Conformity

Question 1

Conformity.

Answer 1

Change in a person’s behaviour or opinions. Real or imagined pressure from a person or a group.

Question 2

Internalisation.

Answer 2

Deep conformity - take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. A far-reaching, permanent change in behaviour, even if the group is absent.

Question 3

Identification.

Answer 3

Moderate type of conformity - act same as the group because we value it and want to be part of it. This doesn’t mean we agree with the majority.

Question 4

Compliance.

Answer 4

Superficial, temporary type of conformity - outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. Change in behaviour only lasts while being monitored by the group.
If alone - compliance
If they are with others - identification.

Question 5

Informational social influence.

Answer 5

We agree with the majority because we see it as correct. We accept it because we also want to be correct -> internalisation.

Question 6

Normative social influence.

Answer 6

We agree with the majority because we want to be liked and accepted -> compliance.

Question 7

Confederate.

Answer 7

Someone who is in on the experiment.

Question 8

Participant.

Answer 8

Someone who is part of the experiment.

Question 9

Naive participant.

Answer 9

Someone who is taking part in the experiment but doesn’t know everything about the experiment.

Question 10

Trial.

Answer 10

Every test within the experiment.

Question 11

Dissenter.

Answer 11

Someone who disagrees with the majority within the experiment.

Question 12

Asch’s research: dissenters effects on participants.

Answer 12

People are more likely to conform if a whole group are going against their answer. Changes when the variables change - conformity rates reduced when the participant didn’t publicly have to answer. Experiment showed both ISI and NSI. Interviewed to find out why they conformed.

Question 13

Asch’s research: aims.

Answer 13

Investigate how social pressures affect people to conform when the people applying the social pressures are the majority group.

Question 14

Asch’s research: procedure.

Answer 14

Lab experiment. 123 American undergraduate males. Between six to eight confederates and one naive participant. Naive participant not aware others were confederates. Shown two cards, one with a ‘standard line’ and one with three ‘comparison lines’ one of which matched the ‘standard line’. Participant was asked which of the three lines matched the ‘standard’.

Question 15

Asch’s research: findings.

Answer 15

Naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. 25% of participants did not conform on - 75% of the participants conformed at least once. When there was a dissenter the conformity dropped to 5%. When asked to write the answers down the conformity dropped. When there was a dissenter it fell to 25%

Question 16

Stanford prison experiment: Zimbardo’s aims.

Answer 16

To investigate conformity to social roles.

Question 17

Stanford prison experiment: Procedure.

Answer 17

Participants took a test to check their emotional stability. All participants chosen were stable. 24 people; 12 prisoners and 12 guards, roles assigned randomly. The guards and prisoners were then put into a mock prison. Prisoners given smocks with prisoner numbers on and a chain around their foot. Guards were given uniforms, handcuffs, batons and reflective sunglasses.

Question 18

Stanford prison experiment: Zimbardo’s findings.

Answer 18

Within the first couple of days, the guards started to abuse their roles. Prisoners protested refusing to leave their cells, they were then forced out by the guards. Many prisoners suffered mental breakdowns.

Question 19

Stanford prison experiment: Prisoner #8612.

Answer 19

Prisoner #8612 began suffering from acute emotional disturbance, disorganised thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage. Guards believed he was faking it in order to be let out. He was then given the offer of becoming an informant in exchange for no further guard harassment. Then began to act “crazy,” to scream, to curse, to go into a rage that seemed out of control. Let out as it was believed that he was suffering from a mental breakdown. Not the only prisoner to suffer from a mental breakdown as many other prisoners were also let out for suffering from the same thing.

Question 20

Stanford prison experiment: Conclusion.

Answer 20

Proved what Zimbardo was trying to show, when given social roles that have a lot of power attached to them, many will abuse that power and lose all sense of who they were before.

Question 21

Stanford prison experiment: the end.

Answer 21

Stopped after only 6 days when Zimbardo’s girlfriend at the time said that the experiment had also changed him, that she wanted nothing to do with him if this was what he was really what he was like. He described this as the ‘metaphorical slap in the face’ that caused him to end the experiment. He got too involved in the experiment.

Question 22

Obedience.

Answer 22

Social influence where someone is following a direct order.

Question 23

Milgram’s experiment: aims.

Answer 23

To discover how many participants would obey direct orders when the orders involve harming another human.

Question 24

MIlgram’s experiment: procedure.

Answer 24

40 males recruited through adverts and flyers. Told that Milgram was looking for paid participants to take part in a study about memory. A rigged draw that would lead to ‘Mr. Wallace’ (a confederate) to be the ‘learner’ and participant was ‘teacher’. There was also an ‘experimenter’ (another confederate) dressed in a lab coat. Participants told they could leave at any time. Learner strapped into a chair in another room and wired with electrodes. When learner got something wrong teacher was told to inflict an electric shock, voltage got higher with every wrong answer. Learner made loud noises to signify they were in pain. If the teacher seemed to want to stop the experimenter gave one of four prods to try to get them to continue.

Question 25

Milgram’s experiment: findings.

Answer 25

More than 50% of participants went all the way up to 450 volts.

Question 26

Milgram’s experiment: The prods.

Answer 26

> ‘Please continue’ or Please go on’
‘The experiment requires that you continue’
‘It is absolutely essential that you go on’
‘You have no other choice, you must go on’

Question 27

Realism.

Answer 27

Reflects real life.

Question 28

Hofling nurse study.

Answer 28

Hofling (1966) studied nurses in a hospital and found that when he told these nurses to administer drugs to patients 21 out of 22 did just because they were doctors.

Question 29

Problems with Zimbardo’s experiment.

Answer 29

> Zimbardo got too involved in the experiment. As the observer you are not meant to be at all involved in the happenings of the experiment. Despite this, Zimbardo played the ‘warden’ in the experiment.
Zimbardo was trying to create a situation in which the guards dominated the prisoners, this makes the idea that the study was ‘natural’ void.

Question 30

Ethical issues with Zimbardo’s experiment.

Answer 30

> Participants were not protected from physical or emotional harm.
Participants were not given a full rundown of the experiment’s procedure.
Participants should have been allowed to leave as soon as they started to show signs of emotional trauma

Question 31

Stanford prison experiment: Prisoner #819

Answer 31

While talking a priest prisoner #819 began to cry hysterically. The psychologists removed parts of the costume and told him to go and rest in a room adjacent to the prison yard. Told him they would get him some food and then take him to see a doctor. One of the guards lined up the other prisoners and had them chant “Prisoner #819 is a bad prisoner. Because of what Prisoner #819 did, my cell is a mess, Mr. Correctional Officer.’ Psychologists realised he could hear the chanting, they found him sobbing uncontrollably. Tried to get him to leave the experiment, but he said he could not leave because the others had labelled him a bad prisoner. At that point, Zimbardo said, “Listen, you are not #819. You are [his name], and my name is Dr. Zimbardo. I am a psychologist, not a prison superintendent, and this is not a real prison. This is just an experiment, and those are students, not prisoners, just like you. Let’s go.” He stopped crying suddenly, looked up and replied, “Okay, let’s go,“ as if nothing had been wrong.

Question 32

Situational variables.

Answer 32

> Proximity: The physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to.
Location: The place where an order is issued.
Uniform: People in positions of authority often have a specific outfit that is symbolic of their authority.

Question 33

Psychological factors - legitimacy of authority

Answer 33

Suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. No personal responsibility - simply obeying orders. Feel that what they are doing is wrong, feel like you cannot disobey. Social hierarchy is mostly agreed on by society. One of the consequences of legitimacy of authority is that it may become destructive. Some people in places of authority may be granted permission to punish those whom they have authority over. Authority can be destructive or productive.

Question 34

Psychological factors - agentic state

Answer 34

A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we are acting for an authority figure. It frees us from the demands of our conscience, this allows us to even obey a destructive authority figure. You believe that you are not responsible.

Question 35

Psychological factors - autonomous state

Answer 35

Being free to behave according to their own principles.

Question 36

Agentic shift

Answer 36

Shift from autonomy to agency.

Question 37

Psychological factors - binding factors

Answer 37

> Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling.
Binding factors include: uniform, location, perception of authority and the prods used in Milgram’s experiment.

Question 38

Disposition

Answer 38

A person’s inherent qualities of mind and character.

Question 39

Dispositional explanation

Answer 39

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of a person’s personality. Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations.

Question 40

Authoritarian personality

Answer 40

T of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals. Such individuals are also thought of to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors. Believe in the structure of authority.

Question 41

Adorno - obedient personality study

Answer 41

Investigated the causes of the obedient personality. More than 2000 middle-class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. People with authoritarian leanings identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’. No ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people, with fixed distinctive stereotypes about other groups. There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarian and prejudice. Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.

Question 42

Origin of the obedient personality

Answer 42

Adorno believed that authoritarian personalities are due to upbringing. Formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting. Extremely strict discipline also characterised by conditional love. Creates resentment and hostility in a child, cannot express their feelings properly. Fears are displaced onto others who are perceived to be weaker in a process known as scapegoating. This is a psychodynamic explanation.

Question 43

Resistance

Answer 43

To withstand social pressure. For conformity and obedience.

Question 44

Social support

Answer 44

The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. Act as models to show that resistance to social influence is possible.

Question 45

Locus of control

Answer 45

The sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them, externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces. Someone with high internal locus is much more likely to resist pressure because they take responsibility for their actions whether good or bad.

Question 46

Social support for conformity

Answer 46

Other people present who are not conforming. As we saw in Asch’s research the person not conforming does not have to give the correct answer but simply the fact that they are not conforming appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience.

Question 47

Social support for obedience

Answer 47

Pressure to obey is reduced when there is another person who is seen to disobey. In one of Milgram’s experiments the rate of obedience dropped by 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was was joined by a disobedient participant.

Question 48

Continuum

Answer 48

People differ in the way they explain their successes and failures but isn’t simply a matter of being internal or external.

Question 49

Minority influence

Answer 49

A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. This leads to internalisation or conversion.

Question 50

Minority influence - consistency

Answer 50

Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority.

Question 51

Minority influence - commitment

Answer 51

More powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example, by making personal sacrifices.

Question 52

Minority influence - flexibility

Answer 52

Relentless consistency could be counterproductive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority is not acting out of self interest.

Question 53

Minority influence - process of change

Answer 53

The three factors above make people think about the the topic. If you hear something new, then you might think about it, especially if the source of this other news is consistent and passionate.

Question 54

Minority influence - Moscovici

Answer 54

Demonstrates the importance of consistency. Proves that the majority has more influence than the minority. 91.5% of participants did not change their answer because of the minority, only 64% in Asch’s experiment didn’t conform. Lab experiment Independent group’s design.

Question 55

Lucas et al

Answer 55

Students asked maths questions. Harder question -> more conformity. Moreso for students who rated their maths ability as low. More people conform when in situations where they feel that they don’t know the answer. Expected by ISI explanation. We assume other people know better than us and must be right.

Question 56

Lucas et al criticism

Answer 56

This can be used where there is a yes or no answer but not moral situations - reduced external validity.