Social Influence Flashcards
Conformity
conformity is majority influence
yielding to group pressure
our behaviours and beliefs are influenced by a large group of people
What are the 3 types of Conformity
compliance, identification, internalisation
Compliance
a person who goes along with other peoples behaviour or attitudes but does not believe them to be correct
they comply publicly but their private opinion does not change
they go along with beliefs to keep the peace or gain approval
temporary when in the presence of a group
Identification
individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of the group as membership of the group is desirable
both private and public
often temporary
Internalisation
the individual accepts the groups view and believes that view to be correct
so conforming to other peoples view publicly and privately in the genuine belief they are correct
permanent
What are the explanations for conformity
informational social influence, normative social influence
Informational Social Influence (ISI)
humans have a need for certainty (a need to be right)
when uncertain they look to others
happens in unfamiliar situations or ambiguous situations
Normative Social Influence (NSI)
humans have a need to be liked, social groups
agreeing with the majority group view because we want to be liked and accepted and gain approval
occurs when you fear rejection from a group of strangers
What does NSI explain
compliance, identification
What does ISI explain
internalisation
AO3 on Conformity: Types and Explanations: Strength - Research Support Lucas et al (2006)
Lucas et al (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical questions that were easy or more difficult
there was greater conformity to incorrect answers, when they were difficult rather than when they were easier ones this was mostly true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor
people conform in situations where they feel they dont know the answer, which is the outcome predicted by ISI (we look to other people and assume they know better than us and must be correct)
AO3 on Conformity: Types and Explanations: Limitation - Individual Differences in NSI
NSI does not effect everyones behaviour in the same way for example people who are concerned with being liked are less effected by NSI than those who care more about being liked
these people are called nAffiliators they need to be liked and have a greater need for affiliation, being in relationships with others
McGee and Teevan (1967) found that students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform
therefore there are individual differences in the way people respond
AO3 on Conformity: Types and Explanations: Limitation - ISI and NSI work together
both NSI and ISI are involved for example conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting ppt (ASCH)
this dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (social support) or ISI (alternative source of information)
isnt always possible to know if ISI or NSI is at work, this is the case in lab studies but even truer in real life conformity situations
this casts serious doubt as NSI and ISI operating independently
AO3 on Conformity: Types and Explanations: Limitation - Individual Differences in ISI
ISI does not effect everyones behaviour in the same way, Asch (1955) found that the students were less conformist 28% than other ppts 37%
Perrin and Spencer conducted a study involving science and engineering students and found very little conformity
AO3 on Conformity: Types and Explanations: Strength - Research Support for NSI
Asch (1951) - many ppts went along with a clearly wrong answer just because other people did
he asked why, ppts said they felt self-conscious giving correct answer and were afraid of disapproval
when Asch repeated this study but asked ppts to write down their answers instead of saying them out load, conformity values fell to 12.5%
Asch’s Research Procedure
Solomon Asch (1951, 1955)
tested conformity by showing ppts two large white cards at a time, one card was a standard line and on the other card there were three comparison lines, one of three lines was the same as the standard line and the other two were substantially different
the ppts in this study were 123 american male undergraduates
each naive ppt was tested individually with a group of 6 to 8 confederates
the naive ppt was not aware that the others were confederates
on the first few trials all the confederates gave the right answers but then they started making errors, all the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer
each ppt to part in 18 trials and on the 12 critical trials the confederates gave the wrong answer
Asch’s Research Findings
the naive ppts gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time
overall 25% did not conform on any trials, which means that 75% conformed at least once
when ppts were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)
Asch’s Variations
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
Effect of Group Size on Asch’s Research
wanted to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group
with three confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8%, the addition of further confederates made little difference
no need for a majority of more than three
Effect of Unanimity on Asch’s Research
wanted to know if the presence of another, non-conforming person would affect the naive persons conformity
to test this he introduced a confederate who disagreed with others sometimes they agreed and sometimes they disagreed
the presence of this confederate meant that conformity was reduced by a quarter from what it was when the majority was unanimous
this suggest that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous
Effect of Task Difficulty on Asch’s Research
Asch made the line judging task more difficult by making comparison lines more similar to the standard line, he found that conformity increased under these conditions
this suggests that informational social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder
this is because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and we are wrong
Asch A03 - Ecological Validity
ecological validity is lacking
in a lab
know you are being studied
conforming to strangers and therefore not realistic to real life conformity
task is meaningless in real life we would not compare lines
Asch A03 - Ethical Issues
major ethical issues
deception (confederates) deception is necessary otherwise experiment wouldnt work
protection from harm, shouldnt leave in a worse state then they came (embarrassment)
Asch debriefed them and reassured them that their behaviour was normal
Asch A03 - Temporal Validity
McCarthyism - the 1950s USA was in a strong anti-communist period when people were scared to go against the majority and so more likely to conform (asch’s findings may have been reflective of the specific time and place, not of all people)
Perrin and Spencer (1980) - repeated Asch’s study in the UK, in initial study they obtained 1 conformity response out of 390 trials
however a subsequent study on youths on probation, where they were the ppts and probation officers where the confederates, similar levels of conformity was found to Asch’s study in 1950s, authority may have impact
Asch A03 - Individual Variables
qualities of an individual that influence their level of conformity
they can interact with situational variables
Asch A03 - Gender
women conform more readily (Asch didnt study women) this could be because they are socialised into more submissive roles
Eagly et al - females focus on quality of relationships - more NSI
male gender roles demand more independence
possibly evolutionary - women more nurturing
Jennes (1932) - women conformed more than men
population validity
Social Roles
the parts individuals play as members of a social group, which meet the expectations of that situation
What does conformity to social roles involve
it involves identification (public and private acceptance of behaviours shown)
Dehumanisation
degrading people by lessening human qualities
Deindividualization
individuals have lower sense of personal responsibility for actions - often due to anonymity gained in crowd situation
SPE Procedure
zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University
they advertised to students willing to volunteer and picked those that were emotionally stable after extensive psychological testing
students were randomly assigned to guards or prisoners
to heighten realism prisoners were arrested in their homes by the local police and then delivered to the prison, were proper procedures took place
social roles of prisoners and guards were strictly divided
prisoners daily routines were heavily regulated had to follow 16 rules enforced by the guards
the prisoners names were not used only their numbers, guards had uniform and equipment and were told that they had complete power over the prisoners
SPE Findings
guards behaviour became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health and the study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14 days
within 2 days the prisoners rebelled against the guards, however guards retaliated
the guards played the prisoners off against each other and harassed them constantly
guards highlighted difference in social roles by creating plenty of opportunities to enforce rules and punish even the smallest misdemeanour
after prisoners rebellion was put down they became subdued, depressed and anxious
the guards identified more and more closely with their role, their behaviour became more and more aggressive, with some of them appearing to enjoy the power they had over the prisoners
SPE Conclusion
situation revealed power of a situation to influence peoples behaviour: guards, prisoners, researchers all conformed to their roles within the prison
SPE A03 - High Control
a strength of the SPE is the control zimbardo and his colleagues had over variables
emotionally stable individuals were selected to take part and randomly assigned to prisoner and guard roles
this is one way in which they tried to control the individual personality differences
having this kind of control increases the internal validity of the study
SPE A03 - Role of Dispositional Factors
Fromm (1973) accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimising the role of personality
for example only about 1/3 of guards acted in a brutal manner another 1/3 were keen to apply the rules fairly and the rest tried to support the prisoners
this suggests that zimbardos conclusion - that ppts conform to social roles - may be over stated
SPE A03 - Ethics
a major ethical issue arose because zimbardo had two roles in the experiment: the experimenter and the superintendent of the prison, these roles were often in conflict
for example a student who wanted to leave spoke to zimbardo as superintendent worried about running his prison rather than a researcher concerned with the wellbeing of his ppt
SPE A03 - Lack of Research Support
Haslam and Reicher - the BBC replicated zimbardos experiment in 2006 and found it was prisoners who took control of the fake prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment
zimbardos study demonstrates social identity theory more than conformity to social roles, in groups and out groups
the prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards
guards failed to identify with their role, it made them reluctant to impose their authority on the prisoners
milgrams original research what is obedience and what was milgrams aim
obedience is a type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person, the person who gives this order usually has power or authority
milgrams aim - to discover why such a high proportion of german people supported hitlers regime and why many of the nazi party committed atrocities in the name of following orders
how many ppts did Milgram study and how were they recruited
40, by newspaper adverts and fixers in the post
what sort of study did ppts think they signed up for in Milgram’s study and what type of study was it actually
the ad said he was looking for ppts for a study of memory, the actually study was a lab experiment
procedure of Milgram’s original obedience study
there was an experimenter, teacher and student, the experimenter and student were played by confederates while the teacher was the true ppt, there was a rigged draw for their role the confederate always ended up as the learner, ppts were paid upfront when they arrived and were told they could leave at any time
the learner was strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes, the teacher was required to give the learner increasingly severe electric shocks each time the learner made a mistake on a learning task, the shocks were demonstrated to the teacher thereafter the shocks were not real
the shocks started at 15 and went up to 450, when the teacher got to 300 volts the learner pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question, after 315 volts the learner pounded and gave no further response
when teacher turned to experimenter for guidance the experimenter gave a standard instruction, ‘an absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer, if teacher still felt unsure about continuing the experimenter used a sequence of four standard prods
what were the four prods used in Milgram’s obedience study
prod 1 - please continue or please go on
prod 2 - the experiment requires that you continue
prod 3 - it is absolutely essential that you continue
prod 4 - you have no other choice you must go on
findings of Milgram’s original obedience study
no ppts stopped below 300 volts
12.5% stopped at 300 volts
65% continued to highest voltage
qualitative data was also collected such as observations of extreme tension from ppts, many of them were seen to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips and dig their fingernails into their hands
prior to study milgram asked psychology students to predict ppts behaviours they predicted that only 3% would go to 450 volts, therefore findings were not expected
all ppts were debriefed and assured that behaviour was entirely normal, they were also sent a follow up questionnaire
what is experimental validity also known as internal validity
whether the experiment does actually measure what it intends to measure, if study has internal validity ppts should behave as they would normally do in that situation
evidence for experimental validity
ppts believed task as they were willing to receive strong shocks
70% of ppts believed in the set-up
Milgram said that the experiments do follow similar rules to social situations and so are true
however ppts were paid for taking part - payment = contract, so findings and evidence of obedience in contract rather than in general, but milgram did inform ppts that they could leave and still be paid
what is ecological validity
how much findings apply to a real life setting and other situations
milgram’s study was in a lab setting
evidence for ecological validity
milgram did do variations of his study in other setting (run down office building)
cross cultural studies produce the same findings, Smith and Bond, collected findings from other countries and found the same results. in fact some countries produced even higher levels of obedience
findings have been replicated in more natural settings
milgram - ethical issues
distress - milgram said he did not expect distress before beginning experiments, when he followed ppts one year later they did not appear to have suffered harm, 84% said they were glad to have participated, 15% were neutral, 1.3% sorry and when psychiatrists interviewed 40 ppts one year after study they found it had not caused any harm
deception - milgram did not tell the ppts the true purpose of their role in the study however deception was necessary otherwise task would not have seamed real
lack of informed consent - in milgrams study it is not possible to get informed consent because ppts did not have true knowledge of what was going to happen, milgram got presumptive consent
right to withdraw - coolican said that milgram did not tell ppts that they had the right to stop, experimenter ordered ppt to continue, however milgram said that he informed ppts that they could leave at any time and get their money regardless
