Social Influence Flashcards
Define obedience
Obedience is where a person acts in response to an order given by an individual with perceived authority. Individual may respond in a way they would not normally without the order being given /
AO1 Milgram aim
To investigate wether individuals would obey the orders of an authority figure even if it leads to negative consequences
AO1 Milgram sample
40 American makes aged 20-50
AO1 Milgram procedure
Participants drew lots which were rigged to determine who would play learner and teacher, participant always got teacher and confederate always got learner.
Teacher conducted a learning task were when the leaner got an answer wrong they were given an electric shock starting at 15v and increased in 15v increments till 450v.
If the participants refused at any point prompts were given by the experimenter such as ‘the experiment requires you to continue’ ‘you have no other choice you must continue’
AO1 Milgram findings
Found that all participants went to at least 300v with 65% going to the maximum 450v showing high levels of obedience
AO1 Milgram conclusion
He concluded that people obey orders from authority figures when asked to behave in an inhumane way and that it is not evil people that commit evil crimes but ordinary people simply just following orders
AO3 Milgram
Demand characteristic
Hoffling
Gender bias
Discussion for gender bias
AO3 demand characteristics
P- prone to demand characteristics
E- lab experiment and ppt were aware that they were taking part
E- may have changed their behaviour to help the researcher for example administered the electric shocks because they thought that’s what the experiment required of them rather than due to obeying orders from an authority figure
L- decreases internal validity
AO3 hoffling
P- Rts conducted by hoffling
E- he rang nurses working in a hospital ward pretending to be a doctor ordering them to administer a dangerous dose of a drug to patients. 21/22 nurses agreed to give the dose even though they knew not to take orders over the phone
E- supports the idea we are obedient to authority (the doctor) as majority of nurses agreed the administer the drug
L- increase external validity of Milgram as it shows his findings can be generalised to other settings
AO3 gender bias
P- gender bias
E- male only sample limits generalisability to females as they may be more likely to be obedient as that is what their gender roles dictate
E-Rts done by Sheridan and King who had ppt administer real electric shock therapy to puppies, finding that 100% of females obeyed compared to 54% of males which obeyed
L- reduce external validity of Milgram
AO3 discussion for gender bias
However it can be argued that since Milgram was investigating the behaviour of soldiers in nazi germany ,who were largely male, his male only sample was appropriate to study this behaviour.
Define conformity
Changes in individuals behaviour and or belief as a result of imaginary or real group pressure
Define compliance
Most superficial and least permanent form of conformity
Individual changes their behaviour publicly to fit in with the group but privately revert back to original beliefs when group pressure stops
Linked to NSI
Define identification
Individual changes behaviour and belief in order to gain membership of a desired group this can be both publically and privately once membership is no longer desired individuals may revert back to original beliefs
Define internalisation
Strongest most permanent form of conformity
Individual changes behaviour and beliefs both publicly and privately, we accept their attitudes into our own cognitions,
Linked to isi
Define NSI
Driven by the desire to be liked
Individuals change their behaviour to fit in with the group and avoid ridicule
Emotional process
Linked to compliance
Define isi
Driven by the desire to be right
Individual is unsure on how to act so looks to the group for guidance and assumes they are right
Cognitive process
Leads to internalisation
Evaluation of explanations of conformity
Jenness
Asch
Gender bias
What was asch sample
123 American male students
What were Asch’s findings
37% conformed to the wrong answer
Group size affecting conformity
Conformity increase as group size increase but stops having an affect once a certain group size is reached
Conformity rates reached up to 32% then plateaued after 3 confederates and one real participant
Task difficulty affecting conformity
As task difficulty increases so does conformity
Made the comparison lines more similar in length
When the right answer is less obvious we lose confidence in our own ability and look to others for guidance
Unanimity affecting conformity
Increase unanimity causes increase conformity
Original study all confederates gave same wrong answer conformity was 37% in variation one confederate gave right answer conformity dropped to 5.5%
Evaluation for variables affecting conformity
Lucas et all Rts
Lucas et al weakness- more complex than thought
Gender bias of asch
Define conformity to social roles
Social roles are the parts that people play as members of various social groups eg teachers. These are accompanied by expectations that we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role. We internalise these expectations so they shape out behaviour
Evaluations for conformity to social roles
Practical applications
Demand characteristics- superintendent
gender bias
Situational variables affecting obedience- what are they
Proximity
Power of Uniform
Location
Proximity as a situational factor affecting obedience
In variation experimenter gave teacher instructions over the phone obedience fell from 65% to 20.5%
The closer the authority figure to an individual the more obedient the individual will be
Location as a situational factor affecting obedience
Original study was at Yale university variation was in a run down office in a run down part of town obedience fell from 65% to 48%
Level of perceived legitimate authority of the experimenter was reduced
Power of uniform as a situational factor affecting obedience
Original experiment experimenter was wearing grey lab coat which gave him an air of authority in variation experimenter in lab coat called away by the phone and ordinary member of the public in everyday clothes replaced him obedience fell from 65% to 20%
Uniform acts as a strong visual cue to act in an obedient manner and when not in uniform level of perceived authority of experimenter was reduced
Evaluation for situational factors affecting obedience
Demand characteristics
Gender bias
Alternative explanation
Explanations for obedience
Agentic state
Legitamcy of authority figure
Agentic state
Where an individual moves from a state of taking personal responsibility for their actions( autonomous state) to a state where they believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure( agentic state ) this change is called agentic shift
When in agentic state individual loses sense of personal responsibility and no longer feel guilty for their actions as they see themselves as carrying out the wish of an authority figure so are more likely to obey
Legitimacy of authority figure
Individual accepts the power and status of authority figure such as a teacher or police officers and see them as being in charge this authority is agreed upon by society. We accept their credentials and believe they know what they are doing, it is ingrained within us to obey even if the order is unethical or unjust. factors such as uniform and location affect legitimacy of perceived authority thus influencing the likely hood of obedience.
Evaluation for explanation of obedience
Milgram
Hoffling
Mandel et al
Dispositional explanation- authoritian personality
This is the internal explanation for obedience focusing on the idea that certain personality traits are associated with higher levels of obedience.
Authoritarian personality develops from being brought up with strict parents in their childhood such as extreme discipline, impossibly high expectations and severe criticisms of failing
People with authoritarian personality show extremely high levels of respect for those in perceived authority and show immediate submission to them as they view them as superior. They also disapprove of those that are deemed low in status and show direct anger towards them as they view them as inferior. They have black and white thinking and tend to show strict adherence to hierarchy’s
Authoritarian personality is measured using the F-scale questionnaire by Adorno on a sample of over 2000 American participants. Those who scored highly on the questionnaire had authoritarian personality and displayed characteristics as listed.
Evaluation of authoritarian personality
Milgram& Elms
Social desirability
Difficult to use personality type to explain obedience of the majority of Germanys population
Define Locus of control
Locus of control refers to personality trait which refers to an individuals ability to have control over their behaviour. There is a scale of locus of control with internal locus of control on one end of the scale and external locus of control on the other side.
Internal locus of control vs external locus of control
People with internal locus of control believe that they control what happens to them and their behaviour is caused by personal decisions. Those with an internal locus of control are more likely to remain independent in their behaviour and rely less on the opinion of others and so resist social influence
Whereas
People with external locus of control believe what happens them is due to external factors such as luck and fate therefore they are less likely to take personal responsibility for their behaviour and less likely to resist social influence
Evaluation for locus of control
Milgram and elms
Spector
Social support
People can resist pressures to obey or conform when they receive social support as they have an ally which gives them confidence and support making it possible for them to resist pressures to conform or obey and remain independent in their decision
Individuals who have support no longer fear being ridiculed allowing them to avoid NSI
Evaluation for social support
Asch
Milgram
Minority influence AO1
Minority use commitment, consistency and flexinity to get the majority to internal their idea consistency is where the same heller is repeated between all members majority ( diachronic synchrony) and over a long period of time (synchronic consistency ). The minority can show commitment by making personal sacrifices this shows dedication, the majority then pay more attention and reconsider the idea. Flexibility refers to the minority accepting alternative arguments this prevents them from being seen as rigid and dogmatic and so the majority are more likely to listen and internalise the idea
Evaluation for minority influence
Moscovincis
Lacks mundane realism
Real life example suffragettes
Social change AO1
The minority use commitment, consistency and flexibility to get the majority to pay attention to their idea. They show consistency by repeating the same idea between all members of the majority (diachronic synchrony) over a long period of time (synchronic consistency). They could show commitment by making personal sacrifices which show dedication and make the majority reconsider their idea and flexibility by accepting alternative argument to prevent seeming dogmatic or rigid. The majority then internalise the idea and ur slowly gains momentum: Snowball effect. Eventually the minority idea becomes the majority idea and the majority forget where the idea originally came from known as social crypto amnesia. Social change had occurred.
Social change evaluation
Moscovincis
Majority may view minority as deviant
Real life evidence suffergettes
