social influence Flashcards
What was the results? (Moscovici)`
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In condition 1 it was found that the consistency of the minority had effected the majority (8.42%) compared to an inconsistent minority (only 1.25% said green). A third (32%) of all participants judged the slide to be green at least once. In the control group, only 0.25% were affected.
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What was Moscivici’s Aim?
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To investigate the effect of consistent minority influence.
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What was Moscivici’s procedure?
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Conducted a replication of Asch’s experiment. Instead of one subject among multiple confederates, he placed two confederates together with four genuine p/pants.
Placed in groups of four p/pants and two confederates. They were shown 36 slides of clearly different shades of blue and asked to state which colour it was out loud.
In the first variation of the experiment, the confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides.
In the second variation of the experiment, they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times.
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What is a support for this theory? (Moscovici)
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Support - Laboratory study has high reliability.
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What are criticisms for this theory? (Moscovici)
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Criticism - Did not have ecological or construct validity.
Criticism - Moscovici used female students as p/pants so cannot be generalized to men (gynocentric) or to a wider range of lifestyles.
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How can the minority influence (3)? + Wood
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Consistency - Through being consistent in expressing your their views the minority then can cause others to reconsider their viewpoint.
Commitment - By demonstrating that you are committed to a viewpoint and willing to make sacrifices for it.
Flexibility - Having the ability to seem more reasonable in your ideas and change your ideas slightly.
Wood et al (1994) carried out a meta- analysis of 100 studies and found that the most important factor was consistency.
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How do acts of terrorism influence people?
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Commitment - Kruglanski (2003) Such acts often lead to a loss of life of the perpetrators at some point in the future so they are likely to reconsider.
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How do Activist cause change?
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Consistency - Through giving consistent messages and demonstrating their principles.
Flexibility - By showing their willingness to debate and discuss their beliefs and responsibilities showing they are reasonable people.
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What is a research support for consistency?
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Research Support for Consistency - There is research that supports the importance of consistency. Wood et al (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that those who were most consistent were the most influential. This suggests that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
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What is the research into depth of thought?
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Research for Depth of Thought - Martin et al (2003)gave p/pants a message supporting a particular belief and measured their support. One p/pant group heard a minority group agree with the initial view while another group heard it from a majority. P/pants were then exposed to the conflicting view. They found that people were less willing to change their view after listening to the minority group. Therefore the minority group’s ideas must have gone deeper.
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What is the research support for internalisation? (Moscovici)
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Research Support for Internalisation - In a variation of Moscovici’s study p/pants wrote their answers down. Surprisingly, the private agreement with the minority was greater in these circumstances. It seems that the majority’s views were being changed however they did not want to publicly admit this.
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What is a criticism for atrificial tasks? (Moscovici)
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Artificial Task - The tasks given were trivial and would not occur in an every-day scenario. So Moscovici et al’s study lacks external validity and is limited at telling us what can truly happen in real life.
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What is a criticism of RWL? (minority influence)
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Limited Real-world Applications - Research often makes it clear who is the majority and who is the minority however this is more complicated in the real world. There are more than just numbers affecting their influence.
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What is delayed influence?
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Delayed Influence - Nemeth (1986) Minority influence generally takes a lot longer to take effect than majority influence.
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What is the deeper processing criticism?
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Deeper Processing - Moscovici’s study suggested that minority and majority influences use different cognitive processes. He thought that minority influence acts through ‘deeper processing’. However Mackie (1987) disagreed and presented evidence that majority influence uses deeper preocessing. We like others to share the same views as our own, which leads us to question ourselves when the majority does not agree. Here the central part of minority influence is challenged.
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What is the indirectictly effective criticism?
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Minority Influence is Indirectly Effective - Minority influence tends to be indirect and delayed. The majority is only influenced by the issues at hand - not the central issues that may end up with future consiquences occuring.
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What are the methodological errors?
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Methodological Issues - All studies on social change draw from Moscovici, Asch and Milgram. All of these study’s methodology is questionable and therefore the there can be doubts about the validity.
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What is a disposition?
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The personality of a person
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What is a personality?
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The outward traits of a person
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What was Adorno et al’s (1950) aim?
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To understand the antisemitism of the Haulocaust but came to vey different conclusions to Milgram - that a high level of obedience was a psychological disposition. He argued that some of our personality traits are predisposed to some individuals and are more likely to be sensative to totalitarian and antidemocratic ideas and therefore are highly prejudiced.
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What was Adorno’s procedure?
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2000 middle-class, white American took part in the study looking at their unconcious attitudes towards other racial groups. Several scales were developed for this, one being the F-scale that looked at facisim and is still used to test for authoritarian personalities.
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What were Adorno’s Findings?
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People who were considered stonger in this study were generally contemptuous of the weak and highly aware of other people’s statuses. Adrono also concluded that people with authoritarian personalities are more likely to group people as ‘us’ and ‘them’. They would also see their own group as superior.
Authoritarian Personaities:
- Hostile to those of inferior status, obedient to those of high status
- Rigid opinions and beliefs
- Conventional, traditional values
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What is some real life evidence for these findings? (Adorno)
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Evidence given for this include case studies of the Naxis, Psychometric testing (F-scale) and Clinical interviews, all ofwhich revealed situational aspects of their childhood. For example a child with strict parents would be higher up on the F scale.
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What facistic trates did Adorno think these people were more likely to develop?
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- Obsession with rank and status
- Ethnocentrism
- Preocupation for power
- Respect for authority figures
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What is a support given by Milgram and Elms (1966)?
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Milgram & Elms (1966) conducted interveiws with those who gave the highest shock and assessed them using the F-scale. THis reaesrch showed that there is a correlation between those who delvered 450V and those high on the F-scale. (However this is a correlation study so cannot state cause and effect).
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What did Hyman and Sheatsley(1954) find?
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Hyman and Sheatsley (1954) found that a lower education level could be an explanation for this.
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What is the problem with this explanation? (Adorno)
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It is a limited explanation, most people will not fill in the full criteria needed for the test.
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What is the bias this theory has? (Adorno)
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Political Bias is present as the F-scale leans towards those who are Right-wing Christie and Johoda (1954) pointed out that left-wing criticisms can be just as damaging and lead to the same results.
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What are the methodological errors? (Adorno)
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Methodolofical errors investigated Greenstien (1969) pointed out that there were numerous probelems with the F- scale as all the questions pointed in the same direction and those who just tick all the same boxes may just be ‘aquiescers’. The scale only looks for agreement. The researchers also already knew when interveiwing about their childhoods, who had an authoritarian personality. So it was possible for them to bend the p/pants account.
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How could this be correlation not causation? (Adorno)
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Correlation does not mean causation. When they found that those with authoritarian personalities tended towards prejudice against a minority this did not allow for them to say that the personality causes the prejudice.
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What did Kitterman (1988) say?
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There were hundreds of cases of German soldiers saying no to killing civilians.
Why do some obey orders that others would not follow? There must be something other than a situational explanation.
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What are the dispositional reasons for obedience?
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- Agentic State
- Legitimacy of Authority
- Authoritarian Personality
- Situational Variables (proximity, location & uniform ect.)
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What are some dispositional reasons for disobedience?
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- Social Support
- Locus of control
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What are ways to increase minority influence?
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- Consistency
- Commitment
- Flexibility
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What is the def for comformity?
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When an individual behaves in such a way as to fit in with others around them.
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What is the def for independance?
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To act purely based upon your own will.
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What is the def for compliance?
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When a person carries out actions to “fit in” with the rest of the group but does not take on the views of the group. When away from the group they will act as tan individual.
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What is the def for internalisation?
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When a person changes how they think to be the same as the rest as the group’s. When away from the group they would still act based upon what the group thinks is right.
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What is the def for Identification?
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When we choose to act in the same way as the rest of the group as there is something about that group we value.
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What is the def for disobedience?
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When people deliberately refuse or fail to carry out instructions.
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What is the def for agentic state?
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When you carry out someone else instruction you to do so you take no blame for your actions.
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How did Asch’s study show SS?
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Asch (conforming) - The pressure to conform was shown by Asch as, when given the chance, people will frequently dissent if another person is. It doesn’t matter if they are correct the act of dissenting is enough.
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How did Milgram demonstrate SS?
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Milgram (obedience) - He demonstrates that once people have social support for defiance they are more likely to resist orders that they disagreed with. Rates of obedience dropped from 65% to 10%.
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How does Allen and Levine Support this?
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Allen & Levine (1971) - Replicated Asch’s study and found that the presence of 1 dissenter decresed conformity significantly. This provides inter-rater reliability.
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How does Gamson et al (1982) support this?
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Gamson et al (1982) - Found that higher obedience rates than the ones found by Milgram when they gave employees (p/pants) the task of disproving an oil companies effect on the environment. When a stooge resisted most would speak up, but if nobody questioned the compsny/boss they continued. This again provides inter-rater reliability.
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What does Rotter (1966) say about LOC?
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Rotter (1966 ) suggests that we have 2 types of personalities, an internal or and external locus of control. This effects how you interpret events in your life and are not on a scale.
Allows us to understand why some conform while others obey.
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