Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
the process of yeilding to the majority influence
How did myers define conformity?
‘a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group presence’
What is compliance?
publicly conforming to behaviours or views of others but privately maintaining one’s own view
results in superficial change
the behaviolur will change when the group is no longer around
What is internalisation?
a real change of private views to match those of the group
change is permenant because attitudes have been internalised - change occurs when the group is no longer around
What is identification?
adopting the views of behaviour of a group both privately and privately because you value membership of of that group
the change is temporary and not maintained when leaving the group
What is normative social influence?
the need to be accepted by other people - the want to be liked and respected so you agree with people to get approval
it is likely to lead to compliance
What is informational social influence?
the need to feel confident that our ideas and beliefs are correct - tend to seek other’s opinions that we think are right
may lead to internalisation
What study supports informational social influence?
lucas et al = asked students to give math answers that were easy/ more difficult - there was more conformity on the more difficult ones
What study supports Normative social influence?
Asch = interviewed ps and found that they conformed because they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval
What is an issue with normative social influence and informational social influence?
induvidual differences are ignored - Asch found that students are less likely to conform than other people
also people who are less concerned about being liked are less likely to conform
What was Asch’s aim?
to investigate whether induviduals would yeild to majority influence and show how easily is is to influence someone
What was Asch’s experiment?
1 p with 6-8 confeds in group
123 ps in total - all white american undergarduates
believed they were taking part in a vision test
shown a display of 3 lines and had to compare these lines to a new line of which was similar
each person gave an answer - the p was always last or last but 1 = creates majority pressure
How did Asch increase validitity with the ps answers?
the displays were arranged so that there can be no possible doubt as to the correct answer
What were the critical trials?
12/18 confeds gave the same wrong answer - ps were observed for conformity
What was Asch’s findings?
error rate in critical trials = 32%
What % of ps in Asch’s experiment conformed at least once?
74%
What % of ps in Asch’s experiment never conformed?
26%
What reasons did ps give for conformity in Asch’s experiment?
i thought my eyes decieved me
i didnt want to spoil the experiment
i did not want to be ridiculed by the rest of the group and feel like an outsider
What was Asch’s conclusion?
in unambiguous situations, there is still pressure to conform to the majority - most people experienced NSI and some experienced ISI
What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
How does group size affect conformity?
creates majoirty pressure
the no. of confeds needed to produce conformity seemed to be 3
2 confed conformity = 14%
3 confed conformity = 32%
after 3 there was little increase in conformity
How does unanimity affect conformity?
if 1 confed gave a different answer whether it was right or wrong, conformity dropped to 5%
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
when the task was made more difficult by making the lines more similar in length, conformity increased due to ISI
What are the issues with Asch’s experiment?
lack ecological validity
lacks population validity - ethnocentric, culture biased
andocentric - focuses on men
poor temporal validity - war just happened people are more likely to conform
unethical - not full informed consent due to deception, uncomfortable situation
study of anti-conformity = high % didnt conform was ignored