Social Influence 😎 Flashcards
Paper 1
1
Q
what is social influence?
A
- extent to which we are influenced by others in terms of our behaviour and beliefs
2
Q
what are the main three areas of social influence?
A
- conformity
- obedience
- minority influence
3
Q
what is conformity?
A
- majority influence
- tendency to change our behaviour and/ or beliefs in response to the influence of others
4
Q
what is obedience?
A
- where an individual complies with a direct order from a figure with perceived authority
5
Q
what are examples of conformity in everyday life?
A
- fashion trends
- drinking and drugs
- queueing
6
Q
what are the types of conformity?
A
- compliance
- identification
- internalisation
7
Q
what is compliance?
A
- conforms publically with views and behaviours of others
- privately disagrees
8
Q
what is identification?
A
- adopts the view of a group publically and privately as they identify with the group and feel a sense of group membership
- temporary
9
Q
what is internalisation?
A
- adopts view of a group publically and privately
- becomes part of individuals value system
- permanent/ long term
- ie. conversion
10
Q
who studied conformity?
A
- Asch (1959)
- Sherif (1935)
11
Q
what was the aim of Asch’s study into conformity?
A
- to see if individuals would conform to a majority when presented with an unambiguous task
- clear right and wrong answer
12
Q
what was the method used by Asch in his study into conformity?
A
- recruited 123 male students and asked them to participate in a visual perception task
- one genuine participant was placed in a group of 7-9 accomplices to the study
- all seated around a table and shown a pair of cards
- one card was a test line and the other had 3 comparison lines of differing lengths
- correct answer was obvious and they were asked to say aloud their answer
- accomplices asked to give the wrong answer on 12/18 ‘critical’ trials
- repeated for 123 participants
13
Q
what were the findings of Asch’s study into conformity?
A
- 26% participants never conformed
- 76% conformed to give incorrect answer at least once
- 5% participants conformed on every critical trial
14
Q
what did Asch find out from debriefing interviews after his conformity study took place?
A
- most participants knew they were giving the wrong answer and did not want to stand out
- some didn’t want to upset the experimenter
- few reported they doubted themselves (ie. eyesight) and did not believe they were giving a wrong answer
15
Q
what did Asch conclude from his conformity study?
A
- even when the correct response is obvious, there may be strong group pressure to conform
- especially if the group in unanimous
- individuals conform for different reasons
16
Q
what are the two types of social influence?
A
- normative social influence
- informational social influence
17
Q
what is normative social influence?
A
- desire to be liked/ accepted
- often results in compliance only
18
Q
what is informational social influence?
A
- desire to be right
- look to other to give them information on how to behave/ think
- occurs in ambiguous situations
- often results in identification/ internalisation
19
Q
what are limitations of social influence?
A
- population validity (all male and students)
- ecological validity (laboratory; artificial)
- ethical issues (deception; false aim/ confederates, harm to participants; embarrassment, lack of informed consent; were debriefed however)
20
Q
what variables did Asch change when he carried his study again into conformity?
A
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
21
Q
how did Asch vary group size when he repeated his original study into conformity?
A
- used 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 15 confederates in the group
- conformity increased as number of confederates increased from 1 to 3, but after this there was little difference
- in some conditions, having 15 confederates led to lower levels of conformity due to increasing suspicion
22
Q
how did Asch vary unanimity when he repeated his original study into conformity?
A
- when one confederate gave the correct answer on every trial, conformity decreased from 37% to 5.5%
- presence of a dissenter reduced conformity for two reasons: provided useful information about the correct response and reduced need to group social approval
- also found one confederate giving a different incorrect response reduced conformity
- more important than group size
23
Q
how did Asch vary task difficulty when he repeated his original study into conformity?
A
- difficult tasks increased conformity
- ie. comparison lines are similar in length to standard lines
24
Q
how do individual differences affect conformity?
A
- conformity has been found to be higher amongst those who: have low self esteem, are more concerned with social relationships, have strong needs for social approval and those with low self efficacy
25
what was the name of the study by Sherif investigating conformity?
- auto kinetic effect
26
what is the auto kinetic effect studied by Sherif?
- where, in a completely dark room, a stationary pinpoint of light appears to move
27
what did Sherif find when he investigated conformity using the auto kinetic effect?
- people were asked initially on their own how much the light moved and again in groups
- people's perception of amount of light moved conformed to a group norm when they were asked together
- task was ambiguous however
28
how did the overall findings of Asch and Sheriff's studies into conformity differ?
- Asch found people conformed due to normative social influence, resulting in compliance mostly
- Sherif found people conformed due to informational social influence, resulting in internalisation or identification
29
what are social roles (conformity)?
- behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status
30
who researched conformity to social roles?
- Zimbardo (1973)
31
what study did Zimbardo carry out into conformity to social roles?
- Stanford Prison Study
32
what was the aim of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment?
- test the 'dispositional hypothesis' (false in the end; 'situational hypothesis' instead)
33
what is the dispositional hypothesis?
- people behave as they do because of inbuilt personality characteristics
34
what is the situational hypothesis?
- situation people find themselves ii make them act in extreme ways
35
what is deindividuation?
- process of losing one's self
- often associated with group/ mob behaviour
36
what is dehumanisation?
- denial of full humanness to others
- enables aggression and mistreatment of others
37
what participants were used in Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment (procedure)?
- 24 male volunteers selected, judged emotionally stable, physically healthy and average on a personality test
- all white, middle class students with no history of psychiatric problems and had never been in trouble with the police
- randomly allocated to guard or prisoner roles
38
what was the procedure used by Zimbardo in his Stanford Prison experiment?
- those allocated prisoner roles were unexpectedly arrested, blindfolded and taken to the prison
- upon arrival they were stripped naked, given uniforms and an ankle chain
- prisoners were referred to by numbers and accommodated in small cells with others
- guards wore military style uniforms and reflector sunglasses to prevent direct eye contact
- guards carried clubs, whistles and handcuffs
- had complete control over prisoners but there was no physical aggression permitted
39
what were the findings of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment?
- after initial 'rebellion' had been crushed, prisoners reacted passively, guards increased aggression daily
- prisoners felt helpless and no longer in control
- every guard behaved abusively at some point and in an authoritarian way
- 36 hours, one prisoner released due to rage, uncontrolled crying and severe depression
- another developed a rash after 'parole' request denied
- prisoners became demoralised, and referred to themselves and others by their numbers
- experiment was abandoned after 6 days
40
why was the dispositional hypothesis rejected in Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment?
- conditions of prisons are to be blamed rather than personalities of guards and prisoners
- accept situational hypothesis
41
what strengths are there of the Stanford Prison experiment?
real world application
- explains behaviours of US soldiers at Abu Graib
- Zimbardo argues that the guards who committed the abuse were the victims of situational factors that increased likelihood of abuse occurring
high ecological validity
- outsider observer with a history of imprisonment believed the mock prison was similar to that of real life
- Zimbardo concluded different behaviours could not be explained in terms of personal characteristics due to originally being selected for normality and were randomly allocated to roles
42
what ethical implications were there for Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment?
- harm to participants (distress beyond roleplay)
- no consent for initial arrest
- nobody was overseeing the study from afar
43
what were the good ethics behind Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment?
- follow up questionnaires
- gave consent to be in the study
- debriefing sessions afterwards
- psychological tests before study
- no deception
- ended study early
44
who carried out obedience to authority research?
- Milgram
45
what was the aim of Milgram's obedience to authority research?
- find out whether ordinary Americans would obey an unjust order from an authority figure to inflict pain on another person
46
what is the procedure of Milgram's obedience to authority research?
- Yale university
- 40 male volunteers used
- told that the study concerned the role of punishment in learning
- involved teacher (participant), learner and experimenter
- teacher deceived into thinking they were giving electric shocks to the learner (were fake)
- learner should be shocked by teacher every time they failed to learn a list of words
- voltage increased per shock from 15 to 450
- experimenter encouraged teacher to shock the leaner if they hesitated
- continued until 450 volts were reached 4 times
- participant was debriefed afterwards and met the learner accomplice
47
what were the findings of Milgram's obedience to authority research?
- 65% participants gave shocks up to and including 450 volts
- all gave shocks up to 300 volts
- 12.5% stopped at 300 volts
48
what did Milgram find out from debriefing interviews after his obedience study took place?
- 74% of participants learned something of personal importance as a result of being in the study
- 84% were glad they had taken part in the study
- 1 person regretted taking part
49
what are ethical evaluation points for Milgram's obedience to authority research?
- lack of concern for well being of the participants
- deceived them by telling them they were involved in a study into the effects of punishment on learning rather than telling them the true purpose of the study
- unable to make an informed decision before giving consent
- though Milgram claimed they had the right to withdraw at any time, the prods from the experimenter made it more difficult for those who felt they had no choice but to continue
50
how can Milgram's obedience to authority research be evaluated in terms of internal validity?
- Orne and Holland claimed participants learned to distrust experimenters as the true aim may be disguised
- participants in Milgram's study suspected the victim was not suffering due to the experimenter acting calm and distant
51
what are the different situational factors in obedience?
- proximity
- location
- uniform
52
how did Milgram investigate the affect of proximity on obedience?
- both teacher and learner in the same room
- obedience levels fell to 40% as teacher could experience leaners anguish more directly
- more extreme conditions, participants had to force their hand onto a shock plate, dropped to 30%
- experimenter absence study, obedience dropped with only 21% giving maximum shocks
53
how did Milgram investigate the affect of location on obedience?
- originally conducted in a psychology laboratory at Yale University
- several participants remarked that the location of the study gave them confidence in its integrity
- repeated in a run down office in Connecticut, obedience dropped to 48%
54
who researched the affects of uniform in obedience to authority?
- Bushman (1988)
55
what was the procedure behind Bushman' study on the effect of uniform on obedience?
- female researcher dressed either in a police-style uniform, a business executive or a beggar
- she stopped people in the street and told them to give change to a motorist searching for money at a parking meter
56
what were the findings of Bushman' study on the effect of uniform on obedience?
- 72% people obeyed when in police uniform
- much lower when she was dressed as a business executive or a beggar
- when interviewed afterwards, people claimed they obeyed the women in uniform as she appeared to have authority
57
what are the main non dispositional explanations of obedience?
- situational factors
- agentic state
- legitimate authority
58
what is the main dispositional explanation of obedience?
- authoritarian personality
59
what is legitimacy of authority?
- explanation of obedience
- degree of social power held by the person giving an order
60
what is legitimacy of authority determined by?
- external factors
- ie. social power/ roles
61
when do we begin to learn to obey those with authority and why?
- early age
- we trust them
- they have the power to punish us
62
what situational factors convey legitimate authority?
- uniform
- location
63
who demonstrated the effects of legitimate authority?
- Hofling et al (1966)
64
what type of study did Hofling et al carry out?
- field experiment
65
what was the procedure behind Hofling et al's study into legitimate authority?
- boxes containing capsules labelled '5mg Astrofen' placed in 22 wards in psychiatric hospitals
- capsules were placebos
- while nurse was on duty, a doctor (confederate) instructed the nurse over the phone too give 20mg of Astrofen to a patient, Mr Jones
- he said he would sig the authorisation document later
- if the nurse complied, they would be breaking 3 rules: 1) above maximum daily dose, 2) should only be given after written authority obtained, 3) nurse should be certain the doctor is genuine
66
what were the findings of Hofling et al's study into legitimate authority?
- 21 out of 22 nurses complied unhesitantly
- 11 later said they had not noticed the dosage discrepancy
67
how can legitimate authority as an explanation of obedience be supported?
- positive consequences of obedience to legitimate authority
- also can serve as the basis for justifying the harming of others
- no longer feel own moral values are relevant
- this is fostered during military training and reinforced by structure of military authority
68
what is the agentic state as an explanation of obedience to authority?
- individuals operate at two levels in social situations
- autonomous state
- agentic state
69
what is autonomous state (agentic state explanation)?
- individual is aware of consequences of their actions and choose voluntarily to behave in particular ways
- accept responsibility for their behaviour
70
what is agentic state (agentic state explanation?
- individual sees themselves as an agent of another
- carries out orders without accepting personal responsibility for their behaviour
71
what is the agentic shift?
- switch from operating as an autonomous individual to acting as an agent for another person (authority figure)
72
what is the order of the agentic state explanation?
autonomous state -> agentic shift -> agentic state
73
how did Milgram encourage the agentic shift in his obedience study?
- participants asked 'who will be responsible?'
- experimenter replied 'I will'
- allowed participants to continue to obey
74
who provided evidence for the agentic state as an explanation of obedience?
- Dambrun and Vatine (2010)
75
what did Dambrun and Vatine find out about Milgram's study?
- participants who gave the most electric shocks tended to hold the experimenter and victim responsible rather than themselves
- those who gave fewer shocks accepted personal responsibility
76
what is a limitation of the agentic state as an explanation for obedience?
- common belief among scientists suggested Milgram's participants had signs of cruelty and expressed it by giving the shocks
- Zimbardo also found similar things as guards rapidly inflicted cruelty despite not being instructed to do so by an authority figure
- both exposed unflattering aspects of human nature
77
what is authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience?
- characteristics of an individual that would encourage obedience
78
what is authoritarian personality caused by?
- internal factors
79
who studied authoritarian personality?
- Adorno et al (1950)
80
what did Adorno et al argue about the authoritarian personality?
- people have an authoritarian personality making them more likely to be obedient and prejudiced
81
what characteristics did Adorno et al suggest individuals with an authoritarian personality have?
- rigid beliefs about conventional values
- intolerance of ambiguity
- strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies (ie. submissive attitudes to authority figures)
- general hostility towards other groups
82
what did Adorno et al develop concerning the authoritarian personality?
- F scale
83
what did the F scale contain?
- statements such as 'obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn'
84
how did the F scale measure whether someone had an authoritarian personality?
- agreeing with the statements it included
85
what did Adorno et al conclude about those with authoritarian personalities?
- raised by parents with authoritarian parenting style
- including use of physical punishment
86
who refined the concept of authoritarian personality?
- Altemeyer
87
what did Altemeyer identify in reference to the authoritarian personality?
- cluster of the three original personality variables
- right wing authoritarianism (RWA)
88
what are the three personality characteristics associated with RWA?
- conventionalism
- authoritarian aggression
- authoritarian submission
89
what is conventionalism (RWA)?
- an adherence to conventional norms and values
90
what is authoritarian aggression (RWA)?
- aggressive feelings toward people who violate these norms
91
what is authoritarian submission (RWA)?
- uncritical submission to legitimate authority
92
who supported the authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience?
- Elms and Milgram
93
what was the procedure of Elms and Milgram's study into the authoritarian personality?
- follow up study using participants who had previously taken part in one of Milgram's experiments two months before
- selected 20 obedient and 20 defiant participants
- completed two tests: MMPI and F scale
94
what were the findings of Elms and Milgram's study into authoritarian personality?
- found little difference between obedient and defiant participants on MMPI test
- obedient participants found to score higher on authoritarianism than defiant participants
95
what did Milgram find that criticised the affect of having an authoritarian personality on obedience?
- 2/3 participants were fully obedient, far fewer had an authoritarian personality
- social context had a large impact on obedience levels indicating situational variables to be the primary influence rather than personality variables
96
what strengths are there of authoritarian personality in explaining obedience?
- Begue et al replicated Milgrams's study using a fake game show
- participants had to administer (fake) electric shocks to other contestants
- also interviewed using a world value survey
- more participants identified as left winged, lower intensity of shocks they were prepare to give
- link between right wing attitudes, authoritarianism and obedience
97
what is resistance to social influence?
- resisting pressure to conform or obey
- non conformity and disobedience
98
what are the different types of non conformity?
- anti conformity
- resistance to social influence
99
what is anti conformity?
- when an individual acts in opposition to group norm
- group dependent
100
what is resistance to social influence (differ from anti conformity)?
- where individual is not influenced by actions/ decisions of others
101
what is the dispositional factor of resistance to social influence?
- locus of control
102
what is the situational factor of resistance to social influence?
- social support
103
what influence does social support have on resisting social influence?
- increase individuals confidence that their view point is correct
- presents an alternative way to respond to a situation
104
who provided evidence for social support reducing social influence?
- Asch
- presence of a dissenter
105
who investigated resisting pressure to obey?
- Milgram rebel peer
106
what was the procedure of Milgram's rebel peer study?
- teacher was paired with two other 'teachers' (confederates)
- 150 volts first teacher refused to continue
- 210 volts second teacher refused to continue
- experimenter ordered participant teacher to continue
107
what were the findings of Milgram's rebel peer study?
- full obedience fell from 65% to 10% in this variation
- rebel peers act as role models
- presence of two obedient confederates raised obedience levels to 92.5%
108
what is locus of control?
- refers to individual differences in beliefs and expectations about what controls events in their life
109
what are the two types of locus of control?
- internal
- external
110
what is internal locus of control?
- believe that what happens to them is a consequence of internal factors
- own ability and effort and personal decisions
- control the event in their life
111
what is the external locus of control?
- believe that what happens to them is controlled by external factors
- actions of others, luck or fate
- take less responsibility for their actions
112
who supported the link between locus of control and resistance to social influence?
- Avtgis
- Elms and Milgram
113
how did Avtgis provide support for locus of control link to resisting social influence?
- meta analysis of studies which considered locus of control and conformity
- found that those who scored higher on external locus of control were more easily persuaded and likely to conform than those with a low score
- average correlation was 0.37 (statistically significant)
114
how did Elms and Milgram provide support for locus of control link to resisting social influence?
- investigated disobedient in first four of Milgram's study
- found they had a high internal locus of control
115
what is minority influence?
- people reject the established norm of majority group members
- gradually move towards position of the minority
116
what does minority influence involve and lead to?
- conversion
- internalisation of the minority views
117
why does conversion occur in minority influence?
- being exposed to a viewpoint different to our own causes cognitive conflict
- think deeply about the issue
- reappraise our perspective
118
what are the three ways to bring about conversion to minority viewpoint?
- consistency
- commitment
- flexibility
119
what is consistency?
- stability in expressed position over time
- agreement between different members of the minority
120
who demonstrated consistency and how?
- Wood et al
- meta analysis of 97 studies on minority influence
- found consistent minorities were particularly influencial
121
who carried out the key study on consistency?
- Moscovici et al (1969)
122
what is commitment?
- degree of dedication to a particular cause
- illustrated by risking costs or inconvenience to themselves
123
what does commitment suggest?
- certainty
- confidence
- courage
124
what is flexibility?
- willingness to compromise when expressing an opinion
125
who supports the role of flexibility in minority influence?
- Mugny
- more effective than rigidity (perceived as dogmatic)
126
why do minorities have to be flexible?
- typically powerless compared to majority
- must negotiate position rather than enforce it
127
what happens if a minority is too flexible?
- seen as inconsistent
128
what was the procedure of Moscovici et al's research into consistency?
- each group comprised of 4 naïve participants and a minority of 2 confederates
- shown blue slides varying in intensity and were asked to judge the colour of each
- consistent condition, 2 confederates repeatedly called them green
- inconsistent condition, called slides green on 2/3 of the trials
129
what were the findings of Moscovici et al's research into consistency?
- consistent minority influenced naïve participants to say green on over 8% of trials
- inconsistent group exerted little influence and did not differ significantly from the control group
130
what happened after Moscovici et al's main study into consistency was over?
- participants asked individually to sort 16 discs into blue or green
- 10 were ambiguous in that they could be considered blue or green
- had to establish a threshold between blue and green discs
- those in the consistent group previously judged more discs to be green than those from the inconsistent condition
- initial influence was more at a private than public level
131
what are the strengths of Moscovici's study into consistency?
- laboratory experiment
- high level of control
- establish cause and effect
- standardised procedures
- replicable
132
what are the limitations of Moscovici's study into consistency?
- artificial trivial task
- lack of mundane realism and ecological validity
- 8% is low success rate
- not very strong support for consistency
133
who provided research support for flexibility, other than Mugny?
- Nemeth and Brilmayer
- studied role of flexibility in a stimulated jury situation
- group members discussed amount of compensation to be paid to someone involved in a ski lift accident
- rigid minority had no affect on other group members
- flexible minority influenced the majority
134
why is the timing of compromising important (flexibility)?
- late compromise shows commitment and flexibility
- early compromise shows less commitment and flexibility and perceived as caving to the majority
135
what are strengths of Nemeth and Brilmayer's research into flexibility?
- less artificial task than Moscovici
- greater mundane realism and ecological validity
- questions Moscovici as questions whether consistency necessarily results in minority influence
136
through what does social change occur?
- minority influence
- majority influence
- disobedience and obedience
137
how does a minority produce social change?
- creating attention
- cognitive conflict
- consistency
- commitment and augmentation principle
- snowball effect
- dissociation model
138
what does 'creating attention' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- deviant minority draws attention to issues that may otherwise have been ignored
- ie. suffragettes
139
what does 'cognitive conflict' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- minority creates conflict between what the majority group members currently believe and the position advocated by the minority
- majority think more deeply about the issues
140
what does 'consistency' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- minorities are more influential when they express arguments consistently (over time and with others)
141
what are the two types of consistency when referring to a minority influencing social change?
- intra individual
- inter individual
142
what does 'commitment and augmentation principle' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- if a minority is willing to suffer for their views they are seen as more committed and taken more seriously by others
- through sacrifice, impact is increased (augmented)
143
what does 'snowball effect' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- minority influence initially has little effect but this spreads more widely
- until reaches a tipping point
- wide scale social change
144
what does 'dissociation model' in reference to minorities creating social change mean?
- content and original source of minority causing social change become dissociated
- ie. feminism
145
what is the role of majority influence of social change?
- mostly through normative social influence
146
how does normative social influence lead to social change?
- social norms interventions
147
what are social norms interventions?
- change risky behaviour
- identify misconception of a group norm and identify actual group norm to encourage conformity to majority
148
who studied normative social influence in reference to social change?
- Nolan et al
- energy conservation
149
how did Nolan et al support the role of majority influence on social change?
- placed door hangers carrying one of four messages on doors of residents
- one message stated majority of their neighbours regularly tried to conserve energy (group norm condition)
- group norm condition led to significant decreases in residents' energy consumption compared to a control group
150
how does the role of obedience cause social change?
- laws that reinforce social change
- ie. drink driving laws
151
how does the role of disobedience cause social change?
- through disobedient role models
- ie. Rosa Parks
152
what are limitations of social change through social norms interventions?
- not all interventions have led to social change
- DeJong et al tested effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns to drive down alcohol consumption amongst students
- despite reading normative information correcting misconceptions, students did not show lower perceptions of student drinking levels
153
what is a limitation of social change through minority influence?
- very gradual
- strong tendency for humans to conform to the majority position
- rather maintain status quo rather than engage in social change
- influence of minority is more latent than direct
