Chapter 8

Question 1

Americans generally romanticize not

Answer 1

conforming

Question 2

Examples of other people’s behavior influencing an individuals decisions/behavior

Answer 2

• Heaven’s Gate
• Freedom Riders
• My Lai Massacres of Vietnam

Question 3

Conformity

Answer 3

A change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people

Question 4

Informational Social Influence

Answer 4

-Desire to gain information
Conform because we see others as a source of information to guide our behavior
-Believe they are “more” correct at interpreting the situation
-Can backfire, particularly when threat is involved
-Women are own harshest critics regarding weight they
think that they are heavier than reality

Question 5

Sherif’s Autokinetic Research

Answer 5

-Individuals presented with a dot of light in a darkened room
-Told it was a perception experiment and asked how much the dot moved
Disparate individual judgments converged onto an agreed upon estimate when judging with others
-Participants in Sherif’s study truly believed the group’s estimate

Question 6

Private Acceptance

Answer 6

Conforming to other people’s behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right

Question 7

Public Compliance

Answer 7

Conforming to other people’s behavior publicly without necessarily believing in what we are doing or saying
Sherif’s participants continued providing estimates closer to the group’s up to a year later

Question 8

Generating Private Acceptance

Answer 8

Reducing electricity use
Hotel towel reuse
Drinking on college campuses

Question 9

Eyewitness Identification Study

Answer 9

-Faces presented for half second
-When led to believe it was for the development police department techniques and highly important
Conformed to wrong answers 51% of the time
Versus 35% of low-importance conditions

Question 10

Contagion

Answer 10

The rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd

Question 11

Mass Psychogenic Illness

Answer 11

The occurrence, in a group of people, of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause

Question 12

When is Informational Social Influence most likely to produce conformity?

Answer 12

• When the situation is ambiguous.
• When the situation is a crisis.
• When other people are experts.

Question 13

Normative Social Influence

Answer 13

-Wanting to be liked or accepted
-Influence leading us to conform in order to be liked and accepted
-Will not necessarily lead to private acceptance of those beliefs and behaviors.
-Crandall (1988) found that sororities each develop their own group norms regarding eating disorders.
Throughout the year, new members conformed to their respective sororities group norms
-Men are increasingly under pressure to have an “ideal” body–
–Six pack
–Media influential in promoting this
–Increased steroid and/or enhancement use

Question 14

Social Norms

Answer 14

• The implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members–
• -We don’t do that
• -We do that
• Deviant members can be excluded or bullied

Question 15

Asch’s Line Judgment Research
Solomon Asch (1951, 1956)

Answer 15

• Placed college students in room with six confederates
• Answered second to last
• Solomon Asch had participants guess which line in the right box is the same length as the line on the left. Almost everyone easily gets this right—when alone.
• Overall agreed with group on 37% of the critical trials
• 76% of participants agreed with the majority on at least one of the critical trials
• When a single confederate answered incorrectly with actual participants, the participants–
• -Were initially stunned
• -Laughed at confederate’s choices

Question 16

When it is important to people to be accurate

Answer 16

Conform less to the obviously wrong answers of the group.

But they still conform part of the time (33%)

Question 17

some people will find it difficult to risk social disapproval, even from strangers when

Answer 17

• When the group is wrong
• the right answer is obvious
• there are strong incentives to be accurate

Question 18

When individuals attempt to resist

Answer 18

• Attempts are made to “bring them back into the fold”–
• -Teasing or long discussions
• If attempts fail, negative comments will be made and others

Question 19

Schacter’s “Johnny Rocco” Study

Answer 19

• Case study of a juvenile delinquent
• Groups of 8-10 participants vote on what to do with Johnny
• Scale ranging from 1- “loving” treatment to 7- “punishment” treatment
• 3 confederates–
• -A deviate
• -A slider
• -A mode
• The groups did not like the deviant

Question 20

Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life

Answer 20

• Fashion
• Fads
• Body image
• Women’s body image–
• -Most cultures consider plumpness attractive
• -Western & American cultures are currently emphasizing thinness

Question 21

Social Impact Theory

Answer 21

• The idea that conforming to social influence depends on–
• -The strength of the group’s importance,
• -Its immediacy,
• -The number of people in the group.

Question 22

Size of the group

Answer 22

After four or five members, additional members have minimal effect

Question 23

Importance of the group

Answer 23

-friendship, love, and respect, creates more influence
-Highly cohesive groups often make less-than-rational decisions
Attempting to avoid conflict or upsetting one another

Question 24

Role of Allies

Answer 24

• Asch (1955) had 1 of 7 confederates provide the correct answer
• Conformity dropped to 6 percent from 32 percent
• Most common Supreme Court Ruling is 9-0

Question 25

Minority Influence

Answer 25

• The process by which dissenters produce change within a group
• Seen as competent but disliked–
• -Susan B. Anthony
• -Malcolm X
• -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Question 26

Style of behavior is most important in Minority Influence

Answer 26

• Consistently and confidently state their dissenting opinions
• MUST appear flexible and open-minded not dogmatic

Question 27

Injunctive Norms

Answer 27

People’s perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others

Question 28

Descriptive Norms

Answer 28

People’s perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of whether the behavior is approved or disapproved of by others.

Question 29

“Boomerang Effect”

Answer 29

When what most people do is identified, some individuals modify behavior to much

Question 30

Compliance techniques

Answer 30

• Foot-in-the-door
• Door-in-the-face
• Propaganda

Question 31

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Answer 31

Getting people to agree first to a small request makes them more likely to agree later to a second, larger request

Question 32

Door-in-the-face

Answer 32

First asking people for a large request that they will probably refuse makes them more likely to agree later to a second, smaller request
.

Question 33

Propaganda

Answer 33

A deliberate, systematic attempt to advance a cause by manipulating mass attitudes and behaviors, often through misleading or emotionally charged information

Question 34

Obedience

Answer 34

We are socialized to obey authority

Question 35

Conforming to the wrong norm

Answer 35

Would have required abandoning “obey authority” norm

Question 36

Self-justification

Answer 36

• The shocks were incremental

- Justification was made for the previous shock

Question 37

Loss of Personal Responsibility

Answer 37

• I’m just following orders
• Executioner guards viewed–
• -Themselves as following orders
• -Criminals as less human more than other guards did