Social Influence

Question 1

Outline conformity

Answer 1

Changing ones behaviours or beliefs due to real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

3 types of conformity - Kelman

Internalisation - strongest and most permanent form of conformity where an individual genuinely internalises the beliefs of a group. Change in behaviour and beliefs occurs both publicly and privately, whether the group is there or not.

Identification - Conform to beliefs and behaviours of a group because they have traits we value and want to be recognised as a part of it. Beliefs will be changed publicly but everything the group stands for may not be agreed with in private.

Compliance - most superficial form of conformity. “Going along with others” and the norm to be socially accepted. In private, beliefs do not change.

Question 2

Outline the reasons for conformity

Answer 2

Deutsch and Gerrard - two process theory

ISI - Informational social influence is where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, and look to others who they believe may have more information. This type of conformity occurs when a person is unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge and is associated with internalisation.

Lucas et al: students were asked to give answers to maths problems ranging in difficulty. Greater conformity occurred when the questions became more difficult, supporting the theory of ISI and that greater ambiguity leads to greater conformity.

NSI - normative social influence
Grounded in emotion, conformity occurs because we want to be socially accepted and fear rejection.

Asch found that people conformed to a majority, even giving an obviously wrong answer. This supports that people will conform in order to fit in with a group

Teevan and McGhee outline that individual differences impact the influence of NSI. Those in need of affiliation will be more influenced.

A dissenter can reduce the influence of NSI by providing social support. Similarly, by providing an alternative source of information they can reduce the influence of NSI.

Question 3

Outline Asch’s study

Answer 3

1950’s
40 male American undergraduates.

Participants were asked to match a “standard line” to 1 of 3 comparison lines. In each group there was only one real participant the remaining 6 were confederates.

A confederate gave an incorrect answer in 12/18 trials. In the baseline procedure, 75% conformed at least once to the incorrect answer. Less than 1% conformed in the control group.

Question 4

Outline the variables influencing conformity in Asch’s study

Answer 4

Group Size:
Asch found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity. Conformity rose as the number of confederates increased, but only up to a certain point. 13% with 2, 32% with 3.

Task difficulty:
As task ambiguity increased, so did conformity. Providing supporting evidence for ISI and than individuals are more likely to conform in situations where the answer is unclear.

Group unanimity:
Conformity decreased when a dissenter was brought in; 9% when the dissenter gave an alternative wrong answer and 5% when the dissenter gave the correct answer. This could be due to the dissenter providing social support for the genuine participant and encouraging them to think independently and not conform to the group majority which they are influenced to do through NSI. Similarly, providing an alternative answer gives the genuine participant another source of information to look to reducing the influence of ISI.

Question 5

Evaluate Asch’s research on conformity

Answer 5

+ lab based - higher control = higher validity

+ Lucas et al also demonstrated the influence of ISI

• contradictory evidence from replications. Perrin and Spencer replicated Asch’s study in the 1980s in the UK with male engineering students. Less than 1% conformed. This suggests the “Asch effect” lacks temporal validity and changes across time and context.
• ungeneralisable sample. Bond and Smith argue conformity is different in collectivist cultures. Similarly, Neto argues women are more likely to conform.
• research conducted during a time of high conformity.

Fiske highlights how the study didn’t properly reflect group dynamics which influence the pressure to conform. Thereby, decreasing the study’s ecological validity.

Question 6

Outline Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 6

Volunteer sample (160 men)
Each participant met individually with another “participant” and the “experimenter” at Yale University.
A rigged draw allocated the roles to the participants. The naïve participant always got the role of the teacher and the confederate always got assigned the role of the learner.

The learner would have to match a pair of words in a memory based task. An incorrect answer would result in an electric shock from the teacher, with each incorrect answer increasing the voltage of the shock.
The shocks reached up to 450V.

Question 7

Outline the results of Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 7

Milgram concluded ordinary people are very obedient to authority, it is not evil people who commit atrocities but rather ordinary people obeying authority.

100% of participants gave all shocks up to 300V, whilst 65% gave up to the 450V shocks.

Question 8

Evaluate Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 8

Research support:

Sheridan and King replicated Milgram’s and found 54% of men and 100% of women gave the highest shock, believed to be the fatal one to live puppies.

Beauvois - “la jeu de la mort”
French documentary researched obedience through creating a fake game show. 80% of naïve participants gave the 460V shock to a confederate even when they pretended to pass out.

Lack of Internal validity - Orne and Holland said the experiment was overly contrived and the participants figured out the purpose of the study and were therefore, displaying demand characteristics. However, 3 participants had fully blown seizures as a stress response to the experiment, suggesting they thought the shocks were real and did not question the authenticity of the study.

Ethical issues - participants were deceived throughout the experiment. They believed they were involved in an experiment about the role of operant conditioning on memory and they were put under extreme levels of stress.

Question 9

Outline the situation variables of Milgram’s research into obedience

Answer 9

Location: changed from Yale University to a run down office block in Connecticut. Obedience dropped from 65% to 48%. Yale is a prestigious University, establishing its legitimacy to participants. Obedience was still high as participants still recognised the experimenters legitimacy.

Proximity:
Remote feedback: 65%
Verbal feedback: 62.5%
When the teacher and learner were in the same room obedience dropped to 40%
Touch proximity: 30%
Telephonic communications: 21%.

participants are able to psychologically distance themselves from their actions as proximity from the learner increased. When orders were given over the phone, authority is less apparent, enabling participants to act independently.

Uniform: when the experimenter in a lab coat was replaced by an “ordinary man”, obedience dropped to 20%.

Question 10

Evaluate the research into situational variables in obedience

Answer 10

Research support:
Bickman’s field study showed that when given basic orders, the public were twice as likely to obey orders given by a man in a security guards uniform, compared to an “ordinary man.” This suggested that uniform is a widely accepted symbol of authority, thus encouraging obedience.

Lack of internal validty:
Orne and Holland highlighted that the partipants figured out the inauthenticty of the study. Milgram even agreed the uniform variable was contrived.

Miranda et al found similar results in a sample of Spanish students. 80% Suggesting the findings are consistent between cultures and in genders.

However Bond and Smith - lack of replications in collectivist cultures. Only one identified in Jordan.

Danger of situational perspective: oversimplifying obedience to situational variables can cause excuses for destructive obedience. Mandel argues that attributing situations like the Holocaust to situational variables whilst ignoring the role of dispositional factors, is offensive to survivors.

Question 11

Outline Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment

Answer 11

21 participants chosen after psychological screening.

Randomly allocated the role of either guard or prisoner.

Prisoners were arrested by their local police from their homes, driven to a mock prison, stripped, deloused and given smocks and a prison number that they would be referred to.

Guards were given matching uniforms, batons, reflective sunglasses (to minimise eye contact and thus identification with the prisoners) and were told they had complete authority over the prisoners.

Participants quickly conformed to their social roles. Riots occurred on day two but was quickly shut down by the guards.

Participant #8612 left on day 1 due to psychological distress. One prisoner went on a hunger strike leading them to be put in a “hole.”

The guards displayed destructive authority, physically and sexually abusing and tormenting the prisoners.

Prisoners became depressed, passive and traumatised.

Experiment ended on day 6 opposed to the intended fortnight due to psychological distress.

Question 12

Evaluate Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment

Answer 12

High internal validity: 90% of prisoner’s private conversations were about prison conditions. When the prisoners were introduced to the priest they introduced themselves by prison number rather than their name, showing how quickly conformed to their social role.

Supposed real life application:
The findings of the experiment could be used in the real world and can be used to implement interventions intended to prevent abuse of power. However, police brutality is still highly prevalent suggesting the findings are meaningless.

Ecological validity issues: ungeneralisable sample who were paid to take part. Payment could lead to demand characteristics; Banvazizi and Mohavedi argued participants were merely playing up to stereotypical roles.

Ethical issues

Individual differences: Fromm argued Zimbardo overexaggerated the findings of the study and the role of the situation, ignoring the role of the personality. 1/3 of guards displayed extremely sadistic behaviour but others offered the prisoners support, sympathy and revoked lost privileges. These findings suggest Zimbardo overstated the role of situational factors whilst ignoring the role of dispositional factors in relation to conformity to social roles.

Lack of replication to validate findings:

Contradictory evidence: Reicher and Haslam’s BBC experiment found that participants did not automatically conform to their social role. The guards did not identify with their status and refused to impose their authority; the prisoners identified as a group to challenge the guard’s authority, which resulted in a shift of power and a collapse of the prison system. This suggests conformity to social roles may not be as automatic and is instead more influenced by a shared social identity.

Question 13

Outline the legitimacy of authority

Answer 13

Social explanation for obedience.

We are more likely to obey people we perceive has having more authority than us.

Authority is seen as legitimate due to the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy.

Acknowledgment and appreciation of hierarchy is usually taught during childhood and reinforced through socialisation.

Question 14

Outline the agentic state

Answer 14

A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our actions because we are acting for an authoritative figure.

Obedience therefore occurs because an individual acts as an “agent.”

Frees us from the demands of our conscience but we may still feel anxious over our actions due to our perceived inability to disobey orders.

Question 15

Outline the autonomous state

Answer 15

We are free and able to act according to our own beliefs and morals, and so therefore feel responsible for the outcome of our actions.

Question 16

Outline the agentic shift

Answer 16

Shift from an autonomous to an agentic state when in the presence of someone we view to have legitimate authority. We differ our decisions and responsibilities to the figure of authority.

Question 17

Outline binding factors

Answer 17

Binding factors are variables which allow an individual to remain in an agentic state. Binding factors are aspects which can allow the individual to ignore the damaging effects of their actions, thus reducing the moral strain they may feel.

These factors can include, denial, victim blaming and shifting responsibility.

Milgram pointed out in his experiment many individuals protested and appeared to want to stop, yet were seemingly unable to do so.

Question 18

Evaluate the agentic state and legitimacy of authority as explanations for obedience.

Answer 18

At some point in Milgram’s study, participants generally stopped to ask who would be responsible if any harm was caused to the learner. When informed that they wouldn’t be held responsible, they continued with no objections.

As 35% of participants in Milgram’s baseline procedure did not continue to the 450V shock, this suggests individual differences can influence someone’s susceptibility to being in an agentic state. The legitimacy of authority explanation cannot account for these situations of disobedience.

Research support:
Blass and Schmitt: When students were shown clips of Milgram’s experiment and were asked who was responsible for the harm done to “Mr Wallace”, the experimenter was said to be responsible. This is suggested to be because the students recognises his legitimacy of authority.

Can explain real life tragedies: soldiers charged after the Mai Lai massacre said they were “obeying orders.”

Mandel explained that the agentic shift may be an oversimplification. Nazis in the German Reserve Battalion 101 murdered masses of civilians, despite being given the autonomous choice to do other duties if they didn’t feel up to the task. This suggests other factors such as racism and prejudice influenced their actions rather than one sole factor: acting as an agent for a destructive figure of authority.

Rank and Jacobson: 16/18 nurses were able to disobey direct orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose.

Question 19

Outline research into dispositional explanations of obedience

Answer 19

Authoritarian personality - Adorno

INvestigated over 2000 white middle class male Americans’ unconcious attitudes to racial groups in the 1950’s. The “F-scale” was used to assess an individuals’ potential for faccism after the men were asked to rank their agreence with certain statements such as “respect of authority is the most important virtue a child should learn.”

Adorno et al suggests this personality is extremely aware of their own and others’ status and will show unconditional obedience to individuals they percieve as authroatitive and contempt towards those they believe as having an inferior status. Their views are typically conventional and inflexible.

Adorno found a correlation with participants who ranked highly on the F-scale and their childhoods. He theorises that conditional love from their parents and harsh punishment for perceived failings led to feelings of resentment and hostility. These emotions are repressed due to an inability to express them to their parents and are displaced later in life onto individuals they perceive as inferior.

This personality is described to be a result of childhood experiences. Authoritarian personalities likely recived conditional love from their parents and harsh punishment for any percieved failings. This results in feelings of hatred but they are supressed and later projected to individual’s later in life they view as inferior.

Question 20

Evaluate the Authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience

Answer 20

Milgram and Elms interviewed a sample of fully obedient participants in his baseline procedure. A correlation was found between those participants and scoring highly on the F-scale.

The F-scale is standardised so personality dimensions can be measured more reliably.

Ungeneralisable sample.

Adorno conducted follow up interviews which could mean findings were influenced by investigator effects.

Political bias - Christine and Jahoda outline how the F-scale measures a tendency towards extremist right wing ideologies and so doesn’t take into account the whole political spectrum. Eg: Chinese Maoism.

Question 21

Outline explanations for the resistance to social influence

Answer 21

Social support:

Social support provides an individual with the presence of someone who resists the pressure to obey or to conform. Acting as a model of non-conformity this enables the other to do the same by showing resistance is possible.

Social support reduces the pressure to conform as the dissenter acts as an ally, reducing the influence of NSI by meaning you will no longer be the only one facing potential social rejection. This can increase an individual’s confidence to act in accordance with their own beliefs and morals.

Social support reduces the pressure to obey as the dissenter acts as a challenge to the legitimacy of authority. This can mean an individual feels more capable of acting in an autonomous state opposed to an agentic one.

Locus of Control:

Proposed by Rotter, LoC refers to the extent of control an individual believes to have over the events within their life. LoC can be seen as a scale with high internal existing at one end and high external at the other.

Individuals with a high internal LoC tend to feel in control of their behaviour and lives and thus responsible for the outcomes of their actions. These individuals are typically more confident, self assured and achievement orientated; characteristics which can make one less in need of affiliation and therefore less likely to feel the pressure to conform to others.

In contrast, people with a high external LoC believe their lives are determined by factors beyond their control such as luck, fate or their environment. This means they are more inclined to submit to social influence to not feeling they can make independent decisions due to believing what happens to them is beyond their control.

Question 22

Evaluate social support as an explanation for the resistance of social influence

Answer 22

Social support:

Ansbech found when evaluating an 8-week support group designed to help pregnant teens resist peer pressure to spoke, that those provided with an older peer for support were significantly more likely to not engage with smoking, than those who were not provided with this same support.

This not only makes social support a credible explanation for how social influence can be resisted but also can have beneficial implications to wider society. By reducing the likelihood of pregnant teens engaging in harmful behaviours this also reduces their likelihood of giving birth to a baby with health complications. This means that health care providers, who are already stretched beyond capacity, won’t need to spend medical resources on health issues which could have been prevented. In turn, this means there will be more medical resources available for health issues that are beyond a person’s control.

Asch found when group unanimity decreased through the introduction of dissenter who gave a correct answer, conformity dropped to 5.5%.

Milgram found in a variation of his experiment where the teachers were in pairs, one being a confederate, when the confederate refused to continue to the highest voltage level, obedience decreased to 10%

Question 23

Evaluate having an internal locus of control as an explanation to the resistance to social influence

Answer 23

When measuring the locus of control’s of participants, Holland found when replicating Milgram’s shock experiment, that 37% of participants categorised as having high internal LoCs refused to continue to the highest voltage, compared to 27% of those categorised as having external LoCs.

Limited explanation: Rotter himself argued that LoCs may be only be relevant in novel situations; previous experiences may be more influential in determining whether someone of not will submit or resist social influences. He suggested that if we are in a situation that we have previously obeyed or conformed to in the past, we are likely to repeat this previous behaviour.

Twenge et al conducted a meta-analysis of locus of control studies spanning across a 40 year period. The findings showed that people had become increasingly disobedient but also more external, in terms of LoC. We would expect to find a decrease in obedience correlating with an increase in internals.

Question 24

Outline the minority influence

Answer 24

When one person or a small group influence the beliefs and behaviour of the majority.

For a minority view to gain traction and have influence they must be efficiently be consistent, committed and flexible within their message.

The minority influence should be both consistent across time with their view point, and thus diachronically, as well as all members within the minority influence being consistent within their message and so, synchronically.

To show dedication to their cause, the minority view must show commitment. This can involve engaging in dangerous activities in order to gain traction from the majority. Similarly, such activities can entail and element of personal risk. This is known as the augmentation principle and demonstrates that the minority is not acting out of just self interest.

Finally, the minority must be flexible with their message and consider and compromise with differing opinions. Rigid and stubborn attitudes discourage any engagement from others.

When these elements are all done successfully the minority view can gain attention from others who may reflect on it a deeper level. This deeper processing can result in conversion, as someone adopts the minority view. As the rate of conversion increases and overtime more people adopt the minority view, this process of change will result in a snowball effect where the minority view eventually becomes the majority one.

Question 25

Outline research into the minority view

Answer 25

Moscovicci

172 female participants placed into groups of 6 and shown a series of blue slides varying in shade intensity.

Partcipants were then asked to judge aloud whether the slide was blue or green. 2 confederates acting as the minority view consitently answered with green. On 8.5% of trials the naieve participants conformed to this same incorrect answer.

In contrast, participants only conformed to 1.25% of trials within the control group whose confederates inconsistently gave an answer of green.

Question 26

Evaluate research into the minority influence

Answer 26

Moscovici controlled for extraneous variables such as lighting levels which may affect judgement of colour. Therefore, the results were a more reliable measure of minority influence being the cause of decision making opposed to ability to effectively perceive the colour of the slides.

Gender bias:

Moscovici used an ungeneralisable sample of 172 American female participants. Therefore, without any additional validation to males of his findings, statements made about the minority influence’s impact cannot be extrapolated to the other gender as we cannot conclude they would react to the minority view in the same way. For example, Neto argued that women are in greater need for affiliation and so are more likely to conform opposed to men.

Wood et al conducted a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies and found that consistent minorities were more influential in regards to having others listen and adopt their views. This indicates consistency is required for a minority to influence the majority.

Martin et al demonstrated how a deeper processing of the minority view is involved when there is a change in the majority’s position. Participants were presented with a statement supporting a particular viewpoint and had their level of agreement measured. Participants then either listened to a majority or minority influence agree with the initial view before being exposed to a conflicting viewpoint and having a final measurement of their attitudes towards it.

It was found that ppts who had listened to the minority view were less willing to change their opinion than those who had not, suggesting the minority influence and been more deeply processed and thus had a more enduring effect. This therefore provides evidence to support a central argument for how the minority influence works.

Experiments cannot replicate the minority influence in the real world. Within the real world, the majority tends to hold more power and status in society, thus meaning the minority have to be incredibly committed to their cause due to the hostility and opposition they often face. Therefore, as these social dynamics are typically absent in research they may not give an accurate depiction of how the minority influence works in everyday society.