Social Influence

Question 1

What was Asch’s baseline procedure on conformity?

Answer 1

-123 American Male Ppts were tested individually, sitting last or next to last in a group of 8 confederates
-They were shown 2 line cards
-One was a ‘standard line’
-On the other was 3 comparison lines
-1/3 lines=same length as standard line
-2/3 was clearly different
-18 trails-on 12 of these the confederates have the same wrong answer.

Question 2

Why did Asch devise an experience to measure conformity?

Answer 2

-Wanted to measure the extent that people confirmed to the opinion of others, even in a situation when the others’ answers were clearly wrong.

Question 3

What did Asch find on his baseline study on conformity?

Answer 3

-Asch found that naïve ppts conformed 36.8% of the time.
-This shows a high level of conformity when the situation is unambiguous
-There were individual differences- 25% of the ppts never gave a wrong answer (never conformed)
-75% conformed at least once

Question 4

What are the 3 variables investigated by Asch?

Answer 4

1- Group size
2-Unanimity
3-Task difficulty

Question 5

Procedure for group size(Asch)

Answer 5

-Asch varied the number of confederates in each group between 1 and 15
(total group size between 2 and 16)

Question 6

Findings for group size(Asch)

Answer 6

-The relationship between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear
-If there were 2 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%x
-When there were 3 confederates, conformity rose to 31.8%
-Above 3 confederates, conformity rate levelled off, adding more than 3 confederates made little difference.

Question 7

Explanation of group size( Asch)

Answer 7

-People are very sensitive to the opinions of other people
-One confederate was enough to sway opinion.

Question 8

Procedure for unanimity( Asch)

Answer 8

-Asch introduced a dissenting confederate- sometimes they gave the correct answer and sometimes a different wrong answer( but always disagreed with the majority)

Question 9

Findings for unanimity (Asch)

Answer 9

-In the presence of a dissenter, conformity reduced on average a less than a 1/4 of the level it was when the majority was unanimous.
-Conformity reduced if dissenter gave right or wrong answer.

Question 10

Explanation for unanimity(Asch)

Answer 10

-Having a dissenter enabled the naïve ppt to behave more independently.

Question 11

Procedure for task difficulty(Asch)

Answer 11

-Asch made the line-judging task harder by making stimulus line and comparison lines more similar in length.
-Thus it was difficult to see differences between the lines

Question 12

Findings for task difficulty (Asch)

Answer 12

-Conformity increased

Question 13

Task difficulty explanation(Asch)

Answer 13

-The situation is more ambiguous, so we are likely to look to others for guidance and to assume they are right and we are wrong.
-This is ISI(plays a greater role when the task becomes harder).

Question 14

A03- Limitation to Asch’s baseline study on conformity

Answer 14

L
P-the situation and task were artificial
E-Ppts knew they were in a research study (demand characteristics). The task was trivial and there was no reason NOT to conform.
E-Also Fiske argued Asch’s groups were not like real life groups.
L-This means the findings do not generalise everyday life(especially those situations where the consequences of conformity are important)

P-Asch’s findings have little application
E-Only American men were tested by Asch. Neto suggested that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships and being accepted
S-Also the USA is an individualistic culture and studies in collectivist cultures(e.g. China) have found higher conformity rates(Bond and Smith).
L-This means Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures.

Question 15

Strengths of Asch’s Baseline study on conformity

Answer 15

S
P-One strength is other evidence to support Asch’s findings.
E-Lucas et all asked ppts to solve ‘easy’
and ‘hard’ maths problems.
Ppts were giving answers that falsely claimed to be from 3 other students.
E-The ppts conformed more often(agreed with the wrong answers) when the problems were harder.
L-This shows Asch was correct that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity.

Question 16

Types and conformity and definitions

Answer 16

Internalisation- When are person accepts group norms(public change and private change in opinion)
Think the group is right(the change is usually permanent)

Identification-Value the group. We identify with the group and publicly change our opinions/behaviours(even if we don’t privately agree with everything the group stands for)

Compliance-Temporary agreement. Involves ‘going along with others’ in public, but privately not changing opinions/behaviour.
This results in a superficial change and the opinion/behaviour stops as soon as group pressure ceases.

Question 17

What is ISI?

Answer 17

Informational social influence
-A desire to be right(e.g. in class going with the majority answer as they are probably right)
-A cognitive process(people generally want to be right-leads to internalisation)

Question 18

What is NSI?

Answer 18

Normative social influence
-A desire to behave like others and not look foolish
-Concerns what is “normal” behaviour and norms(regulates the behaviour of groups and individuals)
-Emotional rather than cognitive(leads to compliance-people prefer social approval rather than rejection).

Question 19

When does ISI occur?

Answer 19

Occurs in situations that are ambiguous
-ISI is more likely to occur in situations which are new and have some ambiguity(isn’t clear what is right)
-It may happen when decisions have to be made quickly, when we assume the group is likely to be right.

Question 20

When does NSI occur?

Answer 20

Occurs in unfamiliar situations and with people you know.
-Most likely in situations where you don’t know the norms and look to others about how to behave
-Can occur in situations with strangers as you don’t want to be rejected/people we know because of social approval.
-Pronounced in stressful situations where people need social support.

Question 21

When does NSI occur?

Answer 21

Occurs in unfamiliar situations and with people you know.
-Most likely in situations where you don’t know the norms and look to others about how to behave
-Can occur in situations with strangers as you don’t want to be rejected/people we know because of social approval.
-Pronounced in stressful situations where people need social support.

Question 22

Strengths of types and explanations

Answer 22

S
P-Research support for NSI
E-Asch found many ppts conformed rather than give the correct answer because they were afraid of disapproval.
E-When the ppts wrote down answers(no normative pressure)conformity fell to 12.5%
L-This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them.

P-Research support for ISI
E-Lucas et al found ppts conformed more to incorrect answers when maths problems were difficult(with easy problems, ppts “knew their own mind”)
E-For hard problems the situation was ambiguous(unclear)so they relied on the answers they were given.
L-This supports ISI because the results are what ISI would predict.

Question 23

Limitations of types and explanations of conformity

Answer 23

P-Individual differences in NSI
E-Some people are concerned about being liked by others(nAffiliators) who have a strong affiliation to relate to other people.
E-McGhee and Teevan found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform.
L-This show NSI underlies conformity for some people more than for others-an individual difference not explained by a theory of situational pressures.

Question 24

Procedure for Zimbardo’s SPE

Answer 24

1-Mock Prison in the psych department at Stanford University
2- 21 Male Students were volunteers(emotionally stable only)
3-‘Prisoners’ were arrested in home by police and delivered to prison, blindfolded, strip searched, deloused and issued uniform and number.