Social Influence Flashcards
What is compliance?
It involves changing your behaviour at the request of another person.
It does not rely on a power differential.
What is obedience?
It is a form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority figure.
It requires a direct request from an authority figure.
There is a punishment and a consequence.
What is conformity?
Altering your attitudes and behaviour to go along with the rest of the group.
Influence of authority is indirect.
If this does not happen the individual may be ignored or marginalised.
What three factors impact obedience?
Proximately
Prestige
Deindividuation
Describe the impact of proximity on obedience…
It is easier to resist the orders from an authority figure if they are not too close by.
Describe the impact of prestige on obedience…
Higher levels of perceived prestige are associated with increased obedience.
Describe the impact of deindividuation on obedience…
Losing your individuality, your ability to think and make decisions for yourself - going along with group behaviour.
What type of designs have been used to study obedience?
Experimental designs, they ensure the experimenter is able to manipulate an the independent variable and observe the changes in the dependent variable, clearly testing the cause and effect.
What are the advantages of an experimental design?
- Demonstrates causal relationships.
- Can be replicated/repeated to see if the same findings emerge.
- Maximises control over relevant variables.
What are the disadvantages to experimental designs?
- Generalisability outside the laboratory.
- Some complex phenomena cannot be readily tested using pure experimental methods.
- Ethical issues present challenges for testing some naturally occurring phenomena
Describe Milgram’s experiment…
Conducted at yale, the results shocked the researchers and general public.
There was a student, teacher and examiner. The examiner had a script asking the student questions and if they got it wrong the teacher was directly instructed to shock them. Increasing the voltage as time went on. However, the teacher did not know that the student was an actor who was not being shocked. And the teachers were experimented on, to see how far they would go knowing they are injuring another person, possibly killing them.
What were the results of Milgram’s Experiment?
- 65% of participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
- All participants continued to 300 volts.
- Prior to the experiment, psychology students, psychiatrist and colleagues were asked to predicts obedience levels - consensus was that most people would not obey and only shock to 150 volts.
- Milgram’s concluded that people have a tendency to obey orders, even if it goes against their morals.
- Situational factors rather than dispositional factors influence the ability for someone to make independent decisions when they find themselves in a subordinate position.
What are the ethical issues with Milgram’s research?
- Psychological harm and distress: participants were placed under significant emotional strain, causing psychological damage. Several participants had marks on their hands from digging their nails in, other were visibly sweating and trembling. Three participant had seizures.
- Right to without: Milgram’s informed participants they could withdraw at the starts, but then advised them differently whilst they were completing the experiment.
- Deception: Milgram’s stated the aim of the study was regarding the role of punishment and learning, rather than Obedience to authority. Participants were made to believe they were administering electric shocks.
Describe Stanford’s Prison Experiment…
- Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment showed how powerful the demands of roles and the situations can be on individual behaviour.
- 22 male Stanford University student volunteers played the roles of prisoners and guards in the simulated prison.
- Students designated as prisoners were arrested at their homes and searched, handcuffed, fingerprinted and booked at a police station.
- These students were blindfolded, driven to a simulated prison where they were stripped, sprayed with deodorant spray and told to stand naked and alone in a cell with two other prisoners.
- The guards were free to devise their own rules - the only prohibition was against physical punishment.
- The experiment was meant to last two weeks, however it only lasted six days.
- The study was a powerful demonstration of the way roles structure people’s behaviour and ultimately their emotions, attitudes and even their identities.
What were the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
- Deindividuation quickly occurred with both the guards and the prisoners.
- The participants lost their sense of self, alongside the reality that they were in fact participants in a psychological experiment.
- After six days of emotional distress, the experiment came to an end when a PhD student raised concerns about the ethical nature of the study. Zimbardo wanted the study to continue.
- Situational factors, rather than dispositional factors, play a significant roles in the behaviours exhibited at any given time particularly where strong stereotypes exist.
Zimbardo later noted ‘…much later I realised how far into my prison role I was at the point - I was thinking like a prison superintendent rather than a research psychologist’.
What are the ethical considerations with Standford prison experiment?
- Lack of fully informed consent
- Abuse of participants, psychologically, physically and emotionally.
- Lack of appropriate debriefings.
What are the two things that conformity is influenced by?
- The opinions, judgements or actions of other people
- The normative standards of a social group or situation.
Why do psychologists deem conformity as a powerful force?
- People wish to stand out, but only in a good or desirable manner. We want to be recognised for our achievements, unique qualities but now if we are wearing clothing that has gone out of style or are ignorant of the latest cultural trends.
- People want to be seen as individuals, but not in way that would make use seem weird or different to others - this fuels the drive to conform as we desire to fit in.
- Conformity is found to be higher in collectivist than individualistic cultures.
What are the three reasons an individual conforms?
- Normative social influence
- Informational social influence
- Individual differences impact conformity
What is normative social influence and conformity?
It is when a person conforms to be accepted or belong to a group.
Normative is changing yourself to fit in with the group of choice.
There are two types of this - compliance and identification.
Compliance - when people change their public behaviour but not their private beliefs.
Identification - when people change their public behaviour and their private beliefs.
This is usually is a short-term solution which is because of the desire to fit in.
Compliance can lead to identification.
What is Informational social influence and conformity?
When a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is ‘right’.
The person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs on a semi-permanent.
What is individual differences and how does it impact conformity?
Ambiguity and unanimity are powerful contributors to the incidence of conformity, they are not the sole indicators.
Personal characteristics and the individual position/familiarity within a group also play a role.
Personality and cultural factors also influence the likelihood that people will conform to the social norms around them.
What is compliance?
When an individual publicly changes their behaviour to be more like the majority, but do not privately change our minds about what we believe or how we would like to act.
What is identification?
When an take on the views of an individual or group we admire.
It is where a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs but only while they are in the presence of the group.
What is internalisation?
Where a person changes their public behaviour to match those of the group.
Other people have convinced us their beliefs are right, so our behaviour adjusts accordingly to match those beliefs. This is long term.
What is an observational design?
It is useful to use observational research designs when obvious groups or pre-existing samples are available.
Useful when it is unethical to deliberately expose a group of people to a particular independent variable.
Researchers can conclude there is a correlation between two variables.
What are the advantages of observational designs?
Can explore topics which are too unethical, costly, impractical or impossible to experiment.
Can test in a natural environment.
What are the disadvantages of an observational design?
Lack of control in planning leads to an inability to create constant variable.
Limited ability to explore causation and confidently conclude that a change in the IV caused a change in the DV.
What are the five types of observational designs?
Naturalistic Observation
Correlation studies
Longitudinal Design
Cross-Sectional Studies
Sequential Design
What is a naturalistic observation?
Involves observing and recording variables of interest in a natural setting, without interference or manipulation.
Does not allow researchers to control or influence the variables in any way.
Data may not be reliable or free from bias.
Does not ask participants for consent, possibly uses deception.
What is a correlation study?
It is an observational study which can demonstrate a relationship between variables, but it cannot prove that changes one variable will change another.
What is an longitudinal design?
An observational design which research is repeated with the same people over the course of several years.
What is a cross-sectional study?
Can be used to research a wide range of age groups, with data being collected at a single point in time.
What is a sequential design?
An observational design including elements of longitudinal and cross-sectional design.
What is an ethnocentric bias?
A form of bias wherein individuals believe that their own culture, with all its values, practices, and beliefs, is superior to all other human cultures. The tendency to judge one’s group as superior to other groups.
What group is mostly subjected to ethnocentric bias and why?
Minority community groups with social, religious, ethic, racial or other characteristics which differ from those of the majority of the population.
What is attitude?
It refers to a set of emotions, beliefs and behaviour towards a particular object, person, issue or event.
A relatively enduring and general evaluation of an object, person, group issue or concept on a dimension ranging from negative to positive.
Assumed to be derived from specific beliefs, emotions and past behaviours associated with those objects.
What is persuasion?
An attitude can be influenced by a source of persuasion.
It is the art of convincing others to change their attitudes or behaviour.
It is an active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs or emotions associated with some issue, person, concept or object.
Emotion is what makes this different to conformity and obedience.
All three AB and C need to alight to have an attitude.
What does the A of attitude stand for?
The affective component. The emotional reactions or feelings a person had towards something - thic can be an object, person, event or issue. This attitude can be positive or negative.
What does the B stand of attitude stand for?
The behavioural component. It refers to the actions or behaviours that we do in response to this same object person, event or issue.
What does the C stand of attitude stand for?
The cognition component.
Refers to the thoughts or beliefs we have about the topic.
Our beliefs are linked to what we have learned about the world we live in and are shaped by our experiences, people we meet along the way.
An underlying assumption about the link between attitudes and behaviour is that of consistency.
We often or usually, expect the behaviour of a person to be consistent with the attitudes they hold.
What are the three main approaches to persuasion?
Yale
Elaboration
Experience
What are the three factors of the YALE persuasion model?
The source, the message and the audience.
Describe source as a factor of persuasion within the YALE technique.
The source - the person who conveys the message.
It is more favourably we view the source, the more likely we are to view the message favourably.
This is determined by the credibility, trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness and likeability
Talking quickly increases your trustworthiness.
Describe message as a factor of persuasion within the YALE technique.
Need to evoke strong emotions or strong processing in the audience.
You can include statistics or a story to arouse emotions.
Positive and negative emotions are effective.
Repetition of a message is a good way for people to remember it.
Describe audience as a factor of persuasion within the YALE technique.
The features of an audience also effect how easy it is to persuade attitude change.
In order to be persuaded, audience members must be paying attention.
Older generations have conservative views, they are more likely to have formed attitudes through direct experience.
What is the central route of persuasion?
Making the audience of the message think carefully about the message to evaluate the information.
It is logic driven and uses data an facts in the message to convince people of the persuasive message.
Works best when the audience is analytical and willing to engage in processing the information.
People need a message that is credible, presented clearly and simply and backed up by evidence.
For the central route to be successful in changing attitudes, thoughts and behaviours and the argument must be strong.
What is the peripheral route of persuasion?
It requires little processing or thinking by the audience.
Relies on association with positive characteristics.
The audience that is targeted is often one that is young or has low self-esteem.
Audience does not need to be analytical or motivated to process the message.
