social influence Flashcards
topic 1/4 paper 1
what is internalisation?
- deepest form of conformity
- personal beliefs change to match the group
- permanent change in belief
what is identification?
- conform to group behaviour privately and publicly
- does not believe in the values
- temporary, does not fully conform
what is compliance?
- public conforming to group behaviours
- privately keeps own values
- most shallow and temporary
what features are in the dual process model
- NSI (normative social influence)
ISI (informational social influence)
what is normative social influence?
- individuals want to seem normal and in the majority
- no change in personal values
- results in compliance
what is informative social influence?
- correct behaviour is unclear
- look to the majority for guidance
results in internalisation
what were Asch’s aims?
examine how social pressure from the majority causes someone to conform
describe the Asch study on variations
- 50 male American students
- believed it was a vision test
- line judgement task
- one participant in a room with seven confederates
- state whether A, B or C was most like the target line
- answer was always clear
- confederates gave wrong answer for 12/18 trials
findings of Asch’s study
- participants conformed to majority view 32% of the time
- 74% conformed at least once
- 26% did not conform
- 0.04% of control group conformed at least once
- control group had one real participant without confederates
what did Asch find post-interview?
- most knew they were wrong but conformed to fit in or because they thought they would be ridiculed
- showed NSI
Asch’s variation study; group size
- 3% conformed with one confederate
- 13% conformed with two confederates
- 33% conformed with three confederates (did not increase with larger group)
Asch’s variation study; unanimity
- conformity drops to 5.5% if confederate gives correct answer right before participant
Asch’s variation study; task difficulty
- made difference between line length smaller
- conformity increased with difficulty
- effect of ISI
AO3 Asch; generalisability
- not generalisable
- used a sample of white, American males
- lacks population validity
AO3 Asch; reliability
- high internal validity
- can be easily replicated
Support for Asch; Jenness & bean bottle
- 101 psychology students
- individually estimate number of beans in bottle
- then split into groups of 3 and asked to discuss
- re-stated new estimate of beans
- average of M; 790 changed to 695
- average of F; 925 changed to 878
- nearly all participants changed answers post-discussion
- conformity in an ambiguous situation, ISI
AO3 Jenness; mundane realism & ethnocentric
- lacks, not a daily task
- not generalisable as only American students used
what were Zimbardo’s aims?
- investigate reason for high aggression in American prisons
- due to environment or dispositions
describe Zimbardo’s study on conformity to social roles
- created a fake prison in Stanford University
- 21 male students rated mentally and physically able from 75 volunteers
- selected from volunteering through advert
- 10 guards, 11 prisoners selected randomly
- prisoners given realistic arrest at house; fingerprinted, stripped and deloused, given uniform and identification number
- guards given uniforms, clubs, handcuffs and mirrored sunglasses to prevent eye contact
what were Zimbardo’s findings?
- both prisoners and guards quickly adapted to roles of dominance and submission
- by 6th day experiment was cancelled due to extreme effects & fear for prisoners mental health
- participants conformed to social roles, showing situational power of prison
AO3 Zimbardo; generalisability
- sampled American men
- Reichler & Haslam’s sample used English people
- roles of prisoner were aggressive, guards were calm
- both are examples of internalisation of roles that work differently between cultures (to test reliability conduct multicultural tests)
AO3 Zimbardo; internal validity
- lacks,
- only 1/3 of guards were excessively aggressive
- both prisoners and guards may have been acting according to stereotypes within media
AO3 Zimbardo; ethics
- highly unethical
- exposure to psychological and physical harm
- experiment should have been stopped earlier (at 2 days)
AO3 Zimbardo; dispositional factors
- natural Authoritarian personality influencing conformity
- stereotypes (one guard said he based his off a movie he saw)
AO3 obedience Milgram aims
- investigate if ordinary American citizens would obey an unjust order from an authority figure
Milgram original study sample
- 40 white males
- aged 20-50
- through volunteer sampling
Milgram original study results
- 100% went up to 300V
- 12.5% stopped at 300V
- 65% continued administering shocks until 450V
- under the correct circumstances, people will obey even if it causes harm
- power of legitimate authority
Milgram original study procedure
- participants assigned role of teacher (‘randomly’), instructed to administer electric shocks to a learner
- shocks increased 15V up to a maximum of 450V
- participants told to shock every incorrect answer
AO3 Nolan
- investigated if people noticed influence of social norms in regards to energy consumption
- hung messages on doors of houses for 1 month
- key message: most residents were trying to reduce energy usage
- control group: no reference to others behaviour
- decrease in energy usage in first group
AO3 Nolan evaluation
- strength of NSI
- shows conformity leads to social change as people want to fit in
AO3; Banuazizi & Movahedi
- published critique of Stanford Prison experiment
- argued experiment did not show participants were consumed by their roles
- participants acted out stereotypical roles due to cues (demand characteristics)
minority influence AO3 Moscovici et al (CONSISTENCY)
- green and blue slides
- re-run of Asch’s experiment
- 2 confederates with 4 participants
- shown 36 slides of different blue shades and asked colour
AO3 Moscovici procedure
- trial 1: confederates said green for all
- trial 2: green 24 times and blue 12 times
AO3 Moscovici findings
- consistent majority (trial 1) had effect on majority 8.42%
- inconsistent majority (trial 2) had less effect 1.25% said green
- 32% said the slides were green at least once
commitment
minority demonstrates suffering for their views while still committing (augmentation principle: suffering for your views)
consistency
minority demonstrates they are confident in their views to change majority
flexibility
minority considers counter-points and compromises, but essentially sticks to their own views
minority influence AO3 Vietnamese monk (COMMITMENT)
- burning himself on a street to protest unfair treatment to Buddhists
- popularly distributed in Europe as postcards
- turned world opinion against Vietnam, government fell later in the year
minority influence AO3 Nemeth (FLEXIBILITY)
- 3 participants, 1 confederate (acted as minority) in a mock jury
- imaginary victim of ski accident and compensation
- trial 1: confederate initially showed inflexibility by not changing level of compensation
- trial 2: confederate showed flexibility by raising offer slightly.
AO3 Nemeth findings
- more likely to lower compensation level closer to confederate’s in trial 2
social change
- change that occurs within a whole society, rather than individuals
snowball effect
members of the majority are slowly converted by the minority as legitimacy in group increases. minority becomes majority
group membership
we are more likely to change views by a member that we identify with (age, gender, race, sexuality etc)
social cryptoamnesia
individuals fail to recall the origin of a change, where people know the change occured but forget how it occured
Mass et al hetero view on homo
- heterosexual males attempted to convince other males about the importance of gay rights
- compared with condition of homosexual males attempting to convince other males of gay rights
Mass et al findings
- straight men were best convinced by other heteros
- demonstrates importance of group membership in minority influence
AO3 minority influence; real world application
- knife crime, smoking in public places, green issues like climate change, suffragists
- members of a minority group are often victimised and not listened to by majority groups as they are viewed as the ‘out group’
AO3 Milgram; ethics
- informed consent: participants not told true aims of the study
- right to withdraw: had to ask 4 times before they were allowed to leave
- protection from harm: some suffered from moral strain and high anxiety
legitimate authority
exercise social power over others and can make decisions
agency theory
- when we are responsible for our own actions, we are in an autonomous state
- when one changes from an autonomous state to an agentic state, it is an agentic shift
- when an individual carries out orders of an authority figure, it is an agentic state
AO3 Elms
Milgram’s variation studies; proximity
- affects participant’s awareness of how shocks affect the learner
- physical location, when learner and teacher were in the same room, obedience dropped to 40%
- when teacher had to place learner’s hand on shock plate, obedience dropped to 30%
Milgram’s variation studies; location
- legitimate authority influences likelihood of obedience
- when in an office block in a run-down area, obedience dropped to 47.6%
Milgram’s variation studies; uniform
- authority figures in uniform are more likely to gain respect and obedience
- 65% of participants obeyed to experimenter in lab coat
locus of control (Rotter)
- degree to how people believe external forces control outcomes in their life
high internal locus of control
less likely to conform, believe they can influence events and outcomes
high external locus of control
more likely to conform, believes the world and fate controls their actions
