Conformity, Obedience Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure
Why do people who conform?
Normative social influence- Desire to be liked. We conform to be accepted and to be approved. So we don’t appear foolish.
Information social influence- Desire to be right. We conform by looking at others whom we believe to be correct, to give us info, particularly in ambiguous situations
Why do people not conform?
Independence- Unresponsive to the norms of the group
Anti- conformity- Consistently oppose to the norms of the group
Aim of Asch’s line experiment
To see if people would conform to the majority when given an unambiguous situation
Procedure: Asch’s line experiment
- 123 undergraduate students
- 8 to 10 participants round table
- Each participant was shown 18 sets of lines in total, on 12 the confederates all gave the same wrong answer
Results: Asch’s line experiment
- On critical trials, 36.8% of responses were incorrect
- 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once
Limitations of Asch’s line experiment
- All male- Cannot generalise the results to other populations. Lacks population validity
- Nothing to do with everyday life- Artificial task. Not applicable to real life situations
Strengths of Asch’s line experiment
- Levels of conformity reflected American culture- Easy to replicate, more accurate average of conformity and increases reliability
Asch Variations
- Unanimity- Less conformity when one of the confederates didn’t conform
- Task difficulty- More conformity when task was harder
- Size of majority- More conformity when there were more confederate
What is compliance?
Publically conforming to the behaviour but privately maintaining ones own views
Supports NSI
What is internalisation?
A conversion, or true change of private views to match those of the group
Supports ISI
What is identification?
Adopting the views or behaviour publically and privately because one valued membership of that group
Normative social influence evaluation
Strength- Asch’s participants said they feel self conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval
Limitations- People who are less concerned with being liked are less affected than those who care about being liked. Naffiliators
Informational social influence evaluation
Strength- People conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer
Limitations- Doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour. Asch found that students were less conformist (28%) than other participants (37%)
Aim of Zimbardo’s experiment
To see if dispositional or situational factors affect conformity to social roles
What is the situational explanation of behaviour?
Presumes people will act in a way that they think is required by their social role
Procedure: Zimbardo’s experiment
- 24 male students
- Unexpectedly arrested at home
- Guards and prisoners wore uniforms
Results: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Guards grew increasingly tyrannical
- 5 prisoners released early with extreme depression
- Suppose to last 2 weeks, lasted 6 days
Conclusion: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Guards and prisoners conformed to the social roles they were assigjned
- Supporting situational explanation of behaviour and
Limitations: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Reliability- not consistent. Can’t be repeated as there are a lot of ethical issues
- Breaks ethical guidelines: protecting the participant and informed consent
- Study lacks population validity and is cultural biased ( more conformity in china)
Strengths: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Good application in real life situations. Abu Ghraib- real life problems
- Randomly chosen participants- reacted as though it was real
- Maintained some degree of control and some ecological validity
What is obedience?
Doing what you have been told to do by someone else (authority)
Aim of Milgram’s experiment
Investigate whether ordinary people will obey in extreme situations
Procedure: Milgram’s experiment
- 40 male participants- introduced to (confederate)
- Participant is always the teacher
- Administer increasingly strong electric shocks
- 3 prompts before they’d stop
Results: Milgram’s experiment
- 65% went to the maximum of 450v
Limitations of Milgram’s experiment
- Went against ethical guidelines: Deception, protecting the participant, informed consent
- Biased: all male- can’t generalise
- Lack of ecological validity: artificial task
Strengths: Milgram’s experiment
- Conducted in lab: high level of control. More reliable- can replicate
- Shows high experimental realism
Variations of Milgram’s experiment
Location- less obedience when they aren’t in professional location
Proximity- closer you are to the person, the lower the obedience rate. More obedience when closer
Uniform- more likely to obey when someone is in more official uniform
Resisting social influence
1) Locus of control
2) Social support
What is internal locus of control?
A person believes their behaviour is caused primarily by their own personal decisions and efforts
What is external locus of control?
A person believes their behaviour is caused primarily by fate, luck or by other external circumstances
Research studies to support: Holland (study overview)
Holland repeated Milgram’s Vaseline study and measures whether participants were internals or externals
How does Holland’s study support locus of control as a way of resisting social influence?
He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level, whereas only 23% did not continue
Internals showed greater resistance to authority
Holland continue
Research support increases validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence can explain resistance
Research studies to support: Twenge et al (study overview)
Twenge et al analysed data from American locus of control studies over a 40 year period
How does Twenge’s study challenge the locus of control as a way of resisting social influence?
The data showed that over time people have become more resistant to obedience but also more external
Twenge’s continue
If resistance were linked to an internal LOC, we would expect people to have it become more internal
However, it is possible that the results are due to a changing society
Why was Milgram’s study ethically bad?
went against:
Protecting the participant
Deception
No informed consent
Psychological explanations for obedience
Agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
What is agentic state?
When we blame the person giving the order for any negative consequences of our actions, becoming an “agent” of theirs
Agentic state continue
The person remains in the agentic state because of “binding factors” which are aspects of the situation which allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour
What is legitimacy of authority?
We are more likely to obey people whom we see to have accepted power over us
Society is hierarchal and we are taught to and accept that some people have power us and we should hand control of our behaviour over to them
Processes involved in minority influence
Commitment
Flexibility
Consistency
Commitment
When minorities engage in extreme activities which are at some risk to them, majority group members pay more attention (augmentation principle)
Flexibility
Being extremely consistent can be seen as rigid. If minority members can adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments they are more successful
Consistency
Synchronic- agreement between people in the minority group
Diachronic- agreement over time
