Social influence Flashcards
what are the three variables that effected conformity in Asch’s vision experiment.
- unanimity of group
-difficulty of task
-size of group
what is the definition of validity
weather the study measured what it originally intended to measure
what percent of ppts conformed every time is Asch’s vision experiment
37%
Asch’s participants- vision exp:
-gender?
- how many?
- culture?
-age?
- males
-123
-American
-undergraduates
what percent of ppts didn’t conform is Asch’s vision experiment?
25%
size of majority: Asch exp
with up to 3 confederates, what did conformity rise to?
32%
unanimity: Asch exp
- when another confederate gave the right answer, what did conformity fall to?
5.5% from 37%
unanimity: Asch exp
-when another confederate gave a different wrong answer, what did conformity fall to?
9% from 37%
difficulty of task: Asch exp
- when task was made harder did the level of conformity increase or decrease?
substantially increased, conformity that occurred was informational social influence.
list the methodological issues in the Asch experiment.
-small sample size- can’t generalise findings to a wider population
- culture bias
-gender bias
-age bias
- lab study- controlled envirnoment
what were the ethical issues in Asch’s experiment?
- deception- they were told it was a vision test
- psychological harm- embarrassment/trauma
what is conformity?
yielding to group pressures
what types of conformity are there?
-compliance
-internalisation
-identification
define compliance
when you publicly agree with the group but do not privately agree
define internalisation
-when your behaviour changes and you now publicly and privately agree after being convinced by the group.
-deepest form of conformity
define identification
an individual makes the groups beliefs their own but only because they want to be accepted. The person internalises the view only as this is likely to lead to them being accepted. (compliance)
define normative social influence
when we conform due to the desire to be liked, in order to gain approval from the group. This leads to compliance.
define informational social influence
due to our desire to be right, we look to others who we believe to be correct and give us information on how to behave in novel (new) or ambiguous situations. This leads to internalisation.
what is an nAffiliator?
people who have a greater need for affliliation (closely assosicated)
informational social influence evaluation:
strength-researh support: as an explanation for conformity, supported by Lucas et al, who found there was greater conformity to incorrect maths answers when they were more difficult than the easier ones. Peoples desire to be right causes them to conform.
-the variable of task difficulty in Asch’s experiment- conformity increased significantly
weakness: only tested on students, adults may conform differently.
normative social influence strength evauluation:
strength: as an explanation for conformity, supported by researchers (Likenbach + Perkins) found that adolescents are less likely to smoke if they are told the majority of their peers do not smoke. Shlutz found that hotel guests reduce their towel usage by 25% if they are exposed that most hotel guests recycle.
normative social influence weakness evaluation:
there are differences in behaviour depending on an individuals personality and needs. For example, nAfiliators are those with a greater need of affiliation, so are more likely to conform. Those who are less concerned about being liked are less effected by NSI.
what is ecological validity?
if the study was a reflection of real life, e.g lab experiments lack ecological validity
define validity
if the study measured what it originally intended to measure.
what was the aim of Milgram’s study?
how the situational context could lead to ordinary people inflicting harm on others when instructed to by an authority figure.
what percent of ppts went to 450v in Milgram’s study?
65%
what volts did every ppts go up to in Milgram’s study?
300v
what are the 3 things that effect the situational factor?
-uniform
-proximity
-location
define the term dispositional
cause of behaviour due to the internal characteristics of a person, rather than outside forces.
what is an authoritarian personality
when you are likely to obey the commands of an authority figure and adhere to social norms