Social influence Flashcards
Define conformity
A change of belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group.
Who proposed three types of conformity ?
Kelman 1958
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, internalisation, identification
Define compliance
Temporary agreement , agreeing with the groups beliefs in public but disagreeing privately
Give an example of conformity
Pressure from friends to drink when you wouldn’t drink in other situations
Define internalisation
When a person accepts a groups norms and values and makes it their own. An individual’s change of view is permanent.
Give an example of internalisation
Being brought up in a religious household and becoming religious yourself.
Define identification
Publicly change our behaviour even if we don’t agree privately, short term change only in presence of group
Give an example of identification
Acting more professional at work and less silly
What are the two explanations of conformity?
Normative social influence and informational social influence
Define ISI
The desire to be right, usually leads to internalisation
Define NSI
The desire to be liked usually leads to compliance
Who came up with the two process theory?
Deutsch and Gerard 1955
What is the two process theory?
Believed people conform because of two things ISI the desire to be right and NSI the desire to be liked.
What research support is there for NSI?
Asch 1951 found ppts conformed rather than give the correct answer as they were afraid of disapproval, when ppts wrote down answers conformity dropped to 12.5%
What does Asch 1951 research show about NSI?
Shows at least some conformity is due to the desire to be liked
Evidence/research support for ISI
Lucas et al 2006 found ppts conformed more to harder maths questions as the answer wasnt as obvious so more people conformed to the wrong answer
Whats a counterpoint to Lucas et al and Ash research support?
NSI and ISI are hard to identify in real life situations as they go hand in hand most of the time
Whats a limitation of NSI?
Individual differences, McGhee and Teevan 1967 found that students who were affiliators were more likely to conform as they had a higher want of being liked.
Who were the ppts in Aschs study?
123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6 including 5 confederates
What were the aims of Aschs study?
To investigate conformity and majority influence
What was the procedure in aschs study?
-ppts and confederates were presented with 4 lines ; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
-they were asked to state which of the three lines was the same length as a stimulus line
-the real ppts always answered last or second to last
-confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 of the trials
-Asch observed how often the ppt would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates vs the correct answer
What were the findings of Asch study?
-36.8% conformed
-25% never conformed
-75% conformed at least once
-in a controlled trial 1% of responses were wrong which eliminates the extraneous variable of eyesight increasing the validity of the conclusions drawn
What were the factors affecting conformity in Asch study?
Size of majority/group size
unanimity of majority
task difficulty
In relation to asch research, explain what is meant by the terms unanimity and task difficulty?
Unanimity: the extent to which all members of a group agree
Asch: the majority was unanimous when all confederates chose the same comparison line = produced the greatest level of conformity
Task difficulty: Asch study becomes more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer
Asch: conformity increases with task difficulty as ppts assume the majority is right
What are the 2 differences between internalisation and compliance?
Public acceptance and private rejection
Describe Asch’s study of conformity. Include details of what he did and what he found in your answer.
Showed participant 2 white cards - one had three lines of different length and one had a standard line.
Participants had to match the two lines of the same length.
Each participant was tested with a group of confederates, who after the first few trials started given the wrong answer. All confederates gave the same wrong answer.
Overall, the participants gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Every participant conformed at least once, meaning that 75% conformed once.
When asked why they conformed, they said: “to avoid rejection”. → NSI
“Asch’s study is a child of its time” - Explain what is meant by this
When Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study in 1980, only one student conformed out of 396.
The 1950s (the time when Asch’s study was conducted) was a particularly conformist time in America - it made sense to conform to established norms.
Meaning that people may have conformed because it was the norm to do so → We now live in a less conformist age, meaning the results would be different i.e. the study is a child of its time.
Why is it a limitation that aschs study is an artifical task and situation?
Ppts knew they were in a study which could create demand characteristics and they could have gone along with the situation. This is a limitation as it cant be generalised to real life situations.
Explain the ethical issues with Asch research?
Deception- they thought the other people were part of the study
Why do asch study have limited real life application?
Only men were tested and were all from the USA which is an individualistic culture where people are largely concerned with themselves
Outline procedure, findings and conclusion of stanford prison experiment
Mock prison where ppts were randomly allocated a prisoner or guard role
prisoners arrested from home, guards were dressed in uniform
guards abused their role prisoners rebelled and became depressed.
experiment ended after 6 days instead of 14.
Why is a high level of control over variables in the spe a strength?
Ppt were randomly selected as they volunteered which meant individual differences could be minimised which increases internal validity as its easier to draw conclusions about the cause of behaviour.
Why is it a limitation that zimbardo exaggerated the power of roles?
Only 1/3 of the guards behaved brutally so social roles may not have caused the behaviour as guards still seem to know the difference between right and wrong =dispositional factors are important as they were minimised
Why does spe lack realism?
Banuazizi & Mohavedi
Suggest the way ppts acted was based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are suppose to behave. This means the results may not have been down to social roles.
However most prisoners believed they were in a real prison run by psycholgists which increases validity.
Outline ethical issues with Zimbardos research
Zimbardo being part of the study meant when ppl asked to leave the study he was responding as a prison warden not a psychologists. Protection from harm was the biggest issue .
Outline Milgrams research into obedience
Procedure: A teacher gave fake electric shocks to a learner during a learning task ordered to do so by the experimenter. The learner cried for help and told them to stop but the experimenter told them to carry on
Findings: no pots stopped before 300v and 65% went all the way up to 450v.
Evaluate milgrams research in terms of validity
low validity- Orne and holland
ppts could guess the study- demand characteristics
high. external validity- hofling et al
nurses administrated drugs after being told by doctors shows milgrams finding can be applied to real life
What is the social identity theory?
It’s about group identification. In milgrams study the teachers identified with the science and so obeyed the researcher. obedience dropped because ppts started to identify with the victim.
Why is the social identity theory a limitation to milgrams conclusion about obedience?
Milgram claimed ppts obeyed due to the presence of an authority figure. SIT suggested obedience occurred due to identification with the researcher or victim.
Outline the ethical issues of milgrams study.
Deception: didn’t know shocks were fake
prevents ppts to give fully informed consent to take part and means the ppts are leaving themselves to psychological harm as they don’t knwo what the procedure involves
What is meant by situational variables?
factors that effect someone’s level of obedience factors are all due to external circumstance
situational factors in obedience
proximity - how close the researcher is
location- study was conducted in a lab at yale uni location have them confidence in the integrity of people involved
uniform- uniform symbols authority
agentic state
an individual gives up their autonomy and moral responsibility to an authority figure
legtimacy of authority
people will obey someone they perceive to be above them in the social hierarchy
Reicher and Haslam 2006
the bcc STUDY
procedure
Procedure: Randomly assigned men to the role of guard or prisoner and examined their behaviour within a specially created ‘prison’.
P’s were divided into 5 groups of three people who were as closely matched as possible on key personality variables.
From each group of three one person was randomly chose to be a guard and the other two prisoners.
How long was the BBC study?
8 nights
Reicher and Haslam 2006 bbc study findings
PPts didnt conform automatically to their assigned role as had happened in SPE
prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards and establish a more equal set of social relations within the prison.
- guards failed to identify their role
-lead to a shift in the power and the collapse of the prisoner guard system
Findings of milgrams study
No ppts stopped before 300v and 65% went all the way to the top of the shocking scale, 450v.
What were the factors affecting conformity in milgrams study?
proximity location uniform
Dispositional explanation
INternal factors like personality for reasons why someone obeys.
Locus of control Rotter 1966
The LOC is a measurement of an individuals sense of control over their lives i.e fate or hardwork
Internal locus of control
Behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and effort
External LOC
Behaviour is caused by luck or fate
How were the ppts of Moscovicis study picked?
Randomly selected ppts and confederates
What was the aim of Moscovicis study?
To observe how minorities can influence a majority
What was the procedure of Moscovicis study?
-It was a lab experiment
-Ppts were in a group where there were two confederates( the minority) and 4 ppts ( the majority)
- everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each with a different shde of blue
- they were each asked to say whether the slide was blue or green
- confederates deliberately said they were green on 2/3 of the trials, thus producing a consistent minority view
- the number of times that the real ppts reported that the slide was green was observed
-a control group was also used consisting of ppts only- no confederates.
What were the finding of moscovicis study?
When the confederates were consistent in their answers 8% of ppts said the slides were green. However, when the confederates answered inconsistently 1% said the slides were green. This shows consistency is crucial for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority;.
What are the two types of consistencys
Diachronic consistency
synchronic consistency
Diachronic consistency
When the group remains consistent over time - they dont change their views overtime
Synchronic consistency
When the group is consistent between all the members of the group- everyone in the group has the same views
Martin et al 2003
demonstrated that there is a greater degree of internalisation of a minority view compared to a majority view
Adorno et al 1950
developed a questionnaire called the f scale to measure levels of authoritarian personality
F scale
to measure levels of authoritarian personality
Dispositional
Explanations of behaviours such as obedience emphasise the being used by individuals own personal characteristics rather than situation influences within the environment
Authoritarian personality
A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obediance or submission to authority
