Social influence Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

obedience

A

a form of socail infuence follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a person of authority, who has the power to punish when obedience isnt in place
e.g. teacher, parent, police

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

aim

A

milgram wanted to find out why the german population obeyed hitler during the holocaust
he wanted to know if germans obey more than others

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

zimbardo’s research on confirmity

A

focuses on how people conform to the expectations that people have of us

these arise from the roles we play in society which are powerful influeces on our behaviour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

social roles

A

parts people play as members of society
e.g. parent, best friend, teacher
these come with expectations that we and others have about what is appropriate behavior within our roles

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

internal validity

A

refers to whether the observed effect on our dv is due to the manipulation of our IV and not anything else

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

conformity

A

a form of social influence involving a change in belif or behaviour in order to fit in with a group. This change is in responce to real (involving the pressure of social norms/ expectations) group pressure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

types of social influence

A

normative
informational

note: in exams pick one even if it could be both

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

normative social influence

A

conforming due to the desire to be liked - we conform to fit in with the group becuase we don’t want to appear foolish or be left out
e.g. swearing, copying style, vaping, makeup

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

informational social influence

A

conforming due to the desire to be right - we conform becuase we are unsure of the situation so we look to others who we belive may have more info than us
e.g. following s crowd in the train station

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

types of conformity

A

compliance
internalisation
identification

these depnd on whether the person chnages their view only in public or b

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

types of conformity

compliance

A

a superficial/ temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view but privately disagree. The change in behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us because we want to fit in

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

types of conformity

internalisation

A

a deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view as we accept it as correct. It leads to acceptance of the group’s point of view both publically and privately so change their behaviour even when the group is absent

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

types of conformity

identification

A

a moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way as a group because we value it and want to be a part of it of it but we dont necessarily agree with belifs of the majority
e.g. gang culture, veganism

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

3 main researches

A

asch’s on conformity
zimbardo’s on obediance
milgram’s on obedience

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

asch’s variations

variations named on spec

A
  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

ecological validity

A

the ability to generalise our findings from the research setting to other settings i.e. in every day life

setting

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

population validity

A

the ability to generalise our findings from the ppts to othe people (target popualtion)

sample

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

historical validity

A

the ability to generalise our findings from the study to other times i.e. presnst day

time

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

zimardo

where

A
  • mock prison in basment of stanford uni
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

zimardo

what real-life situattion is suggested to resemble the experiment

A

abu ghraib 2003

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

zimardo

roles

A

guard & prisoner

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

zimardo

how were roles enforced

A

karki unifroms, whistle
number, chain on feet, mock arrest from home

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

zimardo

zimardo’s role

A

observer, prison warden

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

zimardo

hwo were ppts given right to withdraw

A

if they had a mental breakdown, medical reasons

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

zimardo

why did he stop

A

his gf made him realise that it was causeing him to change for the worse, threatened to leave him

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

ethics

A
  • deception
  • violation of right to withdraw
  • lack of informed consent
  • faliture to protect from physical/ phycological harm
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

deception

A

naive ppts were told they were partaking in a memory test, they thought they were giving real shocks

they could leave, realism, avoids demand characteiscs, debreifed

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

violation of right to withdraw

A

4 prods

they could leave, realsim of obedience in a situation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

lack of informed consent

A

not telling them that mr wallice wasnt real

prevents demand characterics

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

faliure to protect from physical/ phycological harm

A

3 teahers had uncontrollable seziers, stress guilt

85% reported to have been happy to take part in the study

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

where

A

YALE uni

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

milgram’s research on obedience

“task”

A

word pair

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

milgram’s variations

intro

A
  • like asch, milgram wanted to see how levelswould change if he changed something about his original experiment ( a new IV)
  • he belived obedience was more dependant on exteral factors ( thinngs in the enviromet) than internal factors like personality/ perception
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

milgram’s variations

3 situational variables

A

proximity
location
uniform

35
Q

milgram’s variations

note

A

the resukts from milgrams variations were used to develop an explantation for obedience situational variables
‘situational variables’ is one explanatio for why people obey

two types of Q’s
- ‘ outline and evaluate milgrams variatopns in obedience research’
- ‘ outline and evaluate situational variatopns as an explanation for obedience ‘

36
Q

milgram’s varitations

proximity

A
  • the physical closness or distance of an authoratiy figure to the person they are giving an order to

Findings:
when the authority figure was out of the room giving orders obedience dropped from 65 to 20.5%
when the learner was in the same room as the ppt, obedience dropped from 65 to 40%

Conclusions:
the more proximity between teacher and authoeirty figure the more likely the ppt will go all the way

37
Q

milgram’s varitations

Location

A

the place where the oder is issued - the status/ prestige associated with the location
milgram replicated his study in a run down office as opposed to yale university

findings:
47.5% obeyed in a less prestegous envirment

conclusion:
the less prestegeous the location, the lower the obedience

38
Q

milgram’s varitations

uniform

A

the outfit that is symbolic to one’s authority
this indicates to the rest of us who is enitled to expect obedience
- original uniform was the white lab coat
- in variation, a normal member of the public in ‘everyday’ clothes played the experimenter

findings:
20% went all the way, most change, significant

conclusions:
lacl of uniform decreases obedience rates

39
Q

milgram’s varitations evaluation

Reasearch support

A

Bickman (1974)
- got 3 confederates to dress in different outfits
- jaket and tie
- milkman
- security guard unifomr
they stood on the side of the street and asked people to complete a seires of tasks e.g. picking up litter
people were twice as likely to obey teh man dressed as a secuiirty gaurd than the jacket and tie
+ field experiment so less demand charactareistcs, antural envi so high ecological validty

milgram’s research: consistent results so high reliability due to replication
situatioal variables: high validity as proves theory

40
Q

milgram’s varitations evaluation

High control of variables

A
  • in milgram’s variations we only changed one factor (situatioal variables) at a time
  • doing this he used 1000 ppts in total
  • high control over variables = increased internal validity
  • 100 ppts = high replicability = high reliability
41
Q

milgram’s varitations evaluation

demand characteistcs

A

orne and holland argued that many ppts worked out the experiment was fake due to the extra manipulation of more variables e.g. mr wallice in the room
perry 2013 listened to the tapes and heard ppts doubt the shocks were real
changed beaviour- less internal validity
∴ if milgram’s research lacks validity, then as an explanation for obedience that came from it situational variables lacks validity too

42
Q

Legitimacy of authority

A

for a person to shift to shift to the agentic state (and thereofre obey) they must percieve legitimacy of authority
an explanation of obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we percive to have authority over us
this authority is justified by the person’s position of power within a social heirachy
- we accept some people have authority to allow society to function properly
- we are willing to give up our independance so they can exert conrol effecienlty
- e.g. milgrams study: white lab coat was a symbol

43
Q

symbols of authority

A

the things we associate with the person giving instructions help us perciee when authoriy is legitimate or not
e.g. uniform, ties,
accessories, badge, gun, lanyard

44
Q

dont confuse symbolys of authority for unifrom as situational variables

A
  • as a situational variable just the presence of a uniform causes people to obey
  • as a symbol of loa unifrom aids our cognitive processing when working out whether the authority is legitimate or not
45
Q

dispositional

A

internal factors

46
Q

situational variables

A

external factors

47
Q

social-psychological

A

individual processing of external factors

48
Q

dispositional explanations

A

not all psychologists agree that situational and social factors can explain obedience alone
not all ppts obeyed in milgram’s study, differences in personalities, disposition

49
Q

the authoritarian personality

A

a type of personality that adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority
such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dissmisive of inferiors

Adorno 1950 developed this personality type trying to understand the obedience Nazi soilders showed towards hitler

50
Q

explanation of authoritarian personality

A

harsh parenting- strict, descipline, expectations to be complely loyal, high standards, unconditional love for parents, even if they dont agree with them
these experiences create hostility and despair in the child - who displaces these feelings onto the ‘weak’ scapegoating

51
Q

dispositional explanations for obedinece

procedure

A

adorno et al (1950) investigating the causes of an obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class white americans and thier unconscious attitudues towards other racial group

they developed an ‘F’ scale to measure the relationship between a person’s personality type and prejudiced belifs

52
Q

F scale

A

fascist… someone who belives in a totalitarian state rule by a supreme leader who controls everything possible and treats people harshly

53
Q

findings

F- scale

A
  • those who had scored highly on the “F scale” identified with strong people and were generally contempteous of the “weak”
  • they were very conscious of thier own and others status
54
Q

higher scores had a particular cognitive style

A
  • they were no grey areas between categories
  • they had fixed and distinctive steryotype about other groups
  • there was a strong positive correlation between authoritarian and predjudice
55
Q

Locus of control

A

Rotter 1966

56
Q

Internal

A

believe that they have personal control over the events in their life

57
Q

external

A

beliebe that they have little control over the events in their lives - luck, chance, faith

58
Q

internal locus

A

more likely to resist social influence
more likely to take responsibility for their actions whether good or bad, so are more likely to base their decision on their own beliefs

they are shown to be more self confident, achievement orientated
intelligent

59
Q

Evaluation for LOC

A

research support - oliner and oliner 1988
interviewed two groups for non jewish people that lived through the holocaust and nazi germany
grouo 1- 406 protected and rescued
group 2 - 126 didn’t

group 1 were more likely to have an internal LOC this shows support for loc as an explanation for resistance as instructions were discovered, resisting social influence

  • self report = could be lying, social desirability, approval after holocaust, protect their self image
  • correlation , don’t cause = effect
60
Q

weakness of loc

A

twenge er al 2004
analysed data from a range of american studies done on loc that were carried out over 40 years
meta analysis = when a researcher writes about studies done to come up with an overall conclusion
- they found that people became more resistant to social influence over time but also more external
evaluation: if recharge is linked to having an internal loc we would expect people to become more internal as they become more resistant
- this affects accuracy as low internal validity so therefore low explanatory power as clear explanation isn’t given ambiguous

61
Q

social influence on a wider scale

A

when whole societies rather than just individuals adopt new attitudes belifs and ways of doing things
e.g. recycling, rights for women, gay marrige, earth orbits the sun
social change can come about via two different routes: minority inflence and majority influence

62
Q

minority influence

A

conversion process

63
Q

majority influence

A

obedience and conformity

64
Q

steps of social change

A
  1. drawing attention to the issue: a minority can bring about social change by drawing attention of the majority to the issue
  2. cognitive conflict: the minority creates conflict between the majorities original views and the views advocated by the minority
  3. consistencey of position: the more consistent the minority are with their views over time, the more influence they will have on the majority
  4. the argumentation principle: if minority are willing to suffer for their views they seem committed and will be taken more seriously
  5. the snowball effect: the minority influence is small initially but as more and more members of the majority change their view they reach a ‘tipping point’ the point of wide-scale social change
65
Q

how can a majority influence create social change

A
  • conformity
  • ## social norms, normative social influence
66
Q

dispositional

A

internal factors

67
Q

situational

A

external factors

68
Q

dispositional explanation

A

psychologists dont believe that obedience can be explained by situational and social factors alone
e.g. not all ppts obeyed im milgram’s study
differences in personality-disposition

69
Q

Authoritarian personality

A

individals who are submissibe to authority

70
Q

what causes an aurthoritarian personality?

A

harsh parenting, high standards, discipline
these experiences create hostility and despair in the child who displaces these feelings onto the weak - scapegoating

71
Q

socail identity theory

A

when the sense of who you are is based on the group ypu belong to
in group vs out group

72
Q

explanations for resistance

A

LOC
social suppourt

73
Q

explanations for conformity

A

normative
informational

74
Q

explanations for obedience

A

situational variables
agantic state
legitimancy of authority

75
Q

social support

A

presence of people who resist pressures to conform/obey can help others do the sane
these people act as models to show others that resistance to influence is possibke
NOTE: a model doesnt have to agree with you to show social suppourt, just the fact that they are not conforming with th majority is enough to enable someone to follow their own consience
overall breaks unanimity

76
Q

social suppourt in conformity

A

Asch’s variations, when a confederate was instructed to give a different wrong answer to the majority vonformity dropped from 36.8% to 5.5%

this shows that the pressure of people who resist pressures to conform hwlped others do the sae as they act like models to show resistance is possible

77
Q

social suppourt in obedience

A

milgram did a variation where the ‘teacher’ was joined by a confederate as a second teacher
when confederate was instructed to disobey obedience from ppts dropped from 65% to 10%

this shows that the presence of people who resist pressure to obeyencourages people to do the same

78
Q

rotter

locus of control

A

an explanation for how we make sense of what directs events in our lives (how much control we have)

e.g. if you fail an exam, why do you believe it happened

79
Q

internal LOC

A

ppl belive they have personal control over the events in their life
domino effect, reason for eveeything, salf blame

80
Q

external LOC

A

belive that they have little personal control over the events in their lives
luck, fate, blame people around them

81
Q

LOC alarm example

A

i was late because i forgot to set my alarm
my alarm didnt go off

82
Q

LOC and resistance

A

those with an internal loc are more likely to resist sovial influence
they are more likely to take responsibility for tehir actions whereer good or bad, make decisions basewd on their belifs
more self-confident, achivment oridentated, intelligfent
liss likely to need social approval

83
Q

meta analysis

A

when researcer writes about studies done to come up with an overall conclusion

84
Q
A