social influence

Question 1

what is conformity ?

Answer 1

a change in persons behaviour or opinions as a result or imagined pressure from a person or group

Question 2

name the three types of conformity

Answer 2

-internalisation
-identification
-compliance

Question 3

what is internalisation?

Answer 3

-when a person genuinely accepts the group norms
-results in public as well as private change of opinions
-change is permanent

Question 4

what is identification?

Answer 4

-conforming to opinions of a group because there is something about the group we value
-may mean we publicly change opinions even though we don’t agree privately

Question 5

what is compliance?

Answer 5

-going along with others in public but privately not changing personal belief
-particular opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops

Question 6

name the two explanations for conformity

Answer 6

-informational social influence
-normative social influence

Question 7

what is informational social influence ?

Answer 7

-occurs when the individual is unsure and lacks knowledge about a situation and so looks to the group for guidance
-can also occur when there is a crisis situation, a decision needs to be made quickly and we assume the group is more likely to be correct
-The individual accepts the group’s behaviour or decision because in the absence of their own knowledge

Question 8

what is normative social influence ?

Answer 8

-occurs when the individual is uncertain about their beliefs and looks to the group, who may be better informed
-also occurs because the individual wants to fit in with the group and not be rejected by them
-The individual accepts the group’s behaviour or decision because they want to gain the social approval of the group

Question 9

evaluation 1- research support for NSI ( types and explanations of conformity)

Answer 9

-strength of NSI is that
-there’s evidence supports
-when Asch interviewed his participants, some said they conformed because they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval.
-When participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5%.
-This is because giving answers privately meant there was no normative group pressure.
-This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them

Question 10

evaluation 2- research support for ISI ( types and explanations of conformity)

Answer 10

-strength
-research evidence to support ISI
-Lucas et al. found that participants conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when the maths problems were difficult.
-This is because when the problems were easy the participants ‘knew their own minds’ but when the problems were hard the situation became ambiguous (unclear).
-The participants did not want to be wrong, so they relied on the answers they were given.
-This shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity because the results are what ISI would predict.

Question 11

evaluation 3- counterpoint of research support for ISI ( types and explanations of conformity)

Answer 11

-it is often unclear whether it is NSI or ISI at work in research studies
- e.g. Asch found that conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant
-The dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (because they provide social support) or they may reduce the power of ISI (because they provide an alternative source of social information).
-Both interpretations are possible.
-Therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI

Question 12

evaluation 4-individual differences in NSI( types and explanations of conformity)

Answer 12

-limitation
-NSI does not predict conformity in every case.
-Some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others.
-Such people are called nAffiliators - they want to relate to other people
-McGhee and Teevan found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform.
-This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than it does for others.

Question 13

outline the procedure of ash’s conformity study

Answer 13

-123 American male participants were tested in groups of 6 to 8
-Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines
-Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the standard line in length
-In each group there was only one genuine participant and the remaining were confederates
-The fake confederate participants all gave the same incorrect answer
-Confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails

Question 14

what were the findings to ashes baseline study

Answer 14

-On average, the genuine participants agreed with the confederates’ incorrect answers 36.8% of the time
-25% of participants never gave a wrong answer, which shows there were individual differences

Question 15

what were the 3 variables investigated by Ash?

Answer 15

1.group size
2.unanimity
3.task difficulty

Question 16

elaborate on the group size variable in ash’s investigation

Answer 16

-Ash increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority
-conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three

Question 17

elaborate on the unanimity variable in ash’s investigation

Answer 17

-means the extent to which all members of the group agree
-in ash’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line
-this this produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naive participants

Question 18

elaborate on the task difficulty variable in ash’s investigation

Answer 18

-Asch’s line judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer
-conformity increased because naive participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right

Question 19

evaluation 1- artificial situation and task ( conformity: asch’s research)

Answer 19

-limitation
- the task and situation were artificial.
-Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics).
-The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform.
-Also, according to Fiske, Asch’s groups were not very groupy, i.e. they did not really resemble groups that we experience in everyday life.
-This means the findings do not generalise to real-world situations

Question 20

evaluation 2- limited application-generalisability ( conformity: asch’s research)

Answer 20

-limitation
-Asch’s participants were American men.
-Other research suggests that women may be more conformist, possibly because they are concerned about social relationships and being accepted (Neto ).
-Furthermore, the US is an individualist culture
-Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (such as China ) have found that conformity rates are higher
-This means that Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures.

Question 21

evaluation 3- research support ( conformity: asch’s research)

Answer 21

-strength
-research support from other studies for the effects of task difficulty.
-Lucas asked their participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems.
-Participants were given answers from three other students (not actually real).
-The participants conformed more often when the problems were harder.
-This shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity.

Question 22

evaluation 4- counterpoint of research support ( conformity: asch’s research)

Answer 22

-Lucas’ study found that conformity is more complex than Asch suggested.
-Participants with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence.
-This shows that an individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables e.g. task difficulty
-But Asch did not research the roles of individual factors.

Question 23

Zimbardo’s research procedure

Answer 23

-Zimbardo et al (1973) converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison
-They advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners and guards for a two-week study; 21 male student volunteers who were tested and found to be ‘emotionally stable’ were selected as participants
-Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard
-Prisoners and guards were encouraged to conform to their social roles both through instructions and the uniforms they wore

Question 24

elaborate the role of uniforms in Zimbardo’s research

Answer 24

-Prisoners were given a loose smock to wear and a cap to cover their hair and were identified by an assigned number only
-Guards were given their own khaki uniform, wooden club, handcuffs and mirror shades to make eye contact with prisoners’ difficult
-Both these uniforms created a loss of the individual’s personal identity (deindividuation), meaning they would be more likely to conform to their perceived social role

Question 25

what were the findings of Zimbardo’s research?

Answer 25

-Both guards and prisoners settled into their new roles very quickly
-some guards began to harass prisoners and treat them harshly
-Within two days the prisoners rebelled; they ripped their uniforms and shouted and swore at guards
-The guards used fire extinguishers to retaliate, using ‘divide-and-rule’ tactics, playing the prisoners off against each other and completing headcounts, sometimes at night
-The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behaviour too and took prison rules seriously; they increasingly became docile and obedient
-As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive taking on their social roles easily
(-A colleague of Zimbardo’s visited the study and was horrified at the abuse and exploitation she saw
-Zimbardo ended the experiment after six days instead of the 14 originally planned)

Question 26

what were the conclusions of Zimbardo’s research?

Answer 26

-Social roles had a strong influence on individuals’ behaviour in this study
-Power may corrupt those who wield it i.e. the guards over the prisoners
-Institutions may brutalise people and result in deindividuation
-A prison exerts psychological damage upon those who work and are incarcerated there

Question 27

evaluation 1- control over variables (conformity to social roles: zimbardo’s research)

Answer 27

-strength
-Zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables.
-The most obvious example of this was the selection of participants.
-Emotionally-stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner.
- If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, but were in those roles only by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the role itself.
-This degree of control over variables increased the internal validity of the study, so we can be much more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on conformity.

Question 28

evaluation 2- lack of realism ( conformity to social roles: zimbardo’s research)

Answer 28

-limitation
-did not have the realism of a true prison.
-Banuazizi and Movahedi argued the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role.
-Participants’ performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave.
-e.g. one of the guards claimed he had based his role on a brutal character from the film Cool Hand Luke.
- This would also explain why the prisoners rioted - they thought that was what real prisoners did.
-This suggests that the findings tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.

Question 29

evaluation 3- counterpoint of lack of realism ( conformity to social roles: zimbardo’s research)

Answer 29

-McDermott argues that the participants did behave as if the prison was real to them.
-e.g. 90% of the prisoners conversations were about prison life.
-Amongst themselves, they discussed how it was impossible to leave the SPE before their sentences were over.
-‘Prisoner 416’ later explained how he believed the prison was a real one, but run by psychologists rather than the government.
-This suggests that the SPE did replicate the social roles of prisoners and guards in a real prison, giving the study a high degree of internal validity.

Question 30

evaluation 4- exaggerates the power of roles ( conformity to social roles: zimbardo’s research)

Answer 30

-limitation
-Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour
-e.g. only one-third of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner. Another third tried to apply the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners.
-They sympathised, offered cigarettes and reinstated privileges
-Most guards were able to resist situational pressures to conform to a brutal role.
-This suggests that Zimbardo overstated his view that SPE participants were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositional factors

Question 31

what were the two studies that investigated conformity?

Answer 31

-Zimbardo’s prison study
-Asch’s line study

Question 32

state the procedure of Milgram’s baseline study?

Answer 32

-40 American men volunteered to take part in Milgram’s study at Yale University
-participants were introduced to another participant (who was a confederate to Milgram)
- genuine participant was always the teacher and the confederate the learner
-also there was a confederate dressed in a grey lab coat
-the confederate was asked to learn a set of word pairs and the teacher would test his knowledge
-They were placed in adjacent rooms and the teacher was positioned in front of a set of controls to administer electric shocks to the learner
-The teacher was instructed to punish the learner with a shock after each incorrect he gave
-When the teacher displayed a reluctance to injure the learner, they were encouraged to continue the procedure

Question 33

what were the findings of Milgram’s baseline study?

Answer 33

-every participant delivered the shock up to 300 volts
-12.5% participants stopped at 300 volts
-65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts

Question 34

what was the conclusion for Milgram’s baseline study?

Answer 34

-Milgram concluded that German people are not different
-American participants in his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person

Question 35

evaluation 1- research support ( obedience: milgram’s research )

Answer 35

-strength
-findings were replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality TV.
-The participants believed they were contestants in an episode for a new show Game of Death
-They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks (ordered by the presenter) to other participants (who were actually actors) in front of a studio audience.
- 80% of the participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man.
-This supports Milgram’s original findings about obedience to authority

Question 36

evaluation 2- low internal validity ( obedience: milgram’s research )

Answer 36

-limitation
-Milgram’s procedure may not have been testing what he intended to test.
-Milgram reported that 75% of his participants said they believed the shocks were genuine.
-Orne and Holland argued that participants behaved as they did because they didn’t really believe in the set up, so they were ‘play-acting.
- Perry’s research confirms this: She listened to tapes of Milgram’s participants and reported that only about half of them believed the shocks were real. Two-thirds of these participants were disobedient.
-This suggests that participants may have been responding to demand characteristics, trying to fulfil the aims of the study.

Question 37

evaluation 3- counterpoint of low internal validity ( obedience: milgram’s research )

Answer 37

-Sheridan and King conducted a study using a procedure like Milgram’s.
-Participants gave real shocks to a puppy in response to orders from an experimenter.
-Despite the real distress of the animal, 54% of the men and 100% of the women gave what they thought was a fatal shock.
-This suggests that the effects in Milgram’s study were genuine because people behaved obediently even when the shocks were real.

Question 38

evaluation 4- alternative interpretation of findings ( obedience: milgram’s research )

Answer 38

-limitation
-Milgram’s conclusions about blind obedience may not be justified
-Haslam showed that Milgram’s participants obeyed when the Experimenter delivered the first three verbal prods .
-but every participant who was given the fourth prod (You have no other choice, you must go on’) without exception disobeyed.
-According to social identity theory , participants in Milgram’s study only obeyed when they identified with the scientific aims of the research
-When they were ordered to blindly obey an authority figure, they refused.
-This shows that SIT may provide a more valid interpretation of Milgram’s findings, especially as Milgram himself suggested that identifying with the science is a reason for obedience.

Question 39

what are situational variables?

Answer 39

features of immediate physical and social environment which may influence a persons behaviour

Question 40

what were the three situational variables that Milgram investigated?

Answer 40

-proximity
-location
-uniform

Question 41

elaborate on the proximity situational variable in Milgram’s study? and explanations for the results

Answer 41

-In Milgram’s original procedure, the Teacher could hear the Learner but could not see him
-In the proximity variation, both were moved to the same room =The obedience rate dropped from 65% to 40%
-In the touch proximity variation, the teacher then had to force the Learners hand onto the electroshock plate =The obedience rate dropped further to 30%
-In the remote instruction variation, the experimenter left the room and gave instructions by telephone=The obedience rate dropped to 20.5%
EXPLANATION: Decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions, however, when they have to witness and be physically together, this becomes difficult

Question 42

elaborate on the location situational variable in Milgram’s study?and explanation for results

Answer 42

-Milgram conducted a variation in a run-down office block=The obedience rate dropped to 47.5%
EXPLANATION:Participants were more likely to be obedient in the university environment as they perceived the experimenter had legitimate authority and obedience was expected

Question 43

elaborate on the uniform situational variable in Milgram’s study?and explanation

Answer 43

-In the uniform variation, the experimenter was called away and replaced by an ordinary member who was not wearing the ‘uniform’ of a grey lab coat =The obedience rate dropped to the lowest of all the variations to 20%
EXPLANATION: Uniforms are often associated as symbols of authority and therefore encourage obedience as those around them see them as legitimate authority figures

Question 44

evaluation 1- research support ( obedience:situational variables)

Answer 44

-strength
-other studies have demonstrated the influence of situational variables on obedience.
-Bickman had three confederates dress in different outfits - jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit and a security guard’s uniform in NYC.
-The confederates individually stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or handing over a coin for the parking meter.
-People were twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security guard than the one dressed in jacket and tie.
-This supports the view that a situational variable, such as a uniform, does have a powerful effect on obedience.

Question 45

evaluation 2- cross cultural replications ( obedience:situational variables)

Answer 45

strength
- Milgram’s findings have been replicated in other cultures.
-e,g, Meeus and Raaijmakers used a more realistic procedure to study obedience in Dutch participants.
-The participants were ordered to say stressful things in an interview to someone (a confederate) desperate for a job.
-90% of the participants obeyed.
-The researchers also replicated Milgram’s findings concerning proximity.
- When the person giving the orders was not present, obedience decreased dramatically.
-This suggests that Milgram’s findings are valid across cultures and apply to women too.

Question 46

evaluation 3- counterpoint of cross cultural replications ( obedience:situational variables)

Answer 46

-replications of Milgram’s research are not very ‘cross-cultural.
-Smith and Bond identified just two replications between 1968 and 1985 that took place in India and Jordan whereas the other countries involved (e.g. Spain, Australia, Scotland) are culturally quite similar to the US (eg. they have similar notions about the role of authority).
-Therefore, it may not be appropriate to conclude that Milgram’s findings including those about proximity, location and uniform apply to people in all or most cultures.

Question 47

evaluation 4-low internal validity ( obedience:situational variables)

Answer 47

-limitation
-participants may have been aware the procedure was faked.
-Orne and Holland point out that it is even more likely in his variations because of the extra manipulation of variables.
-A good example is the variation where the Experimenter is replaced by a ‘member of the public.
-Even Milgram recognised that this situation was so contrived that some participants may well have worked out the truth.
-Therefore, in all of Milgram’s studies it is unclear whether the findings are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or the participants saw through the deception and just ‘play-acted

Question 48

what are the two situational explanations for obedience?

Answer 48

-agentic state
-legitimacy of authority

Question 49

what is the agentic state?

Answer 49

mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acing for an authority figure

Question 50

what is the autonomous state?

Answer 50

An autonomous state is the opposite of an agentic state and means the person has autonomy over their actions and can act according to their own principles

Question 51

whats is it called when a person shifts from autonomy to agency?

Answer 51

agentic shift

Question 52

what is meant by binding factors ?(agentic state)

Answer 52

-During Milgram’s experiment, he observed that many participants said they wanted to stop but seemed powerless to do so
-Milgram said this was due to them staying in an agentic state through binding factors
-Binding factors are when aspects of the situation mean the individual is able to take away their own ‘moral strain’ and ignore their damaging behaviour

Question 53

evaluation 1- research support ( Agentic state)

Answer 53

-strength
-Milgram’s own studies support the role of the agentic state in obedience.
-Most of Milgram’s participants resisted giving the shocks at some point, and often asked the Experimenter questions about the procedure.
-One of these was “Who is responsible if Mr Wallace (the Learner) is harmed? “
-When the Experimenter replied I’m responsible, the participants often went through the procedure quickly with no further objections.
-This shows that once participants perceived they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they acted more easily as the Experimenter’s agent

Question 54

evaluation 2- a limited explanation (agentic state)

Answer 54

-limitation
-agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience.
-e.g. it does not explain the findings of Rank and Jacobson’s study: they found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient.
-The doctor was an obvious authority figure but almost all the nurses remained autonomous
-This suggests that, at best, the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.

Question 55

what is legitimacy of authority?

Answer 55

-Most human societies are ordered in a hierarchical way, where some members of the group have legitimate social power above those beneath them in the hierarchy e.g. police/teachers/doctors
-We learn via socialisation that we will be accepted if we obey those who have authority over us (we trust them and/or because they have the power to punish us)
-It is legitimate as it has been agreed by society that these positions carry power and most people accept this

Question 56

what is destructive authority ? (legitimacy of authority)

Answer 56

-This is when power is used for destructive purposes and when obedience is used to harm others
-In Milgram’s experiment, the experimenter displayed destructive authority when they were prodding and encouraging the teacher to continue with the electric shocks
-The participant demonstrated destructive obedience when they acted against their conscience

Question 57

evaluation 1- explains cultural differences ( legitimacy of authority)

Answer 57

-strength
-the legitimacy explanation is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience.
-Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient. to authority.
-e.g. Kilham and Mann found that only 16% of Australian women went all the way up to 450 volts in a Milgram-style study.
-However, Mantell found a very different figure for German participants - 85%.
-This shows that, in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals.

Question 58

evaluation 2- cannot explain disobedience (legitimacy of authority)

Answer 58

-limitation
-legitimacy cannot explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where the legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted
-This includes the nurses in Rank and Jacobson’s study :most of them were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure.
-Also, a significant minority of Milgram’s participants disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter’s scientific authority.
-This suggests that it is possible that innate tendencies to obey or disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of an authority figure.

Question 59

what is the dispositional explanation for obedience?

Answer 59

the authoritarian personality

Question 60

what is the Authoritarian personality?

Answer 60

-An authoritarian personality tends to show extreme respect for authority, status and hierarchies
- despises those they consider to be ‘weak’
-has conventional attitudes towards gender, sexuality, race etc.
-is rigid in their beliefs
- is justice-focused; is likely to have right-wing political views

Question 61

origins of the authoritarian personality

Answer 61

-An authoritarian personality is likely to be the result of harsh parenting in which discipline was a key feature and expectation of ‘perfect’ behaviour is common i.e. the child is shown love as long as they behave exactly how the parent wants them to behave
-children cannot express their feelings directly against their parents because they fear punishment so their fears are displaced onto others why they perceive weaker (scapegoating)

Question 62

what was the procedure of Adorno’s research ? (authoritarian personality)

Answer 62

-Adorno et al. (1950) developed a questionnaire called the F-Scale (fascist scale) to test whether someone had an authoritarian personality
-He studied more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups

Question 63

what were the results of Adorno’s research ? (authoritarian personality)

Answer 63

-Those who scored high on the F-Scale identified with strong people, had contempt for the weak, admired high-status individuals and exhibited ‘black and white’ views
-There were strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Question 64

evaluation 1- research support ( obedience dispositional explanation- authoritarian personality)

Answer 64

-strength
-there’s evidence from Milgram supporting the Authoritarian Personality.
-Milgram and Elms interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been fully obedient.
-They all completed the F-scale as part of the interview.
-These 20 obedient participants scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants.
- This finding supports Adorno view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian Personality.

Question 65

evaluation 2- counterpoint of research support ( obedience dispositional explanation- authoritarian personality)

Answer 65

-However, researchers found that the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians.
-e.g. unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient participants generally did not glority their fathers, did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood and did not have particularly hostile attitudes towards their mothers.
-This means that the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex.

Question 66

evaluation 3- limited explanation ( obedience dispositional explanation- authoritarian personality)

Answer 66

-limitation
-authoritarianism cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population.
-e.g. in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour.
-It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an Authoritarian Personality.
-An alternative view is that the majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.
-Therefore Adorno’s theory is limited because an alternative explanation is much more realistic.

Question 67

evaluation 4- political bias ( obedience dispositional explanation- authoritarian personality)

Answer 67

-limitation
-F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology.
-Christie and Jahoda argued that the F-scale is a politically-biased interpretation of Authoritarian Personality.
-In fact, extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have a lot in common.
-e.g.they both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to political authority.
-This means Adorno’s theory does not account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.

Question 68

what are the two reasons of resistance to social influence?

Answer 68

-social support
-Locus of control

Question 69

elaborate on how social support can help with resisting conformity and obedience

Answer 69

-Resisting the pressure to conform can be easier if there are others also resisting the pressure to conform
-When someone else is also not conforming, this will appear to be social support and allows the person to follow their own conscience
-The same can be seen with resistance to obey
-If another person is seen to disobey, it allows the person to also disobey as it challenges the legitimacy of the authority

Question 70

evaluation 1- real world research support ( social support- resistance to social influence)

Answer 70

-strength
-research evidence for the positive effects of social support.
-e.g. Albrecht et al evaluated Teen Fresh Start USA, an eight-week programme to help pregnant adolescents aged 14-19 resist peer pressure to smoke.
-Social support was provided by a slightly older mentor or ‘buddy.
-At the end of the programme adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who did not have a ‘buddy.
-This shows that social support can help young people resist social influence as part of an intervention in the real world

Question 71

evaluation 2- research support for dissenting peers ( social support- resistance to social influence)

Answer 71

-strength
-research evidence to support the role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience.
-Gamson et al’s participants were told to produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign.
-researchers found higher levels of resistance in their study.
-This was probably because the participants were in groups so could discuss what they were told to do.
-29/33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled against their orders.
-This shows that peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure.

Question 72

what is a locus of control?

Answer 72

Locus of control is the extent to which we believe we have control over our own behaviour and life

Question 73

what is external locus of control?

Answer 73

When a person feels they do not have control over their own lives and believe their life is controlled by external factors

Question 74

what is internal locus of control?

Answer 74

When a person feels they have control over their own life and behaviour

Question 75

why do people with a high internal locus of control are able to resist the pressure to conform and obey?

Answer 75

They tend to be more self-confident, intelligent and achievement-orientated, which provides them with personality traits that give them greater resistance to social control

Question 76

evaluation 1- research support( locus of control- resistance to social influence)

Answer 76

-strength
-research evidence for link between LOC and resistance to obedience.
-Holland repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internals or externals.
-He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level
- only 23% of externals did not continue.
-internals showed greater resistance to authority in Milgram-type situation.
-This shows that resistance is at least partly related to LOC, which increases the validity of LOC as an explanation of disobedience.

Question 77

evaluation 2- contradictory research ( locus of control- resistance to social influence)

Answer 77

-limitation
-contradictory research
-Twenge et al analysed data from American locus of control studies , conducted over a 40-year period
-The data showed that, over this time span, people became more resistant to obedience but also more external.
-If resistance is linked to an internal locus of control, we would expect people to have become more internal.
-This suggests that locus of control is not a valid explanation of how people resist social influence.

Question 78

what is minority influence?

Answer 78

when a small group of people or even an individual changes the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of the majority

Question 79

what are the three main processes of minority influence?

Answer 79

-consistency
-commitment
-flexibility

Question 80

elaborate on consistency (minority influence)

Answer 80

-The minority has to be consistent in their views as this increases the amount of interest from others and gets people to start to rethink their own opinions. This is due to types of consistency:
*Synchronic consistency: They’re all saying the same thing
*Diachronic consistency: They’ve been saying the same thing for a long period of time

Question 81

elaborate on commitment (minority influence)

Answer 81

-The minority has to show full commitment to their views and show this through their actions, which can be extreme in some cases
-taking part in extreme actions or having extreme views makes the majority think that the minority group must truly believe what they are doing
-This then may cause them to rethink their own opinions
-This is called the argumentation principle

Question 82

elaborate on flexibility (minority influence)

Answer 82

-The minority has to be able to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter opinions, the minority have to be able to have a balance between both consistency and flexibility
-They cannot be dogmatic in their views

Question 83

explain the process of change (minority influence)

Answer 83

-The three factors, consistency, commitment and flexibility, make people think about the minority cause
-Over time, the increasing numbers who change from the majority to the minority, are the converted
-The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion from majority to minority
-This is called the snowball effect as it gets bigger, taking on new members all the time, like a snowball being rolled on the ground
-Over time, the minority becomes the majority

Question 84

evaluation 1- research support for consistency ( minority influence)

Answer 84

-strength
-research evidence showing the importance of consistency.
-Moscovici et al’s blue/green slide study showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than an inconsistent opinion.
-Wood carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential.
-This suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority.

Question 85

evaluation 2- research support for deeper processing ( minority influence)

Answer 85

-strength
-evidence showing that a change in the majority’s position does involve deeper processing of the minority’s ideas.
-Martin presented a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured participants’ agreement.
-One group of participants then heard a minority group agree while another group heard a majority group agree with it.
-Participants were finally exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again.
-People were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group.
-This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect

Question 86

evaluation 3- counterpoint of research support for deeper processing ( minority influence)

Answer 86

-studies such as Martin’s make clear distinctions between the majority and the minority.
-But real-world social influence situations are more complicated.
-e.g. majorities usually have a lot more power and status than minorities. -Minorities are very committed to their causes - they have to be because they often face hostile opposition.
-These features are usually absent from minority influence research
-Therefore Martin’s findings are very limited in what they can tell us about minority influence in real-world situations.

Question 87

evaluation 4- artificial tasks ( minority influence)

Answer 87

-limitation
-tasks involved are often artificial
-e.g. Moscovici et al’s task of identifying the colour of a slide.
-Research is far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life.
-In cases such as jury decision-making and political campaigning, the outcomes are more important and even a matter of life or death.
-This means findings of minority influence studies are lacking in external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-world social situations.

Question 88

what is social change?

Answer 88

shift or change in society’s beliefs, behaviours and attitudes, it is a continuous but gradual change and is usually, minority influence is the driving force behind societal changes. Minority viewpoints slowly win over the majority, making society itself change

Question 89

what are the six steps that creates social change

Answer 89

1-drawing attention through social proof
2-consistency
3-deeper processing of the issue
4-the augmentation principle -individuals risked their lives numerous times
5-the snowball effect
6-social crytomnesia( people don’t have a memory that change has occurred)

Question 90

what studies showed that a minority can have an affect on the majority

Answer 90

-Asch and Milgram
-both studies involved a dissenter or disobedient role model who influenced the behaviour of the majority.
-However,these studies are both based on artificial tasks

Question 91

evaluation 1- Research support for normative influences ( social influence)

Answer 91

-strength
-research has shown that social influence processes based on psychological research do work.
-Nolan et al. aimed to see if they could change peoples energy-use habits
-they hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego every week for one month.
- key message was that residents were trying to reduce their energy usage.
-As a control, some residents had a different message: asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour.
-There were significant decreases in energy usage in the first group compared to the second
-This shows that conformity (majority influence) can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence.

Question 92

evaluation 2- counterpoint of Research support for normative influences ( social influence)

Answer 92

-However some studies show that people’s behaviour is not always changed through exposing them to social norms.
-Foxcroft et al review included 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce student alcohol use.
-researchers found only a small reduction in drinking quantity and no effect on drinking frequency.
-Therefore it seems that using normative influence does not always produce long-term social change.

Question 93

evaluation 3- Minority influence explains change( social influence)

Answer 93

-strength
-psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change.
-Nemeth claims social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire.
-When people consider minority arguments, they engage in divergent thinking.
-This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow, in which the thinker actively searches for information and weighs up more options.
-this leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues.
-This shows why dissenting minorities are valuable - they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way that majorities cannot.

Question 94

evaluation 4-Role of deeper processing ( social influence)

Answer 94

-limitation
-deeper processing may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change.
-Mackie presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views.
-This is because we like to believe that other people share our views and think in the same ways as us.
- When we find that a majority believes something different, then we are forced to think long and hard about their arguments and reasoning.
-This means that a central element of minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change.