Social Influence

Question 1

what is conformity?

Answer 1

a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure

Question 2

what are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 2

compliance, identification, internalisation

Question 3

what is compliance?

Answer 3

Involves publicly acting in accord with social pressure when privately disagreeing. It does not change the person’s underlying attitudes towards things, just their public behaviour (temporary)

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

Adopt the behaviour of a group, publicly and privately, because you value group membership. However, once you leave this group the attitudes may fade

Question 5

What is internalisation?

Answer 5

A true change of private views to match group views. This is both a public and private change in attitude, and is permanent. They become part of your own values

Question 6

What are the 2 explanations of conformity?

Answer 6

Normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 7

What is normative social influence?

Answer 7

• Compliance
• Because humans are social species, they have a need for social approval whilst also harbouring a fear of rejection
• They need to be liked / approved
• Conforming behaviour may only be in public. Therefore, they need to think they are being seen to be conforming to the group

Question 8

What is informational social influence?

Answer 8

• Internalisation
• States that humans have a need to feel confident that the information they have about the world is correct, and will rely on others to gain that factual information
• Most likely to occur when they are unsure about a topic or if the influencer seems to be and expert
• This helps people change their behaviour privately and publicly

Question 9

What are 3 variables that affect conformity?

Answer 9

Group size, unanimity of the majority, task difficulty

Question 10

How does group size affect conformity?

Answer 10

• Conformity is highest (about 30%) when there are 3 confederates, but does not increase any more with more confederates
• Asch found when there are 1-2 confederates, there was very little conformity

Question 11

How does unanimity of the majority affect conformity?

Answer 11

When the real P was given support by either another real P or a confederate, conformity to the majority dropped significantly, reducing the percentage of incorrect answers from 33% to 5%

Question 12

How does task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 12

• When line lengths were much smaller ( so the correct answer was less obvious), the level of conformity increased

Question 13

What are the 5 steps to social change?

Answer 13

Drawing attention to the issue, cognitive conflict, consistency of position, the augmentation principle, the snowball effect

Question 14

How does drawing attention to the issue help social change?

Answer 14

Minorities can bring about social change by drawing the majority’s attention to the issue. If these views are different to the majority then it creates a conflict that they are motivated to resolve

Question 15

How does cognitive conflict help social change?

Answer 15

Majority group members think more deeply about the issues being challenged. Some people deal with this conflict by moving to the minority view.

Question 16

How does consistency of position help social change?

Answer 16

Minorities are more successful in bringing about social change when they are consistent in their arguments and do not change their views

Question 17

How does the augmentation principle help social change?

Answer 17

If the minority is willing to suffer for their views are seen as more committed and therefore taken more seriously

Question 18

How does the snowball effect help social change?

Answer 18

As more and more people change to the minority view, this leads to a point where large scale change happens and is accepted as the norm

Question 19

What happens when social change is accepted?

Answer 19

It becomes the law

Question 20

What is an example of steps to social change?

Answer 20

The Suffragettes Women’s rights

Question 21

How did the suffragettes draw attention to the issue for social change?

Answer 21

They protested around where the government was to bring awareness to the movement and their views. They also chained themselves to government buildings. They targeted major works of art and London landmarks and vandalised them as well as destroying them with slashes.

Question 22

How did the suffragettes use cognitive conflict for social change?

Answer 22

The government was aware of their acts and protests and therefore gave the family prison sentences. Many suffragettes were sent to Holloway Prison where they also protested against the refusal to treat them as political prisoners by going on hunger strike. In response, the government introduced a policy of force-feeding.

Question 23

How did the suffragettes use consistency of position for social change?

Answer 23

They continued to use art, debate, propaganda, and attack on property including window smashing and arson to fight for female suffrage. They continued to fight for women’s rights and didn’t change their views.

Question 24

How did the suffragettes use the augmentation principle for social change?

Answer 24

Emily Wilding Davison died in the derby after going onto the horse track and getting struck by the king’s horse. This means that the majority will take this movement more seriously as they are seen to be suffering to fight for what they believe in.

Question 25

How did the suffragettes use the snowball effect for social change?

Answer 25

Eventually, women got the right to vote in 1928 over the age of 21, regardless of whether they had a house or not.

Question 26

What are the role of allies and social support?

Answer 26

• The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help other to do the same
• These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible

Question 27

What is the impact of social influence on conformity?

Answer 27

• Reduced when peers disagree
• The effect is not long lasting

Question 28

What is the impact of social influence on obedience

Answer 28

• Reduced when peers disagree
• The peers disobedience allows the individual to act from their own morals

Question 29

Who conducted studies on the effect of social support?

Answer 29

Asch, Milgram, Allen & levine (1971), Gamson et al (1982)

Question 30

What did Asch find in his study about social support?

Answer 30

findings
- Found that conformity reduced to 5.5% when one of the confederates gave a different answer to the rest of the group
- This was true even when the confederates answer was a different wrong answer from the others in the group

conclusions
- Social support breaks the unanimous position of the majority

Question 31

What did Milgram find in his study about social support?

Answer 31

findings
- Obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine P was joined by a disobedient confederate (ie. became more independent)

conclusion
- Social support: people are more confident to resist obedience if they can find an ally who is willing to join them

Question 32

What did Allen and Levine find in their study about social support?

Answer 32

resistance to conformity

findings
- Found independence increased with one dissenter in on asch-type study; even if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had problems with his vision

conclusion
- Resistance is not motivated by following someone else, but it enables someone to be free of the pressure from the group

Question 33

What did Gamson et al find in his study about social support?

Answer 33

resistance to obedience

findings
- Found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram
- 29 out of the 33 groups (88%) rebelled procedures
- Ps had to produce evidence to help an oil company run a ‘smear campaign’

conclusion
- Shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance

Question 34

What is resistance to social influence?

Answer 34

The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority

Question 35

What is resistance to social influence caused by?

Answer 35

Dispositional and situational factors

Question 36

What is Locus of Control?

Answer 36

• Refers to the sense have about what directs events in our lives
• Rotter (1966) - proposed the concept of locus control (internal vs external)

Question 37

Internal vs external LOC?

Answer 37

• People differ in the way they explain their successes and failures but this is simply a matter of being internal or external - there is a continuum
• People with internal LOC are more likely to resist pressure to conform or obey
• If someone takes personal responsibility for their actions and experiences they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
• People with high internal LOC are more self-confident, more achievement oriented, have higher intelligence, and have less need for social approval

Question 38

What did Holland (1967) find about locus of control? APFC

Answer 38

procedures
- Repeated Milgram’s study and measured whether Ps were internals or externals

findings
- 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (they showed independence)
- Only 23% of externals did not continue

conclusion
- As internals showed greater resistance this support increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance

Question 39

What did Rotter et al (1982) find about locus of control? APFC

Answer 39

The role of LOC may be exaggerated

aim
- Found LOC is only important in new situations - it has little influence in familiar situations where previous experiences are always more important

findings
- This does suggest LOC can explain only a limited range of situations in which people might resist social influence

conclusion
- This means the LOC is not as important a factor in resistance as some have suggested

Question 40

What did twenge et al (2004) find about locus of control? APFC

Answer 40

Contradictory Research

procedures
- Analysed data from American obedience studies over a 40 year period (1960 - 2002)

findings
- People have become more resistant to obedience but also more external
- If resistance were linked to an internal LOC then we would expect people to become more internal

conclusion
- This challenges the link between internal LOC and resistance
- However, the results maybe due to a challenging society where many things are increasing outside personal control

Question 41

What is Minority influence?

Answer 41

Refers to situations where one person can influence the beliefs of others

Question 42

What are the 3 main processes of Minority Influence?

Answer 42

Consistency, commitment, flexibility

Question 43

How does consistency help minority influence?

Answer 43

Minority must be consistent in their views - over time this increases the level of interest from other people

Synchronic consistency - consistency between all members of the group

Synchronic consistency - consistency between all members of the group

Consistency makes other people rethink their own views

Question 44

What is synchronic consistency?

Answer 44

Consistency between all members of the group

Question 45

What is diachronic synchrony?

Answer 45

Consistency over time

Question 46

How does commitment help minority influence?

Answer 46

Commitment refers to the idea that the minority must demonstrate dedication to the cause
- Could involve engaging in extreme activities
- Experiencing some personal risk

Augmentation Principle - determined to make something happen