Obedience + Conformity VCE SAC ~ 27/2/23 Flashcards
What’s correlational studies?
Used to understand the relationship that exists between variables. It has no actual groups and is mostly observational studies without any IVs, DVs or controlled variables
What’s causational studies?
A study with a present IV, DV, control group and experimental group with a cause that brings about the effect
What does extraneous variables mean?
Any variable other than the IV that can cause a change in the DV with unwanted effects
What does confounding variables mean?
Any variable other than the IV that has an unwanted effect on the DV, making it impossible to determine which of the variables produced the predicted change in the DV
What are the types of extraneous variables?
- Participant variables
- Situational variables
- Demand characteristics
- Experimenter effects
- Placebo effect
What are participant variables?
Individual characteristics
How can participant variables be controlled?
- Random allocations
- Experimental and control groups have similar characteristics
- Even spread of people (good balance of characteristics)
What are situational variables?
External factors that corresponds to the participants experimental setting
How can situational variables be controlled?
- Keep participants in observed environments
- Using counterbalancing
- Standarised procedures and instructions to ensure that conditions are the same for all participants
What are demand characteristics?
Cues in an experiment that may influence or bias a participant’s response
What do demand characteristics do?
Suggest what response the experimenter wants or expect thus leading participants to respond in a certain way
What is the placebo effect?
Administered + fake medication that can be applied to our daily lives
What does the placebo effect do?
Make participants act according to the drug (act as if its effective)
How can the placebo effect be controlled?
Switching groups
What is the experimenter effect?
Any influence the experimenter’s presence may have on the participants’ behaviour and the experiment’s results
How can the experimenter effect be controlled?
Minimise contact between the experimenter and participant
How can the impacts of confounding variables be minimised?
- Restriction
- Matching
- Statistical control
- Randomisation
How does restriction minimise the impacts of confounding variables?
Limits participation in a study to individuals who are similar in relation to the confounder (e.g. certain age and sex groups)
How does matching minimise the impacts of confounding variables?
Select a comparison group that matches with the control group (match up participants on characteristics)
How does statistical control minimise the impacts of confounding variables?
If data has already been collected, possible confounders can be included as control variables in the regression models (control for the impact of the confounding variable)
How does randomisation minimise the impacts of confounding variables?
Randomise the independent variable’s values
What’s quantitative data?
Numerical information on the amount of what’s being studied
What are the benefits of quantitative data?
It can easily be turn into a numerical value which makes it easy to analyse
What are the disadvantages of quantitative data?
The data is often limited to yes or no answers which doesn’t really allow participants to expand on their answers
What’s qualitative data?
Information about the characteristics of whats being studied
What are the benefits of qualitative data?
It allows researchers to identify issues that often go unnoticed
What are the disadvantages of qualitative data?
Makes it difficult to make comparisons between groups and can be a time-consuming process
What are experimental designs?
Refers to the way participants are allocated to a study’s experimental groups
What do you include in the results?
The data collected with no explanation
What do you include in the discussion?
Brief summary of the results and whether they support the hypothesis
What do you include in the conclusion?
Main findings, how the IV impacted the DV in the experiment, limitations and how the validity of the experiment can be improved
What are the factors of conformity?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Normative influence
- Informational influence
- Culture
- Social loafing
- Groupthink
- Deindividuation
What is group size?
The size of a group (number of group members)
What is unanimity?
The extent that members of a majority agree with one another
What did the results of Asch’s experiment indicate about unanimity?
Asch’s experiment results indicate:
- Difficult to be a minority of one
- Difficult to stand against a group (regardless of when everyone is wrong and your right)
- Only took one person to disagree to significantly affect conformity
What is normative influence?
When an individual conforms based on their desire to meet others’ expectations and be accepted
When does normative influence occur?
- Occurs when conformity results from a need to be liked and accepted
- Occurs when our response in a group situation is guided by one or more social norms
- Awareness of these norms can be a powerful influence
What is informational influence?
When individuals change their attitude, beliefs or behaviours when group members provide new information or arguments
When does informational influence occur?
Occurs when conformity results from a need for direction + information on how to respond in a specific situation
What does informational influence do?
Leads people to accept other people’s views when they are uncertain
What is culture?
The way of life of a particular society or community that sets it apart from other societies or communities
How is culture passed on?
Generation to generation
What are some examples of culture?
- Music
- Traditions
- Beliefs
- Food
- Attitudes
- Language
- Art
- Customs
- Values
- Norms
How does culture influence conformity?
Causes individuals to adjust their thoughts, feelings or behaviour to be consistent to a group and fit into expected standards
Where did low levels of conformity occur in Asch’s experiment?
In individualist cultures
Where did high levels of conformity occur in Asch’s experiment?
In collectivist cultures
What is social loafing?
Tendency of an individual to make less effort when involved in a group activity
When is social loafing less likely to influence conformity?
?
What is groupthink?
A strong tendency to seek agreement when decision making or problem solving
What does groupthink do?
Negatively affects the group decision-making process by overriding any realistic consideration of possible alternative, better options
When is groupthink most likely to occur?
- The group has a strong leader who takes charge and asserts their authority
- The group is isolated from outside influences with little hope of finding a better solution than the one at hand
- The group is under stress to make a difficult or important decision with a strict timeline
How does groupthink affect groups?
Can cause groups to become:
- Closed-minded*
- Rationalise or justify their decisions as the only reasonable options*
- Strive for quick and painless unanimous agreement
- Dismiss other courses of action*
- Become more and more convinced that their decision can’t be wrong
What can groupthink lead to?
Can lead groups to:
- Suppress personal doubts
- Withhold disagreement (to avoid disapproval from other members)
- Follow the group leaders’ suggestions
What are the symptoms of groupthink?
- Illusion of invulnerability
- Moral correctness
- Collective rationalisation
- Outgroup stereotypes
- Self-censorship
- Direct pressure on dissenters
- Illusion of unanimity
- Self-appointed mind guards
How can groupthink be prevented?
- Groups should make a conscious effort to consider all information carefully and accurately
- Groups should consult widely with non-group members
- Groups should thoroughly and critically review the decisions once reached
What is deinidividuation?
A psychological state characterised by reduced self-consciousness, inhibition, feelings of personal responsibility and inner restraint that can occur when in a group or crowd
When is deindividuation more likely to occur?
When in a group or crowd
When is deindividuation less likely to occur?
When individuals are alone or a group is quite small
How can deindividuation be prevented?
Encouraging individual’s ideas
What are sampling methods?
The process in which the researcher selects participants to partake in their research
How can independence influence one’s behaviours?
?
What are the advantages of experimental designs?
- Researchers have better control over the variables which assists in obtaining results that are specific
- Participants don’t impact the effectiveness of the study
- A cause and effect relationship can be established
What are the limitations of experimental designs?
The artificiality of the setting can result in unnatural behaviour from behaviours that don’t provide valid results
What are the advantages + limitations of correlational studies?
- None of the variables get manipulated
- Won’t determine which variables have the most influence (BAD)
What are the advatanges + limitations of causational studies?
- Can help us understand the relationships between different variables
- It can only identify the relationship between no more than two variables
- Doesn’t prove the cause and effect between the variables
What are the types of order effects?
- Practice order effect
- Boredom order effect
- Fatigue order effect
- Carryover order effect
What is practice order effect?
Participants improve their cognitive test performance as a results of repeated exposure
What is boredom order effect?
A decrease in task performance due to repeated content
What is fatigue order effect?
Participant’s performance reduce towards the end of an experiment due to fatigue
What is carryover order effect?
When the effects of receiving one treatment affects them in the upcoming conditions
What is group polarisation?
Tendency of an individual group member to shift their initially held views to a more extreme position
Whats social comparison?
The process of evaluating one’s attitudes and abilities and comparing it to others’
Whats group cohesion?
All members feel a sense of belonging to the group, value and feel positive about the group and coordinate their efforts to achieve goals
What does social comparison do?
The process of evaluating our attitudes and abilities and comparing it to others’
What is a single-blind study?
A study where only the researcher conducting the study is aware of what treatment or intervention the participants will be receiving
What are the pros and cons of a single blind study?
- Less likely to be biased
What is a double-blind study?
Neither the participants nor the researcher are aware of what treatment or intervention the participants will be receiving until the study is over
What are the pros and cons of a double blind study?
- Avoids the use of deception in the research process
- Reduces the issue of experimenter bias
- Some participants may have negative reactions towards the treatment item
- Expensive
What is a triple-blind study?
Neither the participants, experimenters or researchers are aware of what treatment or intervention the participants will be receiving
What are the pros and cons of a triple-blind study?
- Reduces bias
What is a case study?
An in-depth analysis, study of a single person, group, event or community
What are the advantages + limitations of a case study?
- Allows researchers to gather + document information
- Ability to see the relationships between variables
- Difficult to draw a definite cause/effect
- Researcher bias (researchers allow their own feelings to influence the case study)
What is the difference between a case study and an experiment?
A case study is a research method where the researcher explores the subject in depth whereas an experiment refers to a research method involving two specific groups or variables used to test a hypothesis
What does within subjects design?
Each individual participant experiences all the conditions and researchers test the same participants repeatedly to identify differences between conditions
Whats a mixed design?
?
Whats a control group?
A comparison group in a research study that don’t get exposed to the experimental treatment
Whats an experimental group?
A group of participants in a research study who are exposed to a particular manipulation of the independent variable
Whats repeatability?
The measure of the ability of a method to produce similar results after conducting the same experiment again
Whats reproductibility?
The extent to which a study produces the same results when conducted by a different researcher
Whats internal validity?
Whether the observed effects in a study are purely resulted by the manipulation of the independent variable and not some other factor
Whats external validity?
The extent to which the results of a research study can be generalised to other settings
Whats random sampling?
A process where every member of a target population share an equal chance of being selected
Whats biased sampling?
A process where not all members of a target population share an equal chance of being selected
Whats stratified sampling?
The researcher divides a population into groups that each represent a key characteristics that should be present in the final sample
Whats situational sampling?
The observation of individuals in real life rather than in experimental situations
Whats counterbalancing?
Participants are divided into two groups and each group has to perform a slightly different task
Whats a non-participant observational study?
Involves observing participants without actively interacting with them
What is an aggregation?
A collection of people in one location with no obvious social status or organisation that lack interdependence and barely have any direct interaction
What is anti-conformity?
Deliberate refusal to comply with accepted standards in society
What is compliance?
Changing one’s behaviour in response to a request to do so regardless of whether its made by an authority figure
What is constructive obedience?
When there is compliance with the orders of an authority figure that results in a positive outcome
What is destructive obedience?
When there is compliance with the orders of an authority figure that results in a negative outcome
What is independence?
Freedom from the control or influence other individuals or groups
What is a social group?
A group of two or more people who interact with and influence one another and share a common purpose
What is psychological reactance?
An unpleasant motivational reaction to a potential threat to eliminate specific behavioural freedoms
What is reactance?
A response to a perceive threat to freedom that may cause an individual to revel
What is social influence?
The effects of the presence or actions of others on the way people think, feel and behave
