Social Influence Flashcards
Name 3 different types of conformity
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
Define conformity
Is a form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position and leads to compliance with that position.
It is the tendency for people to adopt behaviour, attitudes and values of the members of a reference group.
Define compliance
When individuals may go along with the group in order to gain their approval or avoid their disapproval. This can occur when an individual is exposed to views and ideas of a majority, making themselves adjust their behaviours to fit in. When privately, individuals still believe their own views.
Define internalisation
When individuals question if their views are correct when exposed to a majority who are trustworthy in their views and if the individual has gone along with them previously. This could lead to an acceptance of the groups view both publicly and privately.
Define identification
Where an individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group
Define normative social influence as an explanation of conformity
When an individual conforms with the expectations of the majority in order to gain approval or to avoid social disapproval
Define informational social influence as an explanation of conformity
When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them
What was the procedure of Asch’s study.
In total, 123 male us undergraduates were tested. P’s were seated around a table and asked to look at three different lines of different lengths. They took turns to call out which of the three lines they thought was the same length as a ‘standard’ line with the real partiipant always answering second to last.
* The real participant always answered last or second to last
* Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18
trials
* Asch observed how often the participant would give the same
incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
What were the findings of Aschs study
36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
In a control trial, only 1% of responses given by participants were
incorrect (which eliminates eyesight/perception as an extraneous
Give 3 factors affecting level of conformity
- Group size
- Unanimity of majority
- Task diffuciltyh
What was the procedure of the stanford prison expermient (Haney et al. 1973) (Zimbardo)
A mock prison was set up in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University in California,USA . Male student voluneers were psychologically and physically screened and the the 24 most stable of these were randomlly assinged to either play the role of ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’.
The prisoners were unexcpectedly arrested at home and on entry to the ‘prison’ they were put through a delousing procdedure, given a prison uniform and assigned an ID number.The guards referred to the prsioners only by these numbers throughout the study. Prisonners were allowed to certain rights, including three meals and three supervised toilet trips a day and two visits per week. P’s allocated the role of guard were given uniforms, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses (to prevent eye contact). Zimbardo himself took the role of Prison Superintendent. The study was planned to last 2 weeks.
What were the findings of the stanford prison experiemt (Haney et al., 1973) (Zimbardo)
Zimbardo discovered that both the prisoners and the guards conformed extremely to their social roles.
In just a few days guards became increasingly tyrannical and abusive towards prisoners by for example forcing them to wake up in the night and clean the toilets with their bare hands. Some guards were so enthiosastic in their role, they asked for extra hours without pay. The participants suffered from a loss of identity. The participants suffered from a loss of identity and tended to forget they were in a psycholgical study. One example for this is a prisoner asking for ‘parole’ rather than asking to withdraw from the study. 5 prisoners had to be released early due to their extreme reactions (e.g crying,rage and acute anxiety) - these symptoms appeared after only 2 days. The study had to be terminated after 6 days by Christnia Maslach who reminded the reasearchers that this was a psychological study and abuse is not justified.
What was the procedure behind the BBC prison study (Reicher and Haslam, 2006)
Men were randomly assigned to a role of a prisoner or a guard and their behaviour was examined within a specially created ‘prison’.
15 male P’s were divided into 5 groups of 3 people who were as closely matched as possible on key personality variables, and from each group of 3, one person was randomly chosen to be a guard and the other 2 were chosen to be prisoners.
The sudy was run for 8 days.
What were the findings behind the BBC prison study (Reicher and Haslam, 2006)
They found that P’s did not conform automatically to their assigned roles as had happened in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Over the course ofthe study, the prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards and establish a more egalitarian set of social relations iwthin the prison. The guards also failed to identifiy with their role, which made them reluctnat to impose their authority on prisoners. This led to a shift in of power and the collapse of the prisoner-guard system.
Describe the procedure of Milgrams study (1963)
40 P’s at a time over a series of conditions with each condition varying in some aspect of the situation to calculate its effet on obedience. P’s were told it was a study of how punishment affects leanring.
There were 2 experimental confederates: an experimenter, and a 47- year old man who was intdouced as another volunteer participant. The 2 participants were asked to draw lots to see who would act as ‘Teacher’ and who act as the ‘Learner’. This was rigged so the real partcipant was always the teacher and the fake participant was the learner.
The teacher was required to test the learner on his ability to remember word pairs . Every time he got ione wrong the teacher had to admister increasingly strong electric shocks, starting at 15 volts, and then continuing up to the maximum of 450 volts in 15 volt increments,
In the voice feedback study, the learner, sitting in another room, gave mainly wrong asnwers and recieved his (fake) shocks in silence until they reached the 300 volt level (very strong shocks). At this point he pounded on the wall and then gave no respinse to the next question. He repeated this at 315 volts and from then on he did/said nothing.
If the ‘teacher’ asked to stop at any point, the experimenter had a series of ‘prods’ to repeat,such as saying ‘It is absoultely essential that you continue’ or, ‘You have no other choice, you must go on.
