Social Impact Theory - Latané 1981 Flashcards
Target?
Person being impacted upon
Source?
The influencer
Social forces?
Number of people, Immidiacy, Strength
The strength of a source can be determined by
status, authority, or age e.g those of a high status are going to have a stronger influence
Immidiacy is determined by
proximity or distance between the source and the target and the presence of buffers that could be barriers to the distance
Number refers to
how many sources and targets there are in the social situation.
Therefore, maximum obedience occurs when
authority figures are percieved to be legitimate, immidiate to the individual and are greater in number
Multiplication vs Divison of impact is
The strength, immidiacy and number of sources can only have a multiplicative effect up to a certain point and if there is a large number of targets to sources, the ability of the influence will be diminished
Social impact theory is high in face validity as
it supports what we see in everyday society, it acknowledges strength as a feature of groups which includes their power of pursuasion, as well as how much authoirty they have.
It does not take into account individual responses to the factors it identifies. Some people may be
more or less likely to be pursuaded than others. Therefore, it could be considered as an incomplete explanation.
The theory is limited to the type of social situation it can explain because if
two equal groups were put together it can’t explain the outcome or predict it, reductionist
It is quantifiable in that the
principles can be observed in everyday behaviour which is a strength
A study to support the multiplication vs divison effect is
Berkowitz, Bickman and Milgram (1969)
Berkowitz, Bickman and Milgram (1969) was a study
that got confederates to congregate on the street and look up a building, the numbers of passers by who stopped to join increased rapidly initially but it slowed and levelled off
More descriptive than explanatory as it can predict when people may be influenced but not
why
