Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity and what are the 3 types
Yielding to group pressure. Occurs when an individuals behaviour and/or beliefs are influenced by a larger group.
Compliance: individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group in order to be accepted or avoid disapproval. Occurs due to a desire to fit in and is publicly not privately going along with majority influence
Identification: individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group as membership of that group is desirable.
Temporary private and public acceptance of majority influence and is not maintained when individual leaves group
Internalisation: individuals genuinely adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group- public and private acceptance of majority influence and long term
What are two explanations for conformity and give examples
Informational social influence: individuals look to others for guidance in order to be correct for example watching others to see which cutlery they use and doing the same
Normative social influence: individuals agree with others publicly in order to gain acceptance and be liked. Example: asch 1955 got participants to conform to answers given by others that were incorrect as if they gave the correct answer they risked being ridiculed by the majority
What is it meant by cognitive dissonance
Unpleasant feeling of anxiety created by simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas
What was ASCH’s study.
Aim: investigate whether individuals would conform to the majority opinion even when majority was clearly wrong
Hypothesis: people would conform to majority view due to social pressure even tho it contradicted their own beliefs
Procedure: 1. Participants placed in a group with several confederates and asked to partake in a visual perception task. 2. Shown series of lines and asked to identify which line matched the length of the reference line. 3. Confederates were instructed to give incorrect answers on specific tasks. 4. Participants answered after confederates so the researcher could observe whether they conform to the confederates incorrect answers
Results: about 75% confirmed at least once, on average it was 32% across all trials
Conclusion: people often conform to group pressure even when they know the group is wrong which highlights the influence of social factors on decision making
What are the variables affecting conformity
Size of a group
Unanimity
Task difficulty
How does the size of a group affect conformity and give an example
Conformity rates increase as the size of a majority influence increases.
Research: ASCH’s study found that with one real participant and one confederate conformity was low, rising to 13% with two confederates and 32% with three confederates
How does unanimity affect conformity and give an example
Conformity declines when majority influence is not unanimous.
Research: asch- if one confederate went against the other confederates, conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5% however if the rebel went against both the participant and other confederates conformity dropped to 9%
How does task difficulty affect conformity rates and give an example
Greater conformity rates are seen when the task difficulty increases as the right answer becomes less obvious
Research: asch- increased task difficulty by making comparison lines similar to each other- finding that when he did so participants were more likely to conform to wrong answers
What was zimbardos experiment
Aim: investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in role playing simulation of prison life
Method:1. 21/ 75 male uni students that responded to newspaper advertisement were selected. Selection of roles were chosen at random. 2. Basement of psych department of Stanford was turned into mock prison. 3. Regular routine of shifts, meal times and visiting times were established
Findings: both guards and prisoners settled quickly into their social roles and after a initial prisoner rebellion was crushed dehumanisation was increasingly apparent with the gods becoming evermore sadistic taunting the prisoners and giving them meaningless boring tasks to do while prisoners became submissive and unquestioning of the guards behaviours. De-individuation was noticeable by the prisoners referring to each other and themselves by their numbers instead of their names. After 36 hours one prisoner was released because of fits of crying and raged. It was scheduled to run for 14 days however the study was stopped after six days when Zimbardo realise the extent of the harm.
Conclusion: individuals conform readily to social roles demanded of a situation even when such roles override an individuals moral belief about their personal behaviour
What is obedience
A type of social influence defined as complying with the demands of an authority figure
What was milgrams study
Aim: to investigate whether individuals would obey the orders of an authority figure that incurred negative consequences and went against one’s moral, codes.
Procedure: participants were met with a confederate experimenter wearing a grey lab coat. He introduced them to the confederate participant who was a gentle, harmless man in his 50s. The participants were told that the experiment concern the effects of punishment on learning and that they would either be a teacher or a learner with the rules determined randomly however they were in fact rigged and the participant was always the teacher. The experiment explained the punishment would involve severe electric shocks.
Findings: quantitative results: obedience was measured as the percentage of participants giving shocks up to the maximum 450 V in the main version of the experiment. Obedience rate was 62.5% which meant 25 out of 40 and 100% of participants continued to at least 300 V.
Qualitative results- many participants show distress such as twitching, sweating or giggling nervously digging their nose into their flesh and verbally attacking the experimental and free participants had uncontrollable seizures
Conclusion: the high level of obedience showed that people obey those regarded as authority figures and the results suggest that obeying those in a 40s normal behaviour in a hierarchically organised society
What were four ethical issues with Milgrim study?
- Psychological harm:
For- Milgrim is accused of exposing his participants to severe stress which is supported by the extreme physical reactions many participants exhibited
Against- only 2% had regrets about being involved and 74% thought that they had learned something useful about themselves - Deception/informed consent.
For- Milgram did deceive his participants he said the study was concerned with memory and learning and only after the volunteers had agreed to take part where the electric shocks mentioned
Against- Milgrim defended his use of deception by debriefing his participants also deception was necessary if participants were to behave realistically - Right to withdraw.
For- no explicit right to withdraw was given to the participants before the study started and attempts to withdraw were met with verbal pros that encourage them to continue
Against- Milgrim argued the participants did have the right to withdraw as 35% of them exercise this option and refused to carry on - Inducement to take part.
For- the advert for the study stated they would be paid $4 for taking part which may have led participants to believe they had to finish the study
Against-the advert also stated that money would be paid upon arrival at the laboratory and no participant ever claimed they thought they had to obey to be paid
How was internal validity a methodological criticism of Milgrim study?
Internal validity- concern concern the degree to which the findings are attributable to the effect of the IV on the DV
-ORNE and Holland criticise the internal validity of Milgrim study as they believe participants delivered the shocks because they knew they were not real however 75% of participants in post study interview said they believe them to be real
-However Perry in 2012 traced as many original participants as she could and claimed the true figure was only about 50%
How was external validity a methodological criticism of Milgrim study?
Androcentrism- as only males were used in the study of the accusation is that the results cannot be generalised to females and many people would imagine that female would be much less obedient to order with destructive consequences.
RESEARCH: Sheridan and king 1972- got male and female participants to give real electric shocks to a puppy every time it responded to a command incorrectly and 54% of meals and 100% of females obeyed up to 450v
Cultural bias - as Milgrim only used American participants, the results can be said to be not necessarily generalisable to people of other cultures
RESEARCH: meeus and raaijimakers 1986- found the highest recorded obedience level with the Milgrim paradigm of 90% is Spanish participants and kilham and mann 1974- use milligram paradigm to find a lowest cultural obedience rate of 28% among Australians
Historical validity - it has been suggested that the high rate of obedience found in the Milgrove study was a product of American culture being very authoritarian and obedient during the early 1960s as such does not reflect obedience levels today
Ecological validity - Milgram paradigm has been criticised for how unrepresentative it is of real life occurrences
What is the explanation for obedience?
The agenetic state- they see themselves as an agent of the authority figure so they give up some free will and enter an agenetic state. It is therefore the authority figure who has seen as responsible for consequences of the individual actions as a person becomes the de-individuated losing their sense of individuality.
RESEARCH: Milgram reported that in a remote authority variation of his procedure when the confederate researcher wasn’t in the same room as the teacher but gave orders on a telephone link. Obedience declined from 62.5% to 20.5% which suggests the participants were in the autonomous state and show themselves as responsible for the actions.
-legitimacy of authority- obedient individuals accept the power and status of authority figures to give orders. They are seen as being in charge which links to the agency theory that individual socialised to recognise the value of obedience to a 40 figures as helping to keep stability and society.
RESEARCH: Milgrim reported that some participants in his study ignored the learners, apparent distress showing little signs of harm themselves but instead focus on the following procedure in this way they could be seen as doing their duty and thus recognising the legitimate authority of the researcher
What are the three situation variables affecting obedience?
- Proximity-involves how aware individuals are of the consequences of their actions and obeying authority figures
RESEARCH: Milgrim found out when the teacher and learner were in the same room as each other obedience declined from 62.5% of 40%. When did he had forced to learn his hand onto apparent shock plate? Increasing the realisation of their actions obedience fell further to 30% - Location- can be relevant to the amount of perceived legitimate authority a person giving orders is seem to have.
RESEARCH: performed a variation of his study in an office block in a rundown part of town and found obedience dropped from 62.5% of 47.5% - Uniform- can give a perception of added legitimacy two or 40 figures when giving orders
RESEARCH: bickman 1974- found out when ordering people on a New York Street to pick up rubbish learn according to a stranger or move away from a bus stop 19% would obey his research assistant when he was dressed in a civilian clothes and 14% when dressed as a milkman, but 38% when he wore a security guard uniform
What is the individual variables affecting obedience?
The dispositional explanation- authoritarian personality
- Description of a person who holds rigid beliefs is intolerant of ambiguity submissive to authority and hostile to those of a low status.
Adorno et al- show people of this type as having insecurities that led them to be hostile to non-conventional people and having a belief in the need for power and toughness leading them to be highly obedient to authority figures
Zillmer et al - reported that 16 Nazi war criminals scored highly on three of the F scale dimensions but not all nine giving only limited support for concert
- elms and milgram- found out participants in Milgrim study who were highly obedient was significantly more authoritarian on the F scale then disobedient participants supporting the idea of a link between authoritarian personality type and obedience
What are 2 ways to resist social influence through non conformity
Independence- lack of consistent movement towards or away from social expectancy
Anti conformity- consistent movement away from social conformity for instance adopting behaviour and norms of minority group
What is social support
Perception of assistance and solidarity available from others
How is social support presented through conformity
With conformity, the presence of others who dissent has proven to be a strong source of defiance- breaking agreement or majority because if they do not all agree their impact is greatly reduced.
In a variation of ASCH’S study, if the real participants saw a dissenter disagreeing with the majority wrong answer on critical trials, conformity dropped sharply. Dissenters provide participants with moral support, even if they give a wrong answer from the majority, ‘freeing’ the participant to give the correct answer
Give an example through research of social support through conformity
Allen and Levine 1971- found that conformity was reduced on a task involving visual judgements if there was a dissenter. Suggesting dissenters help help resist social influence
How is social support presented through obedience
The presence of disobedience is a powerful source of social support. Disobedient models reduce the unanimity of a group which makes it easier for the individual to act independently
Give an example through research of social support through obedience
Milgram 1974- found that went 2 confederate paired with the real participant left the study early on declaring that they would go no further only 10% of participants gave the maximum 450 V shock. This suggests that the creating of a group norm of disobedience put the participants under pressure to conform to the behaviour of the confederate
What is locus of control and what are the two different types?
The extent to which individuals believe they can control events in their lives
Internal-things that happened to you are largely controlled by yourself
External- things happen without their own control for example, luck or fate
