Paper 1 A03 Flashcards
What are the strengths of normative social influence?
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%
What might be a weakness of normative social influence?
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
What are the strengths of informational social influence?
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
What are the weaknesses of informational social influence as an explanation for conformity?
- 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
What are the strength’s of Asch’s line study?
+ 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
What are the weaknesses of Asch’s line study?
- 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
What are some strengths of Zimbardo’s prison study?
+ 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)
What are some weaknesses of Zimbardo’s prison study?
- 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
What are some strengths of Milgram’s obedience study?
+ 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
What are some weaknesses of Milgram’s obedience study?
- 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
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?
- Agentic State
- Proximity of teacher and learner
- Location
- Uniform
- Legitimacy of authority
Outline the agentic state as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment
- 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
Outline proximity as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment
- 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%
Outline location as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment
- 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
Outline uniform as one of the variations of Milgram’s experiment
- 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
