Social Influence 1 Flashcards
What is compliance?
Changing public views to that of the majority, while private views are unchanged.
What is internalisation?
Changing both public and private views to that of the majority.
What is identification?
Changing views to match a group that you admire, but not acting on them outside of the group despite agreeing.
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
Conforming out of the desire to be right.
When does ISI happen?
- Ambiguous situation
- High complexity/difficulty
- Crisis
- Belief that others know better
What type of conformity does ISI lead to?
Internalisation.
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
Conforming out of the desire to be accepted.
When is NSI likely to happen?
- With strangers
- Concern about rejection
- Stress
What type of conformity does NSI lead to?
Compliance.
Who came up with the two process theory of conformity?
Deutsch and Gerard.
What supporting research exists for the two-process theory of conformity?
- Lucas et al
- Asch
What was the Lucas et al. study?
- Students answer maths questions
- Students with worse math skills conformed on harder questions
Supports ISI.
What are weaknesses of the two-process theory?
- NSI and ISI sometimes work together
- Lacks population validity
- NSI is less likely to affect people who are NOT nAffiliators (McGhee)
- Students conformed less than others (Asch)
- Lab experiments lack ecological validity.
What was the Sherif study?
- Small spot of light in dark room
- Participants guess how far it moved
- Autokinetic effect (light appears to move in dark room)
- Ambiguous situation
- Groups of 3, where 1 has a very different estimate
- Guesses all converged
- Views were internalised after separation from group.
What was the Asch study?
- 123 male US undergrads
- Told it was a vision test
- Up to 8 confederates
- Real participant placed last or second last
- Compare the length of lines
- 18 trials, confederates give wrong answer on 12.
What were the results of the Asch study?
- 35% conformity rate
- 75% conformed at least once
- 1% failure rate with no confederates.
What variables affect conformity?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Difficulty
What is the effect of group size on conformity?
Little conformity until 3 confederates added.
What is the effect of unanimity on conformity?
- When one correct answer was given, conformity dropped to 5.5%
- When one incorrect but different answer was given, conformity dropped to 9%.
What is the effect of difficulty on conformity?
When lines were closer in length, compliance increased.
What are weaknesses of the Asch study?
- Low temporal validity: repeated with engineering students and only one conformed in 396 trials
- Low ecological validity (you don’t measure lines on a day to day basis)
- Low population validity (only male undergrads)
- Ethical issues (deception on the real participants).
Who conducted the Stanford Prison Study?
Zimbardo.
Where was the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) conducted?
Stanford University.
What was the purpose of the SPE?
To find out if prison brutality was dispositional or situational.
How many applied for the SPE?
75.
Which applicants were chosen for the SPE?
24 males considered the most mentally stable.
How were prisoners and guards chosen in the SPE?
Randomly.
How many participants were left during the experiment?
10 prisoners, 11 guards (2 reserves, one dropout).
What was the group size and shift duration for guards?
3 for 8 hour shifts.
What deception was used on the prisoners?
- Arrested in their own homes
- Booked at a real police station
- Blindfolded and taken to the ‘prison’
- Zimbardo acted as the prison warden, leading prisoners to believe they could not leave when they actually could.
How were prisoners dehumanised in the SPE?
- Only addressed by ID number
- Identical smocks
- Chain around ankle.
What was the guard uniform in the SPE?
- Khaki uniform
- Billy club
- Dark sunglasses (no eye contact).
What were the results of the SPE?
- Prisoners and guards quickly identified to their roles
- Prisoners dehumanised
- Prisoners became submissive
- 5 Prisoners had adverse reactions from the abuse
- Terminated after 6 days rather than 2 weeks
- Sadistic guards.
What are strengths of the SPE?
- Controlled key variables (mentally stable males)
- Good application (Abu Ghraib).
What are weaknesses of the SPE?
- Lack of supporting research (repeated by Reicher and Haslam and the prisoners took control)
- Zimbardo was the Warden and Researcher
- Lack of informed consent.
What was the purpose of Milgram’s Experiment?
Test if the German people allowed for the Holocaust because of dispositional or situational factors.
How many participants were in Milgram’s original study?
40 males.
How was the teacher and learner chosen in Milgram’s study?
All the real participants were teachers, but were led to believe it was random.
How were participants encouraged to continue shocking the learner?
Series of 4 prods given by the researcher.
What did Milgram predict about the percentage of participants who would shock to the highest level (450V)?
2%.
What percentage of participants shocked to 450V in Milgram’s study?
65%.
What effects did the Milgram study have on participants?
- Visible nervousness
- Laughing fits
- Seizures
- 84% were glad to have done the experiment afterwards.
What was the Hoffing et al. study?
- 22 nurses
- Told to administer 20mg of made up drug ‘Astrofen’
- Clearly labelled max dose 10mg
- ‘Dr Smith’ was in a desperate hurry, so it had to be administered in 10 minutes
- 21 of 22 obeyed.
What are criticisms of Hoffing et al. study?
- Nurses had no knowledge of the drug
- No time to consult authority
- Rank and Jacobson repeated with known drug (Valium) at 3x the dose
- Despite a real doctor giving instructions, only 2 of 18 obeyed under these conditions.
What was the gameshow that replicated the Milgram experiment?
- Le Jeu De La Mort
- Done in 2010 (many years after Milgram)
- 80% gave 460V shock.
What are weaknesses of Milgram’s study?
- Lack of ecological validity
- Participants may have seen through the deception (70% thought it was real).
What situational variables affect obedience?
- Proximity
- Location
- Uniform.
What was the effect of proximity in Milgram’s study?
- 40% obedience when learner was in the same room
- 30% obedience when you had to force the learner to touch an electric plate
- 20.5% obedience when instruction given by phone.
What was the effect of location in Milgram’s study?
- 47.5% in a run down building rather than Yale.
What was the effect of uniform in Milgram’s study?
- Scientist had to leave due to a phone call
- Role taken over by ‘ordinary member of public’ (confederate)
- 20% obedience.
What did the Bickman study find?
- 153 pedestrians in New York
- Asking people to do simple tasks (like picking litter)
- 80% obedience to guard uniform, 40% otherwise.
What did Miranda et al. find in their study?
90% obedience in Spanish students for the Milgram experiment.
What are strengths of Milgram study variations?
High control of variables in variations.
