Lecture 4- Social Influence

Question 1

Define a group

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is a dyad?

Answer 2

consists of 2 individuals who are in a close relationship

Question 3

What is a crowd?

Answer 3

many individuals who come together in a common place for a common purpose

Question 4

What is a social category?

Answer 4

a large and relatively permanent social group

Question 5

What is social influence?

Answer 5

a change in individuals attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values or behaviour due to being exposed to the beliefs and attitudes of another individual

Question 6

What is Social Facilitation?

Answer 6

Bong & Titus (1983)
being in the presences of others improves individuals task performance

Question 7

What did Zajonc (1965) find?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is social loafing?

Answer 8

Karau & Williams (1993)
tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than working individually

Question 9

What is social conformity?

Answer 9

Kiesler (1969)
a change in behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined group pressure

Question 10

What is the difference between public and private conformity?

Answer 10

private= attitude change in line with others
public= overt behaviour change, not attitude change

Question 11

What was the procedure of Solomon Asch (1956) visual description task and what was found?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is informational influence?

Answer 12

influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality

Question 13

What is normative influence?

Answer 13

influence to conform with the positive expectations of others (norm) to gain social approval or to avoid social disapproval

Question 14

How does group size affect social conformity?

Answer 14

conformity increases with group size
peaks at 15
effect of size depends on nature of influence

Question 15

How does group unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 15

conformity reduced if group is not unanimous
supporters reduce conformity
dissenter and deviates also reduce conformity

Question 16

What does Janis (1972) state about group think?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Why might group fail?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

How can a group succeed?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What does Moscovici suggest about minority influence?

Answer 19

1) minority can can influence majority
2) compliance and conversion can lead to public and private acceptance

Question 20

How does the minority influence the majority?

Answer 20

1) information influence
2) providing majority with new ideas
3) lead to re-examination of views

Question 21

What does the minority need to do to influence the majority?

Answer 21

stay:
consistent
persistent
confident and unbiased
flexible

Question 22

What did Nemeth (1977) find in the study?

Answer 22

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