Lecture 4- Social Influence Flashcards
Define a group
1) includes 3-12 people
2) see themselves and seen by others as a unit, interdependent
3) embedded in one or more larger social systems
What is a dyad?
consists of 2 individuals who are in a close relationship
What is a crowd?
many individuals who come together in a common place for a common purpose
What is a social category?
a large and relatively permanent social group
What is social influence?
a change in individuals attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values or behaviour due to being exposed to the beliefs and attitudes of another individual
What is Social Facilitation?
Bong & Titus (1983)
being in the presences of others improves individuals task performance
What did Zajonc (1965) find?
1) presence of others leads to arousal (alert)
2) arousal makes dominant response more likely
3) enhances performance on simple tasks
4) impaired performance on complex tasks
What is social loafing?
Karau & Williams (1993)
tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than working individually
What is social conformity?
Kiesler (1969)
a change in behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined group pressure
What is the difference between public and private conformity?
private= attitude change in line with others
public= overt behaviour change, not attitude change
What was the procedure of Solomon Asch (1956) visual description task and what was found?
1) group of 7-9 males asked to match line with test line (one real ppt)
2) 99% success rate when asked alone
3) 74% conformed even when answers were obvious
4) overall ppts conformed on 37% of the trails
What is informational influence?
influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality
What is normative influence?
influence to conform with the positive expectations of others (norm) to gain social approval or to avoid social disapproval
How does group size affect social conformity?
conformity increases with group size
peaks at 15
effect of size depends on nature of influence
How does group unanimity affect conformity?
conformity reduced if group is not unanimous
supporters reduce conformity
dissenter and deviates also reduce conformity
What does Janis (1972) state about group think?
1) groups need for agreement and consensus leads them to make faulty or ineffective decisions
2) disagreement constructed as lack of friendship and respect
3) group leader has an opinion on issue and takes sides
Why might group fail?
1) absence of procedures for discussion and decision making
2) isolated from external influences
3) time pressure
4) overestimate own power and morality
5) Illusion of agreement
How can a group succeed?
Rose suggest:
1) establish impartial leadership
2)involve subject matter experts
3) question ideas
include second chance meeting
4) group norm disagreement does not equal disrespect
5) open minded
What does Moscovici suggest about minority influence?
1) minority can can influence majority
2) compliance and conversion can lead to public and private acceptance
How does the minority influence the majority?
1) information influence
2) providing majority with new ideas
3) lead to re-examination of views
What does the minority need to do to influence the majority?
stay:
consistent
persistent
confident and unbiased
flexible
What did Nemeth (1977) find in the study?
1) mock jury paradigm (7 civil and criminal)
2) majority verdicts vs unanimous verdicts
With unanimous decisions:
3) Deliberations lasted longer and more conflict
4) Jurors recalled more of the evidence
5) Jurors felt more confident about their
verdicts
6) Jurors more sure that justice was served
7) More opinions were changed
