Social Influence Flashcards
What is compliance
confirming publicly but continuing to disagree in private
How did group size affect Asch’s research ?
Adding more than 3 confederates made little difference
how did unanimity affect asch’s research ?
confirming reduced by a quarter to when the majority were unanimous
What are the 2 explanation of conformity
Normative Social Influence and
Informational social influence
what is conformity?
tendency to change what we do, think or say in response to real or imagined pressure from others
what is identification
type of conformity where we act the same as a group, temporarily
e.g police officers upholding laws they disagree with
what are the 3 types of conformity
compliance
identification
internalisation
What is informational social influence
when you want to be right, follow the better information as a cognitive process
what is internalisation?
deep type of conformity where you genuinely accept information
what were the variables tested by Asch?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
how did task difficulty affect Asch’s research?
conformity increased with the task difficulty
what is normative social influence?
confirming to be liked and to fit in, an emotional process
what are the situational explanations of obedience?
agentic state and
legitimacy of authority
what is agentic state
a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe we are acting for an authority figure
what is legitimacy of authority
when we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us
Explanations for resistance to social influence
social support and locus of control
how can social support help resist social influence in conformity
seeing others not conforming can reduce pressure to conform
how can social support help resist social influence in obedience
pressure to obey can be reduced if another is seen disobeying
what is locus of control and how can it help resist social influence
it is the extent to which people believe they have control over their own lives
high internal LOC are more likely to resist pressures
what is internal locus of control
when someone believes they are responsible for what happens to them
what is external locus of control
when someone believes things happen without their control
what is the disposition all explanation of obedience
the authoritarian personality
formed in childhood due to harsh parenting, where someone is especially susceptible to obeying people in authority and dismissive of inferiors
what is minority influence
where one person or a small group of people influence beliefs/behaviours of other people
what are 3 variables that increase the rate of minority influence
Consistency
commitment
flexibility
