knight - social influence (conformity)

Question 1

What is the meaning of conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as the result of real or imagined pressure from others

Question 2

What are the types of conformity?

Answer 2

1) compliance
2) identification
3) internalisation

Question 3

What is the definition of compliance?

Answer 3

Publicly conforming to the behaviour or attitude to others but privately maintaining one’s personal views (short-term)

Question 4

What is the definition of identification?

Answer 4

Publicly conforming with a specific group they identify with or value or want to be a part of but privately maintaining one’s personal views (short-term)

Question 5

What is the definition of internalisation?

Answer 5

A true change of public and private views leading to a permanent change of attitude and behaviour (long-term)

Question 6

What is the aim of Asch’s original study (1955)?

Answer 6

To investigate whether people conform to a majority view when it is obviously incorrect

Question 7

What are some key facts of Asch’s study?

Answer 7

-123 male college participants
-6-8 confederates
-3 comparison lines
-18 trials 12 critical
-participants conformed 36.8% of the time
-75% conformed at least once

Question 8

What are some evaluations for Asch’s study?

Answer 8

1) weakness; asch used a limited sample of partcipants in his reseach
-> only used young american male students
-> findings cannot be generalised to explain conformity behaviour in females, people from other ages, or different culture
2) strength; was a lab studied so had control over extraneous variables
-> could alter specific variables like group size or task difficulty to see how they affected conformity
-> identified social factors that affect conformity

Question 9

What are some social factors that Asch changed in his experiment and what did he find?

Answer 9

1) Group size (bigger group size): increase in conformity (NSI)
2) unanimity (whether or not a confederates gave the same in correct answer): decrease in conformity (NSI / ISI)
3) task difficulty (standard and comparison lines more similar in length): increase in conformity (ISI)

Question 10

What is the role of three?

Answer 10

The bigger the group size (no of confederates), the more people conformed, but only up to a certain point (3 confederates)

Question 11

What are the two ways of evaluating psychological research?

Answer 11

1) ethical; morally right for participants
2) methodological; how the study is carried out

Question 12

What are the explanations for social influence?

Answer 12

informational or normative

Question 13

What is the definition of informational influence? (ISI)

Answer 13

-cognitive (thinking) process
-people believe in the superior judgement or knowledge than others
-leads to people changing their private opnions
-most likely to happen in crisis or when someone is classified as an expert
-leads to internalisation

Question 14

What is the definition of normative influence? (NSI)

Answer 14

-emotional process
-people want to be liked or respected by other members of the group
-doesn’t lead to people changing their private opnions
-most likely to occur in situations of concerning social innaproval or rejection of friends
-leads to compliance or identification

Question 15

What are evaluations for normative and informative social influence as explanations for conformity?

Answer 15

1) individual differences in how people respond to normative social influence
-> research shows that some people know as naffiliators have a greater need for social approval that others and more likely to conform to NSI than others
-> weakness of using NSI as it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way

2) research evidence suports ISI
-> increased conformity levels when task difficulty is increased (comparison lines more similar in length)
-> strength of ISI as it predicts we look for guidance from others when we are unsure on what to do

3) NSI and ISI work together
-> eg covid19: ISI- social aprroval of others also wearing masks to avoid judgement / NSI- believe that wearing masks reduces transmission of virus (according to doctors)
-> weakness for using either NSI or ISI as the best explanation is often to use both

Question 16

What is Zimbardo’s Prison Study?

Answer 16

-conducted in 1971 in Stanford university
-studied the conformity to social roles (how easily people would conform)
-participants were assigned as either guards or prisoners and randomly quickly adapted to their roles
-> lead to abusive behaviours from the guards and emotional distress among the prisoners

Question 17

What are social roles?

Answer 17

“Parts” people play as members of various social groups

Question 18

What are some pros of Zimbardo’s prison study?

Answer 18

1) insights on power and authority
-> how quickly individuals could conform to roles of power and subordination
-> how hard it is for people to oppose ultimate authority
2) significant influence on psychology and criminology
-> impact of social roles
3) “lucifer effect” -> supports the viewpoint towards how good people can turn evil under certain circumstances which they feel pressured or uncomfortable with
4) prior the study to ensure no participants had the history of mental health issues
5) useful real life application
-> Abu Ghraib prison and the abusive behaviour within it

Question 19

What are some cons of Zimbardo’s prison study?

Answer 19

1) ethical problems
-> humiliation and exposure to stressful situations
-> participants weren’t protected from harm (mental distress to some participants after the experiment ended)
2) exaggerated conformity to social roles
-> 1/3 of guards were brutal to prisoners
-> conclusion might be overstated as dispositional factors like personalities also affect the extent which people conform
3) lack of realism
-> participants might be simply play acting their roles
-> however 90% of conversations of prisoners were about prison life
-> situation felt real (high internal validity)
4) generalisability
-> small sample size (24 male college students) so isnt representative to a broader population

Question 20

What is pilot study?

Answer 20

An initial run through the procedure to be used in an investigation (trying the study on a small group)

Question 21

What are some positives of pilot study?

Answer 21

-saves time and money
-identifies flaws
-changing unclear instructions or task difficulties according to feedback

Question 22

What might be some variables changed in Asch’s pilot study?

Answer 22

-number of lines
-number of confederates
-number of participants
-extraneous variables (eg. personality)

Question 23

What are open questions?

Answer 23

Questions that require explanations or opinions which might be hard to analyse so people might get bored and not finish the whole thing

Question 24

What are closed questions?

Answer 24

-Yes or No questions
-scale of 1-5 questions
-short answer
so they are easy to analyse

Question 25

What is the definition of ethical issues?

Answer 25

Arises when a conflict exists between the rights of the participants and the aims of the research to gain authentic data in research studies

Question 26

What are some ethical issues?

Answer 26

1) informed consent
2) deception
3) protection from harm
4) privacy and confidentiality

Question 27

What is informed consent?

Answer 27

Participants must be aware of the aims of research, procedures, their rights and what their data will be used before giving their permission to take part

Question 28

What is deception?

Answer 28

The experiment should not mislead or deliberately with bid information from participants at any stage of the investigation

Question 29

What is protection from harm?

Answer 29

Participants should not be placed in any more risk than everyday lives eg. psychological (stress / triggers of post experience or fear) and physical (dangerous places or situation)

Question 30

What is privacy and confidentiality?

Answer 30

Participants have right to control data about themselves and their data must be protected (Data protection act)

Question 31

What are some ways of dealing with ethical issues?

Answer 31

-informed consent; participants sign a letter or form detailing key information (under 16s signed by parent or guardian)
-protection from harm / deception; psychological support in place / debrief after study where participants are told full details / right to withdraw themselves and their data from the experiment

Question 32

What are some alternative ways of getting consent?

Answer 32

1) presumptive consent
2) prior general consent
3) retrospective consent

Question 33

What is presumptive consent?

Answer 33

a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable

Question 34

What is prior general consent?

Answer 34

participants give permission to take part in numerous studies including the one which is deceptive

Question 35

What is retrospective consent?

Answer 35

Participants are asked for consent (during debriefing) having already taken part in the study

Question 36

What is the BPS code of ethics?

Answer 36

A quasi legal document produced by the British Psychological society (BPS) that instructs psychologists in the UK about what behaviour is and is not acceptable,

Question 37

What is the BPS code of ethics built around?

Answer 37

1) respect
2) competence
3) responsibility

Question 38

What is the ethics committee?

Answer 38

An organisation which weigh up the pros and cons of research proposals to decided whether the research study should go ahead

Question 39

What is the “Blue eyes brown eyes” anti racism experiment?

Answer 39

It is an experiment conducted by Jane Elliot in 1968 in Ohio, America (a small town with mainly white people) which children with brown and blue eyes have a higher status one day out of two respectively.

Question 40

What are some pros of the “Blue eyes brown eyes” anti racism experiment?

Answer 40

-the children have held non-racist views since then
-taught children that discrimination have a massive impact on learning and self esteem
-real life applications

Question 41

What are some cons of the “Blue eyes brown eyes” anti racism experiment?

Answer 41

-consent? privacy? confidential?
-harm done to the children? fights and arguments between classmates / low self esteem / stupidity and guilt thoughts
-teacher was the one who set up culture of discrimination