Psychology Paper 1 - Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in a persons behaviour or opinion due to pressure from a person or multiple people.
What is compliance?
A type of conformity.
This refers to instances where a person may agree in public with a group of people, but the person privately disagrees with the group’s viewpoint or behavior. The individual changes their views, but it is a temporary change.
What is internalisation?
A type of conformity.
Publicly changing behavior to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately. An internal (private) and external (public) change of behaviour. This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs of the group become part of the individual’s own belief system.
What is Identification?
A type of conformity.
Identification occurs when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society. This type of conformity extends over several aspects of external behaviour. However, there still be no changed to internal personal opinion. It is a temporary change.
What is Normative Social Influence?
Normative social influence is where a person conforms to fit in with the group because they don’t want to appear foolish or be left out. Normative social influence is usually associated with compliance. This means any change of behaviour is temporary. This is an emotional process.
What is a weakness of NSI?
Does not predict conformity in every case:
-Some people are nAffilators
-They’re greatly concerned with being liked by others
-They’re more likely to conform
-NSI affects people more than others
-People are individually different.
What is a strength of NSI?
Research to support:
-Asch’s research
-They felt self-conscious about giving the right answer
-Without individuals there conformity dropped
-Fear of being rejected
-Complying
What is Informational Social Influence?
Informational social influence is where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, and look to others who they believe may have more information.
This type of conformity occurs when a person is unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge and is associated with internalisation. This is a cognitive process.
What is a weakness of ISI?
Dont know if its ISI or NSI:
-Asch’s research
-More dissenter provides more support for participant
-Dont know if its due to NSI or ISI
-Hard to separate the two.
-Work together
What is a strength of ISI?
Research to support:
-Lucas et al. research
-Given difficult maths questions
-Hard questions so the situation became ambiguous (unclear)
-Participants didnt want to be wrong so they conformed
-ISI predicted the results
What was Asch’s study investigating?
To what extent would people conform to the opinion of others
What was the prodecure of Asch’s study?
-123 American men
-A group of people in one room all shown lines
-A B and C were the 3 comparison lines
-One line is the same length as X and others are more wrong
-Each participant has to say out loud which letter matches with X.
-18 trials in total and confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trails
What was Asch’s findings?
-75% of the participants conformed at least once
-The participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time
-When interviewed after, participants said they wanted to avoid rejection
What was Asch’s conclusion?
Asch concluded that he had demonstrated the powerful effect of a majority influence on the conforming behaviour of individuals
Ppt knew they were giving the wrong answer but still did so to fit in with the group. The study demonstrated compliance and NSI.
Explain Asch’s variations.
1.) Group size:
-Varied no. of confederates from 1 to 15.
-Curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity
-Conformity increased with group size but to a certain point
-3 confederates = 31.8% conformity rate
2.) Unanimity:
-Presencces of dissenter decreased conformity
3.) Task difficulty:
-As task difficulty increased conformity increased.
-Situation became ambiguous
-Explains ISI.
What is one strength of Asch’s study?
Research support:
-Lucas et al’s experiment
-Difficult maths questions given
-Task difficulty increases conformity
-Can be applied to prove other situations
What is one weakness of Asch’s study?
Artifical task and situation:
-Participants could have demand characteristics
-It was trival, no reason not to conform
-Cannot be generalised to real world
-Low mundane realism
-Doesnt resemble everyday life
What is another weakness of Asch’s study?
Sample bias:
-Asch’s participants were American men
-Woman may be more conformist as they are more likely to care about social relationships
-Us has an individualist culture
-Similar studies in other countries show more conformity
-Cannot be generalised to everyone
-Tells us little about everyone
What are social roles?
Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. There is considerable pressure to conform to the expectations of a social role, which is called identification.
What was Zimbardo’s study aim?
To examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner, when placed in a mock prison environment. Furthermore, he also wanted to examine whether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal dispositional factors, the people themselves, or external situational factors, the environment and conditions of the prison.
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s experiment?
-24 male university students volunteering from a newspaper advert
-Checked physical and mental stability
-Paid $15 a day to take part
-Randomly assigned as prisoners or guards
-Basement of Stanford University turned into a mock prison
-‘Prisoners’ were arrested by real local police and fingerprinted, stripped and given a numbered smocked to wear, with chains placed around their ankles
-Guards were given uniforms, dark reflective sunglasses, handcuffs and a truncheon
-Guards were instructed to run the prison without using physical violence
-Meant to last 2 weeks
What was Zimbardo’s findings?
-Prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles
-Prisoners rebelled at first but then conformed due to abuse from guards
-Guards dehumanised them
-Prisoners became increaseingly submissive identifying with their social role
-5 prisoners released early due to mental and physical torment
-Terminated after 6 days
What was Zimbardo’s conclusion?
Zimbardo concluded that people quickly conform to social roles, even when the role goes against their moral principles. Furthermore, he concluded that situational factors were largely responsible for the behaviour found, as none of the participants had ever demonstrated these behaviours previously
What is a strength of Zimbardo’s study?
High levels of control:
-Emotionally stable participants were chosen
-Randomly decided social roles
-Not may extraneous variables
-Lab experiment
-Increased internal validity
-More confident drawing conculsions
What is another strength of Zimbardo’s study?
Realistic:
-Participants acted as if the prison was real to them
-90% of their conversations were about prison life
-Prisoners 416 explained how it felt so real
-Basement was turned into prison
Explain the why Zimbardo’s experiment was not realistic.
-Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) suggested that the participants were merely play acting rather than conforming to a role
-Performance was based on stereotypes
-Things seen off the media
-One guard based their personality on a tv character
-Tells us little about conformity to social roles
-Cannot be generalised to everyone
What is a weakness of Zimbardo’s study?
Ignores the role of dispositional factors:
-1/3 of the guards were acting in a brutal manner, not a majority
-Conclusions drawn by Zimbardo are exaggerated
-More to do with dispositional than situational
-Reducing accuracy and findings
What is Obedience?
Type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure.
What was Milgram’s study aim?
To know why Germans were willing to kill Jews during the Holocaust. Wanted to see whether people would obey a legitimate authority figure when given instructions to harm another human being.
What was the procedure of Milgram’s study?
-Lab experiment
-Participant would be a teacher and confederate would be learner
-Teacher and learner were put into separate rooms
-Teacher was then asked by the experimenter to administer (fake) electric shocks to the learner each time he gave the wrong answer
-Shocks increased every time the learner gave a wrong answer, from 15 – 450 volts
-Teachers got test shock before the study
-The experimenter wore a grey lab coat
- His role was to give prods when the participant refused to shock
-There were 4 prods and if one was not obeyed then the experimenter read out the next prod
What were the 4 prods used in Milgram’s study?
Prod 1: Please continue.
Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: You have no other choice but to continue.
What was Milgram’s findings in his study?
-All participants went to 300 volts
-65% went to all the way to 450 volts
-Participants showed signs of sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting nails, seizures
What did Milgram conclude in his study?
Germans are not ‘different’ as American participants were willing to harm another person. Certain factors lead to obedience so there he researched more.
What is a strength of Milgram’s study?
Research support:
-French documentary
-Behaviour was almost identical to Milgrams research
-80% delievered 460 volts shocks
-Real life application
-External validity
-Can be used to explain obedience
What is another strength of Milgram’s study?
Scientific and objective:
-Conducted in a lab
-Reliable
-Establishes a cause and effect relationship
-Can be done multiple times
-Controlled
-Not many extraneous variables
What is a weakness of Milgram’s study?
Artifical task:
-Low mundane realism
-Cannot be generalised to real life situations
-Low external validity
-Cannot be an explanation to explain obedience
