social influence

Question 1

what is ISI?

Answer 1

informational social influence
conforming to be right

Question 2

what is NSI?

Answer 2

normative social influence
conforming to be liked

Question 3

what are the three types of conformity

Answer 3

internalisation
agreeing with the group both in private
compliance
to agree to the belief in public but not in private
identification
to want to appear to belong to the group

Question 4

what was the aim of Asch’s study?

Answer 4

to see the extent that social pressure can get an individual to conform

Question 5

what was the procedure of Asch’s study?

Answer 5

lab experiment 50PPTs for a vision test. each PPT in room with 7 confederates. each PPT had to read their answer out about which line was the closest to the standard line. in 12 out of the 18 confederates incorrect.

Question 6

what was the findings of Asch’s study?

Answer 6

32% conformed on critical trials
75% conformed once
25% never
control group with no pressure 1% conformed.

Question 7

what are the limitations of Asch’s study?

Answer 7

Perrin and Spender 1980: replicated the experiment on engineering students in UK, found only 1 person conformed out of 396

may have exihibited demand characteristics as they knew it was an experiment

is culturally relative because in the US people care mroe about others opinions. may not be representational of collectivist cultures.

only tested males not representative

deception used

conformity was higher because answers had to be read aloud however, Williams and Sogon found that conformity is higher in friends and that conformity changes.

Question 8

what were the strengths of Asch’s study

Answer 8

was highly controlled as carried out in a lab setting

Question 9

what were Asch’s variations?

Answer 9

these were changing the group size changing the difficulty of the task and were a confederate gave the right answer throughout

Question 10

what were the findings of Asch’s variation

Answer 10

group size variation: conformity increased until it reached 3 confederates where it hit 32%.

difficulty variation: conformity increased when difficulty increased.

1 confederate were instructed to give the right answer throughout conformity dropped to 5%. This shows that if they have someone else supporting their answer they are less likely to conform. gave another wrong answer to the majority made conformity drop to 9% of tests. Unanimity increases conformity

Question 11

what was the aim of Milgram’s study

Answer 11

to see if people would conform to someone telling them to give a lethal shock

Question 12

what was the procedure of the study

Answer 12

advertised to 20 to 50 years old men for a study into memory. would be two confederates one learner and the other wold be a teacher. the learner would be strapped to a shock machine and then the PPT would be in the other room with the experimenter. the PPT would ask the learner questions which they would get wrong and then a pre recorded scream would play in order to simulate the shocks. the machine went up in 15s from 15 to 450. at 300 and 315 volts the learner would go silent and then prods would be given to persuade the PPT to continue.

Question 13

what were the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 13

no participants stopped below 300 volts
65% went to 450
12.5% stopped at 300-315 volts

Question 14

what were the pros of Milgram’s study

Answer 14

Sheridan and King done a real life study on Puppies and 54% of males conformed and 100% of females (gave the lethal shock). suggests that effects in Milgram’s experiment were genuine because people behaved in the same way with real shocks. Milgram reported that 70% of people believed that the shocks were real

Might at first glance appear to lack external validity because of the lab. However, the central feature of this situation was the relationship between the authority figure and participant- milgram argued that the lab accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life

hofling et al studied nurses on a hospital war and found that the levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were high (21 out of 22 nurses)

Gives confidence that milgrams study can be generalised to a real life situation.

Le jeu de la mort(the game of death) is a documentary about reality tv. It includes a replication to milgram’s study. Paid to give electric shocks when ordered by presenter.
Found that 80% of participants delivered the maximum shock to an apparently unconscious man

Question 15

what were the cons of milgrams study

Answer 15

Could be explained social identity theory when participants identified with the science of the study,obedience was shown but when they identified with the participants the obedience dropped.

Limitation if SIT is correct then the theory of obedience is not correct

Diana baumrind 1964 was very critical of the way milgram deceived his participants. The rigged draw was made to be real. Baumrind could argue that if damages the participants view of psychologists

Question 16

what are the situational factors which influence obedience?

Answer 16

proximity
location
uniform

Question 17

what were location variations of Milgram’s study?

Answer 17

Location variations: milgram changed the location of the experiment to a run down office rather than at yale. The experimenter had less authority so obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 18

what were the uniform variations of Milgram study?

Answer 18

Milgram carried out a variation where the experimenter was called away because of an inconvenient telephone call. The experimenter was then replaced by an “ordinary member of the public” in everyday clothes. Obedience dropped to 20% the lowest of the variation c

Question 19

what were the proximity variations of Milgram’s study

Answer 19

They found that when the learner and teacher were in the same room the obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
When the teacher had to force the learners hand onto an “electroshock plate”. Obedience dropped to 30%
When the experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher via telephone. Obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 20

what were the pros of the variations of Milgrams study

Answer 20

Bickman (1974) field experiment. That had three male confederates dressed in three different outfits-ina jack and tie, in a milkman’s outfit and one in a security guards uniform. Confederates asked passersby to do things like pick up a paper bag or give them a coin for a parking meter. It was shown that obedience was twice as likely to happen with a security guard uniform than with the man with a jacket and tie.

Milgram systematically altered one variable at a time to test the effect this would have on obedience.
All other variables were kept the same as the study was replicated with more than 1000 participants in total.
The high control of variables leads to internal validity.

Blass and Schmitt 2001 showed a film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner.
The students blamed the experimenter rather than the participants
The students also indicated that the responsibility was due to the legitimate authority but also due to expert authority as he was a scientist. (supports agentic state)

The idea of legitimacy of authority can explain how obedience can lead to real life war crimes.Kelan and Hamilton 1989 argue that the Mai Lai Massacre can be understood in terms of the power of hierarchy in the US army
Many real world events can be explained using Agentic state theory so this increases its validity.

Lots of studies show that countries differ in the percentage of the conformity for example Kilham and Mann 1974 in australia only 16% conformed but with Mantell 1971 found that 85% of people conformed in Germany
Supporting legitimacy of authority provides a useful account of cultural differences in attitudes to obedience. This increases the validity of the explanation

Question 21

what were the cons of milgram’s variation studies