Social influence Flashcards
Explain the types of conformity suggested by Kelman
Compliance (shallow)- conforming publicly but disagree privately
Identification (intermediate)- conform to behaviour of group even if you don’t agree. Changing behaviour to fit social role
Internalisation (deep)- changing personal and
private belief and is permanent change. Accepted and internalised views as your own
Describe and explain explanations for conformity
Informational social influence (ISI)- we observe the behaviour of majority to know how to behave as they are likely to be right and we want to be correct. Results in internalisation
Normative social influence (NSI)- we comply as we want to be accepted and gain social approval in order to be liked. Results in compliance
Evaluation for explanations for conformity
Research support for NSI from Asch’s study- ppts given ambitious task of matching line to standard line and confederates would pick the wrong answer and ppt would comply and when the ppts were interviews after they said they complied to avoid rejection. However this task lacks mundane realism as conformity is different in the real world is different
Describe Asch’s study and the findings
Participants took part in an ambiguous task. There was 7-9 confederates. They were shown lines and had to match it to the standard line.on 12 critical trials the confederates gave the wrong answer. They found that 32% conformed and 0.04% in control group and 75% conformed at least once and 5% conformed all 12 times.
Explain the variations in Asch’s study
Group size-3% conformed with 1 confederate and 13% with 2 confederates and 33% with 3 confederates. Group size increases so does conformity
Unanimity- confederate before ppt disagrees and gives correct answer meant that conformity dropped to 5.5%
Task difficulty-decrease difference between lines meant it’s more difficult so as difficulty increased so did conformity because you want to be right informative social influence (ISI)
Give strengths of Asch’s study
High internal validity as he conducted a lab experiment so extraneous variables were controlled. Ppts tested before to see if they know the answer or not so cause and effect can be established
Supports idea of NSI- ppts said they conformed in order to fit in with the rest so supports the idea of conforming publicly but disagreeing privately
Give weaknesses of Asch’s study
Lacks ecological validity as it’s done in a lab and lacks mundane realism as task is based on perception of lines which cannot be generalised to real life situations and reflect conformity
Lacks temporal validity-study done in 1950s America where it was the norm to conform however nowadays you aren’t expected to conform
Describe zimbardos study into conformity to Social role.
Created a fake prision at Stanford university of 21 American males from a volunteer sample. Prisoners were arrested, finger printed, given uniform and a number to make it realistic. Guards were given u inform and sunglasses. However was cancelled on the 6th day due to concerns for mental health prisoners and guards conformed to their social roles
give strengths of zimbardos study
Controlled observations so extraneous variables controlled
Practical application as it changed the way US prix ions ran young prisoner’s not kept with adults
Debriefing ppts we’re debriefed about the aim and it deals with the deception helps increase validity and reliability.
Give weaknesses of zimbardos study
Lack of ecological validity as prisoners and guards may of been acting due to stereotype’s seen in the media leading to demand characteristics a ppt acted according to a show called cool hand Luke this means they aren’t conforming to their social role.
Lacks population validity and is androcentric as it used a sample 21 American males so findings can’t be generalised to other cultures and the other gender so findings are culture bound
Explain milgrams study into explanation for obedience
Used a volunteer sample in a newspaper ad and deceived them by saying that it’s a memory test.the teacher would always the real ppt and learner and experimenter would be a confederate. Experimenter was in a grey lab coat . Teacher was instructed to give the learner shocks for each wrong answer the electrical shocks ranged from 15v-450v . If ppt was hesitant on delivering the shock verbal prods would be given . Sample of 40 males was used
Outline the findings to Milgram’s study
All ppt went up to 300v
12.5% stopped at 300v
65% went up to 450v
Give strengths of Milgrams study
Good external validity and can be seen in Holfing et al, who looked at obedience in nurses when doctor gave demanded orders against hospital policy. 21/2s nurses obeyed and this has a mundane realism so is generalisable
Miranda et al looked at obedience in Spanish students suggesting it’s generalisable to other cultures and females so isn’t limited to American males overcomes the issue of lack of population validity
Weaknesses of Milgrams study
Lacks ecological validity as conducted in a laboratory setting so variables were controlled and so findings can’t be generalised however support from holding et al shows it can have high ecological validity as it was in a hospital setting
Lacks population validity as sample is androcentric, used 40 American males so can’t be generalised as sample is bias and may be different in the other gender and other cultures
Broke ethical guidelines such as deception and right to withdrawn. Ppts were deceive by being told it’s a memory test but this meant that there was no demand characteristics . Verbal prods were given to the teacher to encourage them to keep going. However in the 1960s there were no ethical guidelines
Describe and explain the situational variable of proximity in milgram’s study
In the first variation the learner and teacher were in the same room and obedience dropped to 40% compared to 62.5% in original experiment
In variation 2 teacher had to place the learner hand on the shock plate and obedience dropped to 30%
