Social Influence Flashcards
Define conformity
A type of social influence that involves a change in belief or behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure. It is also known as majority influence.
Outline compliance as a type of conformity
Compliance is a short-term change in behaviour in public.
Refer to Asch´s line study.
For example, pretending to like a certain type of music although you hate it privately.
Outline identification as a type of conformity
Identification is a short-term change in public behaviour and private beliefs.
Refer to Zimbardo´s prison study
For example, becoming a vegetarian because your new flatmates are all vegatarians.
Outline internalisation as a type of conformity
Internalisation is a long-term change in public behaviour and private beliefs.
Refer to Jenness´ research
For example, understanding the ethics behind eating meat and deciding to become vegan.
Outline Normative Social Influence (NSI) as an explanation of conformity
We conform because we want to be liked by the majority. This is an emotional rather than cognitive process. This often results in compliance.
Outline Informational Social Influence (ISI) as an explanation of conformity
We conform because we want to be right.
This often occurs in unfamiliar situations where we do not know how to behave so we conform with the groups because we assume that they are gone know it. This often leads to internalisation. This is a cognitive rather than emotional process.
Outline Jenness´ Bean Jar Experiment
Aim:
To examine the degree conformity in a social group.
Procedure:
Participants were asked to estimate how many beans they thought was in a jar.
Each participant had to make an individual estimate, and then do the same as a group.
Findings:
When the task was carried out in a social group, the participants would report estimates of roughly the same value (even though they had previously reported quite different estimates as individuals).
Conclusion:
The study was successful in showing majority influence, thus providing that individuals´ behaviour and beliefs can be influenced by a group.
Additionally, this is likely to be an example of ISI as participants would be uncertain about the actual number of beans in the jar.
Outline Asch´s line study
Aim:
Asch wanted to investigate whether people would conform to the majority in situations where an answer was obvious.
Procedure:
- There were 5-7 participants per group.
- Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines.
- Participants had to say loud which comparison line matched the standard line in length.
- In each group there was only one real participant the remaining 6 were confederates.
- The confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trials.
Findings:
Real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers. Additionally, 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial.
Evaluate Asch´s line study
This study lacks ecological validity as it was based on people´s perception of lines, this does not reflect the complexity of real life conformity – not able to generalise
Sampling issues as the study was only carried out on men, therefore the results cannot be applied to females – lacks population validity
Ethical issues – participants were deceived as they were told the study was about perception of lines. They also could not give informed consent. Furthermore, participants might felt embarrassed which could potentially put them through some form of psychological harm (against protection from harm). However, Asch did debrief at the end.
Outline Asch´s study with a variation in the group size
Asch altered the number of confederates in his study to see how this effected conformity.
The higher the number of confederates, the more people conformed, but only up to a certain point.
1 confederates = group conformity 1%
2 confederates = group conformity 13%
3 confederates = group conformity 32%
Conformity did not increase much after the group size was about 4/5.
Because conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four, this is considered the optimal group size.
Outline Asch´s study with a variation in group unanimity
A person is more likely to conform when all members of the group agree and give the same answer.
When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped.
Asch found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity as much as 80%.
Outline Asch´s study with a variation in the difficulty of the task
When the comparison lines were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased. This is because we are uncertain but want to be right (ISI).
Outline Asch´s study with the variation that participants were able to answer in private
When participant were allowed to answer in private (so the rest of the group does not know their response) conformity decreases.
This is because there are fewer group pressures and normative influence is not as powerful, as there is no fear of rejection from the group.
Define the term “social roles”
Social roles are the part people play as a member of a social group (e.g. teacher, student, mother). There is considerable pressure to conform to the expectations of a social role.
Conforming to a social role is called identification.
Outline the Stanford Prison Experiment
Aim:
- Zimbardo wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the social role of a guard and prisoner in a roleplaying exercise that simulated prison life.
Procedure:
- Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison life.
- He advertised for students to play the roles of prisoner and guards for a fortnight (a period of two weeks). They were paid for their participation.
- Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment.
- Prisoners were issued a uniform, and referred to by their number only. Guards were issued a khaki uniform, together with whistles, handcuffs and dark glasses, to make eye contact with prisoners impossible. The guards worked shifts of 8 hours each. No physical violence was permitted.
- Zimbardo observed the behaviour of the prisoners and guards via CCTV, but also in his role as the prison warden.
Findings:
- Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, with the guards adopting quickly and easily.
- Within hours of beginning the experiment some guards began to harass prisoners. They behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it. Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented (experiencing or characterized by severe physical or mental suffering).
- Prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behaviour too. They talked about prison issues a great deal of the time. They told tales on each other to the guards. They started taking the prison rules very seriously, and some even began siding with the guards against prisoners who did not obey the rules.
- As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive.
- They demanded even greater obedience from the prisoners.
Evaluate the Stanford Prison Experiment
Demand characteristics could explain the findings of the study. This is because most guards later claimed they were simply acting. Therefore, behaviour might not be influenced by the same factors which affect behaviour in real life.
The study´s findings cannot be reasonably generalised to real life, such as prison settings (low ecological validity).
A lack of population validity as the sample comprised US male students – findings cannot be applied to females in other countries (individualist cultures vs collectivist cultures)
A strength of the study is that it altered the way US prisons are run – this is because some processes would include the probability of a rise in violence.
Ethical issues – lack of informed consent; did not consent from being arrested at home; no protection from psychological harm (humiliation, distress)
However, Zimbardo conducted debriefing sessions for several years afterwards and concluded there were no lasting negative effects.
Zimbardo´s study opened up the discussion around ethical issues within research. As a result of his procedure and findings, stricter rules were implemented (an ethics committee review).
