Social influence

Question 1

Definition of conformity

Answer 1

-Conformity is the process where people change their beliefs, attitudes or actions to match those held by the group they want acceptance from

Question 2

Types of conformity - Compliance

Answer 2

-When an individual changes their behaviour in response from another person
-Superficial and temporary

Question 3

Types of conformity - Identification

Answer 3

-When someone changes their public/private beliefs in the presence of others
-A moderate type
-Lasts as long as the group membership

Question 4

Types of conformity - Internalisation

Answer 4

-When a person changes both their public/private beliefs
-A permanent change in behaviour
-‘True conformity’

Question 5

Explanations for conformity

Answer 5

-Deutsch and Gerard (1955) put forward a two-part model to explain why people conform. This model distinguishes between informational social influence and normative social influence:

Informational social influence
-When people change their behaviour in order to be correct (cognitive)
-We think they are right
-It leads to internalisation (a change in behaviour and private opinions)

Normative social influence
-Behaviour you have because you want to be liked and have approval from peers
-Based on emotional factors
-Can lead to compliance, to fit in with the group and avoid rejection

Question 6

Variables affecting conformity (+ research evidence)

investigated by Asch

Answer 6

• Group size -> Bond (2005) found that NSI is likely to be stronger when participants made public responses and are face-to-face with the majority, whereas ISI is likely to be stronger when participants make private responses and communicate with the majority indirectly
• Unanimity -> Moscovici showed that the minority groups can influence the majority as long as the minority shows consistency in their behaviour (however when Asch introduced a disagreeing confederate, it led to reduced conformity)
• Task difficulty -> Lucas (2006) found that participants conformed more to an incorrect answer when the maths problems were difficult. This is because when the maths problem was easy, they ‘knew their own mind’, but when the problem was hard, the situation became more ambiguous

Question 7

Definition of obedience

Answer 7

Obedience is a compliance to an order, request, the law , etc.

Question 8

Types of obedience - Psychological explanation
- Agentic state

Answer 8

-People obey because they are commanded by an authority figure and they ‘switch’ into a different state where they no longer feel responsible for their actions. They give up their free will and act as an ‘agent’ implementing someones’ decisions
-The bystander effect occurs and diffusion occurs where the responsibility is put onto someone else. This was seen in the Nazi argument where the German soldiers felt no remorse as they were ordered to hurt Jews (obedience alibi)
-Obedience autopilot occurs -> where someones behaviour occurs with minimal thought
-Binding factors -> variables that keep us locked into the agentic state
-Milgram argued that someone in the agentic state will experience moral strain (feeling uncomfortable as a consequence of going against your own conscience)

Question 9

Types of obedience - Psychological explanation
- Legitimacy of authority

Answer 9

• When we are aware of consequences and responsibilities and act and think as an independent individual
• A suggestion that if we perceive an authority figure to have the power to tell us what to do, then we are more likely to obey them
  -Individuals have a subjective perception of whether someone has a deserved authority status. The perception can be based on social hierarchy
  -Before being obedient, a person may think: how do they behave? what do they look like? are they confident?. This determines whether the person has a ‘right to make a demand’ of you

Question 10

Situational variables affecting obedience

Answer 10

• Proximity = People are more obedient with an authority figure nearby
• Location = When in more prestigious locations, people will obey more

Question 11

Dispositional explanation for obedience
- Authoritarian personality

Answer 11

• The authoritarian personality refers to a person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them
• 4 parts that contribute this personality:
  
  • Might is right=Only the strongest societies should determine what is right or wrong
  • Upbringing= Harsh parents = fear of parents= overly respectful of authority figures
  • Personality traits= There will always be some people who have more obedient personalities
    - F-scale= The higher the score, the more likely you are to be obedient
    -The authoritarian personality craves status
    -Disposition refers to personality characteristics -> Some people are more likely to obey than others because they have a more obedient personality

Question 12

Explanation of resistance to social influence definition

Answer 12

Resistance to social influence is the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority/obey authority

Question 13

Explanation of resistance to social influence
-Social support

-Social support

Answer 13

-Situational (seen as an ally)
-Social support
1. Situations where you have social support from another non-conformist promoting RSI (resistance to social influence). When a minority is given an ally who also disagrees with the majority, they are more likely to resist social influence because they are more confident in expressing their own views (situational)
2. Situations where you have social support from another disobedient person also promotes RSI. This is because individuals will be more confident about disobeying when they are not alone (dispositional)

- The presence of others who resist pressures to obey, can help others to do the same

Question 14

Explanations of resistance to social influence
-Internal locus of control

-Locus of control

Answer 14

• Dispositional
• The extent to which people perceive themselves to be in control of their own lives
• High internal LOC- Believe they can control their own success or failure
• Low internal LOC- Success or failure happens due to luck or fate

Question 15

Minority influence definition

Answer 15

Minority influence is the concept that an individual/small group of people can influence wider society

Question 16

Factors that influence minority influence’s message

Answer 16

-Conversion involves the new belief being accepted both publicly and privately and can be seen as a type of internalisation, as it involves a change in an individual’s belief system and as such is regarded as a strong form of conformity
- Consistency = Refers to the message sent out by the minority and how much the MI get the message across
1. Synchronic consistency -> This consistency may be the agreement within the minority opinion
2. Diachronic consistency -> Consistency over time/ staying the same for ages
- Commitment = If the minority suffer but still stay on course
- Flexibility = Flexibility of the message and membership

Question 17

Minority influence - The augmentation principle

Answer 17

There will always be a part of the minority who are willing to take greater risks

Question 18

Social change definition

Answer 18

-Social change involves alteration of the social order of a society
-Social change is usually tangible e.g. increasing acceptance of homosexuality

Question 19

Social change process - Majority influence

Answer 19

• Majority influence - ISI - Encourages social change
  As it informs others on positives of behaviour -> This creates behaviour -> This starts to change the norm -> They don’t heavily care about the approval of others
• Majority influence - NSI - Inhibits social change
  We don’t want to disapprove majority opinion -> So we change our behaviour to be approved of

- NSI - Stops social change

Question 20

Social change process - Minority influence

Answer 20

• Minority influence = encourages social change (Augmentation principle)
• Minority influence creates social change through flexibility, consistency and commitment

Question 21

Social change process - Obedience

Answer 21

Obedience -> People obey the law:

• Minority influence gains traction which affects obedience
• When people lobby (e.g. against the government) it means that laws change
• Obedience creates social changes through law changes

Question 22

Social change processes
-Snowball effect/ social crypto-amnesia

Answer 22

-The snowball effect explains how small actions at the beginning can cause bigger and bigger actions ultimately resulting in a huge change
-The suffragettes movement started with small things like talking about it, then it moved to huge amount of people who wanted change

Question 23

ISI Research evidence
-Jenness’ Bean Jar experiment

Answer 23

-Jenness carried out a study into conformity - in his experiment participants were asked to estimate how many beans they thought was in a jar. Each participant had to make an individual estimate, and then do the same as a group
-He found that when the task was carried out in a social group, the participants would report estimates of roughly the same value
-The study was successful in showing majority influence, thus proving that individuals’ behaviour and beliefs can be influenced by a group

Question 24

Dispositional experiment/ Authoritarian personality - Research Evidence
-Adorno

Answer 24

-Adorno felt that personality (i.e. dispositional) factors rather than situational (i.e. environmental) factors could explain obedience. He proposed that there was such a thing as an authoritarian personality, i.e. a person who favours an authoritarian social system and, admires obedience to authority figures
-He investigated 2000 middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups using the F-scale to measure Authoritarian personality
-Adorno found many significant correlations but we cannot say that one variable causes another - Adorno cannot claim that a harsh parenting style caused a development of an Authoritarian personality, we must consider other explanations like legitimacy of authority

Question 25

Minority influence -Research Evidence
-Moscovici

Answer 25

-Moscovici stated that being consistent and unchanging in a view is more likely to influence the majority than if a minority is inconsistent and changes their mind constantly
-Moscovici conducted an experiment in which female participants were shown 36 blue slides of different intensity and asked to report the colours. There were 2 confederates and 4 participants
-In the 1st part of the experiment , the 2 confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides (consistent). In the 2nd part, they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times (inconsistent)
-When the confederates were consistent about 8% of ppt’s said the slides were green. When the confederates were inconsistent about 1% of ppt’s said the slides were green

Question 26

Explanations for obedience - Legitimacy of authority
-Bickman (1974)

Answer 26

-Bickman used 153 participants who were not aware they were taking part in an experiment
-Bickman wanted to see if uniform impacted obedience behaviour. The experimenter dressed up as either a security guard (with uniform), a milkman or a civilian
-In the first scenario, the experimenter asked an approaching pedestrian to pick up a paper bag and, if necessary explained why he couldn’t do it (because of a bad back). If the participant followed the order, it meant they obeyed the authority

Question 27

Social change processes
-Burgoon (1995)

Answer 27

-Burgoon (1995) suggested that it is the deviant and unexpected behaviours of the minorities that are alerting and arousing which can lead to a deeper-level analysis of the behaviour and roles being presented

Question 28

Explanations of resistance to social influence - internal LoC
-Rotter (1966)

Answer 28

-Rotter (1966) suggested having an internal locus of control makes people more resistant to social pressure as they believe they are in control of the situation and more likely to be self-confident and perceive themselves as having a free choice to conform or obey or not