Social influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions in response to pressure from others

Question 2

What is internalisation?

Answer 2

To genuinely accept a groups’ norms in private, public and permanent change of opinions and behaviours

Question 3

What is identification?

Answer 3

Conforming with a group publicly however having a different opinion in private

Question 4

Compliance

Answer 4

Going along with a group in public but not in private so the change is superficial. Behaviours/ opinion stops when public pressure stops. never has any emotional investment

Question 5

What is informational social influence? (ISI)

Answer 5

A person’s desire to be right so they’ll conform to whoever they find more knowledgable

Question 6

What type of process is informational social influence

Answer 6

Cognitive

Question 7

When does informational social influence occur?

Answer 7

In ambigious situations such as when quick decisions needs to be made

Question 8

What is normative social influence?

Answer 8

Conforming to what is normal behaviour for a social group

Question 9

Why does normative social influence occur?

Answer 9

When people want to gain social approval

Question 10

What type of process is normative social influence

Answer 10

Emotional

Question 11

What is the AO3 in response to informational social influence

Answer 11

• Variation of Asch’s study
• A greater conformity to incorrect answers when maths questions were more difficult
• Mostly true for students with poor mathematic ability
• Shows that people conform in situations where they believe they don’t know the answer

Question 12

What is the AO3 in response to individual differences in normative social influence?

Answer 12

• Doesn’t affect everyone in the same way
• Some people are less concerned with being liked
• People in high need for affiliation are more likely to conform compared to others who are not

Question 13

How can informational and normative social influence work together?

Answer 13

• In Asch’s study, conformity was reduced when there is another dissenting participant
• The dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (providing emotional support)
• May also reduce the power of ISI (alternative source of information)
• Not always able to identify is NSI or ISI is working (applies to lab studies or in real life)
• Casts doubt if ISI and NSI act independently in terms of conformity

Question 14

What is the AO3 on the individual differences in informational social influence?

Answer 14

• Doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way
• Asch found that students were less conformist by 28% compared to the other ppts who were 37%
• Similar study was carried out on science and engineering students that found little conformity

Question 15

What is the AO3 for research to support normative social influence?

Answer 15

• Asch found many of his ppts went along with the clearly wrong answer because other people did
• When asked why, they said they felt self-conscious of saying the correct answer and facing disapproval
• When study was repeated, ppts were made to write their answers and conformity fell to 12.5%

Question 16

What was Asch’s research procedure?

Answer 16

• showed ppts two large white cards at a time, one had a standard line and the other had three comparison lines
  -One of the three lines was the same length as the standard and the other two were substantially
• Asked ppt which line matched standard
• Used 123 male American undergraduates
• Naïve ppt always towards the end
• There was a group of 6 to 8 people naive with one naïve ppt however the rest were confederates
• 18 trails - asked which is the correct comparison
• On 12 ‘critical trials’ out of 18, confederates all gave wrong answers

Question 17

What were Asch’s findings?

Answer 17

-Naïve ppt gave wrong answer 36.8% of time
-25% of ppts didn’t conform on any trials
-75% of ppts conformed at least once
-This is known as the Asch effect (the extent to which a ppt will conform)
-When ppt were later interviewed, they said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence)

Question 18

What effect did group size have on Asch’s study?

Answer 18

-When there were 3 confederates, conformity to wrong answers rose to 31.8%
-Addition of further confederates made no difference
-Suggests a small minority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted, so there is no need for a majority of more than three.

Question 19

What effect did unanimity have on Asch’s study?

Answer 19

-Presence of a dissenter meant conformity was reduced by a quarter
-Dissenter enabled naïve ppt to behave more independently

Question 20

What effect did tast difficulty have on Asch’s study

Answer 20

-When the lines were more similar in length, conformity increased
-Suggests that ISI plays a greater role when task becomes harder

Question 21

What is Asch’s AO3 on students?

Answer 21

-Replicated on engineering students in the UK
-One one student conformed in the 396 trials
-Engineering students may be more confident in measuring lines so were more conformist
-Possible that the 1950s was a very conformist time in America, society has changed since then
-Therefore, the Asch effect is not consistent across situations or time, so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour

Question 22

What is Asch’s AO3 on artificial situation and task?

Answer 22

-Ppts knew they were in a research study so may have not responded to demand characteristics
-The task was relatively trivial so there was no reason not to conform
-Didn’t resemble groups that we’re part of in everyday life
-Therefore the findings do not generalise to everyday situations

Question 23

What is Asch’s AO3 on the limited application of findings?

Answer 23

-Androcentric research by only testing on men, women may be more conformist because they’re concerned about social relationships and being accepted than men.
-Individualist cultures (American) had lower conformity than collectivist cultures (china)
-Therefoe Asch’s research may only apply to American men since he didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account

Question 24

What is Asch’s AO3 on findings only apply to certain situations

Answer 24

-Ppts had to answer out loud, and were with a group of strangers so they may have wanted to impress them
-Meaning conformity was higher than usual
-However, it had been found conform is higher when majority of the group are friends rather than strangers

Question 25

What is Asch’s AO3 on ethical implications?

Answer 25

-Naïve ppts were deceived because they thought confederates were genuine ppts
-However, the ethical cost should be weighed with the benefits gained from this study

Question 26

What was Zimbardo’s research procedure?

Answer 26

-Set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University
-Advertised for students who were ‘emotionally stable’ after psychological testing
-Students randomly assigned roles of guards or prison; to heighten realism, prisoners were arrested at their homes
-Prisoners blindfolded, strip searched and issued a uniform number
-Prisoners had heavily regulated daily routines
-Had to follow 16 rules enforced by guards who worked in shifts
-Guards wore uniform, wooden club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades
-Guards had complete power over prisoners

Question 27

What were Zimbardo’s findings?

Answer 27

-Guards behaviour became a threat to prisoner’s psychological and physical health
-Study stopped after 6 days instead of the the intended 14
-Prisoners ripped uniforms, shouted and swore at guards
-Guards employed ‘divide and rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners against each other
-After rebellion, prisoners became depressed and anxious
-1 prisoner was released on the 1st day because they showed symptoms of psychological disturbance
-2 more were released on the 4th day
-1 prisoner went on hunger strike, so guards attempted to force feed hum and punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’
-Guard’s behaviour became more primal and aggressive as they enjoyed having power

Question 28

What was the conclusion of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 28

-Revealed power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour
-Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed to roles within prison
-Even volunteers, found themselves behaving as if they were in a prison rather than a psychological study

Question 29

What is Zimbardo’s AO3 on control?

Answer 29

-Zimbardo and his colleagues had control over the variables
-Chose emotionally stable ppts and randomly assigned their social roles
-Tried to rule out individual personality differences through the assigned social rules
-If ppts behaved differently but only had these roles by chance then behaviour may have been due to pressures of the situation
-This increases internal validity of the study

Question 30

What is Zimbardo’s AO3 on lack of realism?

Answer 30

-Ppts were only acting and not genuinely conforming to roles, performance was based on how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave
-One guard said he based his role on a brutal character from a film
-However, the situation was very real to prisoners, qualitative data gathered showed that 90% of prisoners conversations were about prison life
-Therefore high degree of internal validity

Question 31

What is Zimbardo’s AO3 on the role of disposational (personality) influences

Answer 31

-Exaggerated the power of the situation to influence behaviour, minimising the role of personality/disposational factors
-e.g. 1/3 of guards behaved in a brutal manner, another 1/3 were keen on applying the rules fairly, and the other 1/3 tried to help and support prisoners
-Therefore Zimbardo’s conclusion may be exaggerated
-Differences in guard’s behaviour indicate they were able to exercise right and wrong choices, despite situational pressures to conform to a role

Question 32

What is Zimbardo’s AO3 on lack of research support?

Answer 32

-Study replicated in 2006 and found very different findings to the original ones
-It was the prisoners who eventually took charge of the mock prison, subjecting the guards to harassment and disobedience
-Researchers explained this using social identity theory, arguing that guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a cohesive group, but prisoners did

Question 33

What is Zimbardo’s AO3 on ethical issues?

Answer 33

-A major ethical issue due to ZImbardo’s dual roles in the study
-E.g. on one occasion a student who wanted to leave the prison spoke to Zimbardo in his role as superintendent
-Zimbardo responded as a superintendent worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities towards his ppts