Conformity, Compliance, and Obediance Oct21,2015

Question 1

The area of psychology exploring how affected by real/imagined pressure of other individuals or groups = parental expectations

Answer 1

Social Influence

Question 2

Conformity is very indirect or direct?

Answer 2

indirect, you may conform publicly but not privately, sometimes both.

Question 3

Define the Line experiment

Answer 3

(Asch) Will people still conform when it’s obvious? Four lines drawn, have to choose the one most similar to another line, it is very obvious what the answer is, but when a test subject is in a group with confederates, 76% conformed at least one time with obvious wrong answer.

Question 4

What experiment brought people into a dark room, showed them a stationary small, bright light, asked them how much the light jiggled and it varied from less than an inch to more than 12 inches.
Then they did the exact same thing but in a group, where person one sets the tone… doesn’t matter what the first person says, the rest of the answers will be close to it.

Answer 4

Auto-kinetic Effect (Sherif)

Question 5

what is the change in behaviours or attitudes brought about by the desire to follow the beliefs or standards of others?

Answer 5

Conformity

Question 6

What are the two types of social pressure?

Answer 6

Normative social influence and informational social influence.

Question 7

The pressure to conform that reflects group norms, trying to meet expectations because transgressions punished

Answer 7

Normative Social Influence

Question 8

what is informational social influence?

Answer 8

the pressure to conform stemming from the assumption that others have the knowledge we lack. We can’t always verify information on our own and sometimes our own judgement is faulty.

Question 9

what are the 5 factors of influencing conformity?

Answer 9

1) Strength of ties between the individual and the group (greater attraction = greater conformity)
2) Individual’s status within the group (lower the status, the higher the conformity)
3) Similarity of group members (greater the similarity, greater conformity)
4) Number of individuals (conformity peaks between 4-6 people and then levels off)
5) Social support (conformity greater when lack of social support)

Question 10

Are there sex differences in conformity?

Answer 10

past research showed that women conform more, but actually though, in public women conform more and in private there is no difference. GENDER ROLES

Question 11

When a task is masculine, women are more apt to conform, and when the task is feminine, males are more likely to conform, true or false?

Answer 11

true

Question 12

What is expectation status theory?

Answer 12

Diffusion of status characteristics. When you lack direct info about a person so you unconsciously look for things you can acknowledge: sex, gender, race.

Question 13

Do collectivist or individualist societies tend to conform more?

Answer 13

Collectivist

Question 14

No waffle position

Answer 14

Consistency, ex.Martin Luther King

Question 15

Bait and Switch

Answer 15

conform first, get you to like them, divide and lure to other side.

Question 16

Majority versus minority influence

Answer 16

single process approach: both use qualitatively similar influence techniques.
Dual process approach: each differs in both magnitude and type of influence technique.

Question 17

What happens when the minority conforms to majority?

Answer 17

superficial and temporary change

Question 18

what happens when the majority conforms to the minority?

Answer 18

lasting change (because think about alternatives)

Question 19

Define compliance

Answer 19

yielding to direct, explicit appeals meant to produce certain behaviour or agreement to a certain point of view.

Question 20

What are the six different strategies of compliance?

Answer 20

Foot in the door, door in the face, that’s not all, low balling, four walls, and complaining.

Question 21

Foot in the door?

Answer 21

You’re first asked to agree to a small request, but later asked to comply with more important one.
ex. first asked to sign a petition, the next week asked to put up a big ugly sign in the yard.

Question 22

door in the face?

Answer 22

Starting with a large request where refusal is expected, followed by a smaller one.
ex. TV profanity

Question 23

That’s not all?

Answer 23

offer deal at initial (often inflated) price, but just after initial offer, immediately after offer incentive, discount, or bonus to clinch the deal.

Question 24

low balling?

Answer 24

offered very low quote and then “sorry.. I was actually mistaken it’s going to be a little higher”
ex. car salesman

Question 25

four walls?

Answer 25

convince buyer that owning product is beneficial to them by boxing them in with their own beliefs, people often feel obligated to continue.
ex. unicef

Question 26

Complaining?

Answer 26

more often than not tends to work

Question 27

Define obedience.

Answer 27

a change in behaviour due to commands of others in authority

Question 28

What were the Milgram studies?

Answer 28

The shock experiments.

Question 29

Why do we obey? (Kelman and Hamilton)

three types of legitimacy that are important, what are they?

Answer 29

1) Legitimacy of the system: perceived to be justified? if you believe that they are rightfully in a position holding power over you, you’ll obey.
2) Legitimacy of authority within the system: based on the way that individuals have come into their positions. Acquisition vs Institution
3) Legitimacy of authority’s demands: the degree to which we find the demands of authority justifiable/valid

Question 30

Is personality related to obedience?

Answer 30

yes

Question 31

1) Authoritarian Submission
2) Locus of control
3) Religiosity

explain these three factors of personality with regards to obedience.

Answer 31

1) When you have a tendency to not question authority, you have a higher chance of obeying.
2) tendency to regulate behaviours based on internal or external factors, the more external it is, the more you’ll obey.
3) More religious you are, the more obedient you tend to be.

Question 32

What are three examples of why destructive deviance occurs?

Answer 32

1) “Just following orders”
2) Visible signs of authority (badge, uniform, etc)
3) Gradual nature of demands

Question 33

How can we resist destructive obedience?

Answer 33

Question everything, be aware of blind obedience, and take individual responsibility for your own personal actions.