SOCIAL INFLUENCE Flashcards
Conformity.
- Favouring majority/ socially acceptable decision.
Types of conformity.
- Internalisation.
- Compliance.
- Identification.
Internalisation.
- Individually agrees/ accepts views of group.
- Pubic + private change.
- Permanent- persists in absence of group.
Identification.
- Mid-level.
- Values group- identifies and wants to be apart.
- Changes thoughts and behaviour to fit in.
- Doesn’t agree personally.
Compliance.
- Going along with others in public.
- Superficial/ shallow change.
- Changes behaviour + opinion away from group pressure.
Explanations for conformity.
- Deutsch + Gerad - 2 Process model.
- Normative + Informational.
Normative social influence.
- Emotional rather than cognitive.
- To be accepted by majority.
- To gain approval.
- To avoid rejection + ridicule.
- Leads to compliance (temporary).
Informational social influence.
- Cognitive rather than emotional.
- Rely on majority to be correct.
- Desire to be correct.
- Occurs in ambiguous, difficult and novel situations.
- Leads to internalisation (permanent).
Asch.
AIM- If naïve pp would conform to confederates.
PROCEDURE-
- 123 male American undergraduates.
- Lab experiment.
- Stated which of 3 lines matched length of standard.
- 12/18 were incorrect, critical trials.
FINDINGS-
- 37% conformity rate.
- Control trial= 1% mistake.
- Most conformed.
Asch variations.
1- GROUP SIZE.
- Changed from 1-15 people.
- Conformity increased from 1-3 (up to 31.8%) then plateaued at 37-40%.
2- UNANIMITY.
- One confederate gave correct answer.
- Conformity decreased to 5%.
3- TASK DIFFICULTY.
- Made difference smaller.
- Conformity increased.
Zimbardo.
A - Conformity to social roles
P - Stanford university psychology department basement.
- 24 Male university students.
- Psychologically healthy.
- Zimbardo = Superintendent.
- Prisoner or guard role.
- Prisoner = arrested at home, strip searched, given uniform.
- Guard = uniform + worked shifts.
F - Guards became aggressive.
- Prisoners rebelled.
Zimbardo evaluation.
+ PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. - For example, Zimbardo’s research has been used within prison training regimes to highlight and warn Guards about the nature of conformity to roles. This is important as it will hopefully prevent aggressive behaviour that can happen within groups of prison staff towards inmates.
- DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS. - For example, some psychologists argue that the participants were not genuinely conforming to a role but merely responding to the demand characteristics (play acting) of the set-up situation that they were in. It was made more unrealistic by the fact that Zimbardo was also playing a character in the study (the superintendent).
- ETHICAL ISSUES. - For example, Zimbardo caused psychological distress to many of his participants, so much so that the study had to be stopped after 5 days rather than lasting two weeks. It is argued that Zimbardo’s role as the ‘superintendent’ clouded his judgement with regards the protection of his participants and their right to withdraw.
MILGRAM.
- Yale University.
- 40 Male american participants.
- Learner= confederate behind wall.
- Teacher= participant.
- Experimenter.
- 65% = 450v.
- 100% = 300v.
MILGRAM SITUATIONAL VARIABLES.
- Proximity =
- T + L closer = decreases o (30%).
- T + A further = decreases o (21%) - Location =
- Less credible location/ rundown building in Bridgeport = decreases o (47.5%). - Uniform =
- Less authority = decreases o (20%).
MILGRAM EVALUATION.
+ RS -Bickman - uniform variation.
+ Controlled lab study.
+ Practical applications.
- Ethics.
- Androcentric sample.
EXPLANATIONS OF O.
- Agentic state.
- Legitimacy of authority.
- Authoritarian personality.
BICKMAN.
A = Investigate degree of social power the uniform has on others.
P =
- Brooklyn new York.
- 153 pedestrians (18 to 61 yrs).
- 4 male experimenters (18-20 yrs).
- Guard’s uniform, civilian clothes or milkman uniform.
- 3 situations = Dime and meter, Picking up a paper bag or bus stop.
- Guard = more obedience.
Resistance to social influence.
- Locus of control.
- Social support.
LOCUS OF CONTROL.
- How much control a person feels they have on their own life.
- Dispositional.
- Measured with questions.
- Rotter.
1. Internal = - Ability to control own life.
- Ability to make own decisions.
- Success/ failure = due to themselves,
- More confident + motivated.
- Middle aged.
- More likely to resist social influence.
2. External = - Little/ no control over own life.
- Others in control = must obey.
- Passive + except fate.
- Younger + elderly.
- Less likely to resist social influence.
SOCIAL SUPPORT.
- Situational.
- Resisting depends on others.
- Ally = When someone else resists = more likely to also resist.
- More likely to resist social influence.
