Social influence Flashcards
Social influence
the process by which our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by other people
conformity
the process whereby people change their beliefs, attitudes, actions or perceptions to more closely match those held by groups to which they belong or want to belong or by grops whose approval they desire
informational social influence (ISI)
the want to be right about things. this can turn us into us copying other people’s behaviours because you think they know more than you. E.g. when you don’t know which end of the line to queue at you would
normative social influence
the want to be liked and accepted by others. we may change our normal behaviour to fit into a particular group of people.
social factors affecting conformity
task difficulty, group size anonymity
dispositional factors affecting conformity
personality and expertise
personality
the less positive a self esteem and IQ a person has the more likely they are to conform
expertise
the more expertise the less likely we are to conform
locus of control
the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives
Asch AIM
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority could affect a person to conform
Asch PPT
123 American Male Students
Asch PROCEDURE
There was 1 naive ppt in each group. The rest were confederates. The confeds were told to give incorrect answers in 12/18 trials, namely the critical trials. The question was which line (A,B or C) matched with line X. The naive ppt was always last or close to last to answer, providing him with pressure to conform.
Asch FINDINGS
76% conformed at least once
37% conformed during all critical trials
Asch CONCLUSION
People conform to fit into a group, even when they know they’re right. However, various factors affect conformity and some people are able to resist it
Asch EVALUATION
D: gen, all men and students, not aplicable to gen society
D: low ecological validity, matching lines isn’t normal, not reflect conformity irl
D: validity, tells more about the culture of 1950s america, more conservative
internal locus of control
when people believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them
external locus of control
believe its mainly a matter of luck or outside forces
obedience
type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure with percieved authority
agent
a person who acts on behalf of others
milgrams agency theory
an individual will obey a figure of authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility of the consequences of their actions
- milgrams ppts believed the experimenter would take responsibility and so did as told
automous state
when you behave according to your own principles and feel responsible for your own actions
agentic state
a mental state where we feel no responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting to an authority figure
agentic shift
change happens after an authority figure has been identified and an individual feels as though they need to follow their commands
fascism
far-right form of government in whihc most of the country’s power is held by one ruler or a small group under a single party.
people high on the f-scale
- have exaggerated respect for authority
- more likely to obey
- look down on inferior social status
style of thinking from authoritarian
A rigid cognitive style - black in white thinking. For example, they prefer to believe in rigid stereotypes.
authoritarian
favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, espiecally that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom
disadvantages of the f-scale
- based on a flawed questionaire. There was a response bias - yes = AP, no = not AP. lacks validity
- data correlation -> can’t establish cause and effect. may be other factors that explain the link between obedience and AP
- Both social and dispositional. Not all germans had an Ap, cause they didn’t have same upbringing. Can’t only be personality.
how does an AP develop
When a child experiences overly strict parenting and conditional love. The parents expect absolute loyalty and and have extremely high standards of achievement. The child would internalise these values and expect all people to behave like it.
Scapegoating
People with AP need to displace their anger on someone else, someone inferior, in order to relieve their anxiety and hostility
prosocial
beneficial to other people and may not be necessarily benefit the helper
bystander behaviour
when individuals are compelled not to act in an emergency situation if other people are present
bystander intervention
when a bystander does help the person in need
bystander apathy
when a person doesn’t help the person in need
diffusion of responsibility in terms of the bystander effect
the more bystanders that witness an incident, the less likely one of them will help
pluralistic ignorance
when in situations, we oftne look at others and react based on what other people are doing. So, if no one is helping, we assume the event is non-emergency
social factors affecting the bystander effect
the prescence of others
the cost of helping
dispositional factors affecting the bystander effect
similarity to the victim
expertise
social factors affecting collective behaviour
social loafing
deinidividuation
culture
social loafing
putting less effort into doing something when you are with others doing the same thing
deindividuation
when an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the group identity of the people around them
collective behaviour
behaviour that emerges when a group of people join together. The group may behave in a way that is different from the way the individuals might have on their own. the group creates their own identity.
milgrams study aim
to find out if ordinary american citizens would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain on another person because they were instructed to
milgram participants
40 American male volunteers aged 20-50 y/o
milgram procedure
via a rigged draw, the ppt played the teacher whilst the confed was the learner.
the learner was strapped into a chiar and had electrodes attached to him, to prove the equipment worked, ppt recieved an initial 45V shock.
Play word game and every mistake the learner made would make him recieve a shock increasing by 15v each time.
to standardise, the learner unknown to the ppt played a recording of screams.
After 300V there was silence from the learner.
To encourage the ppt 4 standardised prods were used.
After exp finished, the teacher was fully debriefed and reintroduced to the learner, who had come to no harm.
milgram results
100% went to 300V, 65% went to max 450V
milgram conclusion
people will obey a percieved authority figure to carry out harmful actions on other people
milgram evaluate
S: standardised procedure, like recorded screams or prods. other researcher can check to see if they achieve the same results, making it replicable.
D: generalisability, all male americans, gen with caution to other cultures and genders.
D: ethical issues:
- right to withdraw was made difficult
- psych harm, some ppts experienced seizures
A: applicable, results were eye opening for the world in attempting to explain how ppl carried out horrific acts in WW2.
EV of milgram
Yale university - a prestigious skl in which ppl are more likely to obey figures of authority
