Social influence

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of perceived (real or imagined) pressure from a person/group

Question 2

Internalisation

Answer 2

conforming to the group because you accept its norms, agreeing privately and publicly, a permanent change to your beliefs

Question 3

Identification

Answer 3

conforming to the group because you value it, publicly changing your views to be accepted, even if you disagree privately, making the choice to conform

Question 4

Compliance

Answer 4

superficial agreement with the group, going along with it publicly but holding a different view privately, a temporary change to beliefs, you have no choice but to conform

Question 5

Informational social influence

Answer 5

about who is right, you or the group, occurs when we are uncertain, or when there’s ambiguity, can lead to internalisation

Question 6

Normative social influence

Answer 6

what’s considered normal for a social group or situation, people don’t want to seem foolish, so change their behaviour to fit in, this leads to a temporary change and sometimes compliance.

Question 7

Minority influence

Answer 7

a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours, it leads to internalisation and conversion, private attitudes and public behaviours are changed

Question 8

Three strategies in minority influence

Answer 8

consistency, commitment, flexibility

Question 9

Consistency

Answer 9

minority influence is most effective if the minority all keep the same beliefs, over time and between all individuals, it draws attention to the views

Question 10

Commitment

Answer 10

minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrate dedication to their position, e.g. by making personal sacrifices

Question 11

Flexibility

Answer 11

relentless consistency is counterproductive if seen by majority as unbending and unreasonable, so minority influence is most effective if the minority show flexibility and compromise

Question 12

When was Asch?

Answer 12

1951

Question 13

When was Milgram?

Answer 13

1963

Question 14

Quantitative info in Asch’s study

Answer 14

123 american university students
5-7 confederates per trial
Confederates answered wrong on 12/18 trials
participants conformed 36.8% of the time
75% of participants conformed at least once

Question 15

Lucas

Answer 15

2006, asked maths questions of varying difficulty, the harder they were the more they conformed, the less confident they were the more they conformed

Question 16

Jenness

Answer 16

1932, asked them to estimate jellybeans in a jar, they estimated again as a group, then gave private estimations again, they changed their answers to fit the groups

Question 17

Aschs variations

Answer 17

group size, unanimity, task difficulty

Question 18

Findings in the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 18

asserting authority, physical punishment, rebellion, mental breakdowns

Question 19

Obedience

Answer 19

a form of social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure.

Question 20

Milgram numbers to remember

Answer 20

1963
40 male participants between 20 and 50
$4.50 paid
15V to 450V
4 prods from researcher
all shocked to 300V
65% shocked to 450V
18 variatons

Question 21

Zimbardo numbers to remember

Answer 21

1973
21 male participants -students
2 groups
2 weeks - set to spend in ‘prison’
6 days- actually spent in ‘prison’
2:30 AM day one- woken and counted
#8612- after 36 hours had a mental breakdown- screaming crying, rage. allowed to leave.
#819- broke down, refused to call himself his own name, didn’t want to leave and be bad prisoner.

Question 22

Asch numbers to remember

Answer 22

1951
123 male participants -students
18 total trails- confeds gave wrong answer on 12 trials
36.8% conformed every time
75% conformed at least once

Question 23

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 23

an unpleasant feeling of anxiety created by simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas

Question 24

Situational variables

Answer 24

features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures

Question 25

Individual variables

Answer 25

personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures

Question 26

Social roles

Answer 26

the parts individuals play as members of a social group, which meet the expectations of that situation

Question 27

Milgram paradigm

Answer 27

experimental procedure devised by Milgram for measuring obedience rates

Question 28

Autonomous State

Answer 28

where individuals are seen as personally responsible - free-will

Question 29

Agentic state

Answer 29

when we obey an order and are therefore not seen as responsible

Question 30

Agentic shift

Answer 30

going from the autonomous to agentic state

Question 31

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 31

the degree to which individuals are seen as justified in having power over others

Question 32

Deindividuation

Answer 32

a state in which individuals have lower self-awareness and a weaker sense of personal responsibility for their actions.
a results of relative anonymity due to being in a crowd.

Question 33

Authoritarian personality

Answer 33

a person who holds rigid beliefs, is intolerant of ambiguity, submissive to authority and hostile to those of lower social status, due to their strict upbringing.

Question 34

Authoritarian parenting

Answer 34

strict, lots of punishment and conditional love that is only given to the child when they meet parental expectations

Question 35

Dispositional explanation

Answer 35

the perception of behaviour as caused by internal characteristics e.g. personality

Question 36

Dehumanisation

Answer 36

degrading people by lessening of their human qualities

Question 37

Situational variables affecting obedience

Answer 37

Proximity - closer to consequences, less likely to obey. closer to authority figure, more likely to obey.
Location - can change the legitimacy of authority e.g. institutional setting (school) can increase obedience
Uniform - can change the legitimacy of authority- police uniform , more obedience.

Question 38

Dispositional explanation affecting obedience

Answer 38

an internal explanation
upbringing and personality affect obedience
authoritarian personality- 1941 Fromm, then developed by Adorno 1950

Question 39

Moral strain

Answer 39

the negative emotions experienced when we see the action as morally wrong but we must obey. (in agentic state)

Question 40

Destructive authority

Answer 40

using power in a way that is cruel, evil or harmful to others e.g. Nazis