Conformity and Obedience

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

social influence resulting from exposure to the opinions of a majority ot the majority of one’s group

Question 2

What is social psychology?

Answer 2

scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feels and behaviours of individuals are influence by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.

Question 3

What is social influence?

Answer 3

• attitudes and behaviours brought about by others

- individuals changing their behaviour to meet the demands of a social environment

Question 4

What is normative social influence?

Answer 4

going along with others in pursuit of social approval or belonging. E.g. clothing choices

Question 5

What is informational social influence

Answer 5

Going along with others because their ideas and behaviours make sense, the evidence in our social environment changes our mind. E.g. deciding which side of the road to drive on.

Question 6

What is compliance?

Answer 6

• When you attempt to have other people to comply with a target or request
• Usually without true change of attitude

Question 7

What are the three main techniques to induce compliance?

Answer 7

1. The door-in-face technique
2. The foot-in-the-door technique
3. Low-balling

Question 8

What is the door-in-the-face technique?

Answer 8

• Starts with an extreme request (which is more than likely to be refused)
• You then retreat to a more moderate request (the one you originally has in mind)

Question 9

What is the foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 9

• First ask for a very small favour (which will more than likely to be granted)
• Then follow this up with a larger, but related favour (the one they originally had in mind
• Study by Freedman & Fraser
• This usually works because people want to stay consistent

Question 10

What is low-balling?

Answer 10

• Compliance to an initial attempt which is then followed by a more costly and less beneficial version of the same request
• Target feels obligation to the requester

Question 11

What’s Asch’s conformity study and variants?

Answer 11

• Claimed that the only reason there was so much conformity in Sherif’s study because it was so ambiguous
• Expected less conformity when there was a clear answer
• Designed classic experiment where participants were shown line x and had to match it to line a, b or c.
• 18 trials, different cards
• Control (no group influence) over 99% participants were accurate.
• When confederates would say the wrong answer
• 36.8% occasions the participants gave the same incorrect response as group
• But 2/3 didn’t conform
• He did a variation where the participant arrived late and wrote their answer down instead of saying it out loud. The conforming to incorrect answer fell to 12.5%
• Shows that for many of them it was compliance not internalisation
• But 12.5% may have internalised the wrong answer or were scared that they would have to say their answer out loud.
• It is found that once there are 3 other people conforming the participant is more likely to conform
• Conformity is decreased when the confederates (who were in on the experiment) didn’t seem to have confidence in their answer and just looked like they were copying other people
• But if one confederate says the right answer then the participant is more likely to say the right answer even if the rest of the group says the wrong answer and that decreases the conformity. But the confederate has to be a valid source of support to decrease the conformity.
• Even if another participant says another answer that is also wrong that decreases the conformity.

Question 12

What are the two types of conformity?

Answer 12

• Compliance: superficial and public. Change in behaviour, not personal views. (links with normative social influence)
• Internalisation: Deep and private. Change in behaviour and personal views. (links with informational social influence)

Question 13

What’s Sherif’s (1936) Autokinetic effect study?

Answer 13

• Asked groups to estimate the amount of movement of a stationary light in a dark room
• Group norm rapidly established – similar answers
• New Ps conformed quicker
• Internalisation – found they had changed their private beliefs

Question 14

Why did Asch believe there was so much conformity in Sherif’s study?

Answer 14

Because it was so ambiguous

Question 15

Why did Deutsch and Gerrard believe people conform to Asch’s experiment?

Answer 15

• Normative influence: to feel in line with the group

- Informational influence: ‘several pairs of eyes more likely to be correct’

Question 16

What did Festinger (1950) say in regards to minorities?

Answer 16

• Says that norm-following and norm formation outcomes of pressures towards uniformity
• Following group norms = confidence in behaviour (appropriate/socially desirable)
• Minorities lack power, status and numerical size
• Can’t enforce normative/ informational influence

Question 17

What did Moscovici (1976;1980) say in regards to minorities?

Answer 17

• Minority can influence – leads to change (e.g. veganism and green party)
• Often minority views rejected/ dismissed

Question 18

What was Moscovici’s behaviour style experiment?

Answer 18

 6 participants, 2 confederates
 Confederates said that the unambiguous blue slides were green
 If the confederates were very confident and consistent in saying that the slides were green then 8.42% would agree with them
 Only 0.25% said it was green in control
 This shows that if minority’s are consistent and confidence slowly they can make change.

Question 19

What’s the self-categorisation theory?

Answer 19

That you categorise as a group member

Question 20

What’s Moscovivi’s dual-process ‘coversion theory’?

Answer 20

• Conflict is critical factor (individuals motivated to reduce conflict). This happens with majority influence.
• Different processes and outcomes for majority/minority
• Majority influence usually results in public compliance, it results because of normative social influence and only has short term compliance
• Minority influence usually results in private conversion/ internalisation where people actually give more thought to the minority’s argument. Informational social influence with a longer lasting attitude change.

Question 21

What’s obedience?

Answer 21

complying with orders from a person of higher social status within a defined hierarchy or chain of command

Question 22

What was Milgram’s experiment (1963)?

Answer 22

• Volunteers told they were taking part in scientific research to improve memory. They were told they would be randomly allocated to teacher or learner role but they were actually always the teacher.
• Teacher (subject) would ask the learner questions and would administer an electric shock with each wrong answer, was told to increase voltage with each wrong answer. The ‘learner’ with increased shocks screams more and more
• The teacher didn’t know the learner was really an actor (confederate) and the electric shocks were harmless
• If the teacher was struggling or saying that they wouldn’t go on then the experimenter has standardised responses to get them to carry on
• 2/3 volunteers were prepared to administer potentially fatal electric shock when they were asked to by a ‘legitimate’ authority figure.
• All participants went up to 300V at some point (learner response at 270v = agonized screams

Question 23

Talk about some of the variations of Milgrams study

Answer 23

• 636 participants have been tested in 18 variation studies
• When the participants were free to choose their shock level 95% stayed below 150V. Shows they were just obeying orders
• Easier to resist orders when authority figure is not nearby, e.g. if they are on the telephone in another room, only had 21% obedience level. A lot of participants lied about voltage of shocks they administered.
• When another participant acts on behalf of the experimenter not wearing a lab coat or anything the level of authority is removed and the level of obedience of the participant is greatly reduced.
• When they changed the location of the experiment to a run down building it was shown that 48% of participants would still obey
• If the proximity of the learner is closer then 40% would still obey
• When the teacher had to hold down the learner’s hand onto the shock plate 30% would still obey
• If another ‘teacher’ refuses to give shocks that only 10% will still obey

Question 24

Why do we obey?

Answer 24

• Sociocultural perspective
• Binding factors
• Responsibility: the agentic shift
• Situational factors

Question 25

What is a sociocultural perspective?

Answer 25

we learn to obey authority and expect to encounter legitimate, trustworthy authority

Question 26

What are binding factors?

Answer 26

Subtle creation of psychological barriers to disobedience; gradual increase in punishment levels in Milgram’s research in a means of ‘entrapment’. Similar to foot-in-door technique.

Question 27

What is the agentic shift?

Answer 27

people shift between two states (autonomous and agentic). In an autonomous state, people behave voluntary and self directed – conscious state. In agentic state, people mindlessly accept orders of someone seen as responsible – doing ‘what they’re told’. If people feel that someone is qualified and legitimate and will take responsibility from the orders then people may enter the agentic state. People are trained to be in that agentic state from when they’re children: told to accept rules ect.

Question 28

What are situational factors?

Answer 28

some situations are so ‘strong’ that they dominate individual differences in personality and make us behave

Question 29

What are ethical issues with the Milgram studies?

Answer 29

• Controversial study (stress, anxiety, guilt, poor debriefing)
• Strict ethical guidelines now control the use of human participants in psychological research
• ‘You have no other choice, you MUST go on’ is very unethical

Question 30

What happened in the Burger’s study where he ethically replicated Milgram?

Answer 30

• Protect well-being of participants
• Screening process
• Followed ethical guidelines (could withdraw, immediate debrief)
• Milgram paradigm only to 150V
• 70% obedience to 150V (Milgram’s = 82.5%)

Question 31

What happened with the Hofling, Brtozman, Dalrymple, Gravves & Pierce study (1966)?

Answer 31

• doctor asked nurse to administer 20mg of new drug to patient
• drug stated maximum does was 10mg
• 95% of nurses obeyed and were going to administer 20mg dose (stopped by an observer
• Broke a number of hospital regulations
• But nurses expected to obey instructions from doctors in normal medical practice
• Disobedience would have been difficult for nurses in this situation.