Social Influence

Question 1

Define social influence

Answer 1

The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours

Question 2

Define legitimacy of authority

Answer 2

An explanation for obedience which suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us due to the position of power that they hold within the social hierarchy

Question 3

Identify three features of an authoritarian personality

Answer 3

• submissive to superiors
• dismissive of inferiors
• highly prejudiced

Question 4

Explain how an authoritarian personality develops

Answer 4

An authoritarian personality develops from having a harsh parenting style in childhood. This harsh parenting style consists of strict discipline, criticism of failings and impossibly high standards. As the child cannot express their feelings to their parents so they displace these to others they deem weaker which is known as scapegoating.

Question 5

Which scale measures the authoritarian personality?

Answer 5

The F-scale

Question 6

Give some limitations of the F-scale

Answer 6

• Has acquiescence bias - all questions are worded in the same direction.
• Is politically biased - is very right wing, it does not account for left-wing authoritarianism.

Question 7

What does Milgram’s original study tell us about obedience?

Answer 7

Milgram’s study showed us that people obey those they consider to be authority figures. The results suggest that obeying authority is normal behaviour in a hierarchically organised society. We will obey orders that distress us and even go against our moral code.

Question 8

Outline two situational variables and the impact of these on obedience.

Answer 8

Proximity - describes the physical closeness between the person giving the order and the person receiving it. It decreases obedience rates. In Milgram’s variations study when the learner and teacher were in the same room the obedience level decreased to 40% from 65% in the original study, where they were in different rooms.
Uniform - describes the outfit the person giving the order is wearing, In Milgram’s original study the experimenter wore a lab coat so was dressed smartly. In Milgram’s variations study the experimenter was switched with someone who wore casual clothes. Obedience levels dropped from 60% to 20% in this case.

Question 9

Define the agentic state.

Answer 9

This is when individuals obey an order even if they are aware that it is wrong, because they feel that they are acting for an authority figure so feel no responsibility for their actions.

Question 10

What keeps a person in the agentic state?

Answer 10

Binding factors which allow a person to minimise the damaging aspects of their actions reduce the moral strain they feel. These can include:
- Guilt or anxiety about the thought of leaving
- Not wanting to appear rude / arrogant
- Unwillingness to break commitment to experimenter
- Shifting responsibility to victim
- Denying the impact of their actions

Question 11

Give two explanations why people are able to resist social influence

Answer 11

• Social support - this is when the presence of people helps others resist the pressures of conforming or obeying.
• Locus of control - describes a persons perception of their control over behaviours, successes, failures and event. A person with a high internal locus of control believes they are responsible for their lives so are more likely to resist.

Question 12

What’s the difference between internals and externals ?

Answer 12

Internals believe they are responsible for what happens to them and that they direct their own lives whereas externals believe outside forces direct their lives and their lives and they do not have control.

Question 13

What are the the two theories that Deutsch & Gerard proposed to explain conformity ?

Answer 13

• Normative social influence - when you conform to fit in and to be liked
• Informative social influence - when you conform due to the need to be right or correct.

Question 14

Define identification

Answer 14

This is when you go along with others because you have accepted their point of view and you identify with them.

Question 15

Give a limitation of Asch’s (1951) conformity study.

Answer 15

Asch’s study has been criticised for being ‘a child of its time’. The 1950s was a conformist time in America so this could have been the reason for the results. Perrin & Spencer (1980) found only one conformity response out of 396 trials in a replicate of Asch’s study. This provides evidence that Asch’s results are not consistent over time.

Question 16

Describe the difference between compliance and internalisation

Answer 16

Compliance is a temporary type of conformity whereby a person goes along with the majority in public but does not agree with the view in private whereas internalisation is a permanent type where the person accepts the majority view in public and in private (a deeper form of conformity than compliance).

Question 17

List the stages of minority influence

Answer 17

1) Draw attention to their beliefs.
2) Consistency, commitment and flexibility shown.
3) Deeper processing of the issue in the majority group.
4) Augmentation principle.
5) The snowball effect.
6) Social cryptomnesia.

Question 18

List three characteristics of minorities which make them influential.

Answer 18

• commitment
• consistency
• flexibility

Question 19

Define social cryptomnesia

Answer 19

This is part of the process of minority influence which takes place after the snowball effect. It describes how people have a memory that social change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.