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Social Influence Flashcards

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1
Q

Conformity

A

A change in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours due to exposure to a dominant/larger group (majority influence)

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2
Q

Normative social influence

A

You conform because you want to be liked and fit in (emotional process)

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3
Q

Informational social influence

A

You conform because you want to be right so you look to others for guidance.

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4
Q

Compliance

A

A result of normative social influence. Going along with things you don’t necessarily agree with. You change your public beliefs but not your private beliefs.

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5
Q

Internalisation

A

A result of informational social influence. You change your public and private beliefs. You really believe in what you are doing.

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6
Q

Identification

A

When you want to be part of a group so you accept their attitudes and values and believe in them when you are with the group.

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7
Q

Jenness (1932) Beans in a jar

A
  • Jenness was the first psychologist to study conformity
  • Participants were asked to individually estimate how many beans the bottle contained
  • Jenness the put the group in a room with the bottle and asked them to provide a group estimate
  • Participants were then asked to estimate the number on their own again
  • Jenness then interviewed the participants individually again and asked if they would like to stay with their estimate or the group’s estimate
  • Almost all changed their answer to be closer to the group estimate
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8
Q

Sherif (1935) Autokinetic Effect Experiement

A
  • Used the autokinetic effect - where a small spot of light (projected onto a screen) in a dark room will appear to move even though it is still
  • When participants were individually tested their estimates on how far the light moved varied considerably (20cm-80cm)
  • Participants were tested in groups of three with 2 people whose individual estimates were very similar and 1 person whose estimate was very different
  • Sherif found that the group converged to a common estimate
  • The person whose estimate of movement was different conformed
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9
Q

Asch (1951)

A
  • 50 male students from Swarthmore College in America who believed they were taking part in a vision test
  • Line judgement task
  • Real participants laced in a room with 7 confederates who had agreed their answers in advance
  • The real participant was always second to last in turn
  • Each person had to say out loud which line (A, B or C) was most like the target line in length (the correct answer was always obvious)
  • Each participant completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials (critical trials)
  • The real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trial, 74% conformed on at least one critical trial and 26% never conformed
  • Most participants said they knew their answers were incorrect but conformed to fit in or avoid being ridiculed
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10
Q

Unanimity (Asch)

A
  • Asch added another real participant or a confederate who had been instructed to give the right answer to the group
  • Conformity levels dropped form 33% to 5.5%
  • This suggests that the wrong answer needs to be unanimous in order for conformity to take place
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11
Q

Group size (Asch)

A
  • Asch increased the group size (number of confederates)
  • When there were 3 confederates conformity increased to 30% but further increases of the majority did not substantially increase levels of conformity
  • This suggests that the size of the majority is important but only to a point
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12
Q

Task difficulty (Asch)

A
  • Asch made the differences between the line lengths much smaller so the task was more difficult and the correct answer was less obvious
  • This increased the level of conformity
  • This suggests that perhaps there was an increase in informational social influence due to the person looking for guidance
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13
Q

Strength of Asch’s experiment

A

It is a lab study so there was high control of variables and therefore easily replicable.

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14
Q

Weaknesses of Asch’s experiment

A
  • No longer applicable - 1950s USA was more conformist compared to today’s society, people more likely to conform
  • Low ecological validity - Unrealistic setting means people may have acted differently in real life and risk of demand characteristics
  • Gender biased - Women could be more concerned about social relationships and therefore more likely to conform but Asch only used men in his study
  • Lacks cultural validity - USA is an individualist culture where people are more concerned about themselves than social groups, but collectivist cultures like China and Japan are the opposite, so are more likely to conform.
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15
Q

Social roles

A

The sets of behaviours and expectations that come with holding positions in society (teenager, mother, priest)

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16
Q

Zimbardo et al (1973)

A

Stanford prison experiment

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17
Q

The Stanford Prison Experiment (Method)

A
  • Male students recruited to act as either guards or prisoners in a mock prison (they were psychologically assessed before and deemed “normal”)
  • Randomly given the roles of prisoner or guard and their behaviour was observed.
  • The prisoners were “arrested” as they went about their day taken to “prison” and given uniforms and numbers
  • The guards also wore uniforms and mirrored sunglasses
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18
Q

The Stanford Prison Experiment (Results)

A
  • The guards tried to assert their authority and the prisoners resisted by sticking together
  • The prisoners then became more passive and obedient while the guards invented nastier punishments
  • The experiment was abandoned early (after 5 days instead of 2 weeks) because some prisoners became very distressed
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19
Q

The Stanford Prison Experiment (Conclusion)

A
  • Guards and prisoners adopted their social roles quickly
  • Zimbardo claims this shows that our social role can influence our behaviour as seemingly well-balanced men became unpleasant and aggressive in the role of the guard
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20
Q

A strength of the Stanford Prison Experiment

A

It was a controlled observation so there were good control variables

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21
Q

Weaknesses of the Stanford Prison Experiment

A
  • As it was an artificial experiment, the results can’t really be generalised to real life
  • There were poor ethics as some participants found the experience very distressing
  • There is a problem with observer bias as Zimbardo ran the prison himself and admitted that he became too personally involved
  • The conclusion Zimbardo reached doesn’t explain why only some participants acted according to their assigned roles (not all guards acted with brutality)
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22
Q

Orlando (1973) mock psychiatric ward

A
  • Set up a mock psychiatric ward in a hospital for 3 days
  • 29 staff members of the hospital volunteered to be patients
  • Another 22 staff members were involved but they were asked to carry out their normal daily roles
  • It only took a little while for the patients to start behaving like real patients of the hospital (many showed signs of depression and withdrawal with 6 trying to escape from the ward)
  • The mock patients reported that they felt frustrated, anxious and despairing. Some said that they felt they lost their identity
  • A real world study that can be linked to real life patients
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23
Q

Reicher and Haslam (Study for the BBC)

A
  • Very similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment but had very different findings
  • Guards did not identify with their social role whereas the prisoners increasingly identified with theirs
  • Guards were overcome by the prisoners who worked collectively to challenge their authority and establish a egalitarian set of rules
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24
Q

The key difference between Zimbardo’s study and Reicher and Haslam’s study

A

The participants of Reicher and Haslam’s British study knew they would be seen by millions of viewers on TV. Even as they got used to the cameras the guards still didn’t become aggressive. Perhaps people are more aware of the dangers of conforming to stereotyped views nowadays.

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25
Q

Aim of Milgram’s experiment

A
  • To find out about obedience
  • Linked to concentration camps in WW2
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26
Q

Sample in Milgram’s experiment

A
  • 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50
  • Wide range of occupations and educational levels
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27
Q

Where did Milgram’s study take place?

A

Yale University

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28
Q

3 roles in Milgram’s experiment

A

Teacher (naive)
Learner (actor)
Experimenter

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29
Q

What were the participants of Milgram’s study told the study was about?

A

The presumed relation between punishment and learning

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30
Q

Milgram’s Experiment

A
  • Teacher was given a sample shock of 45 volts to convince them of the authenticity of the generator
  • When naive participant showed concern for the learner or asked to stop the experimenter said phrases such as “the experiment requires you to continue”
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31
Q

Results of Milgram’s experiment

A

0 of the participants stopped below 300 volts
65% of participants continued to the highest level of 450V

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32
Q

Ethical issues in Milgram’s research

A
  • Participants were deceived because they thought the shocks were real. Milgram argued that deception was necessary in order for the study to work
  • Participants were distressed as they demonstrated physical symptoms such as sweating and trembling
  • Participants weren’t informed of their right to withdraw (they were told to go on) however 35% stopped
  • Participants didn’t give informed consent (they were told it was a study on the relationship between punishment and learning) Participants were debriefed at the end and gave retrospective consent.
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33
Q

Validity

A

The truthfulness of a psychological research study.

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34
Q

Internal validity

A

Relates to whether the researcher conducted the study in such a way that the outcome was a true representation of what was being investigated.

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35
Q

Problems if people are aware they are being studied

A
  • They may deliberately try to produce the outcome the researcher was expecting
  • They may deliberately try to ruin the experiment
  • They may reflect more than usual on their behaviour and act differently to how they normally would
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36
Q

Demand characteristics

A

Clues that help participants to work out the research aim.

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37
Q

Sheridan and King (1972)

A
  • Aim was to investigate obedience in setting where the participants must believe the situation is real
  • Students trained a puppy by punishing it with actual electric shocks when it made an error on a particular task
  • Shocks were small but participants could see and hear the puppies squeal
  • 75% of students delivered maximum shock
  • High levels of obedience still found when participants must have believed the situation was real
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38
Q

Hofling et al (1966)

A
  • Aimed to investigate obedience in a natural setting
  • 22 nurses studied working in hospitals in the US
  • Stooge instructed them by phone to give 20mg of “Astrofen” to patient. He said he would sign authorisation later.
  • The maximum dose on the box was clearly 10mg and hospital rules demanded authorisation beforehand
  • 21/22 complied without hesitation
  • 21 from a control group said they wouldn’t have given the drug
  • Power and authority of doctor clearly of greater influence than basic hospital rules
39
Q

Proximity (situational factor of obedience)

A
  • In Milgram’s original experiment, the teacher and learner were in separate rooms
  • When Milgram had the teacher and learner in the same room obedience levels dropped to 40%
40
Q

Location (situational factors and obedience)

A
  • Milgram’s original experiment took place at Yale University
  • When the location was changed to a run down office block, obedience dropped to 47.5%
41
Q

Uniform (situational factors and obedience)

A
  • In the original experiment, the experimenter wore a lab coat
  • When a member of the public gave the orders, obedience dropped to 20% as they were not dressed in uniform, lacking authority
42
Q

Agentic state

A

When an individual carries out the orders of an authority figure and acts as their agent with little personal responsibility. People give up some free will behaving as the agent of another person.

When Milgram added an additional confederate to administer the electric shocks on behalf of the teacher and obedience rose to 92.5%

43
Q

Legitimate authority

A

In order for a person to obey an instruction, they need to believe that the authority is legitimate e.g a police uniform

44
Q

Authoritarian personality (Adorno, 1950)

A

People with an authoritarian personality are more likely to obey. They have extreme respect for authority and see it as maintaining social order. An authoritarian personality comes from a harsh upbringing where they displace hatred from their parents onto minority groups.

45
Q

Milgram and Elms (1966)

A
  • Carried out a small scale study on the participants who had obeyed to 450V in Milgram’s original study. They found a positive correlation between authoritarian personality (as measured by the F scale) and obedience.
46
Q

What is the F-Scale?

A

A questionnaire for measuring the authoritarian personality.

47
Q

Locus of control

A

A person’s perception of personal control over their own behaviour. It is a personality explanation.

48
Q

Internal locus of control

A

An individual who believes their life is determined by their own decisions and efforts.

49
Q

External locus of control

A

An individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors.

50
Q

Which type of locus of control is most likely to resist social influence?

A

Internal

51
Q

LOC - Milgram replication

A
  • 37% of internal disobeyed compared to 23% externals
  • Supports the prediction that internals resist social influence
52
Q

Jean Twenge et al (2004)

A
  • Analysed data from American locus of control study over a 40 year period
  • People became more resistant to obedience but also more external
  • This is a surprising outcome - if resistance is linked to an internal locus of control, we would expect people to have become more internal
53
Q

Rotter (1982)

A
  • He points out that LOC is not necessarily the most important factor in determining whether someone resists social influence.
54
Q

Social support

A

The presence of others - seeing other people not conforming/disobeying

55
Q

Example of the effects of social support on conformity

A

Asch found that the presence of another non-conformist confederate lowered overall conformity to 5.5% conformity compared 37% on the lines task.

56
Q

Example of the effects of social support on obedience

A

Milgram found that obedience levels dropped 65% to 10% when the teacher was joined by another disobedient confederate.

57
Q

Real life examples of social support

A

London Riots (2011)

58
Q

Strengths of social support

A
  • Lots of evidence
  • Real life applications e.g. London riots in 2011
59
Q

Weaknesses of social support

A
  • Temporary effect (only happens when there is social support)
  • Ignores the role of personality (LOC)
60
Q

Commitment

A

Minorities can exert influence by showing dedication i.e. being willing to make sacrifices if necessary. This gives the minority’s message credibility because people are unlikely to be prepared to suffer for a cause which is not worthwhile.

61
Q

Consistency

A

Minorities need to be consistent with their message i.e. they need to keep repeating the same message over time and within the group. This shows they have confidence in their beliefs.

62
Q

Flexibility

A

Minorities must not come across narrow minded, they need to show that they are willing to listen and possibly compromise.

62
Q

What does minority influence lead to?

A

Conversion rather than compliance. Minority influence leads to a more permanent change where beliefs are truly changed.

63
Q

Aim of Moscovici’s Blue-Green Study (1969)

A
  • To investigate the effects of a consistent minority on a majority
  • 2 confederates and 4 genuine participants
  • All female participants (given eye tests first to test for colour blindness)
  • Independent variable = consistent or inconsistent minority
  • Dependent variable = percentage green responses
64
Q

Procedure of Moscovici’s Blue-Green Study (1969)

A
  • Lab experiment with an independent groups design
  • Participants were shown 36 slides which were clearly different shades of blue and asked to state the colour of each slide out loud
  • In condition one, the 2 confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides (consistency)
  • In condition two, the confederates answered green 24 times and blue 12 times (inconsistency)
65
Q

Results of Moscovici’s Blue-Green Study (1969)

A
  • In a control group with no confederates, no one said green
  • In condition one (consistent minority) 8.4% said green
  • In condition two (inconsistent minority) 1.25% said green
  • The consistent minority had an effect on the majority
66
Q

Conclusion of Moscovici’s Blue-Green Study (1969)

A

Minorities can influence a majority but not all the time and only when they behave in certain ways (e.g. consistent behavioural style)

67
Q

Stages of how minority social influence creates social change

A

1) Minority draws attention to issue through social proof
2) Consistency
3) Deeper processing of the issue
4) Augmentation (minority must be committed)
5) Snowball effect (minority becomes the majority)
6) Social cryptomnesia

68
Q

Social cryptomnesia

A

People have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.

69
Q

How conformity creates social change (Asch)

A
  • Highlights the importance of dissent
  • This occurs in one of his variations where one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure
  • This broke the power of the minority encouraging others to do the same
  • Such dissent has the power to ultimately lead to social change
70
Q

How conformity creates social change (NSI)

A
  • Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence
  • Provide information about what other people are doing
  • E.g. preventing young people from taking up smoking by telling them that most other young people do not smoke
  • Change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the minority are actually doing.
71
Q

How obedience creates social change (Milgram)

A
  • Importance of disobedient role models
  • In the variation where a confederate Teacher refuses to give shocks to the Learner, the rate of obedience in genuine participants plummeted
72
Q

How obedience creates social influence (Zimbardo)

A
  • Obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment
  • Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one
73
Q

Social norm

A

A group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour for its members - how they are supposed to behave and think (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955; Berkowitz, 2004)

74
Q

Script

A

A person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977)

75
Q

The augmentation principle

A

Where the minority’s commitment to the cause increases their influence over time

76
Q

An example of obedient behaviour due to fear of punishment for non-compliance

A

Authority figures can use their power to ensure obedient behaviour through fear of punishment for non-compliance. Changes in laws regarding wearing seatbelts may have initially faced some resistance , but with consistent enforcement and fines, obedience to these regulations became a normal part of behaviour.

77
Q

Why people conform (normative social influence)

A

To avoid social rejection
To align with societal expectations
To reduce the risk of social exclusion

78
Q

An real world example of normative social influence

A

As seen in movements for racial equality, individuals will now adopt the behaviours shared by the majority

79
Q

Real world example of informational social influence

A

Educating the public about the need for change, as seen in campaigns addressing homosexuality, have led to widespread adoption of new attitudes and behaviours as individuals conform to the perceived wisdom of others

80
Q

Nolan et al (2008)

A
  • Supports the idea that normative influence can lead to social change
  • Aimed to change people’s energy use
  • Posted messages on people’s doors every day for a month explaining how other residents were already reducing their energy usage
  • Led to a significant reduction in energy use
  • Simply thinking that the majority are showing a certain behaviour is enough to lead others to change their behaviour
81
Q

Foxcroft et al (2015)

A
  • Conducted a meta-analysis looking at the impact of sharing social norms and reducing young people’s drinking behaviour
  • Only a small reduction in how much alcohol people drank and no difference in how often people drank
  • Suggests that normative social influence is an incomplete explanation of social change
82
Q

Autonomous state

A

When people have control and act according to their own wishes

83
Q

Agentic shift

A

When individuals shift from the autonomous to agentic state
Participants in Milgram’s (1963) study started the experiment in the autonomous state but shifted into the agentic state when they started taking orders

84
Q

Augmentation principle

A

Suggests that if someone performs an action despite costs and risks, the underlying motive or attribute driving that actions is considered particularly strong

85
Q

The snowball effect

A

Minorities changing majority opinions starts as a slow process, as each person only converts few members of the majority. However, this rate of conversion picks up speed as more and more of the majority convert. Additionally, the process of conversion speeds up as the majority improves in it’s acceptability

86
Q

Strengths of minority influence

A
  • Consistency has been shown to help minorities influence members of the majority e.g. Moscovici (1969)
  • Flexibility has been shown to help minorities influence members of the majority e.g. Nemeth (1987)
  • Real world application e.g. the suffragettes showed commitment by going on hunger strike and the leaders of the civil rights movement delivered speeches with a consistent message of equality
87
Q

Weaknesses of minority influence

A
  • Lab based studies on factors affecting majority influence such as Moscovici and Nemeth are highly artificial and may not be valid when generalised to real-world minority influence. In real life, those trying to convince us are often friends and family and the topics are likely to be more important social issues, not meaningless tasks like stating the colour of a slide
  • In Moscovici’s study even in the consistent condition, 68% of participants never conformed to the minority, this may mean that few people are receptive to the influence of a consistent minority group
88
Q

Social change

A

When a view held by a majority group challenges the majority view and is eventually accepted by the majority. Whole societies (not just individuals) adopt new attitudes, beliefs or behaviours

89
Q

How obedience effects social change in society

A

Members of the government are a minority group and create social change through laws. By creating laws (e.g social distancing or indoor smoking ban) societies change to avoid punishment

90
Q

How informational social influence causes social change in society

A

Members of a minority group can provide information to the majority, such as the effects of climate change. Wider society changes its behaviour because it accepts this new evidence

91
Q

Strengths of social change

A
  • Leaders and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in USA demonstrated consistency and commitment in their fights against racial segregation and for equality. Presented a consistently unified front through non-violent protests. Led to significant social change e.g. Voting Rights Acts
  • LGBTQ+ movement has used consistency in to core message of equality and rights alongside flexibility. The successful campaign for civil partnerships were a strategic (flexible) compromise that ultimately led to the full legalisation of same sex marriage
  • Practical applications such as helping governments understand how to change people’s behaviour e.g. encouraging healthy eating and in cases like this it can help the economy, reducing healthcare costs
92
Q

Limitation of social change

A

Social change often occurs over extended periods, deals with highly sensitive topics such as discrimination and is the sum of interactions of millions of members of society. Therefore, highly controlled experimental research is not possible for social change
This means cause and effect relationships cannot be established so researchers have to depend on natural experiments, case studies and correlational studies to understand social change

93
Q

Confidence and conformity

A
  • Perrin and Spencer (1980) carried out Asch’s experiment on engineering students. Conformity rates were not as high as in Asch’s experiment. This might be because the engineers were confident in their decision-making.
  • Wiesenthal et al. (1976) observed that participants who were confident in their ability to complete a task were not as likely to conform.

Psychology (16 decks)

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