Social Influence

Question 1

Definition of Social influence

Answer 1

The process of which people modify their thoughts, beliefs and behaviour in function of other people

Question 2

What are 2 types of social influence?

Answer 2

1. Normative social influence
2. Informative social influence

Question 3

Definition of Normative social influence

Answer 3

the process where people modify their thoughts and opinions because they feel the need to fit into society/culture

WE HAVE A NEED FOR ACCEPTANCE

Question 4

Definition of informative social influence

Answer 4

the process through which an individual changes their opinions and thoughts because they do not know how to react to certain situations

Question 5

What are sources of social influence?

Answer 5

1. Group
2. individual
3. environment

Question 6

Which experiment is an example of
normative group social influence?

Answer 6

Solomon Asch experiment

Question 7

Describe the Solomon Asch experiment

Answer 7

• Experiment carried out in 1915
• There is a group of 5 people in the room: 1 out of the 5 people are really participating in the experiment, while the other 4 are confederates
• blackboard divided in 2 parts: the first part is depicted in 3 lines of different lengths, the second part there was only one line
• the task is to indicate which among the line of the first part is like the line in the second part
• the confederates all gave the wrong answer
• the true participant was influenced by the answer given by the others and so he also gave the wrong answer

Question 8

Which experiment deals with individual social influence?

Answer 8

Stanley Milgram 1962

Question 9

Describe the Stanley Milgram experiment

Answer 9

There are 3 actors: the experimenter [authority], student [confederate], teacher [real participant]. The teacher is told they are going to take part in a study about physical punishment used to improve memory performance. The teacher was asked to give an electroshock whenever the student fails the task.

every time the teacher does not want to give the electroshock, the experimenter tells the teacher to continue with the experiment. A major part of the teachers were influences by the authority because of the pressure that came from him.

Question 10

What is social authority?

Answer 10

When an individual is recognised as someone who has the power to change our opinion, behaviour and thoughts

Question 11

What is an experiment that deals with environmental social influence?

Answer 11

Stanford prison experiment 1971 by Philip Zimbardo

Question 12

What was the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 12

It was a 2-week simulation of a prison environment that examined the effects of situational variables on participants’ reactions and behaviours. Zimbardo had to end the experiment after 6 days due to the extreme pathological behaviour emerging in both groups.

Pacifist young men were assigned as guards and began behaving sadistically, inflicting humiliation and suffering of prisoners. Prisoners became blindly disobedient.