Lecture 2: Conformity and Research Methods

Question 1

What are the experimental and nonexperimental methods of research?

Answer 1

• Naturalistic and Participant Observation
• Field Studies
• Archival Research
• Correlational Studies
• Quasi-Experiments
• Experiments

Question 2

What are:

naturalistic and participant observation

Experimental vs. Nonexperimental Design

Answer 2

Both methods involve going out into the world and making observations, but not carefully controlling all your variables or getting the participants to give detailed reports of their experiences. Naturalistic involves no intervention with the participants, while participant means you are engaging with the participants.

Question 3

What is a:

field study

Experimental vs. Nonexperimental Design

Answer 3

When you conduct a study in the real world, outside of the lab. Studies are when you just observe (e.g. heat and how aggressive people get), whereas there are also field experiments where researchers manipulate variables (e.g. changing wording on a sign).

Question 4

What is:

archival research

Experimental vs. Nonexperimental Design

Answer 4

When you look up previously existing information in order to support your research. For example, researchers want to study the relationship between aggression and temperature. The diagram shows Hits by Pitcher as a function of temperature. This is a type of correlational research, where they went and looked up the baseball statistics and then the temperature.

Question 5

What are the problems with correlational studies?

Experimental vs. Nonexperimental Design

Answer 5

Correlational research cannot tell you if there is a causal relationship, because there could be confounding variables. You also don’t know the direction of the relationship in many cases.

Question 6

What is a:

quasi-experiment

Experimental vs. Nonexperimental Design

Answer 6

When a researcher takes advantage of groups that already exist. For example, comparing two classrooms in different situations. A limitation of these types of studies is that they lack random assignment.

Question 7

What features do you need in order to have an experiment?

Features of an Experiment

Answer 7

• Manipulation of Variable(s)
• Control
• Random Assignment
• Internal and External Validity

As such, experimental research is the only type of research that allows us to make causal claims about the relationships between variables.

Question 8

What are internal validity and external validity?

Features of an Experiment

Answer 8

Internal validity asks whether or not you can actually make causal claims, or, that there aren’t any confounds. External validity affects generalization; that is, can this be applied to other people and contexts? Both of these try to make sure that the effects of an experiment are not just freak laboratory accidents.

Question 9

What is the biggest ethical dillemma social psychologists face?

Answer 9

The use of deception. A certain degree of deception is necessary, however, experiments these days must adhere to rigorous standards by the ethics boards. Researchers cannot use deception for no reason, and must debrief participants after the study is completed.

Question 10

Define:

social norms

Social Norms

Answer 10

Generally accepted ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that most people in a group agree on and endorse as right and proper. Most norms are both descriptive and injunctive (e.g. covering your mouth when sneezing).

Question 11

Define:

descriptive social norms

Social Norms

Answer 11

What people actually think, feel, or do.

Question 12

Define:

injunctive (prescriptive) social norms

Social Norms

Answer 12

What people should think, feel, or do.

Question 13

What are the two main reasons people tend to conform to social norms?

Social Norms

Answer 13

• informational influence: A group has informational influence if we adopt the group consensus because it seems correct—we believe the groups’ norm reflects reality.
• normative Influence: A group has normative influence if we adopt the group consensus to show identification with the group—wanting to win respect and acceptance from the other group members
  
  • Is every bit as powerful as informational influence.

Question 14

What is:

Sherif (1936)

Social Norm Formation

Answer 14

Sherif was studying something called the, Autokinetic effect, which hypothesizes that in a dark room, a stationary point of light will appear to move. He gathered participants to look at this light, and then estimate how far the light had moved. When by themselves, participants’ guesses varied dramatically. They returned a few days later and did the same task, but as a 3-person group. What happened? After a few of these sessions, their answers began to converge. When brought back a year later, researchers found that the individuals still held on to their group belief. This study showed how we believe that the group has more knowledge than we alone do, so accepting their input makes sense since it should increase our chances of making a correct judgment.

Question 15

What is:

Asch (1955)

Social Norm Formation

Answer 15

In this study, participants were asked to look at line X and determine which line on the right matched (i.e. lines A, B, and C). The participant was placed in a group of confederates, all of whom made an incorrect guess (e.g. A). When it came to the participant’s turn, they would give an incorrect answer that matched the rest of the groups (about 30-35% of the time). Asch found that the size of consensus doesn’t really matter; the same amount of conformity was shown whether participants are among 3 confederates, or 15. What was more important was unanimity. Participants were much less likely to conform if even just one confederate dissented from the group and gave the correct answer.

Question 16

Define:

conformity

Conformity

Answer 16

The convergence of individuals’ thoughts, feelings or behaviour toward a social norm.

Question 17

What’s the difference between private conformity and public conformity?

Answer 17

• private conformity: The private acceptance of social norms and willing acceptance of group norms as their own beliefs.
• public conformity: Overt behavior consistent with social norms that are not privately accepted. People will simply pretend to go along with the group norm to avoid ridicule or rejection.

Question 18

What are the functions of conformity?

Answer 18

• Informational influence and normative influence fulfill our motives for mastery and connectedness, respectively.
• Most of the time, agreement with a group fulfills both motives simultaneously.
• During certain tasks, our motivations may differ, making us more or less likely to be influenced by certain people.

Question 19

What are:

intellective tasks

Types of Tasks

Answer 19

These tasks have one verifiably correct solution (e.g. solving a puzzle, a math problem, a visual judgment). Almost anyone can serve as an appropriate reference group (source of information for the judgment).

Question 20

Define:

judgemental tasks

Types of Tasks

Answer 20

Tasks where there is no verifiably correct solution. Rather they, involve value-laden decisions about social and personal issues (e.g. which movie should you and your friends see this weekend). Only particular people will be viewed as an appropriate reference group; we won’t expect to agree with everyone, but we will expect to agree with those who share our same values, beliefs, and tastes. That is, we will be influenced in order to feel connected to the group.

Question 21

What are the three different types of false confessions?

Answer 21

• voluntary false confessions: Self-incriminating statements that are offered to police without external pressure.
• coerced-compliant false confessions: When a person confesses in order to avoid punishment, stop an interrogation, or obtain a promised reward. It is a mere act of public compliance by a suspect who knows they are innocent.
  
  • This usually happens as a result of extremely stressful situations. “This will go away if you confess.” “We’ll help you if you confess.” “Nothing will happen to you if you just confess.”
• coerced-internalized false confessions: When a person who has been exposed to suggestive and misleading interrogation tactics confesses and has truly come to believe that he or she committed the crime.
  
  • It’s hard to know how often this happens, but it is the most interesting case.

Question 22

What are the five steps in the process of internalization?

Answer 22

1. There is a suspect who is rendered highly vulnerable to manipulation.
2. Police confront suspect with allegedly objective and incontrovertible evidence of the suspect’s involvement.
3. Suspect now needs to reconcile their lack of memory for the event with the presence of this evidence.
4. Suspect makes a tentative admission of guilt.
5. Suspect may convert simple admission into a fully detailed confession.

Question 23

What is:

self-perception theory (Bem, 1966)

Psychological Explanations for Coerced-Internalized Confessions

Answer 23

Making a false confession can distort a person’s recall of their behaviour if the confession is given in the presence of cues that are usually associated with telling the truth. Experimental results found that when subjects were induced to lie under conditions that had come to be associated with truth-telling, they came to believe the lies. Asking people to imagine over and over again that they did the crime can lead them to believe that they did.

Question 24

What is:

Bem’s Truth Telling Experiment

Psychological Explanations for Coerced-Internalized Confessions

Answer 24

Participants were brought into a room with a light that changed from green to red. When the red light is on in the room you’re supposed to tell a lie. When the green light is on you’re supposed to tell the truth. Subjects should come to associate the red light with lies and green light with truth. In the second stage of the experiment, they’re prompted to lie about certain things while the green light is on. Then, they’re asked to tell the actual truth. What researchers found was that when people gave a lie under the truth telling condition (green light), they actually start believing that they did the lie.

Question 25

What is:

source-monitoring confusion (Henkel & Coffman, 2004)

Psychological Explanations for Coerced-Internalized Confessions

Answer 25

Source-monitoring involves keeping track of where a piece of information you have (e.g. detail about a crime) came from (e.g. Were you there? Did you see a photo? Did someone tell you about it?). The process of police interrogation is ripe for source-monitoring confusion, such that people may come to believe that they know things through direct experience, when perhaps they have learned it through some other means (e.g. an officer mentioned it, they saw it in a photo, etc.)

Question 26

What is:

Kassin & Kiechel (1996)

Experimental Evidence for Coerced-Internalized Confessions

Answer 26

In an experiment, participants were accused of hitting the “alt” key and deleting data. They manipulated the subject vulnerability, whether the subject was performing a fast or slow task, and false evidence, whether or not a confederate saw or didn’t see them hit the key. They measured:

• Compliance: Did the subject sign a confession?
• Internalization: Did the subject accept the blame?
• Confabulation: Did the subject econstruct hitting the key?

In the slow pace and no witness condition, 35% of participants signed the confession, but there was no internalized guilt or confabulated details. Conversely, in the fast pace and eye witness condition, 100% of participants signed the confession, 65% internalized the guilt, and 35% concocted details to support their newly created belief. Similar results have been found even in studies where confession leads to punishment of some sort.

Question 27

What kind of questions do people ask themselves when deciding whether or not they should help?

Answer 27

• Is help needed?*
• People are less likely to recognize need in crowded, noisy city streets, when they’re in a hurry, when others don’t seem alarmed, and when they’re extremely sad.
• Is help deserved?*
• norm of social responsibility: Those who are able to take care of themselves have a responsibility to take care of those who cannot (e.g. the old, young, sick, helpless, and dependent).
• attributions of controllability: We are more likely to help people if we think they are in need through no fault of their own
  
  • e.g. If someone is homeless because their house burned down (uncontrollable) vs. homeless because they are addicted to drugs and lost their job (controllable).

Is helping up to me?

• diffusion of responsibility: When other people are present, responsibility is divided and each person feels less responsible for helping than when alone
• But other people can also promote helping: If one person rushes to offer help, they signal that help is needed, and many others may jump in
• In ambiguous situations, the actions of other people strongly influence our own actions; they offer clues to what the appropriate response is.

Do the costs of helping outweigh the rewards?

• Good Samaritan Experiment: Those who were late for their appointment were much less likely to stop and help.
• You may not have the skills necessary to help, and you may risk making things worse by becoming a victim yourself. In bystander intervention experiments, men help more often than women, because men generally perceive themselves as being more capable of helping.

Question 28

What is:

Thompson et al. (1980)

Role of Emotions in Helping

Answer 28

In this experiment, people read a scenario where they had to imagine that their best friend was dying of cancer. They manipulated whether the text was more focused on the individual’s emotions or the best friend’s emotions. They found that when the sadness was self-focused, 25% of participants were willing to help, whereas when the sadness was other-focused, 83% of participants were willing to help. Thus, if not preoccupied by own depression/grief, sad people are sensitive, helpful people.

Question 29

What is:

McMillan & Austin (1971)

Role of Emotions in Helping

Answer 29

In this study, participants are supposed to be doing a test, but before they go in a confederate who has just done the test tells them that most of the answers are B. The invigilator will ask whether or not they heard something before the test, so half would have to lie (guilty) and half wouldn’t (not guilty). The experimenter then asked them to stay and help with some sort of task. Those who were non-guilty helped on average for 2 minutes while those who were guilty helped on average for 63 minutes scoring questionnaires.