Social Influence

Question 1

Define social group

Answer 1

A social group is two or more people that share things in common, interact together and share a common identity

Question 2

Define social norm

Answer 2

Unwritten rules that explain how members of a social group are expected to behave

Question 3

Define social role

Answer 3

The specific behaviours and beliefs expected of person with a particular position in a social group

Question 4

What is conformity?

Answer 4

Conformity is when a person’s public and/ or private beliefs is influenced by the majority

Question 5

What is compliance?

Answer 5

Compliance is a weak form of conformity when a person conforms publicly, but not privately, to avoid social rejection

Question 6

What is identification?

Answer 6

Identification is a medium form of conformity when a person conforms to be like a social role or role model they admire, their attitudes change along with the role models and they only conform to them as long as they identify with the role

Question 7

What is internalisation?

Answer 7

Internalisation is a strong form of conformity when a person conforms publicly and privately, because they are persuaded the attitudes of the majority are correct

Question 8

Describe Zimbardo’s study

Answer 8

Zimbardo used an overt controlled observation to study conformity to social roles, he created a mock prison to which he randomly assigned 21 male participants the role of prisoner or guard. It was made to feel real, guards worked in shifts and were given uniforms while prisoners were arrested, strip searched and given numbers. The experiment ended after 6 days as the prisoners were subject to extreme violence and abuse from the guards, with one prisoner leaving early after showing signs of psychological disturbance

Question 9

Evaluate Zimbardo’s study

Answer 9

• Unethical, participants were not protected from psychological harm and arguably couldn’t give informed consent as they didn’t understand what they were getting into
• Lacks generalisability, participants were only white men this doesn’t explain conformity in other people HOWEVER his study does explain real world examples of prison brutality
• There could have been interviewer effects as Zimbardo inserted himself into the study as prison warden
• It was artificial, participant may not have fully believed it was real so their behaviour doesn’t reflect how they would act in real life, it lacks ecological validity HOWEVER 90% of conversations in the study we’re about torsion life and participants gave very real emotional reactions

Question 10

What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?

Answer 10

An explanation of conformity that says we conform with the majority because we believe they are correct and agree, wanting to also be right

Question 11

Evaluate ISI as an explanation for conformity

Answer 11

• There is research support, Lucas et al. asked students to answer mathematical problems and found greater conformity for incorrect answers when the questions were difficult

Question 12

What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?

Answer 12

An explanation of conformity that says we conform with the majority to avoid social rejection, because we want to be liked and accepted

Question 13

Evaluate NSI as an explanation for conformity

Answer 13

• Ignores individual variables such as personality, so NSI doesn’t effect everyone in the same way
• There is research support, Asch found 36.8%. of his participant conformed every time even when the answer was obvious to avoid social rejection

Question 14

What is the main research support for conformity?

Answer 14

Asch studied conformity by having participants identify 1 line out of 3 which matched a standard line, they did so in a room with confederates who gave the wrong answers. Asch found that 75% conformed at least once (36.8% gave the wrong answer every time) and when questioned they said they did it to avoid rejection (evidence for NSI)

Question 15

What were Asch’s Variations?

Answer 15

Variations which effect conformity:

1. Group Size, at least 3 confederates (no less or more) are needed to increase conformity rates
2. Unanimity, the presence of a non-conforming confederate dropped conformity rates by giving the naive participant the confidence to also disagree with the majority
3. Task Difficulty, conformity increased when the task became harder (ISI plays a greater role)

Question 16

Evaluate Ash’s study

Answer 16

• Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study with engineering students and found only 1 person conform in over 300 trials, this suggests Asch’s study lacks temporal validity as the results are inconsistent over time HOWEVER it could be argued that engineering students are just more confident with measuring lines
• Ash used a lab study so it could lack ecological validity due to being an artificial situation
• The study may have suffered from demand characteristics HOWEVER interviews suggest they did believe it was a real experiment

Question 17

Outline Milgram’s obedience experiment

Answer 17

Milgram had 40 male participants believe they were participating in a memory experiment, they were all placed in a rigged draw assigning them the role of ‘teacher’ while a confederate played the ‘learner’ and another confederate played the ‘experiment’. Each participant was told to shock the student every time they gave an incorrect answer, they pressed buttons on a machine which went up to 450V which was labelled from light shock to extreme danger, if hesitation was shown the experimenter had 4 prods which were repeated, ranging from “please continue” to “you have no other choice”

Question 18

What did Milgram’s experiment find?

Answer 18

65% of participants continued up to the max 450V and no-one stopped before 300V, qualitative data collected showed participants would tremble, bit their nails, sweat and some event had seizures

Question 19

Evaluate Milgram’s experiment

Answer 19

• Low in internal validity, many expressed doubt in recordings that the shocks they gave were real HOWEVER, Milgram reported 70% of participants did believe the shocks were real
• Ethical issues, not only were participants not protected from harm they were also deceived about the aims possible harming the image of psychologists HOWEVER 84% reported being glad to have participated
• Good external validity/ replicability, other studies have found similar results Holfing et al. found 21/22 nurses obeyed a doctor’s unjustified demands so his results do generalise

Question 20

What were Milgram’s situational variables, and what was the conformity rate?

Answer 20

Proximity:
- Learner and Teacher in the same room = 40%
- Teacher pushes learner hand onto electroshock plate = 30%
- Experimenter gave instructions by telephone = 20.5%
Location:
- Experiment in a run down building = 47.5%
Uniform:
- Experimenter replaced by ordinary person = 20%

Question 21

Evaluation of Milgram’s variations

Answer 21

• Lack of internal validity, many participants especially in the uniform variation probably figured out the experiment wasn’t real
• Milgram’s experimental variations all had very high levels of control and standardisation, internal validity

Question 22

What are the two social-psychological factors which can explain obedience?

Answer 22

• Agentic State
• Legitimacy of Authority

Question 23

Explain the agentic state explanation

Answer 23

Milgram explains that people obey because they do not see themselves as responsible for their actions, rather they are an ‘agent’ acting in place of someone else. People, until they perceive someone else as the authority figure, are in the autonomous state, where they see themselves as responsible for their actions and after the agentic shift, they experience binding factors which minimises the effect of their behaviour

Question 24

Evaluate the agentic state explanation

Answer 24

• The Agentic State does not explain why some people in Milgram’s study did not obey
• Hofling et al.’s study found that the 21/22 nurses who obeyed in an experiment did not experience the same anxiety as Milgram’s participants, which the agentic state explanation predicts

Question 25

Explain legitimacy of authority explanation

Answer 25

Our society is structured in a hierarchy, so people naturally give up some independence handing control over to those perceived in power

Question 26

Evaluate legitimacy of authority

Answer 26

• Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram’s experiment to students and asked them to identify who was responsible for the learners suffering, they all identified the experimenter as at fault because of his authority
• Studies which have replicated Milgram’s study across societies shows cultural variation in obedience increasing the validity of legitimacy of authority

Question 27

Explain the dispositional explanation of obedience

Answer 27

Adorno et al. had participants a questionnaire called the F-scale, those who scored high were characterised as having an Authoritarian Personality. This personality is how he explained obedience, those with this personality are more likely to respect and therefore obey authority figures. Adorno explained the authoritarian personality was caused by strict parenting, leading to fear being displaced onto those they see as weaker - there’s a strong link to prejudice and ‘black and white’ thinking patterns

Question 28

Evaluate the authoritarian personality

Answer 28

• Correlation between the authoritarian personality does not mean causation, another variable could be involved
• Greenstein critiques the F-scale for its methodological flaws, participants could have simply agreed to every question to be authoritarian, rather they are just agreeable

Question 29

Resistance to social influence explanations

Answer 29

• Social support
• Locus of control (LOC : Rotter 1996)

Question 30

Explain social support

Answer 30

The presence of another person who does not conform/ obey decreases the likelihood that others will also resist, they act as a model showing resistance is possible and likewise if they stop resisting so will everyone else

Question 31

Evaluate social support

Answer 31

Research supports social support as an expanation:
- Asch’s unanimity variation showed that a non-conforming confederate caused resistance
- Allen and Levine repeated Asch’s unanimity variation, but the non-conforming confederate wore glasses and stated they couldn’t not see the lines properly, yet still found participants would resist
- Gamson et al found that groups of participants asked to find evidence to support a smear campaign for an oil company would rebel, showing social support links to resistance

Question 32

Explain locus of control (LOC)

Answer 32

Rotter created the concept of locus of control, and explained those with an internal LOC tend to place responsibility on themselves but externals believe things are out of their control. This means, people with a higher internal LOC are more likely to resist social influence

Question 33

Evaluate locus of control (LOC)

Answer 33

• Research like Holland’s supports LOC as he repeated Milgram’s experiment but also measured participants LOC and found 37% of internals compared to 23% of externals resisted
• Contradicting research like Twenge et al found americans are becoming more external but also more resistance to social influence challenging the link

Question 34

Define minority influence

Answer 34

Minority influence refers to when the minority of people, or just one person, have influenced the majority’s views

Question 35

Who studied minority influence, and what did they find?

Answer 35

Moscovici et al. studied minority influence by having participants decide if slides were blue (✓) or green (X), two consistent confederates managed to have 32% of participants get it wrong at least once

Question 36

What three factors makes minority influence most effective?

Answer 36

• Consistency
• Commitment
• Flexibility