social influence Flashcards
What are the three types of conformity and what do they all mean? (give examples)
Internalisation: genuinelly accepting the groups views, public and private perminent change - sam being vegan because of henry.
Identification: we value the group so identify publicly and not privately - me being vegan with sam and vegetarian at home.
Complience: superficial change, going along with it untill we leave the group - giving the same answer as your class when you thing its wrong.
What are the two explanations for conformity and what do they mean?
Informational social influence: conforming to the group in unfamiliar sitautions because theyre more likely to be right and we want to be right too! this could be coppying answers off someone in class. It often leads to internalisation and is a cognitive process.
Normitive social influence: conforming to social rules to avoid foolishness/rejection and gain approval from the group. This is more common in stressful situations when social support is needed. It often leads to complience and is an emotional process.
What research support is there for normitive social influence?
When Asch interviewed his ptps they said they felt self concious giving their answer and were afraid of disaproval.
When ptps wrote their answers down instead of saying them aloud, conformity dropped to 12.5%.
What research support is there for informational social influence?
In one study when ptps were faced with harder maths problems they conformed more to incorrect answers from the group because the situation is ambiguous and participants dont want to be wrong.
What weaknesses are there for the informational and normitive social influence explanations?
Normitive social influence is dependent on the persons personality and so can’t predict conformity in every case. some people are more/less susceptable to it than others
theres also alot of crossover with the ISI and NSI explanations and we cant tell which one is at play in the studies.
Asch’s study also uses artificial tasks, reducing generalisability outside of the lab.
Describe Asch’s study on conformity.
123 american male ptps are put in groups of 7 with all confedirates. They are presented with two cards. One has 3 different lengthed lines, the other card has a line matching the length of one line from the other card. The confedirates go around the table all saying the wrong line, the actual ptp whos last/almost last then says what they think.
What variables affected conformity in Asch’s research?
Group size: conformity increases to a point with group size, increasing up to three then plateuing.
Unanimity: having a non-conforming confedirate reduced conformity significantly even if theyre saying a diff wrong number.
Task difficulty: conformity increased with harder tasks (ISI).
Outline some of the features of Zimbardo’s study
- 21 male american volunteers
- fake prison set up inbasement of psych department of standord uni
- randomly assigned guard/ prisoner
- told to enbody their social roles
- uniforms: smock and cap/ millitary outfit and reflective sunnys (cant see eyes, loss of humanity)
- prisoners were blindfolded, brought into the prison, stripped and deloused
- they had solitary confinement ‘the hole’ as punishment and a privelage cell for reward
What happened in zimbardos study? (what went wrong)
- the guards and prisoners really identified with their roles
- guards were harrassing and brutal
- prisoners retaliated within 2 days, guards split them up breaking their solidarity
- prisoners became subdude, depressed, anxious after their retaliation
- zimbardo also took on his prison superintendent role strongly, when a prisoner asked to leave he told him to reconsider
- this sent the prisoner into a spiral and eventually left for psychological disturbance
What was milgram studying?
Obedience.
Describe milgrams study.
40 American male volunteers signed up to be on a ‘memory study’ they were randomly assigned teacher/ learner but were actually all teachers paired with a confedirate. The teacher is told to ask quesitons, shocking the learner when wrong, increasing in severity with each answer. The teacher cant see the learner and is played a tape of their voice reacting to the shocks, screaming louder, begging and eventually going silent.
What did Milgrams study find?
Every participant went up to ‘300v’ which was labled intence shock, 65% were fully obedient going to 450v. The participants showed distress, trembing and rarely even seizures. Miglram had to do a full debrief.
What are two things that some people criticise in Milgrams research?
Some ptps said they were play-acting: demand charicteristincs and low external validity
Ethically, Milgram also put ptps in psychological distress, he did debrief but was it really worth the stress for some people?
What research support does Milgrams study have?
A french TV programme replicated milgrams findings using a very simular study layout with a participant being orderd to administer shocks.
What variations effected milgrams study?
Proximity: rates dropped to 40% when they were in the same room, 30% when they had to out their hand on the shocker and 25.5% when given instructions over the phone.
Location: dropped to 47.5% when moved to a run down office block not a lab
Uniform: dropped to 20% when the researcher wore normal clothes
