Social Influence

Question 1

Explain what is meant by internalisation.

Answer 1

Internalisation is where you accept the group’s beliefs as yours
You change both your public and private views
And it is a permanent change as you continue to think this even when not in the group

Question 2

Explain what is meant by compliance.

Answer 2

Compliance is where you go along with the group to fit in
Even if you don’t really believe their view point
For example, in Asch’s study, many of the naive participants went along with the wrong answer so as to not to look stupid

Question 3

What is normative social influence?

Answer 3

This is where people go along with the behaviour of the group
To gain approval from others
Likely to lead to compliance

Question 4

Identify 3 variables affecting conformity in Asch’s experiment.

Answer 4

Group size - Asch varied the no. Of confederates
Unanimity - Asch sometimes arranged for a confederate to give a different answer to the majority
Task difficulty - Asch made the right answer less obvious by having lines of similar length

Question 5

What is informational social influence?

Answer 5

When someone conforms because they want to be right
They look to others by copying or obeying them
Usually leads to internalisation

Question 6

What are the findings of Asch’s study on conformity?

Answer 6

36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
Control trial - only 1% of responses given by participants were incorrect

Question 7

How does group size affect conformity?

Answer 7

An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
Low conformity with group size of confederates less than 3
Conformity rose by 30% if there were more than 3 confederates

Question 8

How does unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 8

In the presence of a dissenter conformity reduces on average to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
Conformity reduces if dissenter gave the right or wrong answer

Question 9

How does task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 9

Conformity increased
We are more likely to look for others for guidance and to assume they are right and we are wrong

Question 10

Briefly explain Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment procedure.

Answer 10

21 male student volunteers were involved in the study - selected by psychological testing that showed them to be emotionally stable
They were randomly allocated to the role of the guard or prisoner

Question 11

What are the findings of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 11

Increased passivity of the ‘prisoners’ in the face of increased brutality of the ‘guards’
Study was abandoned after 5 days
Pathological reactions of the prisoners
Guards became brutal, prisoners became submissive

Question 12

Evaluation of Zimbardo’s study.

Answer 12

Ethical issue - lack of informed consent, whether or not the consent gained was sufficiently informed; deception; lack of protection from psychological harm, whether or not the distress should have been anticipated
Zimbardo playing a dual role - zimbardo’s own behaviour affected the way in which events unfolded, thus the validity of the findings could be questioned
Methodological issue - sample bias; demand characteristics/lack of internal validity; lack of ecological validity
Good internal validity - participant selection; random allocation of roles

Question 13

Evaluation of Asch’s study.

Answer 13

Ethical issues - deception/lack of informed consent; when participants are misled or information is withheld - Asch’s participants were told the study was investigation visual perception and knew nothing of the confederates
Replicable - Asch’s studies had standardised procedures which meant that they could be repeated and so findings will be reliable thus increasing validity of conclusions drawn
Application - little application; only American men were tested by Asch - Neto suggested that women might be more conformist possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships - US is an individualist culture and studies in collectivist cultures have found higher conformity rates

Question 14

Briefly explain Milgram’s procedure on Obedience.

Answer 14

Recruited 40 American male participants supposedly for a study on memory
A confederates was always the ‘LEARNER’ while the true participant was the ‘TEACHER’
Another confederate was an ‘EXPERIMENTER’
Teacher had to give learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time he made a mistake on a task
Shocks were fake but the shock machine was labelled to make them look increasingly severe

Question 15

Explain the findings of Milgram’s study on obedience.

Answer 15

12.5% stopped at 300 volts
65% continued to 450 volts
Observations - ppts showed signs of extreme tension - 3 had ‘full-blown unctrollable seizures’

Question 16

Evaluation of Milgram’s obedience study.

Answer 16

Lacked internal validity - Orne and Holland argued that ppts guessed the electric shocks were fake - so they were play acting - this was supported by Perry’s discovery that only half of the ppts believed the shocks were real - this suggest that ppts may have been responding to deman characteristics
Research support - other research has taken place using Milgram’s procedure and similar results had been produced showing that is is replicable and therefore reliable.
Ethical issues - deception; ppts thought that shocks were real - Milgram’s dealt with this by debriefing ppts - Baumrind felt this deception could have serious consequences for ppts and researchers e.g., no informed consent possible

Question 17

What are the 3 situational variables that affected Milgram’s study on obedience?

Answer 17

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 18

Explain how the 3 situational variables of Milgram’s study affected obedience.

Answer 18

Proximity - when the teacher and learner are in the same room obedience DECREASED from 65% to 40%; when experimenter left the room obedience decreased to 20.5%
Location - study was conducted in a run-down building rather than at the prestigious Yale university - obedience dropped to 47.5% - obedience was higher in the university because the setting was legitimate and had authority
Uniform - experimenter wore a grey lab coat - he had to go on a phone call so an ordinary member of the public in everyday clothes took over - obedience fell to 20%

Question 19

What is meant by ‘agentic state’ as an explanation for obedience?

Answer 19

When a person acts on behalf of an authority figure
The person feels no personal responsibility for their actions

Question 20

What is meant by the autonomous state?

Answer 20

A person in an autonomous state behaves according to their principles and feels responsible for their actions

Question 21

What is meant by legitimacy of authority?

Answer 21

When a person recognises their own and other’s position in a social hierarchy
Legitimacy is increased by visible symbols of authority, e.g, uniform

Question 22

Give one strength and one limitation of the agentic state.

Answer 22

Strength - research support - Milgram’s obedience study where participants went through he procedure quickly without objecting when the experimenter replied he was responsible if Mr Wallace is harmed; ppts acted more easily as an agent
Limitation - doesn’t explain many research findings - Rank and Jacobson’s found that most nurses disobeyed doctors order to give an excessive drug does showing that they did not shift into an agentic state

Question 23

Give one strength and one limitation of legitimacy of authority.

Answer 23

Strength - explains cultural differences - research shows that countries differ in obedience to authority - for example 16% of Australian women obeyed, 85% of German participants obeyed - reflects upbringing
Limitation - cannot explain all disobedience - people may disobey even when they accept the legitimacy of the hierarchal authority structure; for example rank and jacobson’s nurses were disobedient; suggests that innate tendencies towards disobedience may be more important than legitimacy of authority

Question 24

Describe what is meant by the authoritarian personality.

Answer 24

A collection of traits developed from strict parenting
Examples include: conformist/dogmatic/hostile towards those of perceived lower status
Obedient towards people of perceived higher status

Question 25

Outline Adorno et al’s procedure on his study of the authoritarian personality.

Answer 25

Investigated unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups of more than 2000 middle class white Americans
He used the F-scale

Question 26

Explain the findings of Adorno et als research on authoritarian personality.

Answer 26

Authoritarians who scored high on the F-scale identified with strong people and were contemptuous of the weak
They were conscious of their own and other’s status, showing excessive respect as deference to those of higher status

Question 27

Give one strength and one limitation of Adorno et al’s research on authoritarian personality.

Answer 27

Strength - evidence that authoritarians are obedient - elms and milgram interviewed 20 fully obedient ppts from Milgram’s original studies; they scored significantly igher on the F-scale compared to the other 20 disobedient ppts - this suggests that obedient people may share many of the characteristics of people with an authoritarian personality
Limitation - politically biased - doesn’t explain obedience to left-wing authoritarianism