Social Flashcards
3 types of conformity
Compliance- going along with others in public, but privately not changing personal opinion. Certain behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops
Identification- conforming to a group because we want to fit in. This means publicly changing views to fit in
Internalisation- individual genuinely accepts the group norms, private and public change in behaviour permanently, that’s been internalised
What is NSI and ISI
Normative social influence- agreeing with majority influence, people don’t like to appear foolish and prefer to gain social approval than be rejected, likely to occur when they don’t want to be rejected
Informational social influence- who has the better information and is more likely to be right. Most likely to happen in situations that are new to an individual or when someone is regarded more of an expert
Asch’s line study-majority influence
123 american undergrads tested by themselves and with 6-8 confederates. shown a card with a line on it and had a card with 3 comparison lines. Asked which line matched the original. confederates started by getting answers right but then started making mistakes.
results- 75% conformed at least once. most said they conformed to avoid being rejected. asch found 3 factors that lead to increase/decrease in conformity- group size, unanimity and task difficulty.
evaluation-
low external validity- only done on males in one place, can’t be generalised
low ecological validity- artificial task that would be done everyday
ethical issues- ppts were deceived, thought confederates were part of it and that they were doing a diff task.
Zimbardo Stanford prison study- conforming to social roles
testing conforming to social roles. 21 male american students from America were put into a fake prison. half stripped and given numbers as prisoners. Others were guards to control them.
IV- role assigned by zimbardo
DV- how they behaved
results- procedure was stopped early. Evil places make evil people, we act as society expects us to, behavior becomes a threat to prisoners. the guards became brutal and aggressive. prisoners rebelled. After the experiment they were subdued, depressed and anxious.
evaluation-
individual differences- personality determines to what extent people conform.
high internal validity- some control over variables, random selection of ppts assigned random roles.
ethical issues- zimbardo did not act as a researcher responsible for ppts needs and well being.
Milgram- obedience study
ppts told they were teachers, testing learners’ memories. learner strapped to chair. if the answer was wrong they were shocked, increasing voltage each time. experimenters would use prods if they wanted to stop.
results- less than 300volts- no ppts stopped
300 volts- 12% stopped
up to 450volts- 65% continued to highest level
shows that the presence of an authoritative figure using strict terms to continue, forced people to cause physical serious harm to someone else.
evaluation-
high internal reliability- variables were controlled, he had control over results
ethical issues- deceived ppts to believe they were giving real shots. lead to ethics becoming a priority.
other research- documentary showed his findings were not just a one off and had similar results about obedience to authority.
What are the obedience situational variables
proximity- if the teacher and learner are closer together they are more likely to obey.
location- if they did it in a run down building over a laboratory setting they were less likely to obey.
uniform- if the experiment role was done by a member of the public instead of one in uniform the obedience role lowered.
Adornos authoritarian personality
testing if our personalities make us obedient. 2000 middle class white Americans rated their agreement to a statement on a scale. He measured all ppts on the F scale meaning how facist they are.
eg obedience and authority are the two most important teachings society can offer.
results- those who score high on the f-scale showed respect for the higher powers in society and contempt for the weak. strong correlation between high f-scale ratings and prejudice for racial groups.
evaluation-
isn’t much supporting evidence to back it up
can’t be generalised as only tested on white american males
high external reliability- it can be replicated
low internal validity- demand characteristics, people may have changed answers to be more acceptable
low internal reliability- no control over variables, can be subjective and unreliable.
Rotters locus of control
proposed the concept of LOC. internal vs external control.
internal people believe things that happen to them are highly controlled by themselves.
external people believe that things happen without their control.
people with internal LOC are more likely to resist pressure to conform/obey
high internal are more self confident and have less need for social approval.
Moscovici, minority influence
a group of 6 people asked to view 36 blue slides varied in intensity and then state which were blue/green. confederates gave the wrong colour consistently. control group with no confederates.
results- 32% gave the same answer as the minority on at least one trial. when there was no confederates the wrong colour rate was 0.25%.
evaluation-
low external validity-cant be generalised, only a sample of women.
unethical- deceived ppts, didn’t get full consent
What are the 6 steps of social change
1-draw attention- making you aware of issue
2-consistency- consistent about message
3-
Nolan et al, social influence
investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community.
hung messages on front doors in california for a month.
The message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy consumption.
control group asking them to save energy.
significant decrease in energy usage in the first group.
shows conformity can lead to social change.
