Paper 1 A03 Flashcards

1
Q

What are the strengths of normative social influence?

A

A key strength is that NSI has real life application:
+ Linkenbach and Perkins found that adolescents who were exposed to the message that a majority of peers did not smoke, were less likely to start smoking
+ Schultz found hotel guests told that 75% of other guests at the hotel reuse their towels, this reduced towel usage by 25%

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2
Q

What might be a weakness of normative social influence?

A

It can lead to negative consequences, for example, individuals might start engaging in gang culture or crime because they want to fit into the group

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3
Q

What are the strengths of informational social influence?

A

A key strength of ISI is that it has research support:
+ Wittenbrink and Henley experiment showed participants exposed to majority racist views would agree with this from a desire to be right
+ Reactions of an audience in a televised debate influenced a political candidate to adapt their policy because they want to adopt the ‘right view’ for maximising success

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4
Q

What are the weaknesses of informational social influence as an explanation for conformity?

A
  • Usually only applicable to formal situations, such as fitting into the culture in a new job
  • Majorities only seem to successfully exert influence when concerning fact rather than opinion
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5
Q

What are the strength’s of Asch’s line study?

A

+ Gives significant evidence for NSI as 75% of participants were subject to conformity at least once
+ Conducted in a lab, which means variables were carefully controlled thus findings should be more reliable
+ Asch’s study acted as a paradigm for future studies

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6
Q

What are the weaknesses of Asch’s line study?

A
  • Unrealistic and lacked mundane realism because the required tasks are not ones used in everyday life
  • Unethical (BPS codes) as it involved deceit because participants believed it was a study of visual perception
  • May have been stressful for participants
  • The average conformity rate was only 32% which doesn’t mean it is the majority
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7
Q

What are some strengths of Zimbardo’s prison study?

A

+ Lead to improvements in the prison system, especially the way juveniles are treated
+ The prison experience was realistic which helped to increase the accuracy of the findings
+ Lead to formal recognition of ethical guidelines by ASA (American Statistical Association)

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8
Q

What are some weaknesses of Zimbardo’s prison study?

A
  • Zimbardo took on his role and was no longer just an observer
  • Not all participants conformed, shows individual differences
  • Major ethical issues; distress, deceit, lack of informed consent, participants were not protected from psychological harm. For example: one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours of uncontrollable creaming, crying and anger
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9
Q

What are some strengths of Milgram’s obedience study?

A

+ Reliability from the use of a lab for the study
+ Both quantitive and qualitative data was recorded which helps to create more well rounded conclusions
+ Support from Hosling’s field experiment; He tested nurses at a hospital where a ‘doctor’ gave instructions over the phone to give drugs to a patient. Nurses were aware that it was against regulations to take instructions over the phone. The dosage was lethal. 21/22 nurses obeyed the instructions

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10
Q

What are some weaknesses of Milgram’s obedience study?

A
  • Lack of internal realism due to demand characteristics, participants may have clocked on because their were no signs of stress from the authority figure
  • They were paid, this may have left them feeling contracted to continue
  • Androcentric
  • Several ethical issues such as deceit, trauma and the right to withdraw
  • In the time of the study, Americns were apprehensive about the Cold War and communism therefore they were very authoritarian which may explain Milgram’s findings
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11
Q

A key problem with Milgram’s conclusions is that they were made from findings in a lab study. When Milgram conducted several variations of the study, he found changes in the obedience levels. What were the 5 variations?

A
  1. Agentic State
  2. Proximity of teacher and learner
  3. Location
  4. Uniform
  5. Legitimacy of authority
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12
Q

Outline the agentic state as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • Additional confederate administered shock on behalf of teacher
  • Figures rose from 65% to 92.5%
  • Highlights the power shifting responsibility on to someone else increasing levels of obedience
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13
Q

Outline proximity as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • Teacher/learner same room; dropped from 65% to 40%
  • This is because obedience levels fell because they could experience the pain directly
  • In another variation, the teacher had to force the learners hand directly onto the shock plate, this caused the percentage to drop even further to 30%
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14
Q

Outline location as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • Original research conducted in a lab at Yale university
  • Variation conducted in a run down building in Connecticut
  • 450V dropped from 65% to 47.5%
  • Highlights the impact of location on obedience, with less credible locations resulting in a reduction in obedience levels
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15
Q

Outline uniform as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • Confederate wears ordinary clothes rather than a lab coat

- 450v dropped from 65% to 20% demonstrating the dramatic power of uniform for legitimacy of authority

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16
Q

Outline legitimacy of authority as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • For a person to obey an instruction the require the authority to be credible and legitimate
  • For example, the lack of uniform reduced the credibility of the authority, which meant participants were less likely to obey
17
Q

What did Staub (1989) say that criticises the idea of the agentic state as an explanation of obedience?

A

He believes if evil is carried out over a long period of time it will change the the way individuals think and behave and so it’ll no longer be about shifting responsibilities

18
Q

What did Fennis and Aarts (2012) say that criticises the idea of the agentic state as an explanation of obedience?

A

Suggested that it was just a lack of self control that leads to greater obedience and bystander apathy, rather than the agentic shift

19
Q

What did Tarnow (2000) say that supported the idea of legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience?

A

Tarnow studied data from serious aircraft accidents and found excessive dependence on the captains authority - even when the captain took a risky approach

20
Q

Who conducted research assessing the level of Authoritarian personality in obedience?

A

Elms and Milgram

21
Q

What did Elms and Milgram do to assess authoritarian personality in obedience?

A
  • Independent groups design, 20 obedient participants (went to 450V), 20 disobedient participants (refused to continue)
  • Each participant took a range of questionnaires, one being the Adorno F scale which is indicative of the level of authoritarian personality
22
Q

What did Elms and Milgram find to assess authoritarian personality in obedience?

A
  • The obedient participants scored significantly higher on the F scale than the disobedient participants
  • This gives evidence as authoritarian personality as valid dispositional explanation for obedience
23
Q

How can authoritarian personality be criticised?

A

It is measured mostly by Adorno F scale. The results from the F scale may suffer from response bias and social desirability which reduces its credibility

24
Q

How did one of Asch’s variations (1951) give support for social support as a reason for resisting social influence?

A

In one of the variations, one of the confederates was instructed to give the correct answer throughout. Conformity rates dropped to 5%, suggesting that social support did provide courage to resist social influence

25
How did one of Milgram's variations give support for social support as a reason for resisting social influence?
In one of Milgram's variations, 2 additional confederate teachers withdrew from the experiment early. The % of real participants who went to 450V dropped 65% to 10%. This shows that if the real participant has support for their desire to disobey, then they are more likely to resist the pressure of an authority figure.
26
What did Oliner and Oliner (1998) do to asses whether locus of control played a role in the ability to resist social influence?
Oliner&Oliner interviewed non-Jewish survivors of WW2 and compared those who had resisted Nazi order to those who obeyed.
27
What did Oliner and Oliner (1998) find when assessing whether locus of control played a role in the ability to resist social influence?
Those who resisted were more likely to have a higher internal locus of control. These results appear to support the idea that a high internal locus of control makes individuals less likely to follow order, although there are many other factors that may have influenced obedience during a war thus it is difficult to conclude locus control as the only factor