Social Influence 1-7

Question 1

What is conformity and why does it occur?

Answer 1

Conformity is a form of social influence where a person changes there behaviour, attitudes or beliefs so that they are in line with the majority.

This occurs because of real or imagined pressure from the majority.

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

Compliance is when an individual adjusts their behaviour in public however there is no change to private behaviour or views.
It is a superficial and temporary form of conformity

Question 3

What is internalisation?

Answer 3

Internalisation is when individuals adjust their behaviour, attitudes or beliefs, publicly and privately.
The individual decides that the majority is correct and this is usually a permanent form of conformity.

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

Identification is a moderate type of conformity.
We conform to the opinions of a group because there is something about them that we value. The individual may disagree privately.

Question 5

What are the explanations for conformity and who created them?

Answer 5

Normative social influence and informational social influence.

Deutsch and Gerrard 1995 developed this theory to explain why people conform.

Question 6

Explain normative social influence and when it happens.

Answer 6

People have a fundamental need to be liked so we often copy the behaviour of others to fit in.
Research has shown people like those who are similar to them and so conformity can be an effective strategy to ensure acceptance.
In short NSI is driven by the need to be liked.
Likely to happen in situations with strangers or stressful situations.

Question 7

Explain informational social influence and when it happens.

Answer 7

In ISI the person conforms because they are unsure of the correct answer or how to behave and as a result look to others for information.
In most cases, the drive for conformity is the need to be right.
It’s likely to occur when
-the situation is ambiguous or difficult
-the situation is a crisis
-we believe others to be experts.
ISI is likely to lead to internalisation.

Question 8

What are the strengths of the explanations for conformity?

Answer 8

There is research support for both ISI and NSI:

Lucas et al (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. He found that conformity occurred more to incorrect answers when the problems were more difficult. This study therefore supports the explanation of ISI.
Asch (1951) found that many of his participants went along with a clearly wrong answer because other people did. The pps feared rejection and therefore agreed which proves people conform in situations which are not ambiguous as a result if NSI.

Question 9

What are the weaknesses of the explanations of conformity?

Answer 9

1. There are individual differences in NSI and ISI:
   Some research has shown that not every individual shows NSI, such as nAffiliators, who are not concerned about being liked. This could suggest that NSI lacks population validity(doesn’t apply to everyone)
   A study found that those with high self confidence conformed less compared to those with low self-esteem.
2. Many supporting studies for NSI and ISI are lab studies which lack ecological validity so it’s unclear whether the behaviour in the lab will mirror behaviour in the real world.
3. ISI and NSI may work together in explaining conformity rather than separately. In some situations both processes may be involved, such as in Asch’s study.

Question 10

Explain Jenness’s study of conformity.

Answer 10

Jenness (1932) asked participants to estimate how many beans they thought were in a jar.
-Each participant had to make an individual estimate first, and then do the same as a group.
-He found that when the task was carried out in a group, the participants would report estimates of roughly the same value (even though they had previously reported different estimates as individuals).
This is likely to be an example of informational social influence as participants would be uncertain about the actual number of beans in the jar and so be genuinely influenced by the group.

Question 11

Explain Sherif’s study.

Answer 11

Sherif (1935) used the autokinetic effect to investigate conformity.
-this is when a small spot of light (projected onto a screen) in a dark room will appear to move, even though it is still (visual illusion).
Findings:
-when participants were tested individually their estimates of how far the light moved varied considerably (e.g. from 20cm to 80cm).
-The participants were then tested in groups of three.
-Two people whose estimate of the light movement when alone was very similar, and one person whose estimate was very different.
-Each person in the group had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved. Sherif found that over numerous estimates of the movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate. The person whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other two in the group conformed to the view of the other two because of informational social influence.
-The task was ambiguous so they looked to others for the answer.

Question 12

What is the aim and procedure of Solomon Asch’s study?

Answer 12

Aim: to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
Procedure: Asch used a lab experiment, where 123 male US undergraduates participated in a vision test.
-Asch put a naïve participant in a room with up to 8 confederates.
-The group was asked to look at a ‘standard line’ and then decide individually which of three other ‘test lines’ was the same length as the standard line, without discussing it. -They then gave their responses one at a time out loud. The naïve participant was the last, or second to last, to give their response so they heard the rest of the groups’ responses before giving their own. The answer was obvious.

Question 13

What are the findings of Asch’s study?

Answer 13

Although the answer was obvious, the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials.
Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of pps conformed at least once, and 25% of pps never conformed.
In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of pps gave the wrong answer.

When questioned about their answers afterwards, many of the pps said they were aware the answer was wring but didn’t want to be ridiculed (example of NSI). A few said they genuinely believed the other were correct (showing ISI).

Question 14

Explain the variables affecting conformity that Asch researched.

Answer 14

Group size- there was very little conformity if there were one or two confederates in the majority however if there was a majority of 3 confederates, conformity rates rose to 30%. But a further increase after this didn’t really affect conformity rates meaning that group size is important up to a point.

Unanimity- if one confederate gave the correct answer, conformity rates dropped significantly from 33% to 5.5%. If one confederate gave the wrong answer and it was not the same as the majority, then conformity rates dropped to 9% suggesting that you only needed one break in the unanimous decision for conformity rates to drop.

Task difficulty- in one variation, Asch made the differences between the line lengths much smaller (so that the ‘correct’ answer was less obvious). Under these circumstances the level of conformity increased, possibly because informational social influence was starting to have an impact. This is because when we are uncertain, we look to others for confirmation.

Question 15

What are limitations of Asch’s study?

Answer 15

• may not have temporal validity(when a study reflects the current time period). The study was conducted 80 years ago and it is possible that people may have been more conformist thenthanthey are now. Perrin and Spencer(1980) repeated Asch’s study and found that only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials.
• The task given to the participants, to match line lengths, is artificial and unlikely to occur in real life. Conformity usually takes place in a social context, often with people we know rather than strangers. The study therefore lacks mundane realism(it does not reflect real life) and ecological validity(cannot be generalised to real life).
• This study is gender biased because the sample only contained males, this means that the study may not represent female behaviour.It is also culturally biased because it only included white American men and may not reflect the behaviour of other cultures.
• several ethical issues, including deception (participants believed they were taking part in a test of perception), lack of informed consent and psychological harm (participants were put in a stressful and embarrassing situation). However, it was necessary to deceive participants about the purpose of the study to prevent demand characteristics which would make the study invalid.

Question 16

What are the strengths of Asch’s study?

Answer 16

• although the study was gender and cultural bias, this study has since been replicated with mixed samples and cultures and has proven to be reliable.
• well controlled.
• repeatable

Question 17

What are social roles?

Answer 17

Social roles are the parts people play as members of various social groups
E.g. child, parent, student, passenger etc.

Question 18

What was the aim of the experiment Zimbardo conducted.

Answer 18

The aim was to see how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that stimulated prison life.

Question 19

What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 19

Zimbardo wanted to investigate whether conformity to social roles would alter a person’s behaviour.

• A simulated prison was created in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology department. 24 emotionally and psychologically stable young men were recruited and randomly assigned to the role of prisoner or guard.
• The guards had complete control over the prisoners who were confined to their cells around the clock except for meals, toilet privileges, head counts and work. The guards were told to maintain order using any means necessary, except for physical violence

Question 20

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 20

-On the second day the prisoners tried to rebel. The guards sprayed them with carbon dioxide, stripped them naked, took their beds away etc.
-Over the next few days the guards became increasingly aggressive.
-Prisoners became passive and depressed as the guards used verbal/physical abuse.
guards became so aggressive that the study had to be ended after only six days (it was meant to last two weeks), because of concerns about the psychological health of the prisoners, who were showing signs of severe distress.

Question 21

What are the strengths of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 21

1. Good level of control over variable:
   - pps chosen were all emotionally and mentally stable.
   - no experimenter bias as the roles we’re assigned to the pps randomly.
   - this increases the internal validity of the study.
2. Relevance to Abu Ghraib:
   - increases ecological validity.
   - links to real life situations.

Question 22

What were the weaknesses of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 22

1. Lack of research support:
   - Reicher and Haslam replicated the study and their findings were the complete opposite. The prisoners took control.
2. Ethical issues:
   -prisoners were subjected to psychological harm. Five prisoners had to be released early because of their extreme reactions
   - Zimbardo’s dual role in the study (when a pp wanted to leave and spoke to Zimbardo, he responded in his role as the prison superintendent and access was denied.
   Although ethical guidelines came into place afterwards it is questioned whether it justifys what was done.

-The sample was unrepresentative as all the participants were white (with one exception), young, middle class, male students from Stanford University. Therefore, the results cannot be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias).

Question 23

What is obedience?

Answer 23

Obedience is behaving as instructed to by an authority figure. Authority figures have status and/or power over others.

Question 24

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 24

To investigate the level of obedience paeticipants would show when an authority figure tells them to administer electric shocks to another human being.

AND

To test the ‘Germans are different’ hypothesis and prove that the holocaust was due to the dispositional factors of the soldiers.

Question 25

Explain the procedure of Milgram’s study.

Answer 25

• selected participants by advertising for male participants to take part in a study of learning/memory at Yale university. (Volunteer sampling method)
• 40 male participants (aged 20-50) in original study.
• paid $4 per hour.
• pps introduced to Mr. Wallace who was a confederate that pretended to have a weak heart.
• randomly picked roles of teacher student from hat. Set up so that mr wallace= always learner.
• participant told that his role as teacher was to punish the learner if they made a mistake on a memory test by administering an electric shock, increasing the voltage each time the learner made a mistake.
• max = 450V
• The experimenter ensured that the teacher continued with the experiment. When the teacher showed reluctance to shock the leaner the experimenter prompted him to continue, using one of four statements, ‘please continue’, ‘the experiment requires that you continue’, and ‘it is absolutely essential that you continue ’and ‘you have no choice, you must continue’.
• the learner would create noises of pain when the shock was administered to make it realistic.

Question 26

What are the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 26

• 100% of participants gave shocks up to 300 volts -65% of participants gave electric shocks all the way up to the maximum 450 volts.
• Participants felt a high level of stress during the experiments, they showed symptoms including sweating, trembling, and, in some cases, anxious and hysterical laughter.
• Despite this, most were obedient and willing to inflict potentially lethal shocks on a man with a weak heart.

Question 27

What are the strengths of Milgram’s study?

Answer 27

Good external validity:
- Milgram argued that the lab environment accurately reflected real life authority.

His research is also supported by Hofling et Al (1966).

Question 28

What are the weaknesses of Milgram’s study?of.§

Answer 28

-Participants were deceived about the true nature of the experiment as they were told it was about memory when it was really about obedience (did not give their informed consent).
However, this deception was necessary to avoid demand characteristics and therefore increase the validity of the study.

• Several pps asked to leave the experiment but were told that they were not allowed; this violates their right to withdraw
• no protection from psychological harm. Many pps became distressed during the study.
• not representative sample: gender bias (males only).

Question 29

What are the situational variables studied by Milgram?

Answer 29

Proximity.
Location.
Uniform.

Question 30

Explain how Milgram investigated the variable of proximity and the findings.

Answer 30

1. In the proximity variation both the teacher and the learner were seated in the same room. Obedience levels fell from 60% to 40%, as the teacher was now able to experience Mr. Wallace’s anguish directly.
2. In a more extreme variation, known as the touch proximity variation, the teacher had to actually force the learner’s arm down onto a metal plate to administer the shocks. The obedience rate was 30%.
3. The proximity of the experimenter is also important. In the absent experimenter variation the experimenter left the room after giving his instructions and gave subsequent orders by telephone. The vast majority of
   participants missed out shocks or gave lower voltages than they were meant to. The obedience rate was 21%.

Question 31

Explain how Milgram investigated the variable of location and the findings.

Answer 31

Milgram changed the location to a run-down building. Obedience levels fell to 47.5%.

Question 32

Explain how Milgram investigated the variable of Uniform and the findings.

Answer 32

In the alternative setting the experimenter did not wear his uniform (laboratory coat). Uniforms have a powerful impact on obedience. Uniforms are easily recongnisable symbols of power and status.
The obedience level dropped to 20%. The lowest of all variations.

Question 33

What are the strengths of Milgram’s variables?

Answer 33

1. Research support: other studies have demonstrated the influence of these situational variables on obedience.
2. Cross cultural replications: Milgram’s research and variables have been replicated in other cultures aswell.
3. Well controlled: although Milgram studied different variables he kept the rest if the variables constant which makes the results more accurate.

Question 34

Weaknesses of Milgram’s study of variables.

Answer 34

1. Lack of internal validity.

2. The obedience alibi.