Social influence

Question 1

Define social influence

Answer 1

The process in which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and beliefs.

Question 2

Define compliance, identification and internalisation.

Answer 2

Compliance = superficial and temporary, agree with group in public but disagree privately.
Identification = changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs, but only while they are in the presence of the group they are identifying with.
Internalisation = Permanent change in beliefs publicly and privately.

Question 3

In Asch’s line study what was found about group size?

Answer 3

Increased up until a point, 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8% but after 3 soon levelled off.

Question 4

In Asch’s line study what was found about unanimity?

Answer 4

Naive conformed less in presence of dissenter. Decreased to less than quarter of level when majority was unanimous.

Question 5

In Asch’s line study what was found about task difficulty?

Answer 5

Conformity increased when lines where closer in size.

Question 6

What was a limitation of Asch’s line study?

Answer 6

Artificial task - demand characteristics may have occurred, trivial task. Fiske - Asch’s groups didn’t represent real life so do not generalise.

Limited application - American men, women may be more conformist, (Neto). US = individualist, China conformity higher, (Bond and Smith).

Question 7

What was a strength of Asch’s line study?

Answer 7

Research support - Todd Lucas et al = easy and hard maths problems, conformed more with harder questions.

However, could be down to confidence in maths not as simple as Asch may have suggested.

Question 8

Deustch and Gerald two process theory included …

Answer 8

ISI and NSI. ISI leads to internalisation, NSI leads to compliance.

Question 9

What is research support for NSI ?

Answer 9

Asch interviewed pps and found they were afraid of disapproval. When wrote answers down, conformity dropped to 12.5% because of less social pressures.

Question 10

What is research support for ISI ?

Answer 10

Todd Lucas et al - task difficulty, conformed more with harder tasks.

Question 11

What is a limitation of NSI ?

Answer 11

nAffiliators more concerned with being liked by others. McGhee and Teevan found students that were nAffiliators were more likely to conform

Question 12

What was a strength of Zimbardo’s prison experiment ?

Answer 12

Control - emotionally stable pps randomly placed in either guard or prisoner group. Ruled out individual personal differences, increase internal validity.

Question 13

What were limitations of Zimbardo’s prison experiment ?

Answer 13

Lack of realism - Banuazizi and Movahedi = pps were play acting not genuinely conforming to a role. Based on stereotypes eg. 1 guard said their behaviour came from the film Cool Hand Luke. So shows little about conformity to social roles in real prisons.

Exaggerated power of roles - Fromm 1/3 guards brutal , 1/3 tried to be fair, rest tried to help prisoners eg. reinstated privileges. Dispositional factors like behaviour may have been more important than conforming to social roles.

Question 14

In Milgram’s shock study how many pps continued to 450V?

Answer 14

65%

Question 15

What 4 prods were used by Milgram’s experimenters ?

Answer 15

1. Please continue
2. The experiment requires that you continue
3. It’s absolutely essential that you continue
4. You have no other choice you must go on.

Question 16

What is a strength of Milgram’s baseline experiment ?

Answer 16

Research support - French documentary, game show, paid to give shocks to other pps. 80% gave max shock 460V to apparently unconscious man. Findings not just due to special circumstances.

Question 17

What are weaknesses of Milgram’s baseline procedure ?

Answer 17

Low internal validity - 75% believed shocks were genuine according to milgram. Orne and Holland = play acting. Perry confirms, only about half believed shocks were real, so demand characteristics.

Ethics - deceived pps eg. thought allocation of roles was random . Pps debriefed but Baumrind criticised because deception can cause serious consequences on pps.

Question 18

What were the 3 situational variables tested after Milgram’s baseline procedure ?

Answer 18

Proximity, Uniform and Location

Question 19

What % of PPS obeyed in the touch proximity variation ?

Answer 19

30%

Question 20

What % of PPS obeyed in the run down office variation?

Answer 20

47.5%

Question 21

What % of PPS obeyed in the ordinary clothes variation?

Answer 21

20%

Question 22

What are the strengths of the situational variables study for obedience ?

Answer 22

Research support - Field study Bickman, NYC streets, asked to do tasks by milkman, security guard and jacket and tie. Security guard 2x more likely obedience than jacket and tie. Supports uniform variation.

Cross cultural- repeated in other cultures Meeus and Raaijmakers, 90% obeyed in interview to say stressful things, without orders obedience decreased. Proximity test, findings not just limited to American males.

Question 23

What’s a limitation of situational variables obedience ?

Answer 23

Low internal validity- some PPS aware it’s fake, Orne and Holland,demand characteristics

Question 24

What is agentic and autonomous state?

Answer 24

Agentic - no responsibility for behaviour, acting for authority figure

Autonomous - behave according to own principles, responsibility for own actions

Question 25

What’s a strength of agentic state ?

Answer 25

Research support, PPS asked who was responsible if learner was hurt, when experimenter took responsibility PPS usually had no further objections. So when they felt they weren’t responsible they were more likely to obey.

Question 26

Whats a weakness of agentic state ?

Answer 26

Limited explanation, eg. Rank and Jacobson 16\18 nurses disobeyed doctors orders of overdose. So agentic shift only accounts for some situations.

Question 27

What is the legitimacy of authority?

Answer 27

More likely to obey people we see as having authority over us, some have power to punish eg police.

Question 28

What is a strength of legitimacy of authority ?

Answer 28

Explains cultural differences - countries differ eg 16% of Australian women 450V, 85% German. Different cultures see different people as authority figures.

Question 29

Whats a limitation of legitimacy of authority ?

Answer 29

Cannot explain all situations, Rank and Jacobsons nurse study, most disobedient despite the clear hierarchy of the doctor. So some people may be more or less obedient than others due to factors like innate tendencies.

Question 30

What does the dispositional explanation of obedience suggest about an authoritarian personality ?

Answer 30

Adorno - Personality type thats more likely to obey authority. Dismissive of inferiors and submissive to those with higher status. Likely caused by strict parenting in childhood and conditional love.

Question 31

What is the F- scale ?

Answer 31

Measures tendency towards fascism and thought to be the essence of the AP.

Question 32

What did Adorno measure and find ?

Answer 32

White Americans and their subconscious attitudes to other races. Used F scale.

Found, high on f scale and AP more likely to have black and white thinking.

Question 33

Whats a strength of the dispositional explanation of obedience ?

Answer 33

Research support - Milgram and Elms interview pps from og study who were fully obedient and all scored higher on f scale. So obedient people may show similar characteristics to AP people.

However, pps did not glorify fathers or have an unusual amount of punishment in their childhoods as AP suggests.

Question 34

What are limitations of the dispositional explanation of obedience ?

Answer 34

Limited explanation - Cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a countrys population. eg. pre war Germany millions displayed obedient behaviour despite different personalities.

Political bias - only measures tendency towards extreme right wing ideology. Christie and Jahoda, f scale = politically biased interpretation of AP. Extreme white and left wing have a lot in common, eg both emphasise importance of complete obedience to political authority. So doesnt account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.

Question 35

What are two explanations why people may resist social influence ?

Answer 35

Social support - presence of others resisting pressures to conform or obey. eg. confederate in Asch’s study not conforming decreased conformity.

Locus of control - Rotter, internals believe what happens to them is largely controlled by themselves eg. doing bad in exam is because they didnt work hard enough. Externals believe its due to luck or other outside forces. High internals more likely to resist conformity, more self confident and intelligent.

Question 36

What are the strengths of social support as a reason why someone may resist social influence ?

Answer 36

Research support - Albrecht et al, smoking pregnant girls 14-19. PPs with older mentor less likely to smoke. Social support therefore is useful in preventing smoking.

Research support - Gamson et al, PPs asked to create campaign for oil company. 29/33 groups rebelled against orders so peer support can lead to disobedience.

Question 37

What is a strength of locus of control as a reason why someone may resist social influence ?

Answer 37

Research support - Charles Holland, repeated Milgrams baseline test and measures whether PPs were internals or externals. 37% internals didnt continue to 450V, 23% of externals. So resistance likely to be related to LOC.

Question 38

What is a limitation of locus of control as a reason why someone may resist social influence ?

Answer 38

Contradictory research - Twenge et al, analysed data from American LOC studies over 40 years, people became more resistant to obedience but also more external. So LOC is not valid in explaining why people resist social influence.

Question 39

What three qualities must someone show for successful minority influence ?

Answer 39

Consistency- synchronic ( all saying same thing as each other). diachronic (saying same thing over time.)

Commitment - augmentation principle, extreme activities to draw attention from majority groups.

Flexibility - shows they may accept a compromise and are not just rigid or stubborn in the groups beliefs.

Question 40

What are the strengths of minority influence ?

Answer 40

Research support for consistency - Moscovici et al, blue/green slide study showed consistent minority greater effect on changing views than inconsistent opinion.

Research support for deeper processing - Martin et al, message supporting a viewpoint and measured PPs agreement. One group heard minority agree other group heart majority agree. PPs then exposed to conflicting view. Less willing to change opinion if listened to minority than majority. So minority message was more deeply processed.

Question 41

What is a limitation of minority influence ?

Answer 41

Artificial tasks - eg Moscovici’s colour slide, so shows little about real life. Jury decision making etc is more important. Lack of external validity.