Social Impact Theory of Behaviour: Flashcards
What is social impact theory?
Changes that occur in a person due to the presence of others or their action.
What are Sources?
The people who are influencing others.
What are Targets?
People who are being influenced by the source.
What is Number?
The more Sources that are saying the same thing are more likely to influence the Targets leading to them being more obedient.
What is Strength?
If the source is legitimate authority figure who has status and knowledge they will have more influence.
What is Immediacy?
Obedience will increase if the authority figure is in close proximity to the target.
What is the Multiplication Effect?
Increase number, strength + immediacy of the source increases social influence making targets more obedient.
What is the Law of diminishing returns?
Each person added has less of an impact when the group is more than 3.
What is the Divisional effect?
Obedience levels will decrease if there’s more targets than sources.
Supporting Evidence: Sedikides + Jackson:
I: Found that participants complied with the zookeeper, in the bird house more (58% above baseline) than the non-uniformed person (35% above baseline).
J: This shows that the legitimacy of the authority figure is an important factor when obeying.
Supporting Evidence: Milgram Variation 7:
(I) In variation 7 of Milgram’s research only 22.5% of participants went up to 450 volts as the instructions were given over the phone.
(J) This shows that the proximity of an authority figure is an important factor in obedient behaviour.
Critical Evidence: Hofling:
I: Found that 95% of nurses gave a dose of a drug that exceeded the max allowed when ordered to by a doctor over the phone (against hospital rules).
J: This shows that people do not need to have immediacy when following authority and obeying orders.
Critical Evidence: Milgram Variation 10:
I: In Milgram’s variation 10 47.5% people went to 450 volts when instructed to do so, in a run-down office block.
J: This shows that situational factors like surroundings also have an impact on obedience, not just strength, number, and immediacy.
Conclusion of SIT:
Overall, the social impact theory is useful because it identifies a number of factors affect obedience, which is useful as it has practical applications such as mathematical formula which could be used to maintain obedience in society. However, this theory is less useful as it doesn’t talk about individual differences therefore it’s not generalisable to the population.
