obedience: social impact theory Flashcards
what is meant by ‘social impact theory’?
other people’s real or imagined presence can alter the way an individual thinks or acts
define ‘source’
provides the influence
define ‘target’
those being influenced
what is social impact determined by?
strength
immediacy
numbers
define ‘strength’
status, expertise and power of the source
define ‘immediacy’
recency in time and closeness of physical presence of the source
define ‘number’
the amount of sources to targets
- more targets can decrease obedience
- more sources can increase obedience
what is the multiplicative effect?
increasing the SIN of sources can significantly increase social impact
what is the divisional effect?
increasing targets can decrease social impact as the impact is divided among targets so the individual pressure is released
what is the law of diminishing returns?
once the source group exceeds 3, additional people have less of an impact. As more people are added to a group exerting social influence, each additional person has less impact than the previous one.
what is a strength of social impact theory (PEE)?
- supporting evidence S + J
a strength of social impact theory as an explanation for human behaviour is supporting evidence from Sedikedes and Jackson. they carried out a field experiment in a zoo and when the confederate zookeeper wore a uniform, increasing the strength, people were more obedient- 58% compared to 35%. therefore, this suggests that there is a bigger impact when strength is increased as the person is perceived as a legitimate authority figure. additionally, as time progressed and vistors moved away into an adjoining room, the level of obedience dropped from 61% to 7%, which demonstrates the importance of immediacy.
what is a strength of social impact theory (PEE)?
- supporting evidence H
a strength of social impact theory as an explanation of human behaviour is supporting evidence from Hofling. nurses were instructed over the phone to give an unsafe drug dosage to a patient. this supports the importance of strength in social impact as the nurses believed the doctor was legitimate and 95% obeyed instructions of the doctor. however, it does not highlight the importance of immediacy, since the instructions were given via telephone, yet obedience was still high.
what is a weakness of social impact theory (PEE)?
- reductionist
a weakness of social impact theory as an explanation of human behaviour is that it could be reductionist. for example, it over simplifies complexities of predicting behaviour in social situations because people can act as both targets and sources simultaneously. additionally, this neglects how there may be dispositional factors which affect obedience, such as personality and assumes that behaviour can be understood purely in the terms of interaction between individuals. therefore, it is an incomplete explanation, limiting the usefulness of the applications.
what is an alternative theory (PEE)?
an alternate theory is Milgram’s agency theory. this theory considers the perception of a legitimate authority figure, and states that this is enough for a person to undergo the agentic shift from the autonomous state to the agentic state.
what are the applications? (PEE)
a strength of social impact theory is that it has applications. for example, politicians use SIT by having regular meetings with few people in them and reducing the use of TV adverts. therefore, this improves immediacy and the impact of the source on the targets. It can also inform police of crowd control tactics, such as ensuring that the rival teams are on opposite ends of the stadium, with staggered entrance and exits. This creates both physical and psychological distance between opposing fans, decreasing the immediacy of the influence. Police are also advised to control the number of sources to targets- therefore increasing the number of non-aggressive social influences- e.g. stewards and visible police in uniforms to model positive behaviour and increase their strength of the influence onto the football supporters to ensure that the crowd do not get out of control.
