social influence Flashcards
what is conformity?
a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.
what is a confederate/stooge?
someone who participates in an experiment who is secretly working for the researcher, unknown to the participant.
what is flexibility (minority influence)?
minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority is willing to compromise.
what is consistency (minority influence)?
minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority holds the same beliefs and retains it over time.
what is social change?
where a society changes over time to replace previous beliefs and attitudes with new norms and values.
what is the definition of social influence?
intentional and unintentional efforts to change another person’s beliefs and attitudes.
what is minority influence?
where a minority changes the beliefs and attitudes of a majority group.
what is locus of control?
an individual’s perception about the main causes of events in their lives.
internal locus of control - the individual believes that they have personal control over the events in their life.
external locus of control - the individual believes that the events in their life are caused by external factors.
what is social support?
where people are more likely to resist pressures to conform if they have support from a dissenter.
what is the definition of resistance to social influence?
the ability to withstand the pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority.
what is the authoritarian personality?
when a person has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.
what is legitimacy of authority?
an explanation of obedience that says we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us.
what is the agentic state?
a mental state in which we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe to be acting for the authority figure
what is internalisation?
a type of conformity where we genuinely accept the groups norms, both publicly and privately, and this is a permanent change that remains even when we are not in the presence of the group.
what is identification?
a type of conformity where we conform to the opinions of the group because we value it and want to be a part of it, but we may not always agree with everything that the group believes.
what is compliance?
a type of conformity where we simply ‘go along with it’ in the presence of the group while holding our own internal beliefs, and this change in behaviour only lasts while the group is present.
what is commitment (minority influence)?
minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority group shows dedication to their position.
what is informed consent?
where participants enter research willingly with full information about the experiment.
what is informative social influence?
the need to be right.
we conform to the opinions of others because we believe that they are correct and we also want to be correct.
what is normative social influence?
the need to be liked.
we conform to the opinions of others because we value them and want to be accepted by the group.
what is obedience?
a form of social influence where an individual follows a direct order.
what are demand characteristics?
cues that may indicate the study aims to participants. these can lead participants to change their behaviour based on what they think the research is about.
what is deception?
when a researcher gives false information to subjects or misleads them about some key aspects of the research
what is the definition of social roles?
the parts we play as members of various social groups.
