social impact theory Flashcards
what does the theory explain
obedience
who was the theory developed by
Latane 1981
the main idea of social psychology is that we are greatly influenced by the actions of others. other peoples behaviour can affect how we feel and how we act in response. other people have an impact on us.
Latané argues that every person is potentially a “source” or a “target” of social influence – sometimes both at once. He thinks there are three rules or laws at work
what is social force?
This is a pressure that gets put on people to change their behaviour – if it succeeds, that is Social Impact. Social force is generated by persuasion, threat, humour, embarrassment and other influences. Social force is made up of Strength, Immediacy and Numbers:
Strength: This is how much power you believe the person influencing you has. For example, if the person has rank in an organisation, their orders will have more Strength
Immediacy: This is how recent the influence is and how close to you, from an order a minute ago from your boss standing right next to you (very immediate) to an email you received from your boss last week (not very immediate)
Numbers: The more people putting pressure on you to do something, the more social force they will have
what is psychosocial law?
This is the idea that the first source of influence has the most dramatic impact on people, but that the second, third, fourth, etc sources generate less and less Social Force. For example, being watched by one other person can make you feel awkward, but being watched by two doesn’t make you twice as awkward. Increasing the audience to a hundred or even a thousand doesn’t increase the sense of pressure by as much as you would think.
The same applies to authority figures. One teacher giving you an order generates a lot of Social Force but, if you resist, bringing in a second and a third teacher to repeat the order doesn’t double or triple the Social Force; bringing in the entire school staff won’t be all that effective
what are divisions of impact?
- the number of targets to be influenced affects the impact of this source ( one source has less impact when they are trying to have an impact on numerous targets)
eg a small classroom works better than a big lecture room
so in terms of obedience an authority figure would have a reduced capacity to influence someone if they don’t have strength or immediacy.
evidence
+ there is evidence to support the notion that obedience or disobedience can occur as a result of either a multiplication effect of social forces or a division of impact effect.
eg burger in the modal refusal condition found that
eg milgram found that in variation 7
CA- that said there is evidence that goes against social impact theory
Hoflings 1966 participants were directed over the phone and so the targets did not have immediacy to the source, yet obedience was still high.
this suggests obedience does not have as much influence.
that said it could be argued that the strength of the source eg the doctor was still great which provides further validity to theory.
application
- it can be applied to understand how people enhance their social influence. eg politicians may increase their influence by adopting strong, persuasive style of communication, addressing smaller groups rather than crowds etc
S/W
- the theory ignores the role of individual differences in obedience eg personality, people with an internal locus of control may be less likely to obey and be less affected by the strength and status of the source.
+ but on the other hand it does consider id in the perception of strength… - the theory does not take into account nature nurture and so may not be as valid as agency theory. eg..
whereas sit only looks at socialisation as the origins for obedience.
alternative
- agency theory - it considers both nature and nurture
