Social influence Flashcards
How much were Milgrams participants paid?
$4.50
What was the gender and age of participants in Milgrams study?
American men (aged 20-50)
How were Milgrams participants recruited?
Through news paper article
What did Milgrams actual research consist of?
Learner was stapped to a chair and wired with electrodes. The teacher (participant) was given small shock to experience it. L had to remember pairs of words. Each time L made an error T had to deliver a shock which increased up until 450V starting at 15V. When T reached 300V L pounded wall and cried out. At 315V the L did the same but was quiet for the rest. Examinator was in the room giving instructions to T and urging T on with 4 prods.
What were the 4 prods in Milgrams research?
1 - please continue
2 - experiment requires you to continue
3 - essential that you continue
4 - you have no other choice, proceed
Were the electric shocks real or fake in Milgrams research?
Fake
What is a confederate?
A person acting as a participant but knows and understands the true purpose of a study
What was Milgram’s baseline used to test?
Obedience
How many American men participated in Milgram’s study?
40
How was it decided who would be the teacher and learner in Milgram’s studies?
Drew lots but it was always rigged so participant would always get teacher
What was the experimenter (E) dressed in in Milgram’s baseline?
Grey lab coat
What were Milgram’s baseline findings(quantitative)?
12.5% of participants stopped at 300V
65% continued to 450V
What were Milgram’s baseline findings(qualitative)?
Participants showed signs of extreme tension, sweating, trembling, stutter, bite lip, groan and dig nails into hand
3 had full blown uncontrollable seizures
Who was asked to predict the behaviour in Milgrams research?
14 psychology students who expected no more than 3% to continue to 450V
What was the response to the follow up survey to Milgram’s research?
84% said they are happy they participated
Were all the participants debriefed after Milgram’s baseline?
Yes
What were the Conclusions on Milgram’s research?
Concluded German people were no different. He suspected there were certain factors in situation that encourages obedience, so he decided to conduct the variations
What are the three types of conformity?
compliance
Internalisation
Identification
What is compliance?
‘going along with others’ in public but not changing privately or any personal opinions
Only a superficial change
Behaviour often stops once group pressure stops
What is identification?
conforming if there is something about the group we value so we want to be apart of it
means we may have public change but not privately as you may still disagree with some of the values
What is internalisation?
person genuinely accepts group norms, result in private and public change.
Sees change even in absence of group members
Usually permanent
What is ISI?
The cognitive behaviour process because it is to do with how you think, Most likely to happen in situation where person is new or some ambiguity.
About who has the better information you or the rest of the group
Need to be right
What is NSI?
what is regarded as normal for a social group. An emotional rather than cognitive process. Leads to temporary changes and opinion/behaviour (compliance).
Likely to occur in situations with strangers due to fear of being rejected, more pronounced in stressful situations
social approval
Who came up with the idea of NSI and ISI?
Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerald (1955)
Two part theory
What does ISI stand for?
informational social influence
What does NSI stand for?
normative social influence
What were the four words on the shock machine in Milgram’s research?
slight - intense - danger - severe
What did Asch’s baseline procedure consist of?
Placing particpants in a room and asking them to tell him what line is most similar to X (a, b or c).
What was Asch’s research used to show?
to assess to what extent people conform to the opinions of others
What were the three variations Asch used in his study?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
What did Asch find in his group size variations?
Varied number of confederates from 1-15
Found a curvilinear relationship with conformity increasing with group size but after reaching 3 people it only increased in small increments
Suggest: most people are sensitive to the view of others
What did Asch find in his unanimity variations?
Added in a non-conforming person
In one study confederate gave wrong answer and the other the right answer.
Found participants conformed less in Prescence of dissenter. Rate decreased by a quarter of when majority was unanimous.
Suggests influence of majority depends on it being unanimous
What were Asch task difficulty variation findings?
Wether making task harder would effect conformity, Increased difficulty of line judging task by making stimulus line and comparison line more similar, makes it harder to see difference between lines
Found that conformity increased with task difficulty
suggests it becomes natural to look to others people for guidance and to assume they are right and you are wrong (ISI)
What were Milgram’s three variations?
proximity
location
uniform
What were the three sub categories in the Proximity variation in Milgram’s research?
Touch proximity
Remote instruction
Teacher and learner in same room
How did Milgram carry out the proximity variation?
placed teacher (T) and learner (L) in same room
How did Milgram carry out the touch proximity variation?
teacher (T) forced learners (L) hand onto electro shock pad
How did Milgram carry out the remote instruction variation?
experimenter (E) gave instructions to the teacher (T) via a telephone
How did Milgram carry out the location variation?
changed from the Yale location to a run down office building
How did Milgram carry out the uniform variation?
In variation the experimenter (E) was called away due to an inconvenient phone call and replaced by a member of the public (confederate) dressed in casual clothes
What were the results of Milgram’s touch proximity variations?
obedience dropped 30%
What were the results of Milgram’s uniform variations?
obedience dropped 20%
What were the results of Milgram’s location variations?
Obedience dropped to 47.5%
What were the results of Milgram’s remote instruction variations?
Obedience dropped 20.5%
What were the results of Milgram’s proximity variations?
65% TO 40%
What were the original findings of the obedience levels in Milgram’s baseline?
Obedience was 65%
What was the explanation for the proximity variation in Milgram’s findings?
decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves
What was the explanation for the location variation in Milgram’s findings?
Yale location provided legitimacy and authority making participants believe it more and take it more seriously
What was the explanation for the uniform variation in Milgram’s findings?
uniform’s encourage obedience because they’re widely used as a symbol of authority
Where was Milgram’s baseline study carried out?
Yale university
What does LOC stand for?
Locus of control
What does it mean if you are an internal or external person?
internals- believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves
externals- tend to believe things that happen are outside of their control
What is the LOC continuum?
it is a scale between being an internal or external, shows that people vary
Why are people with high LOC more able to resist social pressure to conform?
as a person it takes more of a responsibility for their actions so tend to base decisions of own belief then depending on opinions of others (internal)
Why does having a non-conforming confederate help to reduce conformity?
confederate acts as ‘model’ of independent behaviour which was be copied, their dissent gives rise to more dissent as majority is no longer unanimous
Why were uniforms used in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
used to de-individualise
What were the prisoners uniforms in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
cap on head to signify when prisoners use to shave their heads before entering prison to prevent lice
loose smock to act like dress
only identified by number
What were the guards uniforms in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
given own uniform to reflect status
wooden clubs
handcuff
mirrored shades so prisoners cannot see their eyes and can only see themselves
Where was the Stanford Prison experiment carried out?
basement of psychology department in Stanford university
How were students assigned guard or prison in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
flip of coin
Who were the participants in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
students of the university
What instructions were given about behaviour in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment?
guards reminded they had full control and authority with power over prisoners, Prisoners had to apply for parole in order to leave
What conclusions were made from the Stanford Prison experiment?
social roles appear to have a strong influence on individuals behaviour.
Guards became brutal and prisoners became submissive. Even volunteers who came in to perform a specific function (prison chaplain) were found to behave like in real prison instead of psychological study
What role did Zimbardo play in the Stanford Prison experiment?
prison superintendent
What happened on day 2 in the Stanford Prison experiment?
revolution from the prisoners
How many days was the Stanford Prison experiment meant to go on and how long did it go on?
predicted - 14 days
Lasted- 6 days
Why was a prisoner put in ‘the hole’ in the Stanford Prison experiment??
for going on hunger strike since he believed people were not being treated right
What were the findings from the Stanford Prison experiment?
guards took role with enthusiasm, treating prisoners harshly
Guards used ‘divide and conquer rules’ to divide the prisoners, special room set up for obedient prisoners who also received a special meal to eat Infront of other prisoners
After rebellion prisoners became depressed, anxious and subdued
Why was some prisoner released in the Stanford Prison experiment?
due to psychological disturbances, threatening himself and others
How many prisoners were released in total from the Stanford Prison experiment?
3
What are the positive evaluations of types of conformity and ISI/NSI?
+evidence supports as explanation
+support from Todd Lucas study
What are the limitations of types of conformity and ISI/NSI?
-unclear whether it is ISI or NSI in research studies
-NSI does not predict conformity in everyone
-is the NSI/ISI distinction useful
What are the positive evaluations of Milgram’s findings/research?
+replicated findings in French documentary about reality TV
+similar findings by Sheridan and King when replicating the study but instead with a puppy
What are the limitations of Milgram’s findings/research?
-low internal validity
-conclusions about blind obedience may not be justified
-ethical issues
What are the positive evaluations of social support?
+real world research support
+research support
+help to resist social influence
What are the limitations of social support?
-not always relevant
What is social support?
when there is a presence of a non conforming person in order to reduce unanimity within the group
What are the positive evaluations of LOC?
+research support
What are the limitations of LOC?
-contradictory research
-limited role of LOC
What are the positive evaluations of Milgram’s variations?
+evidence from other studies
+replicated in other cultures
What are the limitations of Milgram’s variations?
-not very cross cultures
-low internal validity
-danger of situational perspective
What are some positive evaluations of Asch’s research?
+support from other studies
What are some limitations of Asch’s research?
-task and situations are artificial
-participants were American men
-Lucas found conformity to be more complex than Asch suggested
-Ethical issues
What are the positive evaluations of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment?
+control over key variables
+Mark McDermott (2019) argues participants did behave like in real prison
What are the limitations of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment?
-lack of realism
-exaggerates power of roles
-alternative explanations
What is the agentic state?
is when someone acts like an agent in which they are unfeeling puppet that experience high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise what they are doing is wrong but feel powerless to disobey
What is the shift from autonomous to agentic state called?
agentic shift
What is autonomous state?
opposite of the agentic state in which the person acts as an individual so behave in accordance with sense of responsibility for own actions
Why does agentic shift occur?
if person perceives someone else as an authority figure
What are binding factors?
aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviours and thus reducing moral strain shifting responsibility to victims or denying damage done
What is the positive evaluation of the idea of agentic state, autonomous state and binding factors
+ research support
most of Milgram’s participants resisted giving shocks and often asked the experimenter questions (‘who is responsible if L is harmed’) and the experimenter would reply ‘ I am ‘ after this the procedure went smoothly .once participants perceived as not responsible for own behaviour they acted more easily as experimenters enters agent,
What are the limitations of the ideas about agentic state, autonomous state and binding factors?
- obedience alibi revisited
David Mandel (1998)
described once incident in the second world war involving German reserved police battalion 101. these men shot civilians despite no orders to do so but instead behaved autonomously
-limited explanation
doesn’t explain findings from Rank and Jacobson research, found 16/18 nurses disobeyed doctors. Doctors were obviously authority figure but almost all nurses remained autonomous, suggests the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience
How does legitimacy of authority effect obedience?
Increases obedience as it allows an authority figure to give orders to people which can turn out to be destructive and harmful, we give independence over to authority figures in our society as we are structures in a hierarchal way. These norms we accept as children
What does destructive authority allow?
allows people to be ordered to behave in a destructive, dangerous and cruel way
What are the positive evaluations of the idea of authority in society?
+ explains cultural differences
In some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted by and demand obedience from individuals, reflects how hierarchy differs
Kilham and Mann (1974) found 16% of Australian women v 85% of Germany went up to 450V showing difference in authority.
+real world crimes of obedience
rank and jacobson found nurses were prepared to disobey legitimate authority (doctors) however Herbert Kelman and Lee Hamilton argued real world crimes of obedience can be understood by terms of power in hierarchy (e.g. commanding officers have a greater power to punish nurses)
What are the limitations of the idea of authority in obedience?
-cannot explain all disobedience
it is possible that innate tendencies to obey or disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than legitimate authority
specific minorities of Milgram’s study participants disobey despite recognising experimenters scientific authority suggests people may be more or less obedient than others
What was Moscivicis et als study?
demonstrates minority influence in a study where group of 6 people asked to view set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether slide was blue or green. Two confederates consistently said slides were green in each group. Participants gave same answer green on 8.42% of trials
Second group exposed to an inconsistent minority (green said 24 times blue said 12 times) 1.25% agreed .
Third control group had no confederates and all participants had to do was identity slide with 0.25% choosing wrong
What is minority influence?
refers to situations where a small group of people or one person influence the beliefs and behaviours of other people, most likely to lead to internalisation while conformity leads to compliance
how is flexibility described to aid minority influence?
Charles Nemeth (1986) argues consistency not only factor as can be off putting, someone who is seen to repeat same arguments over and over may be viewed as dogmatic and ridged. members of minority need to be prepared to accept and adapt view to be more reasonable and valid in counter arguments
how is consistency described to aid minority influence?
consistency increased amount of interest from other people
Diachronic consistency- said says things over period of time
Synchronic consistency- all say same thing at once
how is commitment described to aid minority influence?
some minorities draw attention by showing extreme risk this shows greater commitment and majority to pay more attention (augmentation principle)
What are the three factors of minority influence?
commitment
flexibility
consistency
How to the three factors of minority influence effect the process of change?
all three factors make people think about view minority view or cause, if you hear something new your more likely to think more deeply it’s this deeper processing which is important in process of conversation to a different minority view point
What is the snowball effect?
where minority view gradually becomes the majority view
Who proposed Locus of Control?
Julian Rotterm(1966)
What does LOC stand for?
locus of control
Is LOC a scale and what does that mean if so?
yes it is meaning individuals vary
What are the two types of personality in the LOC scale?
internal
external
Who would an internal person blame for something bad that’s happened to them?
they would believe the thing that happened are largely controlled by themselves
Who would an external person blame for something bad that’s happened to them?
tend to believe things that happen are outside of their control
Who are more likely to resist peer pressure on the scale of LOC and why?
internal person (high LOC) as this type takes more of a responsibility for their actions so tend to base decisions on own belief than depending on opinion of others
What type of characteristics does an internal person have?
tend to be strong wielded, opinionated, self confident, more achievement orientated and higher intelligence. These are typical characteristics of leaders who have much less need for social approval than followers
What is social support?
the prescence of a non conforming person
Why does social support help to resist conformity?
fact of having someone else not following majority the confederate acts as model of independent behaviour . Their dissent gives rise to more dissent as majority is no longer unanimous
How does social support effect obedience?
in Milgram’s variations obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when joined by disobedient confederate. Once again models act on ones own consciousness changes the legitimacy of authority figure making it easier
What did Milgram’s research demonstrate?
importance of disobedient role models
How did Zimbardo suggest social change can occur?
happen through gradual commitment, once small instruction obeyed it’s difficult to resist bigger one causing person to drift towards new bahaviour
What did Asch’s research highlight as the most important?
importance of a dissent which broke power of majority
How do environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity process by appealing to NSI?
happens by providing information on what others are doing. Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are doing. (e.g. cigarettes have images of what happens once you smoke)
Normative influence
What is social cryptommesia?
memory that changes but doesn’t remember how it happened or when
(African American civil rights movement)
How did the world example of African American civil rights show consistency?
position remained consistent, millions took part in marches over several years always with same message
How did the world example of African American civil rights show drawing attention?
segregation applied to all parts of America there were black neighbourhoods, white exclusive restaurant’s. Marches drew attention providing social proof of problem by breaking segregation laws
How did the world example of African American civil rights show deeper processing?
many who accepted status quo began to think deeply about the unjustness of it all
How did the world example of African American civil rights show augmentation principle?
individuals risked their lives numerous times: for example, freedom fighters on transport, personal risks indicate a strong sense of belief and reinforcement of their message
What did Adorno want to investigate?
wanted to look at the average white American males unconscious prejudice attitudes towards ethnic groups
How many men did Adorno study?
2000
What scale/s did Adorno create?
created several measurement scale including potential for fascism scale (used to measure authoritarian personality (AP)
What was Adornos research findings?
people with authoritarian leaning identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous of the weak, conscious of status and showed extreme respect, deference and servility to those of higher status (obedience)
-found AP people had a certain cognitive style with fixed stereotypes
-positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
Why did Adorno carry out his research?
wanted to understand anti semitism in the holocaust
Where is authoritarian personality (AP) likely to originate from?
believed to form in childhood due to harsh parenting which create resentment and hostility within a child causing them to displace their anger onto others who they perceive to be weak (scapegoating)
Psychodynamic explanation
What are the characteristics of a person with authoritarian personality (AP)?
contempt for those with inferior social status, inflexibility outlook on world, most likely to blame other groups for ills on society
Higher obedience levels
What are the positive evaluations of normative influence (social change)?
+ research support
Jessica Nolan (2008)aimed to see if they could change outlook on energy use habits, message hung on front of doors in San Diego ,every week for a month. One group showing what others doing v one with only message. First group had decreased energy usage compared to second group.
Shows how social change happens through NSI so is valid explanation
+minority influence explains social change
Charles Nemeth (2009) claims social change due to type of thinking that minorities inspire, thinking broad rather than narrow, leads to obedience and more creative solutions to social issues
What are the limitations for the social change and social influence idea?
-behaviour not always changed through exposing to social norms
David Foxcroft (2015) reviewed social norms interventions as part of ‘gold standard’ Cochrane Collaboration, 70 studies used to reduce students alcohol use. Results: small reduction in quantity and no effect on frequency.
Therefore NSI doesn’t always produce long term effects.
-barriers to social change
Bashir (2013) found people resist social change because they don’t want to associate with negative stereotypes (labels)
-deeper processing
Diane Mackie (1987) says deeper processing is driven by minority influence causes deeper processing because more likely to reflect on opposing views. undermines validity of minority influence as a key mechanism in social change
what are some positive evaluations of authoritarian personality explanation and adornos research?
+ research support from Milgram and Elms which found participants who were fully obedient in Milgram’s studies scored highly on the F-scale, This supports Adornos claim that obedience correlates with authoritarian traits
+research with F-scale has provided basis of an explanation of obedience based on personality
what are the limitations of authoritarian personality explanation and adornos research?
-limited explanation, authoritarianism cannot explain mess obedience, where many people displayed obedient behaviour despite varying personality. Social Identity Theory offers a more realistic alternative
-Political bias
F-scale only measures a tendency towards right-wing ideologies, neglecting left-wing authoritarianism. this makes the theory less comprehensive as an explanation across the political spectrum
- Fred Greensleeves (1969) calls f-scale ‘comedy of nethological errors’ as it is fraud. (e.g. possible to get high score just by selecting agree) means anyone with response bias assessed as having personality
-complexity of obedience, analysis of individuals f-scale subscales revealed differences. Obedience participants did not exhibit all characteristics typically associated with authoritarianism (e.g. glorifying fathers or hostile attitudes towards mothers) suggests authoritarianism is not a reliable predictor of obedience
What are the positive evaluations of minority influence?
+ research evidence supporting consistency
Bluer green slides study showed a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect than non. Wendy wood et al (1994) carried out meta-analysis of over 100 studies and found same conclusion. Suggests consistent view is a minimum requirement
+ evidence showing that change in the majority’s position does involve deeper processing of idea
Robin Martin (2003) one group group heard a minority group agree with initial view while other group heard majority agree. People less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to the minority group then majority. Suggests minorities message had been more deeply processed
What are the limitations of minority influence?
- Martin et al make clear distinctions between majority and minority, this allows lots of control however real-life situations more complicated so findings very limited to lab situations only
-artificial tasks
research far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour. Cases such as jury decisions making the outcomes are vastly more important . Means studies lacking in external validity and so limit explanations to real life scenarios
-in study figure for agreement in minority was very low, suggests minority influence rare and not useful (+but when participants wrote answer privately more likely to express minority view, suggests view expressed by people in public was just the tip of the iceberg)
