Obedience: Social impact theory Flashcards
define social impact theory
how people affect one other in social situations
What 3 laws govern social impact theory
Social forces
Psychological law
Multiplication/division of impact
Social forces
What are the 3 social forces
Strength
Immediacy
Number of people
Social forces
define strength
precieved power of the authority figure
Social forces
Define immediacy
closeness of the source to the target (in terms of space)
Social forces
Define number
how many sources are present
Multiplication/divisional law
Define multiplication effect
increasing strength, immediacy and number of sources significantly increases social impact
Multiplication/divisional law
Define divisional effect
The more targets there are the weaker the social impact there is
Psychosocial law
define the idea of the psychosocial law
states:
- most significant difference in social impact is when the transition of 0 to 1 source happens, as source increases differences levels out.
Like lightbulb, when 1 turns on theres a dramatic difference, when multiple are then turned on the differnece in less
Research evidence
Research into conformity, obedience and bystander behaviour have all demostrated the impact of strength, immediacy and number on observable human responses in social interactions
Shows evidence supporting the idea of social impact theory
SIT reductionism
SIT is more of a descriptive theory.
It does not explain why some people are influenced by others, just explains the conditions that are more likely to influence other people
Applicability
SIT is a generalisable theory.
It uses one set of principles that are applicable to social situations.
For example when a teacher is trying to give instructions in class, they might call another teacher to increase the strenght of the social force
