social influence

Question 1

types of conformity

Answer 1

compliance, internalisation, and identification

Question 2

compliance

Answer 2

a person may agree in public with a group of people, but the person privately disagrees with the group’s viewpoint or behaviour

Question 3

internalisation

Answer 3

publicly changing behaviour to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately

Question 4

identification

Answer 4

when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society e.g. a policeman

Question 5

explanations for conformity

Answer 5

normative and informational social influence

Question 6

normative social influence

Answer 6

where a person conforms to fit in with the group because they don’t want to appear foolish or be left out (usually associated with compliance)

Question 7

study on normative influence

Answer 7

asch

Question 8

informational social influence

Answer 8

where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, and look to others who they believe may have more information (unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge)

Question 9

study on informational influence

Answer 9

jenness’ bean jar experiment

Question 10

variables affecting conformity

Answer 10

asch’s line study

Question 11

asch procedure

Answer 11

-5-7 participants per group
-each group presented with standard line and three comparison lines
-participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched
-in each group there was only one real participant the remaining 6 were confederates
-the confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trials

Question 12

asch results

Answer 12

real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers, additionally, 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial

Question 13

asch evaluation

Answer 13

-lacks ecological validity (based on perception of lines)
-sampling issues (only carried out on men)
-gender bias
-population validity
-ethical issues (couldn’t give informed consent)

Question 14

factors affecting conformity

Answer 14

group size, group unanimity, difficulty of task, answer in private

Question 15

group size

Answer 15

the bigger the majority group, the more people conformed up to a certain point

Question 16

group unanimity

Answer 16

a person is more likely to conform when all the members of the group agree and give the same answer

Question 17

difficulty of task

Answer 17

the more difficult the task, the greater the conformity

Question 18

answer in private

Answer 18

when participants are allowed to answer in private conformity decreases (fewer group pressures)

Question 19

conformity to social roles

Answer 19

stanford prison experiment

Question 20

stanford prison experiment

Answer 20

zimbardo wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles of guard and prisoner

Question 21

prison experiment procedure

Answer 21

-zimbardo advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners and guards for a fortnight
participants were randomly assigned to roles
-prisoners were issued a uniform and referred to by their number only
-guards were given uniforms and props (dark glasses to make eye contact with prisoners impssible)
-no psychical violence was permitted
-zimbardo observed the behaviour and also acted as prison warden

Question 22

prison experiment findings

Answer 22

-within hours of beginning, guards began harassing prisoners
-prisoners ‘told tales’ on each other to the guards
-as the prisoners became more submissive the guards became more aggressive and assertive

Question 23

prison experiment evaluation

Answer 23

-demand characteristics could explain the findings (most of the guards claimed they were simply acting)
-findings cannot be generalised to real life (low ecological validity)
-lacks population validity as the sample compromised US male students
-lack of fully informed consent
-prisoners were not protected from psychological harm
-harmful treatment of participants led to the formal recognition of ethical guidelines

Question 24

obedience

Answer 24

a type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure

Question 25

explanations for obedience

Answer 25

milgrams shock study

Question 26

milgrams shock study

Answer 26

milgram wanted to know why germans were willing to kill jews during the holocaust, he thought it might habe been because they were just evil, he thought that americans were different and would not have followed such orders

Question 27

shock study procedure

Answer 27

-he conducted a lab experiment in which two participants were assigned either the role of a teacher (always given to the true participant) or learner (a confederate)
-teacher and learner were put into seperate rooms
-the teacher was then asked by the experimenter (who wore a lab coat) to administer elcetric shocks (which were actually harmless) to the learner each time he gave the wrong answer
-these shocks increased every time the learner gave a wrong answer, from 15-450 volts
-the experimentor wore a grey lab coat and his role was to give a series of orders/prods when the participant refused to administer a shock

Question 28

shock study results

Answer 28

-all participants went to 300 volts and 65% were willing to go to 450 volts
-milgram did more than one experiment, he carried out 18 variations, all he did was alter the situation (iv) to see how this affected obedience (dv)

Question 29

shock study evaluation

Answer 29

-lacked ecological validity (carried out in a lab under artificial conditions
-not generalisable (people do not receive orders to hurt another person in real life)
-sample was biased(only males)
-standardised procedure improves the reliability and helps establish a casual relationship

Question 30

agentic state

Answer 30

people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions

Question 31

legitimacy of authority figure

Answer 31

people tend to obey others if they recognise their authority as morally right and/or legitimate

Question 32

situational factors of milgrams experiment

Answer 32

-authority figure wearing a uniform
-status of location
-proximity of authority figure

Question 33

authoritarian personality

Answer 33

adorno proposed that there was a person who favours an authoritarian social system and admires obedience to authority figures (individual is hostile to those who are of inferior status, but obedient to people of high status), he investigated 2000 middle class, white americans and their unconscious attitudes to other racial groups using the f-scale

Question 34

limitations of authoritarian personality

Answer 34

-adorno cannot claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality, we must consider other explanations like legitimacy of authority

Question 35

resistance to social influence

Answer 35

-social support
-locus of control

Question 36

social support

Answer 36

presence of a dissent (a confederate who did not conform) led to a decrease in the conformity levels in true participants

Question 37

locus of control

Answer 37

how much control a person feels they have in their own behaviour

Question 38

minority influence

Answer 38

when a small group (minority) influences the opinion of a much larger group (majority)

Question 39

ways of minority influence

Answer 39

-consistency
-commitment
-flexibility

Question 40

social change

Answer 40

occurs whena whole society adobts a new belief or behaviour which then becomes widely accepted as the ‘norm’ which was not before