Social influence Flashcards

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1
Q

Conformity

A

Giving in to social or group pressure

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2
Q

Types of conformity

A
  1. Compliance
  2. Identification
  3. Internalisation
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3
Q

Compliance

A

Individuals publicly go along with the majority view but privately disagree with it. Temporary type of conformity

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4
Q

Identification

A

Individuals adopt the behaviour of the group because we value the group and group members. Don’t usually agree with everything group stands for

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5
Q

Internalisation

A

Individuals take on the expressed view publicly and privately. Deepest level of conformity leading to permanent change

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6
Q

Informational social influence

A

When people change their behaviour in order to be correct, in situations where we are unsure of the correct response we look to others who are more knowledgable

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7
Q

Normative social influence

A

When you conform to try and fit in and be accepted by other people and not be seen as the odd one out.

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8
Q

ISI evaluations

A

Beta bias
Practical applications
Doesn’t consider dispositional factors

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9
Q

NSI evaluations

A

Doesn’t consider dispositional factors
Practical applications
Beta bias

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10
Q

ASCH (1951) aim

A

To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority giving wrong answers

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11
Q

ASCH Procedure

A
  • 123 American student volunteers took part in a study of visual perception
  • Placed around a table of confederates
  • Task was to state what comparison line A,b Or c was the same as the stimulus line
  • 12 of these trials were critical whereby confederates were instructed to give incorrect answer
  • Naive ppt gave his answer second last
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12
Q

ASCH Findings

A
  • Control group had an error rate of only 0.04% showing how obvious answers actually were
  • On 12 critical trials, there was a 32% conformity rate to wrong answers
  • 75% of participants conformed to atleast one answer
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13
Q

ASCH Conclusions

A

Asch found the majority does have a significant effect on the minority even in obvious situations. Seems normative social influence is critical in persuading people

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14
Q

ASCH evaluations

A

Highly controlled lacking ecological validity and mundane realism

Culturally biased as it was done in 1950s
America cannot be generalised

Ethical issues - No full informed consent

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15
Q

ASCH’S Variations

A
  1. Difficulty of the task
  2. Group size
  3. Unanimity
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16
Q

Unanimity

A

The presence of a dissenting confederate led to reduced conformity suggesting the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous

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17
Q

Size of the majority

A

A group size of 3 led to conformity, but adding further confederates made little difference to whether the ppts conformed or not

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18
Q

Difficulty of task

A

Asch did other variations where he made the lines look much closer and this increased conformity as people were more unsure

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19
Q

Zimbardos aim

A

Aimed to investigate whether students would conform to a social role (either a prison guard or prisoner) that they were assigned to

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20
Q

Zimbardo procedure

A
  • 75 Male university students responded to a newspaper advert offering $15 a day to take part.
  • Ppts taken from their homes
  • 21 most mentally and physically stable students were picked.
  • 10 guards and 11 prisoners randomly allocated
  • Prisoners dehumanised, deloused, fingerprinted and stripped
  • Prisoners in bleak uniform, whilst guards given superior uniform with sunglasses and handcuffs.
  • 9 prisoners were placed 3 to a cell
  • Study was planned to run for 2 weeks but was cut short
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21
Q

Zimbardo Findings

A
  • Both groups quickly settled into roles
  • One prisoner withdrawn after 36hrs due to uncontrollable fits of rage and crying. 3 more had similar symptoms days afterwards
  • Study had to be stopped after 6 days after Zimbardo was shown extent of damage
22
Q

Zimbardo Evaluations

A
  • Individual differences occurred as not all guards behaved brutally.
  • Not conducted in a real prison lacking ecological validity
  • The lack of ethics of the study forced the hand of psychology’s governing body to implement ethical guideline to be taken in to consideration
23
Q

Legitimacy of authority

A

When someone obeys as they perceive the authority figure as someone who has the power to tell them what to do. Usually if above them in social hierarchy. EG a teacher has the right to make a demand

24
Q

Agentic state

A

When someone obeys as they are given a command by an authority figure and enter a state in which they feel they are no longer responsible for their actions. They become an agent of the authority figure. Diffusion of responsibility

25
Q

Moral Strain

A

Conflict between two values, Eg You must not hurt anybody but you must always obey authority leading to cognitive stress

26
Q

Autonomous state

A

Where we are aware of consequences and responsibilities and act and think as an independent individual. We are in control.

27
Q

Situational factors in obedience

A

Proximity of authority figure
Location of the command
Uniform of authority figure

28
Q

The Authoritarian Personality (Dispositional)

A

When someone obeys as they have a very obedient personality.
Tend to have a great deal of respect for order and hierarchy.
Can be due to harsh and punitive upbringing
Can be very critical of those lower than them in the hierarchy

29
Q

Adorno’s F Scale

A

F-scale is a questionnaire asking ppl a variety of Qs about their attitudes towards authority figures. The higher the score on the F-Scale the more likely to be obedient.

30
Q

Elms and Milgram (1966)

A

Found that ppts who scored high on the F scale were also more likely to be obedient. Also found obedient ppts were less close to their fathers during childhood

31
Q

Evaluation of Authortarian personality

A
  • Questionnaire subject to social desirability bias
  • Only a correlation between strict parenting and obedience
  • Explains individual differences in obedience
32
Q

Milgram’s aim

A

To investigate the limitations individuals go to when instructed to by an authority figure in a highly stressful task

33
Q

Milgram procedure

A
  • 40 AMERICAN MALES AGED BETWEEN 20-50 recruited via volunteer sampling
  • Took place at Yale university
  • Ppts introduced to MR Wallace who was the one to receive electric shocks and the learner
  • Individuals roles were rigged so ppt was always teacher
  • Ppt and experimenter attached Wallace to equipment and sampled a 45v shock
  • In adjoining room the ppt asked Wallace a question and had to shock him in increasingly stronger shocks if wrong
  • Shocks started at 15v and went until 450v
  • At 150v Wallace wowuld protest and demand to be released
  • At 300v he refused to answer any more Qs
34
Q

Milgram findings

A
  • 65% went all the way to 450v before stopping
  • Every single ppt went up to 300v
  • Many ppts showed visible signs of stress, twitching, sweating
  • 3 ppts had uncontrollable seizures only 1 was allowed to stop
  • Some ppts showed little or no signs of stress
35
Q

Milgram Evaluations

A
  • Inherently unethical breaks several conditions
  • Study has good internal validity due to standardised procedures ppts were put through
  • Milgram been replicated many times suggesting findings are reliable and valid. Sheridan and King replicated the findings with puppies
  • Sample was ethnocentric and androcentric since these results can only be applied to sample of white Western males
36
Q

Factors affecting minority influence

A

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

37
Q

Consistency

A

If the message is consistent especially after social pressures, majority will possibly start paying attention to the minority.

38
Q

Commitment

A

If minority suffer social pressures from majority and stay on the course they would be deemed by the majority to be committed

39
Q

Augmentation principle

A

A small group of minority will always take extreme action to get their message across

40
Q

Flexibility

A

If minority is seen as adaptable with their message and cause they will be seen as reasonable by majority

41
Q

Social cryptoamnesia

A

Refers to the idea that as a social group we tend to recall change that has taken place, but forget the steps that brought it about

42
Q

Snowball effect

A

Gradually others begin to internalise the message and eventually the minority will become the majority.

43
Q

Social support (Situational)

A

The presence of others who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others do the same and give others confidence. These dissenters act as role models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible

44
Q

Disobedient role models

A

Having an ally can break the unanimity of the group as suddenly there is a divergence of opinion and someone is offering an alternative perspective

45
Q

Asch and social support

A

Found that presence of an ally who stated the correct line length led to a decrease in the naive ppt. Conformity rate dropped to 5%

46
Q

Milgram and social support

A

Ppt was paired with two additional confederate teachers who refused to go on. Percentage of ppts who proceeded to full 450volts dropped from 65% to 10%

47
Q

Locus of control (Dispositional factor)

A

Rotter (1966) The extent to which people perceive themselves to be in control of their own lives and decisions

48
Q

Internal locus of control

A

Believe they can affect the outcome of a situation as they are responsible for what happens to them due to their own choices and decisions

49
Q

External locus of control

A

Believe what happens to them is due to either luck, fate or other uncontrollable outside forces they cant control

50
Q

How does internal LOC impact resistance to Social influence

A

Rotter suggested having an Internal LOC makes people resistant as they believe they are in control and are more likely to be self confident and perceiving themselves as having a free choice to conform or obey or not

51
Q

Minorities contribution to social change

A

Contribute by being consistent, flexible, committed and through social crypto amnesia and snowball effect gradually minority turns into the majority.

52
Q

Obedience contributuion to social change

A

Changes to the laws from dictators can change behaviour through a fear of punishment and consequence of not obeying