social Impact theory Flashcards
What is social impact theory?
Other peoples behaviour can affect how we feel and how we act in response
The actions of other people have an impact on us
Who is a source?
The person doing the influencing
Who is the target?
The person being influenced by the source
Who proposed the social impact theory?
Latané 1981
What are the 3 social forces?
• strength
• immediacy
• number
What does strength mean?
The perceived importance/power/authority of the source
What is immediacy?
The closeness in time or space of the source
What does number mean?
The number of sources present during the interaction
What can strength be affected by?
Socio-economic status, age, relationship with source
What can immediacy can be affected by?
Physical or psychological barriers to communication will affect immediacy
What is the psychosocial law of social impact theory?
Multiplication: SIN can have multiplicative effect on the target (as SIN of the sources increases so does the social impact they have on the target) but only up to a point
What is division of impact?
There is a divisional effect on social impact
The number of targets to be influenced affects the impact of the source (one source has less impact when they are trying to have an impact on numerous targets)
EVIDENCE
Milgram’s variations can be used to support the theory of social forces
E.g in variation seven obedience over the phone was disrupted and lowered obedience levels
CA
Hofling 1966 participants were directed over the phone and so the targets did not have immediately, yet obedience was still high
Shows immediacy does not have much influence
That said, it could be argued that the strength of the source e.g the doctor was still great, which provides further validity to the theory
APPLICATION
Can be used to support destructive obedience in an everyday setting e.g Abu Ghraib because the sauce has strength and immediacy (e.g the commanding officers) to the target (soldiers)
This theory can be applied to understand how people enhance their social influence i.e politicians may increase their influence e.g number – addressing smaller groups rather than large crowds
STRENGTHS AND SHORTCOMINGS
Ignores the role of individual differences in obedience e.g people with an internal locus of control may be less likely to obey
Elements of the area difficult to measure and can be hypothetical
The theory does not take into account the role of nature and nurture and so may not be valid as agency theory
A broader view than agency theory
Further development of AT
