social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

Conformity is a type of social influence that is described as changing your behaviour to go along with a group

Question 2

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 2

Internalisation:
-When an individual changes their behaviour to fit in with a group publicly but also changes their beliefs privately
-The groups beliefs become the individuals
-Strongest type of conformity

Identification :
-When someone conform to the demands of a social role in society
-eg. Zimbardo 1971 Stanford prison experiment

Compliance :
-When someone changes their public beliefs to fit in with a group but privately disagrees
-Temporary change

Question 3

What are the two explanations for conformity?

Answer 3

Normative social influence:
-people conform because they want to appear as normal and they have the desire to fit in and be liked

Informational social influence :
-when people conform because they don’t want to be incorrect and have the desire to be right

Question 4

Aim of Aschs study

Answer 4

1951
-to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform

Question 5

Sample group of Aschs study

Answer 5

Lab, 123 US MALE volunteers, independent group design

Question 6

Procedure of achs study

Answer 6

One participant sits in a room with 7 confederates. They are asked a simple line judging
task (which line is the same length as a comparison line). On 12/18 trials, confederates give the same wrong answer.

Question 7

Findings to Aschs study

Answer 7

Conformity occurred on 33% of trials.
75% of participants conformed at least once.

Question 8

Conclusion to Aschs study

Answer 8

People can conform to an easy wrong answer.

Question 9

Strengths of achs study

Answer 9

Strengths
+ Lab– highly controlled, including who the confederates are
+ Face validity – Asch carried out a control group and found 711/720 correct answers (the task is
obvious)

Question 10

Weaknesses to Aschs study

Answer 10

Situation and tasks were artificial-this wouldn’t happen every day life, low real world application
Lacks to temporal validity
Findings only apply to certain groups- only tested on men, low population validity, women are meant to be more conformists than men

Question 11

Achs variations procedure

Answer 11

1955
Group size: The number of confederates varied between one to 15 (Group is 2-16 with participant)
Task difficulty: Comparison and stimulus lines were made more similar in length
Unanimity of majority: included one confederate giving the correct answer or who dissented but was incorrect.

Question 12

Aschs variations findings

Answer 12

Group size: Increase was curvilinear. Conformity increased to three confederates then plateaued.
With three confederates, participants conformed on 32% of critical trials (This supports both NSI and/or ISI)
Task difficulty: Found conformity increased. Supports ISI as we look to others for guidance.
Unanimity of majority: Presence of dissenting confederate reduced
conformity in both conditions. Naïve participant more willing to be independent.

Question 13

What is a situational factor?

Answer 13

Factor that varies with the situations and is different in different environments but doesn’t vary from person to person

Question 14

What’s a dispositional factor?

Answer 14

A factor which varies from individual person to individual person but remains the same between different environments

Question 15

What are two examples of dispositional factors in conformity?

Answer 15

Gender: it might be a factor but there is not enough research to provide a strong conclusion. Its was thought women were more likely to conform, but this was discredited in the 1980’s
Experience and expertise: individuals with experience and expertise in a certain area are much less likely to conform when doing a task in that area. They feel confident in their own knowledge and dissent from the group.

Question 16

What is a social role?

Answer 16

A role given to us in society. Some of the roles we choose for example jobs, further education but some of the jobs are against our own choice/ without our consent eg, sister, brother, teenager.

Question 17

What are “social norms”

Answer 17

The unwritten rules and shared expectations that one person has to follow and conform to in society to do with their roles
This changes with different cultures and different time periods
Some people don’t conform to there expectations and roles

Question 18

What is the aim of zimbardos Stanford prison experiment

Answer 18

To investigate if brutality of prison guards was result of personality or conformity to social roles.
Investigating the conformity of social roles

Question 19

What is the procedure in zimbardos Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 19

1973, 24 ‘emotionally stable’, US male university students placed in a mock prison in Stanford University basement. Paid $15 a day. Randomly assigned to be guard or prisoner. Prisoners unexpectedly arrested at home, searched, issued smocks and ID number. Guards given mirror shades, clubs, whistles, uniforms. Told to keep control but not harm prisoners, worked 8-
hour shifts. Zimbardo had dual-role as superintendent.

Question 20

What are the findings of zimbardos prison study?

Answer 20

Guards’ behaviour became increasingly brutal - threatened the psychological health of prisoners.
Prisoners became increasingly submissive after initial rebellion. Three prisoners released early due to emotional disturbance. Study stopped after six days.
Both roles (prisoner and guard) were conformed to with aggression,violence and rioting

Question 21

What are the conclusions of zimbardos Stanford prison study?

Answer 21

Social roles have a strong influence on people’s behaviour if they’re given the right cues.

Question 22

What are the strengths of zimbardos prison study?

Answer 22

Good control over variables: Participants randomly assigned and were ‘stable’. Behaviour was due to situation, not personalities. Increases internal validity.
Hours of footage and observational data – not just a snapshot of behaviour
Real world applications – has helped in prison reform. Closer scrutiny of behaviour and more training of guards

Question 23

What are the weaknesses of zimbardos study?

Answer 23

Investigator effects - Zimbardo acted as superintendent and researcher (‘dual-role’). Clear from the records that he influenced guards to be aggressive and act like real guards, questions validity of the study.

This also had ethical implications. e.g. Student who wanted to leave spoke to Zimbardo, who replied as a superintendent rather than as a researcher. Right to withdraw initially declined. Zimbardo’s involvement meant he wasn’t able to effectively protect participants from harm

Question 24

What are situational variables?

Answer 24

Factors in the environment that can affect a participants performance

Question 25

What are situational variables affecting conformity?

Answer 25

Task difficulty:the harder the challenge, the more people conform (due to ISI)
Group size:the bigger the majority, the more we conform (due to NSI and/or ISI)
Unanimity of the majority:if the group all agree, we are more likely to conform (due to NSI and/or ISI)

Question 26

Aims of Milgrams study

Answer 26

To discover if ordinary American citizens would obey beyond their morals.

Question 27

Milgrams sample groups

Answer 27

40 US male volunteers, controlled observation

Question 28

Milgrams procedure

Answer 28

40 US males volunteered for a “memory study”. One participant (teacher) and one confederate (learner). The learner tested on word pairs and teacher was told to give increasing shocks if they made a mistake from 15-450 volts increasing in voltage every time The ‘experimenter’ gives 4 prods if teacher is reluctant e.g. ‘please continue’. The ‘learner’ protested, later pounding on the wall at
300 volts before falling silent after 315 volts.

Question 29

Milgrams findings

Answer 29

Five participants stopped at 300 volts.
65% obeyed all the way to 450 volts. After debrief 84% happy to have been involved.

Question 30

Milgrams conclusions

Answer 30

People will obey an authority figure beyond their morals

Question 31

Strengths of Milgrams study

Answer 31

Real life application- Hofling found obedience in a field study – 21/22 nurses obeyed dangerous instructions over the phone from unknown doctor – against rules.

Replicated so has temporal validity - Burger (2009) found similar results; Also 80% on French reality show.

Milgram’s research was highly controlled, including using the same learner and the same voice recordings increases replicability.

Question 32

Weaknesses of Milgrams study

Answer 32

Perry reviewed the tapes and found that the experimenter would often go off script giving
more prods (ethics?) and she suggested many thought shocks were fake (questions validity)
Lacks population validity as sample is only US males, though Milgram’s variations (1974) found
no gender differences.

Question 33

What’s agentic state?

Answer 33

People obey when they do not feel responsible for their actions, i.e. acting as an ‘agent’ for authority.
People may feel moral strain, but binding factors help to reduce this

Question 34

What are binding factors?

Answer 34

aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour

Question 35

What is legitimacy of authority?

Answer 35

People obey when an authority is higher on the social hierarchy.
The authority needs to be supported by an institutional framework (e.g. teacher
in a school). Society’s approval gives them influence over others.

Question 36

Milgrams variation study- proximity results of victim and authority

Answer 36

Situational variables
Baseline of 65% obedience in original study
Learner was in the same room as teacher, obedience was 40%.
In the touch proximity condition, teacher had to push learner’s hand onto the shock plate, conformity was 30%.
Remote instruction variation - when the experimenter gave orders over the phone, obedience was 20.5%
Research shows as the teacher feels more personal responsibility obedience drops
Supports agentic state
-doesn’t work for everyone as some people stay in autonomous (own state) rather than shifting

Question 37

Milgrams variations

Answer 37

Situational variables
Location When study was carried out in a run-down office instead of Yale university, obedience dropped to 47.5%
Uniform When the experimenter was wearing casual clothing instead of a lab coat, obedience dropped to 20%
Presence of allies When two confederate teachers rebelled, obedience dropped to 10%. When two teachers obeyed, participant obedience rose to 92.5%- supports agentic state
All supports legitimacy of authority

Question 38

What is an authoritarian personality?

Answer 38

-person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.
-People with an authoritarian personality admire strength and authority, and have contempt (dislike) for ‘inferiors’ and weakness
-They are more likely to have rigid, conservative political views

Question 39

Adorno et al study

Answer 39

1950

Procedure: Investigated 2000 Middle class American’s unconscious views to other racial groups on the F-scale (potential for fascism scale)
Findings: Authoritarians (high on scale) identified as strong and were contemptuous of the weak, and had fixed stereotypes about categories of people.

Question 40

Dispositional variables of obedience and evaluation of it

Answer 40

-Authoritarian personality

STRENGTHS
-Explains individual differences in obedience. Milgram found only 65% obedience, so there
must be individual differences
- elms and milgram interviewed obedient participants and found higher F scores- however could also be because of a third factor like low education

WEAKNESSESS
- Situational variables are more important than dispositional
- Elms & Milgram found no link between F scores and relationship with parents.

Question 41

Two ways people resist to social influence

Answer 41

Social support-People may resist pressures to conform or obey if they have support from a dissenter (someone who disagrees with the majority or refuses to obey). This frees the individual from the pressure to conform or obey, allowing them to act independently.

Locus of control- the concept of how much a person believes they control what happens in their lives, and can be measured on a scale from high internal to high external. People with internal locus of control believe their actions are their own responsibility, so are less likely to obey/conform. Internals are more confident and need less approval. Those with external locus of control are more likely to believe in luck and fate, and more likely to obey/conform.

Question 42

Evaluation on the resistance to social influence

Answer 42

Social support:
STRENGTHS:
-ash and milgram prove this in there variations
WEAKNESS:
-only situational doesn’t factor in dispositional factors

Locus of control:
STREGNTHS:
- Avtgis conducted a meta-analysis of studies into the relationship between locus of control and resistance and found that those with a high internal LoC were less likely to conform or obey
WEAKNESS:
-ignores situational factors

Question 43

What is minority influence?

Answer 43

Is a form of social influence whereby a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs and behaviours. This can lead to internalisation

Question 44

What are three factors affecting minority influence

Answer 44

-consistency-Same view over time (diachronic), same view as others in minority (synchronic)
- Commitment –must be willing to make sacrifices, such as loss of friendships
-flexibility-must be reasonable and willing to compromise

Question 45

What is social change?

Answer 45

When whole societies change, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
Examples: suffragettes movement, gay rights

Question 46

Minority influence processes

Answer 46

-has to be done through internalisation
1- draw attention to the issue, let the majority know your cause
2-consistency repeat the same message, gets people reevaluating there beliefs
commitment, being willing to give things up and take risks, argument taken more seriously
flexibility- willing to listen to other view points so others do the same
3-snowball effect, when some are convinced, others join too, exponential growth
4-Conformity processes - Conformity processes will be a factor, e.g. NSI and ISI, especially when view is common.
5-Obedience processes - Governments can change laws and bring about social change, through power and obedience, even if their view is in minority, e.g. dictators.

Question 47

What is social crypto-amnesia

Answer 47

People know a change has taken place but forget the origin and how this happened.

Question 48

Evidence to support minority influence

Answer 48

Consistency- moscovici-Found that a consistent minority (8%) were significantly more influential than an inconsistent one 1% in a colour perception test
Real world application
Lacks ecological validity- minorities usually have lower status
Lacks population validity- only used women in Paris

Flexibility- Nemeth & Brilmayer
Jurors were more likely to be influenced by a confederate juror who was willing to compromise over the level of compensation given to the victim of ski-lift accident
Real world application
Flexibility only worked when it was late compromise