Paper 1 - Social Influence Flashcards
What is informational social influence?
Where a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is ‘right’. This may lead to internalisation
What are the 3 types of conformity?
Internalisation, Identification, Compliance
What is Internalisation?
A person genuinely accepts the groups norms which results in a public and private change of behaviour and it becomes permanent. The change persists even in the absence of other group members
What is Identification?
Conform to a group because there is something about it that we value and want to be part of it. Don’t necessarily agree with everything the majority believes
What is Compliance?
Simply going along with others in public but privately not changing your views. As soon as group pressure stops, the behaviour/ opinion stops
What is normative social influence?
Where a person agrees with the opinion of the group majority because they want to be accepted, gain social approval or be liked. May lead to compliance.
What findings did LUCAS ET AL find that supports ISI?
Asked students to gibe answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult. Study shows that people conform in situations were they don’t know the answer. We look to other people and assume they know better than us and must be right.
Outline Asch’s procedure…
Showed ppts two large white cards at a time. The lines were different lengths. Ppts were asked which of the three lines matched the standard. Each naive ppt was tested in a group of between 6-8 confederates. the first few times the confederates gave the right answers but then they made errors(same wrong answer).
Outline the findings of Asch’s procedure…
The naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. 25% did not conform on any trials, so 75% did.
What are Asch’s 3 variations?
1) Group size
2) Unanimity
3) Task difficulty
Asch’s variations - group size
With 3 confederates, conformity to wrong answer rose to 31.8%. after that it made little difference. This suggests that a small majority is not sufficient for and influence to be exerted.
Asch’s variations - unanimity
Whether the presence of another non-conforming person would affect the naive ppt. He introduced a confederate who disagreed with others. this meant that conformity was reduced by a quarter. the presence of a dissenter enabled the naive ppt to behave more independently. suggests that the influence of the majority depends on some extent on the group being unanimous.
Asch’s variations - task difficulty
he made the lines similar in length and conformity increased. this suggests that ISI plays a greater role when the tasks become harder. this is because the situation is more ambiguous so more likely to look for other people for guidance
Evaluation of Asch - A child of its time
PERRIN & SPENCER - repeated Asch’s study with engineering students. in a total of 396 trials only one student conformed. could be that engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines but it could be that the 1950’s were an especially conformist time in America so it made sense to conform to social norms.
This is a limitation as it means that the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and so is not generalisable to all human behaviour.
Evaluation of Asch - limited application of findings
only men were tested my Asch. other research may suggest that women may be more conformist maybe because they are more concerned with social relationships. the men were also from USA(individualist culture). similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures(China) have found that conformity rates are higher. asch didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account.
Stanford Prison Experiment(SPE) conformity to social roles - procedure…
Zimabardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University. they advertised for volunteers who were deemed emotionally stable and were randomly assigned role of guard of prisoners and the prisoners were arrested outside their homes to heighten the realism of the study. the prisoners routines were heavily regulated and they were assigned numbers not names. the guards had their own uniform and weapons and mirror shades. they were told they had complete power over the prisoners.
SPE - findings…
the guards took up their role with enthusiasm and they took their role so seriously that it had to be stopped after 6 days instead of the 14. after 2 days the prisoners rebelled and retaliated. the guards would punish even the smallest misdemeanour. the prisoners became depressed and anxious and many were released early because they showed signs of psychological disturbance. the guards identified more and more with their role and it became more brutal and aggressive.
