Social influence Flashcards
1
Q
whats social influence?
A
the process by which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and behaviours
2
Q
what does social influence include?
A
conformity
obedience
minority influence
3
Q
what’s conformity?
A
a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressures from a person or group.
4
Q
what are the types of conformity?
A
identification
internalisation
compliance
5
Q
Who suggest that there were 3 types of conformity?
A
Herbert Kelman (1958)
6
Q
what’s internalisation?
A
individual accepts the views and behaviours of the group and internalises them so views change publicly and privately
7
Q
what’s identification?
A
conforming to a group because we value their views and opinions so views change publicly but not privately
8
Q
what’s compliance?
A
individual conforms to the groups views and changes public beliefs but private as behaviours is superficial
9
Q
what type of conformity is superficial?
A
compliance
10
Q
what do normative and informative social influence outline?
A
why people conform
10
Q
what did Deutsch and Gerard (1955) develop?
A
normative and informational social influence
11
Q
whats normative social influence
A
The desire to fit in/be liked as we want to fit in with the norms of the group. Often fearful of rejection.
12
Q
whats informative social influence?
A
the desire to be right due to being unsure of the situation or just lacking knowledge and thus agreeing with the majority due to them having more proposed knowledge than you.
13
Q
what does the individual do in normative social influence?
A
goes along with the group but internally still holds their own thoughts and opinions (compliance)
14
Q
what does the individual do in informational social influence?
A
internalise their response so agree publicly and also change personal opinions
15
Q
Who studied Conformity?
A
Solomon Asch (1951, 1955)
16
Q
Asch sample?
A
123 American male undergraduates
17
Q
Asch’s procedure
A
On the card was a “standard line” and on the other card there were three “comparison lines”. One of the three lines was the same length as the standard and the other two were always substantially different.
The participant was asked which of the three lines matched the standard line.
18
Q
what are naïve and confederate pp?
A
confederate - appears to be a pp but actually works for the experimenter to manipulate the study
naïve - real pp who are being tested in the study
18
Q
Asch’s findings
A
36.8% of the responses made by naïve participants were incorrect
19
Q
What were the 3 variations he looked into?
A
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
19
Q
What did Asch later conduct?
A
An extended experiment
20
Q
What did Asch find with group size?
A
Asch found that with three confederate’s conformity to the wrong answer was 31.8% and when it was two it dropped to 13% and with one confederate, conformity was only 3% of time.
21
Q
What did Asch find with unanimity?
A
introducing of confederates that would agree and say to right answer (support). The presence of a dissenter enabled the naïve participant to behave more independently. Found conformity dropped to 5%
22
What did Asch find with task difficulty?
making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length. Found that conformity increased under these
conditions. more likely to look to other people for guidance
23
Who looked into conformity of social roles?
Zimbardo
24
What did Zimbardo do?
set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department of Stanford university
25
What was the sample of the study?
Advertised in a newspaper for volenteers (volenteer sample) and got 23 males based on emtional stability
26
What were participants allocated to?
role of guards or prisoners
27
What was do to heighten the realism?
the “prisoners” were arrseted at their homes by the local police and were then delivered to the “prison” and given uniforms
28
who were social roles of the prisoners divided
prisoners daily routines were heavily regulated. There were 16 rules they had to follow
29
how were social roles of the guards divided
worked in shifts, 8 hours a shift , three at a time. The prisoners names were never used only their numbers
30
What did the "guards" do to enthuses role?
They harassed the prisoners constantly, to remind them they were being monitored all the time. E.g they conducted frequent headcounts, sometimes in the middle of the night
31
What happened on the second day?
prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatment by the guards
32
What did Zimbardo conclude with his study?
concluded that individuals will readily conform to expected roles due to DE individualisation (emmerced in norms) and learned helplessness.
33
What happened to the study?
Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoner’s psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14.
34
Obedience
a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish disobedience.
35
When was Milgram's study conducted?
1963 (Close to Nazi period)
36
What was the Milgram sample?
recruited 40 males through newspaper adverts and flyers in the post (volunteer). Participants were between 20-50 years whos jobs ranged from unskilled to professional.
36
What did Milgram want to find?
why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler in slaughtering over 10 million Jews, Gypsies and members of other groups involved in the Holocaust in WW2. He sought to find out if the Germans were different or if they were just scared.
37
What were the roles of Milgram's study?
A confederate “Mr Wallace” always ended up being the “learner” as oppose to the participant who would always be the “teacher”. An “experimentor” was also present and dressed in a lab coat, played by an actor. Participants were told they could leave at any time.
38
what was the procedure of Milgram's study?
The teacher (participant) would see the learner (confederate) strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes. The teacher was required to give the learner an i.ncreasingly severe electric shock each time the learner made a mistake on a learning task. The shocks were fake
39
What was the levels of the electric shocker?
shock level started at 15 and rose through 30 levels to 450 volts labelled
40
What happened when the voltage got higher?
When the teacher got to 300 volts the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question. After 315 volts shock the learner pounded on the wall again but after that there was no further response from the learner.
41
What were the 4 standard instructions?
“Please continue” or “Please go on”
“The experiment requires that you continue”
“It’s is absolutely essential that you continue”
“You have no other choice, you must go on”
41
What happened after the learner didn't respond?
teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, the experimenter gave a standard instruction. 1 of 4
42
What did Milgram find?
No participants stopped below 300 volts. 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
42
What were the 3 situational variables of Milgram's study?
- Proximity
- Location
- Uniform
42
proximity
experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone. In this remote instruction variation obedience dropped to 20.5%
43
Uniform
experimenter was called away because of a telephone call . The role of the experimenter was taken by an “ordinary member of the public” in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat. The obedience rate dropped to 20%, the lowest of all variations.
44
Location
He conducted a variation of the study in a run-down building rather than the prestigious university setting. Obedience fell to 47.5%.
45
Bickman's outfits
three confederates dress in three different outfits – jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit, and a security guards uniform.
46
What was Bickman's procedure?
confederates stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or giving the confederates a coin for the parking meter.
47
What did Bickman find?
People were twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security guard than the one dressed in jacket and tie.
48
Situational explanations
Any explanation that identifies the causes of behaviour as existing within the environment
- Agentic state
- Legitimacy of authority
49
Agentic state
A mental state where we believe we are acting on the behalf of an authority figure – we are acting as their “agent”
50
What happens when obeying to destructive authorities?
A person does not take responsibility. Instead they believed they are acting for someone else and which frees us from our own consciences
51
What do agencies experience when they realise what they are doing is wrong?
experiences high anxiety, but feel powerless to disobey.
52
What are the two conditions that must be present in order for the agentic state?
- Person gives orders must be qualified
- The person giving the orders must believe the person giving the orders has authority
53
What is the opposite of agentic state?
Autonomous State
53
Autonomous state
Where individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions
54
Agentic shift
Changing mind state from autonomous to agentic
55
What did Milgram suggest about agentic shift?
that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a higher figure of authority.
56
what's Legitimacy of Authority?
an explanation for obedience which suggests we are more likely to obey people who perceive to have authority over us in the social hierarchy
57
Why do we accept authority?
accept that authority figures are to be allowed to exercise social power over others because it allows society to function smoothly
58
consequences of the legitimacy of authority
people are granted the power to punish others. we are willing to give up some of our independence and to hand control of our behaviour over to people we trust to exercise their authority appropriately.
59
When do we learn legitimacy of authority?
learn acceptance of legitimate authority from childhood , from our parents initially and then teachers and adults.
60
example of Legitimacy of Authority?
Milgram - authority figure used promps to encourage teacher to keep going
60
whats destructive authority?
when the legitimate power is used to be cruel or dangerous
61
real life examples of Legitimacy of Authority?
Hitler and Kim Jong-un
62
Disposition explanation
Internal factors about a person that affect obedience levels
. Authoritarian personality
63
who was Adorno
wanted to understand and explain the anti-Semitism seen in the holocaust, like Milgram
64
What did Adorno investigate?
investigated the causes of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
65
What did Adorno use to measure authoritarian personality
The fascism scale (F-Scale – fascism means having one firm dictator)
66
What's the Authoritarian Personality?
very obedient to authority and submissive to inferiors
66
Adorno's findings
people who scored highly on the F-Scale identified with “strong” people and thought they were generally superior to the “weak”
67
What were authoritarian people conscious of?
They were very conscious of their own and others status in society
68
What did authoritarian people have?
authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was clear categories of people with fixed stereotypes
69
What did Adorno find a correlation between?
Positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
69
Authoritarian characteristics
- inflexible in their outlook
- highly traditional values and attitudes towards sex, race and gender
- show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status
70
what did Adorno suggest about parenting?
an authoritarian personality is developed due to harsh parenting during childhood
71
what features does Adorno say are present in parenting in order for an authoritarian personality to be developed
strict discipline, absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, severe criticism
72
Social support
the presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible.
72
What is an ally?
A person that shows resistance is possible
72
How does social support change conformity?
73
How does social support change obedience
The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey
74
What did Asch find in his study SS?
The fact that someone else is not following the majority appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience.
74
What did Milgram find in his study SS?
obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.
75
What is locus of control?
The extent to which individuals believe how much control they have over their lives.
76
who first developed locus of control
Rotter (1954)
76
what do people with external locus of control believe
that they have little to know control over their lives (more likely to obey)
77
characteristics of external locus of control
passive and accepting of what fate has in store for them.
78
what do people with internal locus of control believe
that they have the ability to control their lives (Less likely to obey)
79
Characteristics of Internal locus of control
ability to make own decisions, confident and motivated
80
what happened at the Tottenham riots
a peaceful protest after Mark Duggen was shot dead by police that lead to a violent protest, riots and looting
81
What's minority influence?
a form of social influence where the minority persuades others to adopt their beliefs
82
What is minority influence most likely to lead to?
internalisation or compliance
83
what are the key factors that determine the success of the minority
consistency, committed and flexibility
84
What's consistency in relation to minority influence?
minority is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs
85
what are the two types of consistency
synchronic consistency
diachronic consistency
86
what's synchronic consistency?
agreement between people in the minority group
87
what's diachronic consistency?
remaining consistent in this view over time
88
What's commitment in relation to minority influence?
if the minority demonstrate commitment to their position they are more likely to be successful
88
agumentation principle
The minority taking part in extreme activities which presents risks to show greater commitment
89
what's flexibility in relation to social influence
if the minority to not show flexibility in their position, they may be viewed by the majority as unending and unreasonable
90
what's conversion
the minority becomes the majority
90
moscovci sample
172 female participants
91
What was Moscovici's procedure?
Groups of 6 participants were asked to estimate the colour of 36 slides blue or green
92
How many confederate were in each group?
Two of the 6 partipants were confederates.
93
Moscovci findings
The consistent condition had 8.4% agreeing the slides were green while only 1.3% agreed in the inconsistent condition.
93
What were the 2 conditions in Moscovci study?
- consistent (the confederates called the slides green on all occasions)
- Inconsistent (The confederates called the slides green 24 times and blue 12 times)
94
what are the stages of social change
- drawing attention
- consistency
- deeper processing
- augmentation principle
- The Snowball effect
- social cryptomnesia
95
what's drawing attention as a stage of social change
the individual or group draw attention to the issues they are trying to change
96
what's consistency as a stage of social change
the minority must remain consistent in their thoughts and beliefs to persuade the majority
97
what's deeper processing as a stage of social change
the activism of groups or individuals means that people think more deeply about issues being raised rather than simply accepting the message
98
what's the augmentation principle as a stage of social change
minority puts themselves at risk which demonstrates their commitment
99
what's snowball effect as a stage of social change
as more people begin to support the minority and internalise their views and beliefs, the minority slowly becomes the majority
100
what's social cryptomnesia as a stage of social change
people have memory that changed occurred, but do not remember how
