Social Influence Flashcards

Question

What defines ethics in psychology

Answer 1

What you "CAN DO and CANT DO WITH PARTICIPANTS"

Answer 2

Consent (informed) Deception Confidentiality Debriefing Withdrawal Protection

Answer 3

Consent - not met - they were deceived Deception - not met Confidentiality - met Debrief - met Right to withdraw - met Protection from harm - not met - ppts may have experiences stress or embarrassment (they can be offered counselling)

Answer 4

To investigate to what extent people would conform to a social role To understand whether people behave as they do due to the circumstances they are in (situation) or because of innate personality (disposition)

Answer 5

Zimbardo set up a mock prison and 24 stable and healthy male students volunteered to take part They were given the role of a prisoner or guard Prisoners were unexpectedly arrested from their homes then they were deloused, searched and given a number and uniform The guards only referred to prisoners by numbers; they were given uniforms, clubs, whistles and reflective sunglasses

Answer 6

Guards became increasingly tyrannical and played their roles even when not being watched (some volunteered extra unpaid hours) The prisoners rebelled after 2 days and the guards retaliated violently and attempted to use divide and rule tactics against them Guards harassed prisoners by (for eg.) Waking them up at night for spontaneous headcounts- to display their authority The experiment was terminates on the 6th day out of 14

Answer 7

Consent- not met Deception- not met Confidentiality- met Debrief- met Withdrawal- not met Protection from harm- not met

Answer 8

(1) It lacked the realism of a real prison so some believe PPTs were play-acting with stereotypes of how they'd seen guards and prisoners behave in movies so the experiment has low external validity (2) Zimbardo may've exaggerated his results as only 1/3 of the guards behaved in a brutal manner, another 1/3 tried to apply the rules fairly and the last 1/3 tried to help the prisoners by offering cigarettes and reinstating priviledges

Answer 9

(1) High internal validity (2) McDermott argues that the PPTs did act as if the prison was real to them, 90% of prisoners' conversations were about prison life and how they could shorten their sentences. Prisoner 416 explained how he felt that the experiment was a real prison, hence both parties assimilated into their roles arguably giving the experiment validity

Answer 10

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority

Answer 11

Obedience involves an individual with power whereas conformity involves a group Obedience has direct orders whereas conformity does not have any explicit demands

Answer 12

Milgram's Experiment of Shock- Yale

Answer 13

To investigate how far people would be prepared to go in obeying an authority figure

Answer 14

40 American men volunteered They drew lots to decide who was the teacher and who was the learner however the results were fixed as the PPT was always the teacher The experimenter told the teachers that they would be testing the learners on word pairs and they would need to apply a shock for each mistake The shocks ranged from 15v to 450v and went up in intervals of 15 The confederate learner would grunt, complain, and pound the wall between them at 300v, thereafter they would be silent The experimenter gave 4 prods if the PPT hesitated

Answer 15

All ppts went up to 300v 65% fully conformed and went to 450v PPTs were visibly distressed- sweating and trembling and 3 had seizures

Answer 16

Informed consent- not met Deception- not met Confidentiality- met Debrief- met Withdrawal- not met Protection from harm- not met

Answer 17

(1) Low internal validity. DEMnd characteristics may have been in play as half of Milgram's PPTs did not believe the shocks were real. (COUNTER) In a procedure like Milgram's some people had to give real shocks to a puppy and they were distressed but 54% of men and 100% of women still gave a fatal shock- similar to Milgram's

Answer 18

External circumstances rather than due to the personalities of the people involved. Location Proximity Uniform

Answer 19

1. The experiment was moved to a run-down office away from Yale Uni --> obedience decreased to 47.5%

Answer 20

1. teacher and learner were put in the same room --> obedience decreased to 40% 2. teacher had to force the learner's hand for them to receive a shock --> obedience decreased to 30% 3. experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by phone --> obedience decreased to 20.5%

Answer 21

1. experimenter changed form lab clothes to clothes a member of the general public would wear --> obedience decreased to 20%

Answer 22

1. Research support from Bickman. Field experiment where people were asked to pick up litter by people in the uniform of an officer, a milkman and an ordinary citizen. Obedience was the highest with the uniform of the officer and the lowest towards the civilian. Ppts were twice as likely to obey they officer than the civilian showing that uniform increases legitimacy of authority 2.Control of variables. As it was a lab experiment, Milgram kept control of his variables; he systematically only changed one variable at a time and to ensure changes to his DV were only as a result to his IV. This also makes it easier to replicate studies which is important to show that the results are accurate and repeatable. This experiment has, hence, been done in different ways across different cultures with similar results. For eg. Dutch ppts were tested and it was found that 90% obeyed to say stressful things in an interview to someone desperate fir a job

Answer 23

1. Situational alibi. His findings may be offensive. David Mandel criticised his perspective and argued that it gave an excuse for the behaviours of the Nazis, for example, making it offensive to the survivors and victims of the Holocaust. It suggests that the Nazis were only following orders. Milgram's findings ignore dispositional factors such as personality suggesting that the Nazis were in a situational position which they could not control.

Answer 24

Agentic state- a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our actions as we believe to be acting for an authority figure which frees us from the demand of our consciences This emphasises that obedience is because of a social hierarchy

Answer 25

being aware of the consequences of one's actions and taking control/responsibility for their own behaviour. Can be sympathetic or parasympathetic

Answer 26

The shift from autonomy to agency which occurs when someone perceives another as an authority figure with a higher position in a social hierarchy

Answer 27

Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour, reducing their moral strain and making them more likely to obey agentically

Answer 28

Support 1: Milgram's ppts protested against shocking Mr Wallace (confederate) and asked who would be responsible if he got hurt. When they learned the researcher would take responsibility, the teacher often continued without protest Limitation 1: Some of Milgram's ppts did not go all the way to 450v. AND. In Rank and Jacobson's test, 16/18 nurses refused orders form a doctor to administrate excess of a drug Limitation 2: Mandel described how members of the German police murdered civilians without being directly ordered to so they acted autonomously and did not see themselves as acting as the agents of a higher authority

Answer 29

We recognise our own and others' positions in a social hierarchy and we are more likely to obey those we perceive to have authority over us

Answer 30

problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive history shows that some leaders ordered people to act in cruel ways in MESY, the experimenter used 4 prods to order participants to act in ways opposing their morals there was a war crime massacre in Vietnam with 504 unarmed civilians; women were gang raped and people were shot. the soldiers blew up buildings and when one soldier was found guilty, his defence was that he was only following orders Only 16% of Australian women went to 450v whereas 85% of German ppts did

Answer 31

Explanations which take personality into consideration

Answer 32

He was interested in Nazi Germany and believed obedience was due to internal factors like personality (as opposed to situational factors) He created the authoritarian personality. He studied over 2,000 middle-class white Americans and their attitudes to social groups

Answer 33

He used the F(ascist) scale with people rating their agreement with questions to do with authority, for eg

Answer 34

hostile to those of an inferior status obedient to those of a higher status inflexible on their outlook (black and white; no grey areas) highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender

Answer 35

A positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice He suggested this was due to a a strict upbringing by harsh parents: strict discipline expectation of absolute loyalty impossible expectations

Answer 36

The beliefs that people hold about what controls the events in their lives. people are often not one or the other, there is a continium

Answer 37

Internals: they have more control over their lives so they are more likely to resist social influence Externals: what happens to them is a result of external sources and they may be less likely to resist social influence

Answer 38

S1. Holland repeated Milgram's study and 37% of internals did not continue to the end compared to 23% of externals L1. Twenge et al analysed loads of control studies in the US over 40 years and they found that over time people were become more external, but more resistant to obedience, which is contradicting

Answer 39

The presence of people who resists pressures to conform or obey can help others do the same by giving them confidence

Answer 40

Unanimity and using a dissenter

Answer 41

Asch investigated unanimity and when you have a dissenter, they act to decrease conformity

Answer 42

Milgram replicated his study and found the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine ppt was joined by a dissenter

Answer 43

Albrecht's 8 week programme to help pregnant adolescence resist peer pressure to smoke. Findings: adolescence who had a buddy telling them to resist, were less likely to smoke

Answer 44

One person or small group influences the behaviours of other people leading to internalisation

Answer 45

Consistency Commitment Flexibility

Answer 46

The minority needs to keep the same beliefs over time (diachronic consistency) and between all the individuals (synchronic consistency)

Answer 47

When a minority displays dedication to their belief by making personal sacrifices to show they are not acting out of self-interest When they engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their cause, this is known as the augmentation principle

Answer 48

Nemeth argued that being extremely consistent and repeating the same argument is rigid and unappealing to the majority Hence, minority influence is more effective when flexibility adapts their point of view and accepts reasonable counter arguments There needs to be a balance between consistency and flexibility

Answer 49

When, over time, increasing numbers from the majority switch to the minority and the more this happens, the greater the rate of conversion until the minority n=view becomes the majority view

Answer 50

The aim was to investigate if consistency increased influence He put females into groups of 6 and they had to identify whether 36 slides were either blue or green (they were always blue but varying shades) In the consistent condition: 2/6 were confederates who always said slides were green In the inconsistent condition: 2/6 where confederates who said the slides were green 24 times and blue 12 times In the control condition: there were no confederates Findings: Consistent: wrong answer 8.4% Inconsistent: wrong answer 1.24% Controlled: wrong answer 0.25%

Answer 51

All female ppts (low external validity) Lab study (demand characteristics (high internal validity)) Artificial task (majority usually have more power and status in real life) 8.4% is still quite low

Answer 52

There were three ppts and one confederate who had to decide the compensation to pay a ski-lift accident victim When the confederate who was acting consistently refused to change their argument, this did not affect the outcome When the confederate was willing to be flexible and compromise, this influenced the majority to lower their demands

Answer 53

When whole societies change, rather than just individuals, who adapted new a attitudes and beliefs which can result in new legislation

Answer 54

Drawing attention Consistency Deeper processing Augmentation principle ISI/NSI/Obedience Snowball effect Social cryptomnesia

Answer 55

Drawing attention- raising attention Consistency- repeating a message over time with synchronic consistency Deeper processing- people who simply accepted the majority view begin to question your cause Augmentation principle- extreme behaviours to demonstrate commitment ISI/NSI/Obedience- people support to be right/ to be liked / it is embedded into law Snowball effect- minority becomes majority Social cryptomnesia- people know that a change has occurred but don't quite know the details

Answer 56

Nolan et al found a significant decrease in energy consumption when members of a community had weekly notices that other residents were already doing this. This was compared to a group who simply had notices asking them to save energy This evidence backs up conformity by NSI

Answer 57

Foxcroft et al reviewed 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce students' alcohol. The researchers found only a small reduction in drinking quality and no effect on drinking frequency

Answer 58

Bashir et al found that participants were less likely to act environmentally because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical environmentalists who were judges as 'tree huggers'