Social Influence Flashcards
Define conformity
Change in a persons behaviour or opinions due to pressure from a person or a group
What was Asch’s research into conformity?
groups were told to choose the longest line out of a choice of three. The group was rigged to give obviously wrong answers
What were the three variables of conformity investigated by Asch?
Group size
Task difficulty
Unanimity
What were the three variables of conformity investigated by Asch?
Group size
Task difficulty
Unanimity
What are the three types of conformity?
Internalisation
Identification
Compliance
What is internalisation?
deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view through a belief that it is true
What is identification?
When we act in the same way as a group due to wanting to be a part of it
What is compliance?
Simply going along with the majority view but privately disagreeing
What are the two main reason people conform?
To be liked and to be correct
What is informative social influence?
When we agree with the majority because we believe the view is correct
What is normative social influence?
When we agree with the majority because we want to gain social approval
What was Zimbardo researching?
Conformity into social roles
Outline the Stanford prison experiment
21 male university students volunteered to spend two weeks in a mock prison in the basement of their university. They were split between guards and Prisoners experiment ended after 6 days
What were Zimbardo’s findings?
Both guards and prisoners conformed to their allocated roles and acted in stereotypical ways
What are two issues with Zimbardo’s study?
Participants rights were violated (some were verbally abused and others went on hunger strike)
PPs may have been simply role playing instead of conforming
What is Obedience?
When a person follows a direct order
What was Milgram’s research into obedience?
40 American PPs played the role of a teacher and had to ask questions to a confederate called Mr Wallace, If Mr Wallace got the question wrong the PPs would have to shock him
What % of participants shocked Mr Wallace up until 450 volts?
65%
How did Milgram’s experiment specifically effect three participants?
Three participants had seizures in response to shocking Mr Wallace
What are the three situational variables regarding obedience?
Proximity
Location
Uniform
What are the two situational explanations of obedience?
Agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
Define agentic state
Mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our actions
Define Legitimacy of authority
We are more likely to be obedient towards those who we perceive as having authority over us
How did Milgram’s study show destructive authority?
The experimenter prompted participants to issue shocks when they did not want to
Define dispositional explanation
Explanations into behaviour that emphasises the importance of the individuals personality
What is the dispositional explanation into obedience?
Authoritarian personality
What real world event lead to the study of both Milgram and Adorno?
The Holocaust
What are the features of an authoritarian personality?
Respect for higher ups and disrespect for those below
What causes an authoritarian personality?
Strict upbringings with harsh discipline causing the child to displace fear onto those below them
What scale did Adorno create that can measure the authoritarian personality?
The tendency towards Fascism scale (the f-scale)
Outline Adorno’s research?
Studied over 2000 middle-class white American families using the f-scale
What were Adorno’s findings?
He linked the Authoritarian personality with traits such as “consciousness of status”
What are the two types of resistance to social influence?
Social support
Locus of control
Define social support
presence of people resisting conformity can encourage others to do the same
What is Locus of control?
The belief that direction of life events comes from either internal influences or external influence
Which type of locus of control is associated with residence to conformity?
High internal locus of control
Give examples of internal and external locus of control?
when a person does good on an exam
Internal locus of control would blame hard work
External locus of control would blame a good textbook used
What is Minority influence?
when a minority group persuade others to adopt their views
What are the three processes of minority influence?
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
What are the six steps towards social change?
Drawing attention
Consistency
Deeper processing
Augmentation principle
Snowball effect
Social cryptomnesia
Define social cryptomnesia (final step of achieving social change)
When people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it occurred
What happens for social change to be complete?
When whole societies rather than just individuals adopt new attitudes
What % of conversations in Zimbardo’s prison experiment were about prison life and what does this show?
90% showing that it is unlikely the participants were role playing
What did Rank and Johnson do with nurses that shows disobedience to authority?
Used a phone call to order nurses to give a lethal dose to patients of which 16 out of the 18 nurses disobeyed
