social influence 1

Question 1

what is social psychology?

Answer 1

the study of how peoples thoughts, feelings and behaviors are effected by the presence of others

Question 2

what is conformity

Answer 2

a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group

Question 3

what are the 3 types of conformity in order of permanence

Answer 3

compliance
identification
internalisation

Question 4

what is compliance

Answer 4

when you just go along with what others are doing. It is a temporary change, as internally beliefs remain the same it is only externally that behaviour changes e.g laughing at a joke you didn’t find funny

Question 5

what is identification

Answer 5

when a person conforms to a groups behaviors because they identify with that group. You both publicly and privately hold these beliefs temporarily e.g school uniform

Question 6

what is internalisation

Answer 6

when a person genuinely believes and accepts the groups norm. The change is permanent e.g religion

Question 7

what was asch’s aim

Answer 7

to examine how social pressure from a majority could effect someones behavior

Question 8

outline asch’s procedure

Answer 8

123 american male students thought they were taking part in a visual perception task. He used a line judgement task. He placed a participant in a room with 7 confederates. the participant was always last or second to last to give their answer. The correct answer was always obvious but confederates all gave an agreed incorrect answer. the participant was put through 18 trials, 12 of which confederates gave incorrect answers

Question 9

what were asch’s findings

Answer 9

real participants conformed to the incorrect answer on 36.8% of trials.
75% conformed at least once.
In his control group participants got the answer wrong less than 1% of the time
An interview afterwards told us participants knew they were wrong but conformed in order to fit in.

Question 10

what did asch conclude

Answer 10

judgment is effected by majority influence
participants conform due to NSI

Question 11

what variables did asch change

Answer 11

group size
unanimity
task difficulty

Question 12

how did manipulation of group size effect conformity and how was it done

Answer 12

it was done by changing the number of confederates from 0 to 15. conformity increased to a certain level. as number of confederates increased from 0 to 3 so did conformity. Increasing past 3 made little difference.

Question 13

how did manipulation of unanimity effect conformity and how was it done

Answer 13

it was done by introducing a confederate who disagreed with the others. conformity reduced.
if correct answer was given conformity dropped to 5%
if an incorrect answer was given conformity dropped to 9%

Question 14

how did manipulation of task difficulty effect conformity and how was it done

Answer 14

it was done by making the lines similar in length.
conformity increased

Question 15

evaluate asch
(ethical issues)

Answer 15

there were ethical issues. Participants were deceived into believing confederates were also participants in a visual judgement task this means the participants could not give true informed consent to take part in the study. This reduces the ethical credibility or asch’s research

Question 16

evaluate asch
(replications)

Answer 16

Replications of the study have not found the same results. Perrin and spencer recreated the study and found only one student conformed in 396 trials, divvering vastly from asch’s 36.8% conformity rate. This reduces the reliability of asch’s findings as it does not seem to be consistent across situations or time periods

Question 17

evaluate asch
(artificial)

Answer 17

asch’s experiment was artificial as the task of identifying which or 3 lines matched the target line is trivial. This meant the task lacked mundane realism as it is not similar to tasks in everyday situations. This reduces the validity of the research as it does not represent how people conform in real life

Question 18

evaluate asch
(unrepresentative)

Answer 18

The findings from asch are not representative of all genders. He used 123 males and no females meaning the findings cannot be applied to everyone as conformity rates of men and women may not be the same. This is an example of beta bias where is is thought there is little to no difference between male and female behavior.

Question 19

evaluate asch
(Control)

Answer 19

there was a high degree on control in asch’s research. for example in the task difficulty variation everything remained the same apart from the length of the lines. This meant he was able to see exactly how different variations of the experiment impacted conformity levels. The high control increases the internal validity of the study.

Question 20

what is the two process model

Answer 20

the idea there are two reasons people conform.
The need to be right - Informational social influence (ISI)
The need to be liked - Normative social influence (NSI)

Question 21

what is informational social influence (ISI)

Answer 21

ISI is when you conform due to the belief that others are correct and you do not want to be wrong. It is a cognitive process. It usually occurs when someone is new to a situation, a situation is ambiguous or a person within the group is regarded as an expert

Question 22

what is normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 22

NSI is when you conform in order to be liked or accepted. It is an emotional process. IT usually occurs when you seek the approval of strangers or in stressful situations where people are in greater need of support.

Question 23

who came up with the two process model

Answer 23

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)

Question 24

evaluate explanations of conformity
(support for NSI)

Answer 24

research to support NSI comes from Asch’s research where participants knew the group was wrong privately but chose to conform in order to be accepted. We know this because it was reveled in interviews after the experiment. Therefore there is evidence to suggest NSI is a valid theory for conformation in situations where we want to be accepted in a group, not because we want to be right.

Question 25

evaluate explanations of conformity
(support for ISI)

Answer 25

research to support ISI comes from lucas et al (2006). They asked students to give answers to maths problems that were easy or difficult. They found greater conformity to incorrect answers when the questions were difficult. This shows people conform in situations where they’re unsure of themselves.

Question 26

evaluate explanations of conformity
(NSI application)

Answer 26

NSI may not apply to everyone due to differing personalities. people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected. This shows desire to be liked underlies conformity for some more than others. This limits the generalizability of NSI as it does not explain everyone’s behaviors.

Question 27

evaluate explanations of conformity
(Both together)

Answer 27

The two process approach suggests behavior is either due to ISI or NSI when usually both processes are involved. E.g conformity is reduced when there is another dissenting participant in the asch experiment. This reduces NSI’s power as they provide social support or it can reduce ISI because there is an alternative source of information showing it’s not always possible to tell which is at work. This casts doubt over the idea NSI and ISI operate separately

Question 28

evaluate explanations of conformity
(NSI detect)

Answer 28

NSI may not be detected as a casual factor in an individual’s behavior. Nolan et al. (2008) investigated weather people detect the influence of norms on their own behavior. When asked about factors effecting them people believed the actions of others had the least impact yet results showed it had the strongest impact. This suggests people rely on beliefs about what should motivate their behavior and under-detect NSI. This weakens NSI as studies that ask participants why they conformed may not get accurate responses.

Question 29

what are social roles

Answer 29

the parts people play as members of various social groups which are accompanied by expectations. Conforming to a social role is called identification

Question 30

What was zimbardo’s aim

Answer 30

wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles of guard and prisoner. Also wanted to examine whether behavior displayed in prisons was due to dispositional or situational factors

Question 31

outline zimbardo’s procedure

Answer 31

Converted the basement of stamford university into a mock prison. He advertised for 21 male students to play the two roles for 14 days. Participants were randomly assigned their role. Prisoners were dehumanised and guards were issued uniforms and dark sunglasses. Zimbardo observed the behavior as a researcher and acted as prison warden

Question 32

what were zimbardo’s findings

Answer 32

following a rebellion by the prisoners, they settled into their roles. Guards began to harass prisoners supposedly enjoying it. Prisoners quicly adopted prisoner-like behavior eg telling tales on others. Prisoners became submissive whereas guards became more aggressive to the point where they were a threat to prisoners psychological and physical health and the study was stopped after 6 days.

Question 33

what did zimbardo conclude

Answer 33

people quickly conform to social roles even when it goes against their moral principles. Situational factors are largely responsible for behavior found as no participant had demonstrated any of these behaviors previously

Question 34

evaluate zimbardo
(Control over variables)

Answer 34

one strength is that zimbardo and his team had some control over variables. Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and assigned randomly to roles. This was one way researchers tried to rule out personality differences as an explanation of the findings. THis increases the internal validity meaning we can be confident results are not due to extraneous variables

Question 35

evaluate zimbardo
(realism)

Answer 35

There was a lack of realism in the study. According to Banuazizi and Movahedi guards may have been play-acting. Performances may have been based on stereotypes. This means the behavior that was observed may not be due to conformity to social roles meaning it was not accurate. This means results lack internal validity as they are measuring participants assumptions or social behavior rather than the prison environment causing conformity

Question 36

evaluate zimbardo
(supporting research)

Answer 36

there is a lack of supporting research to show the prison caused participants to naturally conform. Reicher and haslam partially recreated the study and found prisoners actually took control and subjected guards to harassment. These findings challenge zimbardo’s conclusions individuals will naturally conform to their roles. The inconsistent results questions the reliability of the findings

Question 37

evaluate zimbardo
(applications)

Answer 37

there are real world applications from SPE. The same conformity to social roles occurred at Abu Ghraib prison. Zimbardo suggested certain situational factors combined with the opportunity to misuse power can lead to people acting in abusive ways. We can use this research to prevent situations like this in the future

Question 38

evaluate zimbardo
(ethical issue)

Answer 38

A major ethical issue arose due to zimbardo’s dual role in the study. Acting as prison warden he denied a participant the right to withdraw as he was more concerned with the running of his prison than his responsibilities as a researcher. this put the participant at risk of psychological harm.

Question 39

what is obedience

Answer 39

a form of social influence involving taking direct orders from a figure of authority who has the power to punish

Question 40

What was milgram’s aim

Answer 40

wanted to know if the germans were different and more obedient to authority figures. Also wanted to know if ordinary americans would obey unjust orders

Question 41

Outline milgram’s procedure

Answer 41

40 male participants volunteered in response to an advert to participate in an experiment on “punishment and learning”. They met the experimenter and mr wallace - both confederates. The participant was assigned the role of teacher. Each time mr wallace got an answer incorrect they administered electric shocks increasing in voltage each time up to a lethal 450V. The experiment continue until the participant refused to go on. They were prompted to continue by the experimenter.

Question 42

what did milgram find

Answer 42

all participants went up to at least 300V. 65% went up to 450V. Participants had shown clear signs of distress one even having a seizure.

Question 43

what did milgram conclude

Answer 43

germans are not different to other people, In the right circumstances, people will obey unjust orders

Question 44

Evaluate Milgram
(deception)

Answer 44

Milgram deceived his participants as he said his experiment was on punishment and learning. He actually measured obedience and pretended the learner was receiving shocks. Participants may not have consented had they known what was truly going on. General public may lose trust and no longer participate in studies if they think they’re being lied to and unable to give informed consent

Question 45

evaluate milgram
(ecological validity)

Answer 45

The study has been criticised for lacking ecological validity. He tested in a laboratory asking people to deliver electric shocks which is different to the more subtle instructions in day to day life. Meaning findings are not useful for understanding obedience in everyday life

Question 46

evaluate milgram
(application)

Answer 46

the research lacked population validity. Milgram used 40 male american students in his study. Meaning results cannot be applied to other groups of people particularly women as their obedience levels may be different. This is an example of beta bias, the idea that the difference between male and female behavior is little to none

Question 47

evaluate milgram
(other studies)

Answer 47

Other studies have found similar results to milgram. Le jeu de la mort included a replication of the study. 80% of participants delivered the shocks to a maximum of 450V. Their behavior almost identical to milgram’s participants. This supports milgram’s conclusions and shows his findings were not just by chance. The consistency improves the validity of the findings.

Question 48

evaluate milgram
(further support)

Answer 48

There is further support form sheridan and king. They conducted a similar study where real shocks were given to dogs. 54% of male and 100% of female participants delivered a fatal shock. This suggests milgram’s study was genuine as people act the same with real shocks. This increases the validity of milgram’s findings.