Social influence

Question 1

What was Asch’s hypothesis

Answer 1

see the extent at which people would conform if the answer was ambiguous

Question 2

What was his baseline procedure

Answer 2

123 American male students tested. Line X which was compared to ABC one corresponded in size, participants had to say out loud their answer
18 trials in total 12 being critical trials where confederates purposely gave the wrong answer

Question 3

what was the physical arrangements

Answer 3

They were tested in groups of 6 to 8 and the real participants were asked to go last or second to last the rest were confederates and gave the wrong answer everytime

Question 4

Asch baseline findings

Answer 4

genuine participants agreed with confederates 36.8% of the time 1/3 of the time
25% never conformed

Question 5

What is the group size variable

Answer 5

varied the number of confederates to see if it would affect conformity from 1 to 15. conformity increased with group size but only to a point with 3 confederates the conformity rose to 31.8 but leveled off

Question 6

unanimity variable

Answer 6

The idea that if a non conforming person would affect the rate of conformity, this person gave a correct answer or a different one too the one everyone guessed, genuine participant conformed less when there was the presence of a dissenter, freed the ppt to be more independent

Question 7

Task difficulty

Answer 7

He made the lines more similar to each other to see if it was harder for genuine ppt to see the differences in the lines. Conformity increased as the task became harder. They look to others for help when they don’t know the answer informational social influence

Question 8

what are the 3 ways people conform

Answer 8

internalisation: when a person genuinely accepts group norm and peoples part of how they think
identification: conform to opinions of groups because we have value in them identify in public but may not believe privately
compliance: when we go along with something even though we may not agree with it

Question 9

who made the explanation’s for conformity

Answer 9

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955)

Question 10

What is informational social influence

Answer 10

conforming when you want to be right, you may not have all the information or may ne new to a situation and believe the group is more likely to be right(cognitive process)

Question 11

What is normative social influence

Answer 11

norms regulate behaviours of groups, when people act in a certain way in order to not look foolish or be rejected, emotional rather than cognitive process. Leads to temporary change(compliance) do not want to feel rejected or outcasted

Question 12

What was Zimbardo’s hypothesis

Answer 12

wanted to know why guards were so brutal and if it was their social role that created such behaviour

Question 13

Experiment (zimbardo)

Answer 13

set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department of Stanford prison and randomly assigned 21 American students as the role of guard and prisoner $15 a day got them from new advertisement.
had uniforms like guards and prisoner loose clothes with a cap to over their hair. Guards had uniform and mirror shades. loss of personal identity
they were given instructions of behaviour and encouraged to identify with the role in which they were given

Question 14

Findings(Zim)

Answer 14

Guards treated the prisoners very harshly and after a few days they rebelled
they harassed the prisoners dehumanising them and victimising them, making the prisoners depressed and anxious one released due to psychological disturbance they became more and more aggressive enjoying the power they had over the prisoners after the 6 day the experiment was ended early

Question 15

Milgram’s hypothesis

Answer 15

Used to assess peoples obedience levels

Question 16

Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 16

40 American men (20-50) paid $4.50 volunteered to take part in a memory study at the lab. There was another person(Confederate) teacher given a small shock to experience it . They drew lots to see who would be the learner and teacher the real participant was always the teacher and an experimenter in a grey coat. They were given word pairs and they were meant to remember if they made a mistake they were given an electric shock which increased in voltage with every incorrect answer. At 300 the learner knocked on the wall in pain but after 315 the learner gave no response and the experiment kept prodding the teacher to continue

Question 17

Findings

Answer 17

all participants went up to 300 volts 12.5 stopped after 300 65% continue to the highest level. All of them showed signs of distress being nervous laughing, nail biting scratching some had full seizures

Question 18

What are situational variables

Answer 18

factors that affect obedience(Milgram)

Question 19

Proximity

Answer 19

Teacher could see learner but not hear him in baseline study, in a variation the teacher and learner were in the same room obedience dropped to 40%
Another version was were the teacher had to force the learners hand onto the electric plate if he forgot to do so himself dropped to 30%
When experimenter left the room the obedience rate dropped to 20.5%

Question 20

What is the explanation from proximity

Answer 20

increased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequence of their actions

Question 21

Location

Answer 21

When done in a rundown office block obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 22

Explanation

Answer 22

At more prestigious institutions they feel as though the experiment had more legitmacy to authority but in a rundown office block there was no legitimacy

Question 23

Uniform

Answer 23

Main study was in a lab coat variation were they were in normal everyday clothes obedience dropped to 20% as lab coats are recognised as a symbol of authority but without it they gave no authority

Question 24

Agentic state

Answer 24

Milgram wanted to see why Adolf Eichmann leader of death camps did what he did and he said that he was just obeying orders, Milgram proposed that people act as agents and feel extreme guilt but anxiety to disobey orders

Question 25

What is the autonomous state/ agentic shift

Answer 25

Independent or free will acting in your own independent manner, agentic shift is shift from independency to subduing to higher authorities

Question 26

What is binding factors

Answer 26

Factors that help people minimise the dam gaging effects of their behaviour mentally to reduce moral strain by shifting responsibility to someone else eg the victim

Question 27

What is legitimacy of authority

Answer 27

People with higher power that we give out independence to carry out their justice appropriately and we learn to accept it

Question 28

Destructive authority

Answer 28

People with authority can become destructive and use their power to order people to act in cruel and inhumane ways
mailgram study when the experimenter used prods to lead people to do things that they didn’t want to do

Question 29

Authoritarian personality

Answer 29

Extreme respect to authority, and view society as weaker than it was and looks down on those weaker than them. Strong and powerful leaders to make the country as it once was. Everything is either right or wrong

Question 30

Origins of authoritarian personality

Answer 30

Forms in childhood as a result of harsh parenting, strict discipline with expectations of absolute loyalty and severe criticism with conditional love. Develops hostility in a child but cannot be directed against their parents so displaced on other that are seen as weaker than them

Question 31

Adorno et al

Answer 31

2000 middle class men of their unconscious attitudes toward other ethnic group. Developed fascist scale to measure authoritarian personality

Question 32

Finding(Adorno)

Answer 32

People high on the scale identified with strong people with contempt for the weak they showed extreme respect to those of higher status, they had black and white thinking which was stereotypes of other ethic groups (prejudice)

Question 33

Resisting to conformity(social support)

Answer 33

pressure to conform can be resisted if there are more people present that do not conform Asch study a dissenter, allows the ppt to follow their own conscience as the support acts as model behaviour

Question 34

Resisting to obedience(social support)

Answer 34

if someone disobeys pressure to obey decreases, obedience rate in Milgram’s study decreased from 65% to 10% when the genuine ppt had a disobedient confederate
Acts as a model

Question 35

Locus of control

Answer 35

Julian rotter proposed LOC
internal LOC-things that happen to them are controlled by themselves if you work hard you get what you deserve
external LOC- believe that external factors such as if you did bad in a test blame on teachers

Question 36

LOC continuum

Answer 36

People vary within the continuum not just one or the other may have high low or between

Question 37

Resistance to social influence

Answer 37

People with high internal LOC are more able to resist social influence as they take responsibility of their own actions and tend to do things based on their own beliefs
They tend to be more self confident and more intelligent greater resistance to social influence(tend to be leaders)

Question 38

Minority influence

Answer 38

When one person or a small group of people influence they behaviours of other people, leads to internalisation

Question 39

Moscovici et al 1969

Answer 39

6 people shown 36 set of blue coloured slides that varied in intesnty and were asked to say if it was blue or green, in each group there were two confederates that consistently said that they were green true ppt gave same wrong answer 8.42% of the time

Question 40

What are the factors that lead to Minority influence

Answer 40

Consistency- they are saying the same thing for long period times so it reaches all different types of people and gets people to rethink about certain things
Commitment- extreme activities to draw the attention of the majority
flexibility- people are not seen as too rigid and are able to bend their view to get other approval

Question 41

explaining change

Answer 41

Make people think more deeply about it shows their consistency and flexibility and changes internalises groups of people and eventually the whole population snowball effect

Question 42

Social change

Answer 42

1.draw attention by doing something large and shows commitment
2.consistency continual prodding about the same topic to get the message across
3.deeper processing of the issue the activism made people think more deeply about it and question the current system
4.augmentation principle people who take very large risks to reinforce their beliefs
5.snowball effect get the attention of the majority and slowly the belief start to change internalisation
6.social cryptomensia change as come about but people have no memory of how it occurred

Question 43

lessons from conformity research