social influence Flashcards
What is the definition of conformity?
Conformity is ‘a change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.’
What are the three types of conformity proposed by Kelman?
Internalisation, Identification, Compliance
What is internalisation in terms of conformity?
Internalisation is making the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviour of the group your own; it’s the strongest type of conformity.
What is identification in terms of conformity?
Identification is a temporary change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of the group.
What is compliance in terms of conformity?
Compliance means following others’ ideas to gain approval or avoid disapproval while privately disagreeing.
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
ISI is when someone conforms because they want to be right, copying others to have the right answer in uncertain situations.
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
NSI is when someone conforms because they want to be liked or accepted by the group.
What study provides evidence for Informational Social Influence?
Fein et al. (1990) – participants changed their presidential vote based on others’ opinions.
What evidence supports the role of Normative Social Influence in bullying?
Garandeau and Cillissen (2006) found that a boy could be manipulated by a bully to victimize another child to avoid disapproval from his peers.
What factors affect conformity according to Asch’s study?
Group size, unanimity, and task difficulty.
What did Asch’s study find about group size and conformity?
Conformity increased by 30% when the group size of confederates was more than three.
What effect does unanimity have on conformity?
When there is unanimity in the group, conformity increases. With a dissenting confederate, conformity dropped to 5.5%.
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
Asch found that increasing task difficulty (making lines more similar in length) increased conformity due to greater uncertainty.
What was Zimbardo’s study about?
Zimbardo’s study aimed to investigate how readily people conform to social roles in a simulated prison environment.
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?
Prisoners and guards quickly adopted their roles, with guards becoming more aggressive and prisoners becoming more submissive.
What is the Agentic State?
The Agentic State is when a person believes someone else is responsible for their actions, shifting responsibility to an authority figure.
What is the Legitimacy of Authority?
People are more likely to obey authority figures they see as credible and legitimate, such as teachers or police.
How does the proximity of the authority figure affect obedience?
Obedience is higher when the authority figure is physically closer to the participant, as shown in Milgram’s experiment.
How does wearing a uniform affect obedience?
People are more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform because it conveys legitimacy and authority.
What is the Authoritarian Personality?
A personality type that is more likely to obey authority and suppress personal beliefs, often measured by the F-scale.
How does locus of control relate to resistance to social influence?
People with an internal locus of control are less likely to conform and obey as they believe they have control over their own actions.
What is the importance of social support in resisting social influence?
Social support from others who also resist conformity or obedience reduces the pressure to conform or obey.
What are the three main factors that make minority influence effective?
Consistency, commitment, and flexibility.
What is the snowball effect in social influence?
The snowball effect is when minority influence builds over time, eventually leading to majority acceptance of the new view.
What were the findings of Asch’s control trial?
In the control trial, only 1% of participants gave an incorrect response, showing that perception errors were minimal.
What is the Two-Process Model by Deutsch and Gerrard?
It suggests that both Informational Social Influence and Normative Social Influence can occur simultaneously and are not mutually exclusive.
What impact does group unanimity have on conformity?
When group unanimity is broken, conformity drops significantly, as demonstrated by Asch’s research.
What are the strengths of Asch’s conformity experiment?
High internal validity due to controlled variables and clear measurement of conformity.
What are the ethical issues in Asch’s study?
Deception and lack of informed consent, though participants were debriefed afterward.
What were the findings of Milgram’s obedience study?
65% of participants were willing to administer the maximum 450V shock to a confederate.
What factors increased obedience in Milgram’s study?
Proximity to the authority figure, legitimacy of the setting (Yale University), and wearing of a lab coat by the authority figure.
What did Milgram find about the role of uniforms in obedience?
Participants were more likely to obey someone in a lab coat compared to casual clothing.
What is a dispositional explanation for obedience?
It refers to internal personality traits that influence a person’s likelihood to obey, such as the Authoritarian Personality.
