Lecture 2 - social influence MC Flashcards
multiple choice exam prep
1
Q
what is social infleunce?
A
process whereby atttudes and behaviour are influenced by real or implied presense of people
2
Q
what is norms?
A
- norms: attitudinal and behavioural uniformity that define group membership
- i.e. helps differentiate in-groups to out-groups
3
Q
what is the difference between reference and memebrship groups?
A
- reference: psychologically significant for our behaviour and attitudes
- membership: indvisiauls belong to the group due to some objective external criterion
- depending on the indivisual the group they are in may be a reference group or membership group
- Example; one person might think of being a university student as a reference group
- university is so important to the person -> how they describe themselves
- very heavily involved in university politics
- Example: one person might think of being a university student as membership group
- university is not the be all end all
- attend lectures/tutorials but not whole heartdly invested in university
- believs other things (extra cirricular/work) is important as well
4
Q
what are the three types of social influence? Which one is the most influential?
A
- compliance
- obedience
- conformity
- out of the three types of social influence, conformity is seen to be the most influential
5
Q
what is compliance?
A
- superficial/public change in behaviour + expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group influence
- i.e. when someone asks you to do something - you comply with their requests
- not a deep level of change within indiv. behaviour
6
Q
what is the basis of compliance? i.e. what forms compliance?
A
basis of compliance is power - capacity to influence others while resisting attempts to influence
7
Q
Does power = influence? Explain this in terms of Moscovici’s theory/hypothesis
A
- Moscovici stated that if indivisual has power over someone -> no influencial tatics are needed due to power inbalance between the two ppl
- reverse is true too -> if indivisual has influential power -> no need to use power status for someone to comply
8
Q
According to Raven, what are the different sources of power people access to persuade someone/i.e to comply?
A
- Referent power - the type of power that is infleuntial by individual identifying with groups
- Similar to conformity
- Expert power - when target believes the influencer has expertise and knowledge
- Legitimate power - targets belief that the influences is authorised by a recognised power structure to command and make decisions
- Informational power - targets belief that the influencer has more information than ones self
- Coercive power - the ability to give or threaten punishment for non-compliance
- Reward power - the ability to promise rewards for compliance
9
Q
what are the three different strategies used to get someone to comply?
A
- ingratitation:
* presenting your way in a positive way to people you want to persuade- complimenting them, recognising +ive charac., overlooking someones weakness, emphasising their strengths
* also involves persuading the person you are likeable - prosocial behaviour from body language, eye contact, smiling
- complimenting them, recognising +ive charac., overlooking someones weakness, emphasising their strengths
- recipricity
* bases on the norm “treat others as we would like to be treated”
* if we do others a favour -> they feel obligated to recriprocate
* greater compliance from people who recieved favour compared to others who didnt
* guilt arousal tactic: making the indivisual feel guilty -> indivisual more likely to comply- example: when your in traffic and someone cleans your windows without asking -> you feel obligated to pay and feel guilty if you dont
- multiple requests
* two-step producdure: 1st request is set up to make the real second request sound better/softer
* 3 tactics used in multiple requests;
10
Q
what are the three tactics used within mutiple requests in the attempts to get an indivisual to comply?
A
- foot-in-the-door technique: based on the notion that if indivisual complies with small request -> likely to comply withlarger request later on
* example: telephone sales people do this alot -> ask you first to answer few Q’s for survey (small request) then will ask you to join the larger survey that many in your area are taking (larger request)
* does not always work -> if 1st request too small and 2nd request is too large- link bet. multiple requests breaks down -> T.F not effective
* refinement of FIDT -> two-feet-in-door-technique: presenting series of GRADED requests than just 1 small and 1 large request - 2 preliminary requests (increasing difficulty) before presenting the 3rd ACTUAL REAL request
- two-feet-in-door-technique > FIDT in effectiveness
- example: propose a date but the other person only agreed to study in library with you (1st preliminary req.) -> then propose a meeting (2nd preliminiary req.) -> then propose a date (3rd actual request)
- the person will comply with going on a date with you
- link bet. multiple requests breaks down -> T.F not effective
- Door-in-the-face tactic
* opposite of FIDT -> indivisual asked large request then asked smaller request (real request)
* indivisuals believe more reasonable to comply with actual request when compared to larger one
* analogy: lukewarm water feels cool when youve had your hand in hot water - low ball technique
* influencer changes rules midway and gets away with it
* effective when the indivisual is persuaded to agree with request before revealing hidden requests
* based on the fact that once poeple are commited to something -> more likely to accept slight increase in the cost of that action
* Example: You go to car dealership -> dealer agrees to reduce marketed price for your dream car -> you sign papers -> dealer informs you that boss will not reduce car price -> cusomter agrees and buys the car at marketed price.
11
Q
What is the famous study that tested obidience? what was the theoretical basis of it?
A
- Milgrims obidience study
- theoretical basis - Response to Asch’s conformity study (line est. study) and world war 2 behaviour
- method: males recruited from advirtisements -> one group became teachers -> told learner to continue shocks even if learner was in pain
12
Q
what are some ethical issues in milgrims study?
A
- participants in study have the right to leave the experiement at any time they wish to
- traumatising to think you are hurting someone -> T.F debriefing is defintley needed
- debriefing needs to be sufficient enough -> might be ok straight after but participants might go home later and be affected by it
- deception used -> T.F debrief them about it after experiment
13
Q
what factors influence obidience?
A
- gender: does not influence
- females = males in degree of influence
- cultrural: some differences
- places like spain, netherlands obeyed more
- AUS obeyed less
- commitment to course of action: agreed tocome to study -> T.F must obey with whatever they tell me to do
- foot-in-door: gave them slight shock at start -> more likely to give shock again
- immediacy of victim: more closer you are with person -> less likely to obey authority figure
- immediacy of authority: physcially closer authority figure (standing over you) -> more likely to obey
- group pressure: if someone else disobeys -> obidience of indiv. decreases sig.
- vise versa -> someone else obeys -> indiv. sig increases
- legitmacy of authority figure: whether the authority is from pristegious workplace/normal workplace doesnt have so much effect
14
Q
what is conformity?
A
- deep-seated, private + eduring change in behaviour + attitudes due to group pressure
- less direct than compliance and obediance
- emphasis that compliance is NOT surface lvl -> i.e. enduring change
15
Q
what was one of the first experiments on conformity? what was the theoretical basis of this exp?
A
- Sherif’s kinetic experiment (1936)
- Aim: people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous situation (i.e unclear)
- Method: Sherif used an auto kinetic effect - this is where a small spot of light that is projected onto a screen appears to move even though it is still - this is a visual illusion
- Results: answers of participants when alone varied significantly (20cm to 80cm)
- When put into groups of three (sherif purposely put two ppl who answered similar when alone and another individual who answered differently into a group) their answers were seen to be similar
- After numerous trials groups converged to a similar answer
- People tend to conform in groups - rather than making individual judgements they come to a group agreement
- Conclusion: when indiviauls are put into an ambiguous situation, they look to other (i.e. group) for guidance (i.e. adopt a group norm)
- They want to do the right thing but lack in information
- Observing others can provide this information
