Social impact theory Flashcards
Social impact theory
Social impact theory suggests that the strength of the impact of something on someone, the number of forces involved and whether the impact is near or further away all affect how people behave. Social impact theory can be applied to people obeying other in authority.
Strength of the source - P1, A01
The strength of an authority figure is the perceived power or authority of the source and the messages which they convey
strength can be affected by socioeconomic status, age and the nature of any past or future relationship with the target
For example, a strong source has power over the target and / or communications in an authoritative, intense or charismatic way
Strength of strength of the source - P1, A03
One strength of using social impact theory as an explanation for obedience is that it is supported by study evidence.
Sedikides and Jackson 1990, studied zoo visitors responses to being told not to lean on a railing, testing: strength of source (how the confederate was dressed), immediacy (physical closeness when making the request) and the divisional effect (the size of the visitor group.
Obedience was 58% when the confederate was dressed as a zoo keeper (35% when the confederate was in a T-shirt and shorts), 61% when in the same room (7% in adjacent room) and 60% when in groups of one or two (14% in groups of five or six).
Therefore, there is study evidence which demonstrates the importance of strength immediacy and number when obeying an authority figure.
COUNTER ARGUMENT TO Strength of strength of the source - P1, A03
However, this study was s field experiment so the researchers were unable to manipulate the number of people in each group which threatens internal validity. People who chose to go around in larger groups may have less obedient personalities (confounding variable).
Therefore, this means that it may not have been the number of individuals in the groups alone which caused defiance and disobedience.
immediacy and proximity - P2, A01
Immediacy and proximity is how recent the influence is and how close you are to the influencer – an order one minute ago from your boss who was standing right next to you (very immediate), compared to an email received from your boss last week (not very immediate).
The influence will have a greater impact if they are more immediate to the target.
Weakness of immediacy and proximity - P2, A03
One weakness of using social impact theory as an explanation for obedience is that immediacy may not be key in social impact theory.
Hoftling et al 1996 arranged for an unknown doctor to telephone 22 nurses and ask them to administer an overdose of a drug that was not on the ward list. 95% started administering the drug (but were prevented). Although the doctor was not present, the majority of nurses obeyed without question.
This challenges social impact theory because an absent source should have reduced the effect which it did not seem to do as proximity was significantly reduced.
Therefore, this means that social impact theory may not be able to fully explain obedience levels as there is study evidence going against what social impact theory suggests.
Number of sources and targets - P3, A01
The Number of people putting pressure on you to do something, the more social forces they will have.
The influencers impact will be weakened because there is a greater number of targets than influences.
The impact of the influencers has greater strength when there are more influencers than targets.
Strength of Number of sources and targets - P3, A03
One strength of using social impact theory as an explanation for obedience is that it is applied in everyday life as it allows us to understand how people enhance social influence.
For example, political leaders could increase their influence in three ways.
They could adopt a strong and persuasive communication style to connect with target voters, talk to voters face-to face rather than through TV or audio broadcasts and address smaller groups rather than larger crowds (to avoid divisional effects).
This shows how social impact theory can be applied to society and how peoples behaviour (e.g., voting) could be influenced through strategic campaign.
