social influence Flashcards
what is conformity?
someone changing their behaviour to go along with a groups, even if you don’t agree with them
what are the three types of conformity?
compliance
identification
internalisation
what is compliance?
someone fits in with the majority, but disagree privately, conforming to gain approval
what is identification?
agrees in public, agrees with their private beliefs only when surrounded by the those people, desire to be associated with a group
what is internalisation?
individual changes their behaviour to fit in public while also changing their private beliefs as well and away from the group, conforming because of an acceptance of their views
what is Normative social influence?
conformity based on desire for approval, more likely to happen when indiviudals believe they are under surveillance by the group, emotional process
what is informative social influence?
based on acceptance of information from others as evidence about reality, more likely of the situation is ambiguous or where others are experts.
what was asch’s study?
looking at normative social influence, wanted to see if people would conform to a group wrong answers even if the answer was unambiguous
participants were shown different lengths of lines and had to match which is the same size.
what was the procedure of asch’s study?
ppt view lines of different lengths
compared to a standard line
group contained confederates with ppt answering 2nd to last
confederates gave same wrong answer on 12/18 trials
what were the findings of asch’s study?
found that 75% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once by choosing the incorrect line
conformity rate was 36.8% naive ppt
without confederates, ppts made mistakes 1% of the time
what were the variables did Asch’s study that affected conformity rates
group size
task difficulty
unanimity of the majority
what did Asch find with group size and conformity?
conformity increased to 30% with majority of 3
campbell and Fairery - group size has different effects depending on type of judgement and motivation
what did Asch find with unanimity of the majority and conformity?
with on dissenter giving the right answer, conformity was 5.5%
dissenter giving a different wrong answer, conformity was 9%
what did Asch find with task difficulty and conformity?
if the correct answer was less obvious, conformity was higher
Lucas et al, influence of task difficulty moderated by indiviual’s self-efficacy.
what are strengths of asch’s study?
lab study, variables were controlled
easily repeated and extraneous variables minimised
operationalised
what are the weaknesses of asch’s study?
artifical - low ecological validity
demand characteristics
deception - ethical problems
not all participants were confident therefore more likely to succumb to conformity
child of its time - McCarthyism, anti-communist
Perrin and Spencer - 1/396 trials conformed
cultural differences
what was Perrin and Spencer’s study?
carried out an experiment on engineering students
conformity rates not as high as in Asch’s experiment
engineers may feel more confident in their answers than those in the Asch’s study
only 1/396 trials conformed
what is the problem with gender and conformity?
Eagly 1987, men and women show different levels of conformity because they don’t like group conflict
men are less likely to conform because they are expected to show independence and assertiveness while women are expected to be submissive
what was the SPE testing?
see if people can conform to their social role
what was the procedure of the SPE?
an advertisement was placed in a newspaper asking for male volunteers
men volunteered and then underwent psychological testing to eliminate candidates who had underlying issues.
there was 24 healthy males
paid $15 a day
randomly assigned to play a prisoner or a guard.
those assigned prisoner, was arrested at their home and taken to the police station
schedules to run for 2 weeks
prisoners referred to as numbers
guards given uniform and power to make rules
what happened in the SPE during the time they were in the prison?
day 2 - some prisoners revolted
the guard harassed the prisoners in a sadistic manner, complete lack of privacy, basic comforts such as mattresses
prisoners given a number, never called by their name
guards had sunglasses so that the prisoners couldn’t look into their eyes
dehumanised
prisoners showed signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness - tolerating the guards’ abuse
ended after day 6 due to the participants deteriorating behaviours
what were the findings of the SPE?
guards became tyrannical and abusive with the prisoners
prisoners conformed to their role with some showing extreme reactions
that the guards and prisoners adapted and conformed to their social roles relatively quickly
the prisoners showed symptoms of mental breakdown
what was the BBC study by Reicher and Haslam
procedure -
male volunteers
matched on social and clinical measures
assigned role of prisoner or guard
findings -
neither the guard or prisoners conformed to their assigned role
Prisoners worked collectively to challenge authority of the guards
result in power shift
what happened in Abu Ghraib?
abuse of prisoners of war by US army troops and CIA from 2003-04
there were photographs taken
dehumanising and degrading the prisoners of war
what was the Reicher and Haslam BBC study?
they wanted to observe how dynamics between the group evolved over time
what was the procedure of the BBC study?
controlled observation in a mock prison
15 male volunteers, randomly assigned a role
5 guards, 10 prisoners
what were the findings of the BBC study?
the guards did not form a group, did not always use their authority and did not identify with their assigned role
prisoners formed a strong group identity
day 1-3 - prisoners acted in ways that thought would allow them to become guards
day 4 - prisoner group formed a stronger identity because they couldn’t get promoted
day 6 - prisoners rebelled, formed a democracy
day 6 onwards - the democracy eventually failed because of the group tensions, some tried to established a hierarchy
why in the BBC study, did they not stick to their assigned role
they didn’t conform to their role, imply that there is flexibility of role.
what are the strengths of the BBC study?
no deception
protection - ethics committee could stop
debriefing and counselling offered
what are the weaknesses of the BBC study?
artificial - low ecological validity cannot be generalised
staged for TV, claims that study was staged and participants were influenced by cameras
lack of empowerment - zimbardo’s guards were prompted to keep order, however they weren’t in this study, lack of motivation and empowerment
what are the weaknesses of the SPE?
deception - were not told the real aim of the study
privacy - arrested at their homes by real police officers
harm - psychologically, dehumanised, physically, beaten
guards may have been acting what they saw in movies and not how guards act in real life
biased sample - male american,
small sample size, cannot be generalised
reicher and haslam repeated the study - didn’t find the same results, validity questionable
what are the strengths of SPE study?
methodology:
randomly assigned
all deemed mentally stable
were able to leave at any point
debriefing sessions for several years afterwards, no long lasting negative effects
RWA - SPE was similar to what happened in Abu Ghraib
Zimbardo believed the guards who committed the abuses were the victims of situational factors that made abuse more likely, lack of training, no accountability to higher authority.
