Exam 3- Chapters 6 & 8: Social Influence and Group Process

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure. Three varieties: compliance, obedience, and acceptance.

Question 2

Compliance vs Acceptance

Answer 2

Compliance: conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing.
Acceptance: conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure (sometimes follows compliance).

Question 3

Obedience

Answer 3

Compliance/acting in accord with a direct order or command.

Question 4

Sherif (1937) “Autokinetic Effect”

Answer 4

Autokinetic effect: The apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark.
Sherif asked students to estimate movement of light, an ambiguous stimulus. Students gave different answers when alone than when sitting with other students. In the end, they all came to one answer.

Study showed pluralistic ignorance and conformity to be correct (informational influence).

Question 5

Asch (1956) “Visual Acuity”

Answer 5

Disagreed with Sherif’s results because he used an ambiguous stimulus.
Used comparison of sizes of lines (not ambiguous). Six confederates and one subject all sitting together. All give wrong answer, subject also gives wrong answer.
When asked alone, subject gives right answer and said they gave the wrong one in the group in fear of being ridiculed.

Study showed normative influence.

Question 6

Milgram (1965, 1974) Obedience Experiment

Answer 6

Tested what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience.
When experimenter asked subjects in “teacher” position to continue to shock confederates in “learner” position with progressively higher shocks, confederates screamed and ask subject to stop.
Even when subject wanted to stop, the experimenter used 4 different prods to have them continue (prod 4: you have no choice, you must go on.)
Subjects listened to the experimenter (perceived as an authority figure), and continued to administer shocks 65% of the time.

Showed obedience and that people are naturally compelled to obey authority.

Question 7

Commitment (Public vs Private)

Answer 7

If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their self-image.
Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they will continue to honor the agreement.

Question 8

Group size and Conformity

Answer 8

More people acting one way in a group will elicit more conformity than a small group or individual. The agreement of independent small groups makes positions more credible (oppossed to one large group).

Question 9

Cohesiveness

Answer 9

A “we feeling”; the extent which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction to one another. The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members, i.e. in college sororities.

Question 10

Asserting Uniqueness

Answer 10

People feel better when they assert themselves as moderately unique. Those who are more unique in their surroundings tend to be conscious of its distinctiveness and how those around relate.

Question 11

Normative vs Informational Influence

Answer 11

• Normative: conformity based on a persons desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance.
• Informational: Conformity when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people.

Question 12

Schacter (1959)

Answer 12

A set of experiments by Schachter (1959) demonstrated that, given the opportunity, people confronting a stress-inducing experience will usually tend to seek out the informal social support of other people–even strangers if necessary. Experimental subjects who thought they
were going to experience a series of painful electric shocks, and subjects who anticipated experiencing only very mild electrical stimuli were given a choice between (1) waiting alone, and (2) waiting with other subjects for a brief period while final preparations were made for the experiment.
Found that the greater the anticipated pain, the greater the tendency was for subjects to choose to wait amid the com-panionship of other people. Study showed heightened needs for reassurance, distraction, information, and social comparison, among subjects experiencing greater stress.

Question 13

Deutsch & Gerard (1955)

Answer 13

• The genuine participant gave their judgments anonymously in an isolated cubicle by pressing a button, believing there were 3 other participants
• The 3 participants were in a isolated group, believing they were in competition with other groups and the experimenter promising a reward to the groups making the most accurate decisions
• Found conformity greatest in the third condition - though it is impossible to separate out normative from informational influence in that condition. They found conformity at its least in the second.

Question 14

Social Loafing

Answer 14

The bigger the group of people working on a task, the less work each individual will do (since they expect someone else will make up for it).

Question 15

Social Facilitation

Answer 15

The strengthening of dominant (prevalent and likely) responses in the presence of others.
The tendency for people to perform simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Question 16

Anonymity

Answer 16

Increased anonymity of those present will increase willingness to create or behave selfishly and feeds incivility.

Question 17

Group Polarization

Answer 17

Group produced enhancement of members preexisting tendencies; a strengthening of the members average tendency, not a split within the group. (Groups intensify our opinions.)

Question 18

Groupthink

Answer 18

Psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. (i.e. Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba).

Groupthink occurs in:

• cohesive groups
• Relative isolation of the group from dissenting viewpoints
• a directive leader who signals what decision he or she favors.

Question 19

Minority Influence

Answer 19

Although a majority often prevails, sometimes a minority can influence and even overturn a majority position. Even if the majority doesn’t overturn, the minority’s speaking up can cause self doubt in the majority.
Minorities are most influential when their views are consistent and persistent.

Question 20

Evaluation Apprehension

Answer 20

Concern for how others are evaluating us. Observers make us apprehensive because we wonder how they are evaluating us.

Question 21

Ringlemann (1935)

Answer 21

Found that members of a group tended to exert less effort in pulling a rope than did individuals alone.

This study showed social loafing.