Social Influence Flashcards
What are the three types of conformity?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
Define conformity.
Giving in to social or group pressure
What is the main idea of social psychology?
Behaviour, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by social context
What is compliance in terms of conformity?
Publicly going along with the majority view while privately disagreeing
What is identification in terms of conformity?
Adopting the behaviour of the group due to valuing group membership
What is internalisation in terms of conformity?
Taking on the expressed view publicly and privately, accepting it as correct
What are the two key reasons why people conform according to Deutsch and Gerard?
- Informational influence
- Normative influence
What is informational social influence (ISI)?
Changing behaviour to be correct in uncertain situations
What is normative social influence (NSI)?
Changing behaviour to avoid punishments and gain rewards
True or False: Normative social influence is often linked to compliance.
True
What did Asch’s study aim to examine?
The extent to which social pressure from a majority affects individual conformity
What was the overall conformity rate found in Asch’s study?
32%
What did Jenness (1932) find in his study related to ISI?
Participants changed their estimates to match others’ when unsure
What is a methodological issue with Asch’s study?
Lacks validity as it involved strangers in a controlled setting
What were the historical issues with Asch’s study?
Conducted in 1950s America, may not apply to modern society
Fill in the blank: Informational social influence is done for ______ reasons.
[cognitive]
Fill in the blank: Normative social influence is conducted for ______ reasons.
[emotional]
What is the Authoritarian Personality?
A dispositional explanation for obedience
What variables affect conformity according to Asch’s investigations?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
What is the role of social influence processes in social change?
Influencing individuals to adopt new norms and behaviors
What is a practical application of understanding conformity?
Helping society by understanding group dynamics and social influence
What does an external locus of control imply in terms of conformity?
Individuals feel things are out of their control and conform to the crowd
What percentage of participants in Asch’s study remained completely independent?
26%
What effect does making the line task more difficult have on conformity?
Increases conformity
Asch found that making the line task more difficult led to increases in conformity but did not provide supporting statistics.
What was the percentage of conformity with two confederates according to Asch’s findings?
12.8%
Asch found that when there were just two confederates, conformity was 12.8%.
What was the percentage of conformity with three confederates?
32%
This percentage rose to 32% when the number of confederates increased to three.
True or False: Normative influence is stronger when responses are public and face-to-face.
True
Bond (2005) argued that normative influence is likely to be stronger under these conditions.
What happens to conformity when a dissenting confederate is present?
Reduced conformity
Asch found that the presence of a dissenting confederate led to a significant reduction in conformity.
What was the reduction in conformity when a confederate provided the correct answer?
From 32% to 5%
Conformity fell dramatically when a confederate gave the correct answer.
According to Lucas (2006), how does task difficulty affect conformity?
Participants conformed more to incorrect answers when tasks were difficult
Participants were more assured of their answers when problems were easy.
What is normative influence?
Influence that leads to conformity in response to social pressure
It is stronger when participants make public responses.
What is informational social influence?
Influence that leads to conformity based on the desire to be correct
This is likely to occur when participants answer privately.
What is a critique of Asch’s study regarding the sample used?
Lack of representativeness
Asch’s study relied on a sample of 123 male participants, which could be considered androcentric.
What demographic did Asch’s sample consist of?
123 white male American students
This sample is considered ethnocentric and limits the generalizability of the study’s results.
What does the term ‘androcentric’ refer to in the context of Asch’s study?
A bias towards male participants
This implies that the results may not represent the entire population.
Fill in the blank: The flawed sample in Asch’s study limits the study’s results to a remarkably ______ subset of the population.
narrow
This narrow focus limits the applicability of the findings.
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s research?
To investigate whether students would conform to assigned roles as prison guards or prisoners and explore the causes of prison brutality.
Zimbardo sought to determine if such behavior was due to dispositional factors or situational factors.
What were the ethical guidelines in psychological research?
- Informed consent
- Deception
- Debriefing
- Protection from harm
These guidelines help ensure the safety and rights of participants in research studies.
How were participants selected for Zimbardo’s study?
75 applicants were screened through diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate those with psychological issues or a history of crime.
24 men were chosen based on their stability, maturity, and lack of antisocial behavior.
What method was used to assign roles in Zimbardo’s experiment?
Participants were randomly assigned to the roles of prisoner or guard.
This random assignment was crucial for the study’s design.
What treatment did prisoners receive upon arrival at the mock prison?
- Stripped naked
- Deloused
- Personal possessions removed
- Given uniforms and referred to by numbers only
This dehumanizing treatment was intended to simulate real prison conditions.
What was a common form of punishment used by guards in Zimbardo’s study?
Push-ups were commonly used as punishment.
Guards sometimes physically enforced this punishment by stepping on prisoners’ backs.
How did the behavior of guards change over time during the study?
Guards became increasingly aggressive and contemptuous towards the prisoners.
Their behavior escalated as they gained more power over the prisoners.
What psychological phenomenon was observed in prisoners, exemplified by prisoner #819?
Learned helplessness was observed.
Prisoner #819 felt unable to escape the situation and feared being seen as a bad prisoner despite mental distress.
What was a major conclusion drawn by Zimbardo from his experiment?
The prison environment was the main factor influencing participants’ conformity to their roles.
Zimbardo emphasized the situational over the dispositional factors in determining behavior.
What was a criticism regarding the ecological validity of Zimbardo’s study?
The study was not conducted in a real prison, which limits its generalizability to real-life situations.
Critics argue that the artificial setting affected participants’ behavior.
What role did Zimbardo play in the experiment, and why is it a point of criticism?
Zimbardo acted as the prison superintendent, which may have biased the results.
His involvement could have compromised the objectivity of the study.
What was the outcome of the BBC study conducted by Reicher and Haslam?
The guards failed to unite and identify with their roles, leading to a collapse of the system created in the study.
This study suggested that social roles are more flexible than previously indicated by Zimbardo’s findings.
Fill in the blank: Zimbardo’s study was terminated on the _______ day due to emotional breakdowns and aggression.
sixth
True or False: The guards in Zimbardo’s study were allowed to use physical violence against the prisoners.
False
Guards were instructed that no physical violence was permitted during the experiment.
What is deindividuation, as it relates to Zimbardo’s experiment?
Deindividuation explains guards’ behavior, as uniforms and group dynamics led to a loss of personal agency and responsibility.
This psychological state can contribute to more aggressive behaviors in group settings.
