Social Influence 💕 Flashcards
Conformity
Conformity is a form of social influence that occurs when a person changes their beliefs/attitudes due to group pressure.
Obedience
Doing what an authority figure tells you to do
What are the three types of conformity? Cues
C
Id
It
Who did Asch test in his line experiment on
123 American men
A01 cues for Asch’s conformity study. 1-5
- 123
- Compared lines..
- P’s said answers aloud
- __/18 CT to divert
- P’s sat.. to hear..
in groups of 6 to..
State Asch’s three situational variables (cues)
U
T D
G S
Describe the three situational variables and what they did to conformity rates
U- ally confederate introduced to disagree with other wrong confederates, reduced conformity 25%
TD- made the lines more similar in length, conformity increased
GS- no need for the maj to be more than 3, extra confederate numbers up to 15 did not increase conformity
Evaluation points for Asch (easy)
Cues 1-6 points
- Lab, int
- Lab, ex
- Cultural Limits
- Gender limits
- Ethics
- Explains social issues
Explain evaluation points for Asch 1-5
- Positive for Lab- controlled environment, standardised procedure= high internal validity
- Negative for lab- Artificial situation, does not relate to the pressures of a real situation you would conform in= bad external validity
- Cultural limits, doesn’t generalise study to other cultures,
American participants are individualistic. Bond and Smith found that ppl in collectivist countries conform more. - Gender limits, doesnt generalise to women, assumes women have same conformity levels. Neto later found women are more conformist.
- Ethics
Psychological harm by diseption to p’s. - Explains societal issues
Helps to understand mass conformity such as post holocaust/ German conformity
What are the explanations for conformity (made by D+G)
Deutsh and Gerald 1955
Normative social influence
Informational social influence
Evaluation point for the 2 explanations of conformity
NSI- c in orig Asch 36.8% =12.5%
ISI- Lucas task difficulty
Define social roles
The parts people play in a social group.
Formed from our expectation of what’s appropriate for that specific role
Who did Milgram conduct his study on?
40 American men
What was the aim of Milgram study?
Assess obedience in a situation where an Authority Figure (E) ordered the Participant (T) to give shocks to a Learner located in another room. (Increasing socks by 15 v up to 450)
- the shocks were fake but the Teacher didn’t know this
Milgram findings
100%= 300 volts
65%= 450 volts
Also qualitative data: ps showed extreme t.. =s, s, trembling, biting.., _/40 had..
Conclusion of Milgram study
American p’s willing to obey orders even when harming another person
Explains why at the time 1963 Germans acted as Nazis
What are some traits of an authoritarian personality
- more susceptible to obeying authority
- AP people are submissive to those with higher status and inferior to people they deem as weaker in society
- traditional/conventional values in religion/ gender roles
- rigid cognitive style= black and white way of thinking/ inflexible outlook to the world
According to Adorno what causes an Authoritarian Personality
Conditional love and overly strict parenting
What is the F scale?
A questionnaire that measures Authoritarian personality
What is good about Adorno’s F-scale
Milgram and Elms 1966 interviewed a sample from Milgram original obedience study.
20 fully obedient p’s scored higher on the Fscale than the 20 disobedient p’s
What are the two explanations of resistance to social influence?
Social support (role of allies)
Locus of control
Draw the continuum for locus of control
External loc. Internal loc
|_______________________________|
Fate/luck Only I
Locus of control
Resisting obedience
Higher Loc means greater resistance to social influence
Rotter said that having a strong internal loc will make us less obedient and more likely to resist
Social support (role of allies)
Resisting conformity
Asch’s study= ally confederate broke the unanimity of the group and gave the real p a buddy to follow their own conscience
