P1 - Social Influence - Key Studies & Theories

Question 1

Explain Jenness study

Answer 1

Participants guessing the number of beans in a jar would change their second guess to be closer to the group estimate
Supports informational social influence

Question 2

Explain Asch’s study of factors affecting conformity

Answer 2

Participants conformed to confederates and said the wrong answer in a simple line-matching task 33% of the time
Supports normative social influence

Question 3

Explain Asch’s variation study of factors affecting conformity

Answer 3

Changed the difficulty of the task, the group size, the unanimity of the majority and whether they answered out loud or in private
Supports NSI and ISI, depending on the variation

Question 4

Explain Zimbardo’s variation study of Conformity to social roles

Answer 4

Created a fake prison environment at Stanford University to see if student participants would conform to their roles
Shows that people can be made to conform to their social role

Question 5

Explain Milgram’s study of obedience

Answer 5

Got 65% of participants to ‘shock’ a confederate to 450Vs, just because of the presence of an authority figure in a lab coat
Supports legitimacy of authority and agentic state

Question 6

Explain’s Milgram’s variation study

Answer 6

Changed the proximity of the authority and victim, tried with and without the lab coat, and moved the experiment to a run-down office
Supports legitimacy of authority and agentic state, depending on the variation

Question 7

Explain Hofling’s study of obedience

Answer 7

Studied obedience in real life hospital, where 21/22 nurses broke strict rules because an unknown doctor told them to over the phone
Supports legitimacy of authority in an ecologically valid environment

Question 8

Explain Adorno’s study of explnations of obedience

Answer 8

Created the Authoritarian Personality explanation of obedience, claiming some are just more likely to be obey because of their parents
Used to outline the Authoritarian Personality. Contradicts situational explanations of obedience

Question 9

Explain Elms & Milgram’s study of explanations of obedience

Answer 9

Discovered that obedient participants in the original shock study were likely to have a higher F score
Supports Authoritarian Personality as an explanation for obedience

Question 10

Explain Avtgis study of resistance to social influence

Answer 10

Discovered that people with a high internal locus of control were significantly less likely to be persuaded, influenced or to conform - compared to high external LoC
Supports Locus of Control as an explanation for resistance to social influence

Question 11

Explain Moscovic’s study of minority infleucne

Answer 11

Found that a consistent minority (8%) were significantly more influential than an inconsistent one (1%) in a colour perception test
Supports the role of consistency in minority influence

Question 12

Explain Nemeth & Brilmayer’s study of minority infleunce

Answer 12

Jurors were more likely to be influenced by a confederate juror who was willing to compromise over the level of compensation given to the victim
Supports the role of flexibility in minority influence