4]
- Guards and prisoners quickly settled into new roles, once there was a rebellion from prisoners
- Guards began to harass prisoners. Brutal and sadistic manner.
- Prisoners took on prisoner-like behaviour. Told tales, Tried to please guards.
- Threat to prisoner psychological and physical health, so they had to stop after 6 days not 14
What were the Conclusions of Zimbardo’s research?
[2]
- People readily conform to social roles, even when roles are against moral principles
- Situational factors were largely responsible, no behaviour demonstrated like this before
Abu Ghraib - torture
What is a Strength of Zimbardo’s Study?
[4]
- Real world applications of Zimbardo’s study
- Same confomrity to social roles happened in Abu Ghraib, a military prison
- Iraqi prisoners were tortured by American Soldiers in 2000s.
- Certian situational factors can lead to tyrannical people, so studying about this = can avoid later on in future
Zimbardo was superintendent and lead researcher
What is a Limitation of Zimbardo’s Study?
[3]
- Major ethical issue - Zimbardo was superintendent and lead researcher
- He responded to prisoner who complained of psychological/physical harm as superintendent
- Prisoner had to stay longer than wanted
Control over variables
What is a Strength of Zimbardo’s Study?
[3]
- There were control over variables
- Emotionally stable people chosen as guard and prisoner
- Researcher tried to rule out individual personality differences
Reicher and Haslam - different findings
What is a Limitation of Zimbardo’s Study?
[3]
- Lack of research to suggest participants in study acted ‘naturally’
- Reicher and Haslam replicated and found prisoners took control and acted badly
- Different findings
What is Obedience a form of?
It’s a form of social influence
What is Obedience?
When an individual follows a direct order from an individual (normally figure of authority) who has power to punish when obedient behaviour doesn’t occur
What is Destructive Obedience?
When an individual obeys an order to do an immoral act, which causes them distress as they don’t want to do it
What was the Aim of Milgram’s Experiment?
[2]
- Whether Germans were different, and more obedient than people in other countries
- See whether normal ordinary American citizens would obey an unjust order from authroity figure and inflict pain on a person
Where did Milgram’s Study take place?
Yale Uni
How many people took part in Milgram’s Study?
40 male participants
Even though participants were told they would be randomly assigned, which role were they always assigned?
Teacher
How did the experimenter make the ‘teacher’ believe the electric shock was real?
The teacher watched the learner be strapped to an eletcric shock and be given a “sample” electric shock
How would the learner indicate his choice to the teacher?
By using a system of lights
What was the teacher instructed to do every time the participant made a mistake?
Administrator an electric shock and increase the voltage after each mistake
What happened when:
- 300 V
- 315 V
- 330 V
was administered?
- 300 V - Learner complained of weak heart
- 315 V - learner started banging on wall demanding to leave
- 330 V - He became silent (dead?)
When did experiment stop?
[2]
- Until teacher refused to stop
- Or 450 V was reached
What happened if teacher tried to stop experiment?
The experimenter would respond with prod “the experiment requires that you continue”
What was procedure of Milgram’s study?
[10]
- 40 random male participants
- Invited to Yale Uni and met by Mr Wallace
- Experimenter said a person is randomly assigned to teacher or learner. But real participant was always teacher
- Teacher watched the learner be strapped and given ‘sample’ electric shock to say it’s real
- Teacher would test word recall of learner and indicate answer using system of lights
- When learner made pre-determined mistake, teacher had to give shock and increase voltage after every shock
- 300 V - weak heart
- 315 V - banged on wall and said to leave
- 330 V - silent
- After 450 V no more
What were the finding of Milgram’s study?
[4]
- All people went upto at least 300 V
- 65% went to full 450 V
- People showed ‘extreme tension’, ‘sweat’, ‘tremble’, ‘bite lip’
- Very different to results guessed - he thought no more than 3% would go higher
What are the conclusions of Milgram’s Study?
[2]
- Under right circumstances people would obey unjust orders
- Germans aren’t different to other countries. Hitler in England, still same consequences
What is a Strength of Milgram’s Study?
- High reliability
- Sheridan and King did similiar study with shocking a puppy
- Similiar results - 54% of males gave shock and 100% of females gave shock
What is a Weakness of Milgram’s Study?
- Low ecological validity
- Tested obedicne in lab, different to real-life situations
- Mundane realism
What is Strength of Milgram’s Study?
- Real life applications
- Opened eyes to problem of obedience
- Reduce future destructive obedience
- Nazis
What is a Weakness of Milgram’s Study?
- Lacked population validity
- Bias sample of 40 male American people
- Doesn’t represent whole population
- Other countries (China) can have higher obedience
What are the three things affecting obedience?
- Proximity
- Location
- Uniform
How was Proximity changed?
Teacher could still hear learner but not see him; this time closer
When Proximity changed what did obedience go to?
[2]
- 65% went up to 450 V
- 100% went over 315 V
When teacher and learner were in same room, what was rate of obedience?
40%
When teacher had to put learner’s hand on plate to shock him for wrong answer what was rate of obedience?
30%
When experiment was in different room to teacher and learner, what was rate of obedience?
20.5 %
How is obedience affected the further away the teacher is from experimenter?
Less obedience
How was Location in Study affected?
- Milgram’s original study was at Yale Uni (prestigious)
- This time, it was at run down offic block
- Obedience fell to 47.5 %
- Presitigious Uni = authority
How was Uniform affected in Study?
- In original, experiment wore grey lab coat as authority symbol
- In one variation, “ordinary member of public” had to replace experimenter withe everyday clothes
- Rate dropped to 20%
What are the 4 explanations of obedience? (4)
1) Situational Variables (e.g. proximity)
2) Legitimacy of Authority
3) Agentic State
4) Authoritarian Personality
What does Social-psychological explanations mean?
The influence other people can have on an individual that explains obedience
What does Legitimacy of Authority suggest about obedience of people?
Suggests people are more likely to obey people who have authority over them
What is authority justified by?
An individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy
Authority figures are granted the power to punish others only if the figures are seen as __________.
legitimate
What does agentic shift mean?
Giving up your independence and handing over control of behaviour to people you trust to exercise their authority appropriately
When does problems arise with legitimate authority?
When it becomes destructive
How was destructive authority shown through experimenter in Milgram’s study?
When the experimenter used prods to order participants to behave unjustly
List PEEI paragraph for Blass and Schmitt for Legitimacy of Authority. (5)
1) Research support from Blass and Schmitt show that legitimacy of authority can be an explanation of obedience
2) Blass and Schmitt showed film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them who really caused harm to Mr Wallace.
3) Students blamed experimenter
4) Due to legitimate authority - experiment was on top of hierarchy
5) Students recognised
Mai Lai paragraph (2)
1) American soldiers killed 500 unarmed Vietnam soldiers
2) Soldiers argued those higher were legitimate authority and ordered them to do it
Milgram Second Experiment (2)
1) When Milgram did experiment in run down office block, obedience rate was 48% (earlier 62.5%)
2) Change in location from Uni reduced legitimacy of authority, less likely to trust
Tarnow Flights - paragraph
1) He provides support by incidents of aviation incidents
2) Flight Voice Instructor told pilot to take risky route, pilot did it though dangerous
In an __________ state an individual feels responsibility for their own actions and therefore the individual behaves according to their own __________.
1) autonomous
2) principles
What does agentic shift free up and who does this allow them to obey? (2)
1) It frees up demands of conscience
2) Allows them to obey authority figure
When an individual is acting as an agent, what do they most likely experience?
High anxiety - moral strain
Why does the individual obey the authority figure, even though they don’t like it?
They feel powerless to disobey
What are binding factors?
Aspects of a situation that allows an agent to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce moral strain (shift blame to victim)
In the first Milgram experiment, who was said to have the responsibility?
Experimenter
When an additional confederate applied electric shock on behalf of teacher in variation experiment, what did the percentage of people who administered the full 450 V rise from?
65% to 92.5%
Agentic shift weakness paragraph (3)
1) Doesn’t explain why they obey
2) Participants should’ve obeyed all orders
3) Only 65% did
Hofling et Al Paragraph (3)
Weakness
1) Nurses didn’t show moral strain when handing over responsibility to doctors
2) Agentic shift accounts for only some explanations of obedience
What does Authoritarian Personality argue?
This dispositional explanation argues that certain personality characteristics are associated with higher levels of obedience
Who investigated the causes of obedient personality in a study with more than 2000 middle class white Americans?
Adorno Et AL
What did Adorno use to measure authoritarian personality?
F - scale (fascism)
What does the F in F-scale stand for?
Fascist
What were the people like who scored high on the F-Scale? (4)
People who scored high:
1) Identified with ‘strong’ people
2) were generally disrespectful and had a hatred for the ‘weak’
3) Conscious of their and others social status
4) Showed excessive respect to authority
What were people who scored high on the F-Scale conscious of?
Theirs’s and others social status
Who did people who scored high on the F-Scale show excessive respect to?
Authority
Authoritarian people had no ‘_________’ between categories of people
Fuzziness
What are some characteristics of Authoritarian Personality? (6)
1) Tendency to be especially obedient to authority
2) Have excessive respect for authority
3) Hatred to people who have lower social status
4) Traditional thoughts on race, gender and sex
5) View society as going downhill and think we need strong and powerful leaders to change it
6) Outlook is either black or white, no uncertainty
What could some origins be for Authoritarian Personality? (5)
1) Vert strict discipline
2) Expectation of complete loyalty
3) Impossibly high standards
4) Severe criticisms of failures
5) Conditional love
What could these origins for Authoritarian Personality cause in a child?
Resentment and hostility
Where are fear and angers of Authoritarian Personality displaced onto?
People who are weaker
What does Resistance to Social Influence mean?
It refers to people’s ability to withstand social pressure to conform to majority or obey authority
What are the factors influencing the ability to withstand social pressure?
Situational factors = social support
Dispositional factors = locus of control
How does Social Support help resist pressure to conform?
It’s a way people can resist conformity by giving them an ally, which gives them independence
Social Support breaks u______ in a group.
Unanimity
Since you won’t fear being ridiculed by social support, what can you avoid?
Normative Social Influence
Social Support provides a model of ____________ which can be followed
Disobedience
What does social support help individuals act according to?
Their conscience
In Asch’s Study, when one confederate was instructed to say right answer in a variation what did the rate of conformity drop to?
Dropped to 5%
In Asch’s Study, one confederate was instructed to say right answer in a variation. What is this type of confederate called?
Dissenting participant
In Milgram’s study, when real participants were paired with two additional confederates who withdrew, what did the rate of obedience change from to?
Rate decreased from 65% to 10%
What is Locus of Control?
The degree of control an individual feels they have over their own life and is measured on a continuum from internal to external
What are characteristics of Internals in Loc?
Internals believe things happening to them are largely controlled by themselves (e.g. exam failure = no hard work)
What are characteristics of Externals in Loc?
Externals believe things happen outside their control (e.g. exam failure = teacher fault)
What are Internals more likely to resist?
Internals are more likely to resist social influence
Why are Internals more likely to resist social influence?
They:
1) Take personal responsibility for actions
2) Self confident
3) More achievement oriented
4) Higher intelligence
5) Less need of social approval = greater resistance
What is between Internal and External?
A continuum
What is at the lower end of continuum?
Low internal locus of control
What is at the higher end of the continuum?
Low external locus of control
Explain the evidence that there’s a link between LoC and resisting obedience? (EE)
Evidence - Charles Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether people were internals or externals
Explanation - 37% of internals didn’t continue to highest shock levels. Only 23% of externals didn’t continue. Internals showed greater resistance to authority due to personal responsibility
Explain how the role of LoC in resisting social influence may be exaggerated (EEI)
Evidence - Rotter (1982) found that LoC may not be the most important factor in determining whether someone resists social influence. LoC’s role depends on situation.
**Explain ** - This is a limitation because it means LoC is only helpful in explaining a narrow range of new situations
**Impact ** - This means that even if people have internal LoC it may not increase resistance to social influence if you’ve conformed in past, regardless of LoC you will do same
Evaluate contradictory evidence for the role of LoC and resistance to social influence. (ECE)
Evidence - Twenge et al.(2004) analysed data from American locus of control studies over 40 years (1960-2002). They knew Americans had become more dependent over time. But they were also more external, although people were more resistant
Counterargument - Although this challenges the link between LoC and increasing reisistance behaviour, it’s possible that other factors could have influenced the results
Explanation - Change is so unstable that many things are outside of people’s personal conditions
What is the opposite of majority influence?
Minority influence
Who came up with idea of minority influence?
Moscovici
What does minority influence mean?
A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade other to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. This leads to internalisation.
What type of conformity is Minority Influence most likely to lead to?
Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation; both public and private beliefs are changed
What did Moscovici study?
He studied the process of minority influence in his ‘blue slide’, ‘green slide’ study
Outline what happened in Moscovici’s ‘blue slide’, ‘green slide’ study. (5)
1) 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 differing blue-coloured slides and state whether they were blue or green.
2) In each group, there were two confederates who consistently said that slides were green on two-thirds of the trials.
3) The participants gave same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials
4) The second group was exposed to an inconcistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%
5) For third control group - no confeds. Participants were wrong 0.25% of trials. Study drew attention to the main processes of minority influence
What are the 4 factors affecting Minority Influence?
1) Consistency
2) Commitment
3) Flexibility
4) Process of Change
What does consistency in minority’s views increase?
Consistency in minority’s views increases the amount of interest from others
What is synchronic consistency?
Consistency that’s agreement between people
What is diachronic consistency?
Consistency that might be over time
What does diachronic and synchronic consistency make people start to rethink?
It makes other people start to rethink their own views
Minority influence is most effective if minority keeps the ____ beliefs, both over time and between all the ________ that form the minority.
Same
Individuals
What is the main purpose of Consistency?
Draws attention to the minority influence
Describe how the factor of Commitment affects Minority Influence. (4)
1) Sometimes minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views.
2) It’s important hat these extreme activities are at some risk to minority because it demonstrates commitment
3) Minority influence is most effective if a personal sacrifice is made
4) This is effective because it shows the minority isn’t acting out of self-interest
Describe how the factor of Flexibility affects Minority Influence. (6)
1) Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency can be interpreted negatively
2) Repeating the same arguments and behaviours can be seen as rigid, unbending, opinionated and inflexible
3) This is off-putting to majority and unlikely to result in any conversions to minority position
4) Rather members of minority need to be prepared to adapt their POV and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments
5) You have to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility
6) Minority influence is more effective if the minority shows flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise
Describe how the Process of Change affects Minority Influence. (5)
1) The three factors outlined make people think about a topic
2) If you hear something and already agree with it, it doesn’t make you stop and think, but if you hear something new, then you might think about it - especially if the source of view is consistent and passionate
3) It’s the deeper processing which is important in the process of conversion to a different, minority viewpoint
4) Over time, increasing no. of people switch from majority to minority position - they’ve been ‘converted’
5) The more this happens the faster the rate of conversion - snowball effect
What is Social Change?
The process by which society changes its beliefs, attitudes and behaviours to create new social norms. It’s a continual process which happens at a gradual pace.
Social Change is a continual process which happens at a ________ pace.
Gradual
What is an example of social change?
Women’s rights
What are the stages for how Minorities are involved in social change?
1) They draw attention to an issue
2) They express consistency of their position
3) This causes deeper processing of issue
4) This leads to augmentation principle
5) This leads to snowball effect
6) This leads to social cryptomnesia
What happens when minority causes deeper processing of issue?
People who accepted status quo begin to question their beliefs
Augmentation → minority suffer
What is Augmentation principle?
- When majority begins to pay more attention because minority are willing to suffer for their views.
- They’re seen as committed so taken more seriously
What happens in Snowball Effect?
When minority initially has a small impact, but this then spreads more widely and more people consider issue
What is Social Cryptomnesia?
Where people have a memory that social change occurred but don’t remember how it happened
What are the two things creating and maintaining Social Change?
- Conformity
- Obedience
How does Conformity create Social Change?
1) Dissent has power to lead social change
2) By breaking power of majority, dissenters encourage others to dissent
What are some examples of how Conformity creates Social Change?
1) Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity by doing NSI.
2) They show what other people are doing, and gets other people to conform.
How does Obedience create Social Change?
1) Obedience has the potential to lead social change
2) Milgram’s study shows how disobedient role models meant that real participants also disobeyed.
3) Gradual commitment - once a small instruction is obeyed, it’s difficult to resist a bigger one
How does Conformity maintain Social Change?
1) People may conform to the new norms by compliance
2) They want to fit in with people - NSI
How does Obedience maintain Social Change?
1) A new social norm have laws and rules put in place to ensure that people obey the new attitudes and behaviours
2) Homosexuality was illegal - now it isn’t
Using an example, explain the role of social influence processes in social change. [6 marks]
1) Social change definition
2) Minorities - flexible, commitment, consistent
3) Snowball effect and Snowball Cryptoamnesia
4) Homosexuality example
5) Campaigner NSI Example
Nolan et Al - message on door
What is a Strength of the Social Influence and Social Change theory?
- There’s research support for NSI in social change
- Nolan et Al (2008) put messages on doors that said residents were trying to reduce energy usage. A control group put up messages on saving energy only
- Significant decrease in energy usage in first group showing conformity can lead to social change through NSI
Social change is slow = minority influence is weak
What is a Weakness of Social Influence and Social Change theory?
- Social changes happen slowly if it happens at all
- It took decades to change attitudes against drink-driving and smoking
- Suggests effects of minority influence like consistency, flexibility and commitment is weaker than first thought
- Limits use of minority influence
Different supporting studies are WEAK
What is a Weakness of Social Influence and Social Change?
- Explanations of how social influence leads to social change draw heavily upon studies of Moscovici, Asch and Milgram
- All of these studies have been criticized for lacking validity, both internal and external due to artificial nature
- Undermines link between social influence and social change due to questionable supporting evidence
