P1: Social Influence

Question 1

Name 3 behaviours that enable a minority to influence

Answer 1

-Commitment
-Consistency
-Flexibility

Question 2

In an experiment, researchers arranged for participants to complete a very personal and
embarrassing questionnaire in a room with other people. Each participant was tested
individually. The other people were confederates of the experimenter.
>In condition 1: the confederates completed the questionnaire.
>In condition 2: the confederates refused to complete the questionnaire and asked to leave
the experiment.
>The researchers tested 15 participants in condition 1, and 15 different participants in
condition 2.
>The researchers recorded the number of participants who completed the questionnaire in
each condition.
1- Identify the type of data in this experiment. Explain your answer(2)
2- Using your knowledge of social influence, explain the likely outcome of this experiment.(3)

Answer 2

1-Quantative/ Numerical data
-The number of P who completed questionnaire in each condition

2-More participants in condition 1 will complete the questionnaire than
in condition 2; because they will follow majority to fit in

Question 3

Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience (8)

Answer 3

A01=
* authoritarian personality is a collection of traits developed from strict/rigid parenting
* examples of traits – conformist/conventional/dogmatic/hostile towards those of perceived
lower status (scapegoating)
* obedient/servile towards people of perceived higher status

AO3=
+ Research support - Elms and Milgram. Found that the 20 obedient participants had a much higher F-score than 20 disobedient participants. This supports Adorno’s view that obedient people show authoritarian personality.

• Adorno used a biased sample – Only used 2000 middle class white Americans who are more likely to have an Authoritarian personality due to demographics and the time of the study – Research lacks population validity and historical validity, so conclusions cannot be generalised to people outside the sample.
• Limited application - cannot explain obedience in a populations (most Germans in WW2 were extremely racist and were obedient). It is unlikely everyone in Germany at the time was authoritarian, which limits this explanation.

Question 4

Outline two explanations of resistance to social influence. (4)

Answer 4

-locus of control – people with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist pressure to conform/less likely to obey/more resistant to social influence than those with an external locus of control; people with an internal locus of control believe they control own circumstances

-social support – defiance/non-conformity more likely if others are seen to resist influence; seeing
others disobey/not conform gives observer confidence to do so

Question 5

Discuss ethical issues in social influence research. (8)

Answer 5

• deception/lack of informed consent – when participants are misled or information is withheld, e.g.
  Asch’s participants were told the study was investigating visual perception and knew nothing of the
  confederates; Milgram’s participants were unaware the shocks were not real
• protection from harm/psychological distress – participants should not be placed ‘at risk’; gain new
  negative knowledge of themselves, e.g. prisoners in the Stanford prison experiment (SPE) were
  humiliated, showed signs of severe distress; some guards felt pressured to follow the more dominant
  guards
• right to withdraw – participants should be free to leave when they choose to, e.g. Milgram’s
  participants were given ‘verbal prods’ to encourage them to remain within the experiment; prisoners in
  SPE pressurised to stay

Question 6

In a sixth form debating society, Samina is the only student in a group of six who does not
believe that drugs should be legalised.
Using your knowledge of minority influence processes, explain two ways in which Samina
could convince the other students in the debating society to agree with her (4)

Answer 6

• Samina could demonstrate consistency by not deviating from her view that drugs should not be
  legalised – she could point out that this is a view she has held for many years
• Samina could demonstrate commitment by defending her view that drugs should not be legalised
  through some personal investment – for instance, offering to speak in assembly about the dangers of
  drugs. This will draw more attention to her case (augmentation principle)
• Samina should demonstrate flexibility by adapting her view/accepting other valid counterarguments.
  Perhaps some ‘softer’ drugs could be decriminalised, rather than legalised
• over time, the rest of the debating society may become ‘converted’ (snowball effect) – for example, if
  Samina makes her case particularly well

Question 7

Describe how Zimbardo investigated conformity to social roles. (4)

Answer 7

• set up mock prison in the basement of Stanford University
• observational study – controlled, participant, overt
• emotionally stable volunteers were assigned to roles of either prisoner or guard
• prisoners ‘arrested’, blindfolded, strip searched, etc
• guards given a night stick, dark glasses, uniform etc and told to maintain order
• prisoners’ daily routines were heavily regulated by guards working in shifts
• dehumanisation of prisoners, eg wearing nylon stocking caps and numbered smocks, etc
• the study was planned to run for two weeks, but was stopped early

Question 8

Fewer and fewer people use single-use plastic items, such as water bottles and plastic
straws.
Using your knowledge of social influence processes in social change, explain why fewer
and fewer people are using single-use plastic items (6)

Answer 8

Minority influence processes:
* examples of the influence of environmental campaign groups/celebrities and how they may convince
the majority through consistency, commitment (augmentation principle), flexibility
* the snowball effect – how behaviour/views on use of plastic change gradually over time.
Conformity processes:
* normative social influence/compliance – the group norm among young people particularly is to care
about the environment; people who go against this norm (by ignoring the costs to the planet) risk
rejection from the group/are less likely to fit in
* informational social influence/internalisation – more is now known about the harmful effects of
single-use plastic items on the environment/climate change, people may have become convinced by
such evidence.
Obedience processes:
* rules on single-use plastic items have changed, eg charges for plastic shopping bags, etc.